Hey guys, I wanted to start a discussion on what the actual best DAW is when it comes to hip hop production.

Now of course this is only my recommendation based on my experience from the past as a music producer who has been producing for well over a decade.

Hip-hop and general modern rap production is a genre which can pretty much be produced in any major DAW.

I have tried many DAWs in the past for trying to produce hip-hop and general rap beats (instrumental compositions).

What have I learned when trying to produce hip-hop and rap beats in general?

I have used the free trial of Cubase, and also many years ago tried Logic Pro (when I was in university studying). I have also used GarageBand, which is the default DAW on macOS computers.

I have, however, been using FL Studio Producer Edition (which I purchased back in 2018), and I am still using this DAW software today, as it comes with new free upgrades for life along with my purchase.

Is there any difference between these DAWs when it comes to hip-hop and rap production in general?

Well, I must admit, I was able to produce the style of hip-hop and rap compositions with mixing and mastering effects without any issues on GarageBand, Logic Pro and Cubase in the same way as I do in FL Studio.

But why did I stick to FL Studio and not the other DAWs when it comes to producing hip-hop and rap-style beats (projects)?

I must admit, it’s the way FL Studio is designed and developed; it’s simple to use, has great amounts of shortcuts and loads of great features. I found that GarageBand too simple for my liking and almost like an app people download on their phones to mess about and create music for fun, my personal opinion.

I also found that Cubase had similar features to FL Studio, as most professional DAWs contain similar features, which include the playlist, piano roll, view step sequencer, effects, inputs and output settings and the mixer.

Garage band was simply too basic for me.

And when it came to Logic Pro (which I used in university to compose music at the University of Greenwich). I found that FL Studio had the view step sequencer to input the drum patterns, which was a huge turning point for me. I mean, it's my personal preference to input the drums within the view step sequencer; within Logic Pro, the producers are pretty much limited to piano roll. Of course there are plugins for view step sequencing, but FL Studio has implemented this feature within the mixer and its overall DAW, making it easy to access and easy to use.

Saying that we have made a topic when it comes to Logic Pro VS FL Studio.

So why did I select FL Studio as my main go-to DAW when it comes to composing hip-hop and rap compositions?

The simple answer is the view step sequencer, and its features to simply drag the edges to make it fit more drums and the easy send to mixer sorting feature that it comes with are very beneficial and quick to work with. It also comes with an easy-to-understand playlist and sorting the playlist with multiple shortcuts to ease the workflow.

Yes, this is my personal preference, and of course many people will find a DAW of their own choice, so I would recommend trying and testing out different DAWS and seeing how you get on, but personally I would recommend FL Studio for hip-hop and rap production, mainly because it comes with loads of free tutorials on YouTube and is very quick and fun to learn, and its new step sequencer features.

Hope this topic will help everyone make the correct choice when it comes to selecting a DAW for modern hip-hop and rap beats (instrumental composing productions).

Any questions, feel free to drop a reply below. Love and Peace!