Every issue of Computer Music magazine comes with a few musical plugins.

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This month's issue (308) they redid their entire Plugin Suite, so there was tons to install.
File after file after file got installed to my Mac, and then I looked back and went "Now... What to USE them with..?"

I've been trying to find a suitable DAW* on Mac for a good while, and still haven't picked one.
To be honest, I'm just so comfortable using KORG Gadget on iOS that I'm finding it really hard to make the switch, but with all of these plugins lying around, it'd be a shame not to even attempt to make the switch to a new DAW.

And so, last night, I prepared myself for a marathon testing session.
I currently have FLStudio 20 Trial installed, GarageBand Full (it's free with Apple devices) and Ableton Lite 11 (Which came free with Computer Music magazine a few months ago) all installed on the Mac.
And I tried to get the AGameAWeek ditty up and running on each one of them.

FLStudio

FLStudio worked the way it used to work, back in the day, but had a major quirk when trying to get all of those plugins organised. It kept mixing up instrument and effect plugins, and it all became a horrendous mess. I'm also fairly sure than a bunch of the plugins just plain didn't work in FL, though I was struggling to figure out what should've been going where!!
Either way, more of the plugins worked elsewhere, so ... Maybe it's down to the fact that FL Studio is still very much a Windows thing, and the MacWorld confuses the poor program?!
Who knows.

It also managed to crash about half-a-dozen times whilst I was trying to get it doing anything.

I really do like FLStudio, but it feels like it's only going to "properly" work with its own plugins, and that kinda limits me in much the same way as I'm currently locked in with the KORG Gadget app.

Test - FL Studio

GarageBand

I could NOT figure this out!!!
Well, I half-could, but I also half-couldn't.
I plotted the notes for the first bar into a single (what I thought was a ) pattern, copied it to the second, third and fourth, then re-copied it for the fifth and within that coloured block, moved all the notes to the second chord.
When I played it back, it'd copied that change to every other copy of the pattern..
This would essentially mean that, each time I want to change a single note in a whole bar, I'd have to make a new "block", then copy all the notes over to that, then change the one I need.

.. I think..
I dunno, I got confused and gave up!

Test - GarageBand

Ableton

This one let me copy + paste at will, once I'd realised how to switch to the correct mode.

Hitting Tab switches the main view from a vertical Mixer view to a horizontal Patterns/Blocks view, from where you can easily double click to create a new pattern, plop in some notes, then move the patterns around in the view to rearrange your song at will.
Add in the ability to easily grab drumloops and other samples, as well as all those lovely plugins, and ..
Yeah, I think we have a winner!!!

Test - Ableton

Pricing

And then I looked at the price..
£269 for the "not entirely complete edition".
Two hundred and sixty nine!!!

Foooooook...

(It's £479 for the complete edition!!!)

Now, I'm sure that once added up, I've spent WAY more than that on my Korg Gadget collection.
I mean, the number of instruments and synths I've bought on that over the past 8 or so years, is staggering. But that's bit by bit over the course of many years.
Not one great big lump sum!

So now I'm wondering if it's really worth it.
Or should I just stick with Korg Gadget on my iPad?
Incidentally, Korg Gadget on Mac is $299. But I wouldn't really feel the benefit of spending $299 and ending up with the exact same thing. So, that's definitely out of the question.

I dunno...
*shrugs*

Either way, my bank balance is still recovering from all the bedroom furniture, so it'll have to wait!!

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*DAW is the fancy new name for "Music editor"