Unexpectedly, I found myself using Ableton Live. Not that I cared that it's the most popular DAW, not to mention that I'm trying to stay away from loop-based productions, and I'm not a live performer.
But.
Currently, Ableton Live is the only option in the market that doesn't make significant compromises either in pricing model, features, UI, or stability.
Yes, Cubase is the most complete DAW, but its atrocious UI (especially on Mac, where you don't even have UI scaling) diminishes everything good in it. Other DAWs are already on a subscription model, or actively pushing you into it. Some are not on a subscription per se, but on something suspiciously similar. Others just don't have enough in them to justify their usage.
So after eliminating all those DAWs I found myself inside Ableton Live. Permanent license? Check. Features that really helpful and work as intended? Check. Clear and eyes friendly UI? Double check! Only a few crashes during almost half a year of usage? Check.
As for this upgrade particularly, I didn't plan to make it. The standard version is fine enough by itself. But having a coding as one of my hobbies, I was very intrigued by Max for Live, so it pushed me into this upgrade. And considering the sale price, it was no-brainer.
So in the end, highly recommended product!
