Some lightweight audio editing needs - which DAW to choose?

I’d recommend REAPER. If you’re familiar with it on Windows, the Mac version is essentially identical. The learning curve can be tricky, but in my opinion, it’s worth the effort. You could also try Audacity, though I’m not sure how accessible it is. That said, REAPER generally fits well with your needs. Truthfully, every DAW comes with a learning curve and things to get accustomed to.

As for 32-bit float and REAPER causing saturation... Saturation happens for other reasons. For example, if you’re not recording in 32-bit float and your input levels are set too high, the signal can clip, which causes distortion. However, this isn’t due to REAPER or 32-bit float itself.

To explain 32-bit float in simple terms: it provides an incredibly wide dynamic range. For instance, if you were recording a helicopter using two recorders—say, a Zoom H6 and a Zoom H6 Essential—with the same microphone (e.g., a Sennheiser MKE600), and both were set to the same level (e.g., -3 dB), the regular H6 would clip if the helicopter got louder during takeoff. In contrast, the H6 Essential wouldn’t clip because its 32-bit float format can handle those extreme volume changes without distortion.

REAPER natively supports 32-bit float and works great for recording with XLR microphones. However, the quality of the results will largely depend on the equipment you use, like the microphone and preamps, rather than REAPER itself.
Reaper does have various vst pluggins that come with it by default but all are for things like eqs, compressors, gating, denoising, reverb etc. It doesn't come with vst pluggins like vertual instruments by default, I think that's what you where referring to when you mentioned vsts, at least that's what I understood it as.
With that being said, I recognize that the learning curve can be quite steep, if you need a hand, reach out. I have been using reaper for quite a while, and if needed, I could give you a hand, customizing it via changing the keymap, so that it’s like what you’re used to in previous daws and you wouldn't have to relearn new keyboard shortcuts if that's what you want.

Reaper doesn't have that many native pluggins by itself. You can always give garage band a go, but given its main focus is music and not audio editing, again not that you cant do it but its not its main focus, I don''t know how that would go to be honest. The only other daw that comes to mind but while this one is accessible its not as accessible as reaper. I.e, natively accessible, but it doesn't to my knowledge have commands to say, tell you where you are at, how many pixels your advancing by etc. Amadeus pro, it has the same pricetag as reaper does. It’s been a long, long time since I used it though so not sure what has changed if anything. It’s duable but there's a lot of going back and forth to get things done. I.e, focus on a tracks name with voiceover then escaping as voiceover put you on the track's name, a text field, then selecting all to make sure that you where actually on that track, as an example. That and the tracks limit for amadeus pro was I believe 60 tracks, if memory serves. In a project I did just for fun, the entire project, audio drama was an hour in length, and it took 15 sessions in amadeus pro to get it all completed given the 60 track limit per project lol.

I downloaded a bunch of audio from a youtube channel, it had a bit in the beginning that I didn't want so I learnt how to use reaper a little and turned ripple all tracks on, changed the pixel rate to quite low, the lower you go the easier it is to understand audio when scrubbing, pressed, [, to set my starter point, scrubbed the audio until I got to the end of the bit of the audio I didn't want, pressed, ], and then, a, to seperate the audio I didn't want into a seperat container, control left to the first container, you can press space on it to play it to hear it, then pressed delete and because ripple all tracks was on, all that audio was cut out of 30 or more tracks.

It's amazing to use once you figure it out.

Oh, i'd recommend going to consolidate/export tracks when you want to convert them, I just find it easier to use compared to the batch convertion window.

How many lines in and/or mics do you want to be able to use simultaneously when recording?

Meanwhile, I recommend you go to logic.band on the internet. They will have answers for you. It's for blind users of a variety of interfaces and DAW's, even though the main focus is logic pro.

From my understanding it's used for scrubbing, why exactly would you want to widen your pixel scope if it leads to a really slow sound?

Also, BTW, you should be able to keep using reaper for as long as possible, just keep clicking the keep evaluating button.

Yes, pixel selection is used for scrubbing. When you press the left or right arrow this will advance or rewind the sound by the pixel selection value. The higher it is, the more of the sound you'll hear per arrow press and vice versa.

I thought I was right.

The problem is that if it's to high, it's just squeeks so for me; I need to find the sweet spot between squeeks and demons are going to eat my pants.

i'D say keep your pixel selection at about 150 pixels or there abouts, this will be more than good enough for most tasks. Occasionally you might need to change it to say, 40ms or less if your doing tight editing, but not always.

@theblindguy07; I agree that it's amazing for what it is, but I only use it once or twice so can't justify buying it.

If I used it every day, oh I'd buy it in an instant but at the moment I just don't need it that much.

@Igna Triay,, thanks for the info.

Using Reaper for what you’ve described above would be like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. Have you looked into Amadeus pro? I think that would fit your needs a little bit better, and it’s very accessible.

Im not sure if I'd say it would be like a sledgehammer to crack a nut. The nice thing about reaper is that it’s not meant for strictly one task or another, it can be used for lightweight and intense tasks. With that beeing said, amadeus pro is good, but in this case, having come from amadeus pro into reaper, reaper is way more versatile, imo. And as said amadeus is accessible but it does require a lot of going back and forth. Its not a bad daw, however.

Just checked their website
https://hairersoft.com/pro.html
There is a download amadeus pro button. If i'm not mistaken it does have a free trial yes.
Also, amadeus does have the light version which if memory serves is $25 where as pro is $60, same as reaper but not sure what the light has as I bought pro myself. Also amadeus is on the mac appstore if you wanted to buy it via that root as well.

Look at the appstore price, $60 for amadeus pro as well, same price that is in the website of Amadeus pro, your not paying more.
Speaking of amadeus if you do decide to try it out, this resource might help to learn it, audio book by jonathan mosan,
https://mosen.org/become-an-amadeus-pro-maestro/
I did buy the book back in the day just to see if I was missing something as I already knew my way and the ins and outs of amadeus pro by then, but it might help.
Now. If you go with reaper, this resource will help a lot for getting started,
https://reaperaccessibility.com/index.php/Main_Page
It helps with the learning curve, and then some.In my case I just explored and learnd on my own, after getting the basics down. although this resource helps with that as well, I just decided to go on my own, personally, as ,I've always been self taught and I find that's what works for me the best once I get the basics of a program and other stuff.

Hey,

Fission is super cool and fully accessible with VoiceOver. If you don't need to add a second track and just want to do quick editing like cutting, copying, or merging, it's great. Plus, you can edit without any loss in quality, create chapterized files, or split chapterized files into individual tracks. You can also re-encode and even convert files in batches.

There are reaper blind tutorials, Here's a playlist, there's more if you search on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZiKpi6zk4Q&list=PLSwZNfTmq38PCJ0JMjCoaBxCmTBu3sfVU

Hi,

Fission doesn’t support multi-track editing—it’s designed for single-track work, which is why it’s so streamlined and fast. There’s no accessibility issue with VoiceOver; it’s just not built for multiple tracks. If you’re planning to work with multi-tracks, you’d need to use something else.

I haven’t tested Ableton myself because I already use Reaper for multi-track editing. I’m familiar with it, and it’s very accessible with VoiceOver. Reaper also has great flexibility, so it covers all my needs for more complex projects.

Let me know if you need any more info!

As with many things in life, we only get two out of three -- good, fast or cheap.

Apple stuff is good and fast, but it isn't cheap, e.g., the learning curve is a bit expensive.

I chose Logic Pro X years ago despite its learning curve because I wanted a DAW capable of everything I might someday want to do. In this, it has never disappointed me.