Today I want to talk about some of the best audio recording software out on the market that is absolutely free to use, and without limitations. In other words, can I do a full production with the software from recording audio right to mixing?
There are a ton of DAWs on the market now and they range in price. Pro Tools can range from free to 130 a month. Each tier of course has its limitations. Logic Pro is 300 ish for the entire package. My question is do you need top-of-the-line DAWs to make great music or record your podcast? Let us find out, here are my top 5 best free daws available.
My first pick and bottom of the list is Audacity. This DAW is available on all platforms. So if you're a Mac, PC, or Linux user you can download this program right out of the gate. Audacity is open source and has been around forever. This is a great go too audio editor if you are looking for something light and need to get working right away. I know a ton of professional podcasters that use this software.
However, if you are looking for something more for multitrack recording and mixing, I feel you are going to struggle with Audacity. The layout is pretty basic and so are the plugins. It comes with about 45 of its own plug-ins. I believe you can add VST plug-ins now which is good. I think back in the day when I first used Audacity that was something you couldn’t do.
Anyways, if you are looking for a simple audio editor/recorder for your podcast or audiobook this is an excellent free piece of software.
The next DAW I want to talk about is Cakewalk by BandLab. I had a copy of this 20 years ago and hated it. Just couldn’t get into it, but now…. Shit, it’s good. First off, unlimited tracks, so if your system can handle it you aren’t hindered by 32 tracks like some paid DAWS out there. It comes with some solid plug-ins right out of the box and supports VST-3 plug-ins. So, basically, if you need something it will work.
Now, The only thing is it’s only on a PC. I’m a Mac user so to do this demo I installed windows with Bootcamp because my MacBook Pro is an intel but if you are using an M series Mac you are SOL. I guess you can use parallels or something to run Windows but who wants to do that?
With that said, Out of all the DAWs I worked with, I would easily use this over some of the paid competitors hands down.
SoundBridge is another really interesting Free DAW that you can download right now on all platforms. It gives you the ability to record, edit, and mix unlimited tracks and looks amazing. It supports both Mac and PC so unless you are a strict Linux fan you are covered. You start to see the freeness of it when you get into automation. It’s a bit more work drawing in and not as intuitive as I would like. But overall it’s a solid DAW and perfect for someone who is getting into music production.
One thing I wish they did was to offer some more documentation with this software. Apparently, there are a bunch of really great touchscreen features I didn’t know about till I spent some time messing around with it. Which makes sense when viewing some of the UI choices.
Let's talk about Waveform Free, this DAW is filled with a ton of great features found in other paid DAWs on the market. From my understanding, The free version is a version that was previously a paid version which I think is really cool. Let's talk about the great parts of this software. First off, unlimited audio and instrument tracks. It is also available on Mac, PC, and Linux. There are also some really amazing plugins that come standard with the software but it offers full VST support for 3rd party plug-ins.
I think my only real pet peeve is the learning curve. When I first started using Waveform there was a bit of googling going on to get used to some concepts. But, for the Free price tag, you are getting a ton of features only found in more expensive DAWs.
My Final DAW on the list isn’t a free one, but again, for the price tag, it’s totally worth it. Cockos Reaper. Reaper is a very versatile DAW that if you pay for it costs about $60. Basically free, but you get so much. Now there is a much more expensive license if you are doing commercial work over 20k a year I believe. In the past, I feel it gets picked on because the UI is meh, but you have so many different skins you can apply to spice it up. It accepts more plug-in formats than any other daw I’ve seen on the market, the stock plug-ins are incredible, the Editing audio is really straight forward and you can run this software off a portable hard drive…. If you wanted to.
Now that small download file has some limitations. There are no loops or samples out of the box and well, plug-ins are lacking style. So if you are needing a bit of character in these tools you might be a bit put off. They remind me of when you are in the early stages of developing plug-ins and you first start connecting functionality everything is sliders… well that’s what plug-ins are like in Reaper.
So here are my thoughts. There are a ton of great plugins and it’s really hard for me to choose. Personally, If I was a PC user I think I would take Cakewalk over Reaper if I wanted to stay in the free space. As for Mac, Waveform free is probably the way I would go. However, if I wanted something that was lightweight and full of features for professional production. Spending 60 on Reaper is a sure thing.
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