[armandososa]

If you like the idea of making music by "drawing" it like this, and you have access to a Windows Machine, I'd recommend playing with FLStudio. With other DAWs I've found that it is more difficult to make music with just a mouse, not requiring real instruments, microphones and (maybe multiple) MIDI controllers.

I've been a Mac user for almost ten years now, but the lack of FLStudio for OSX makes me question that decision every six months or so.

[coldtea]

Actually FLStudio has a beta of version 12 that can run on OS X (natively -- not a port based on Wine, although it had that too previously). It will be released sometime soon they say, mid-late 2016 or early 2017 is my guess.

But apart from that, you can do the same things (although less builtin tooling for electronic music, but still enough) with Garageband, and, if you don't have invested in VSTs/AUs, Reason.

[lotyrin]

Could you describe what about the FLStudio piano roll makes it more suitable for making scores with a mouse than other piano rolls?

[tomc1985]

10+ year FL vet here.

Most other DAW's have caught up with their piano roll implementation but I still like FL's the most. I think what makes it unique is its toolset -- as in, the toolbar up top -- as its modal editing workflow lets you add, delete, and then transform notes incredibly quickly. Most of these modes have a shortcut to get to them, and its easy to flip between them. It even has a chord option, which functions much in the same way as that hook tool. Other DAWs take a modal approach but in many cases they complicate their implementation.

It's also worth noting that FL is pattern-based, whereas most DAWs are not. ("Pattern-based" means you generally write music phrases/patterns and repeat them throughout the track, this is helpful for electronic dance music.) A repeating bassline pattern in FL is more akin to a series of symlinks back to the original file, whereas in Cubase and Logic, each of these repeats would be copies (unless you specify otherwise, but I found the implementation convoluted and troublesome.)

Most of the other DAWs I've worked with are much more fiddly and require messing with technical details and audio routing to get a good result. FL also requires this, but again the implementation is seamless, has sensible defaults, and stays out of your way until you need to mess with it. (In the middle of a good flow I have very little patience for routing.) I do not find this to be the case with Live, Cubase, or especially Logic... I put in an effort to learn each of these at some point and ultimately left to return to FL.

I've noticed DAWs tend to optimize around performances (Live), MIDI orchestration (Cubase, Logic), recording (ProTools, Reaper) or 'in-the-box' production (FL). All of the above have tools for composing by mouse but FL's workflow is optimized for this specific use-case.

[coldtea]

Reason is optimized of ITB too.

[tomc1985]

Ah yes, Reason! It's been a while :)