so what is a DAW or D-A-W well the short answer is digital audio workstation and do you need one
well maybe so what's a digital audio workstation why might you need one and how much does one cost
well i'm going to go over these questions including the cost which might surprise
you they're free i'll show you how to get them but first this video is sponsored by DistroKid
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i'll get into that in just a bit but now let's get back into the question so what is a digital audio
workstation well most people refer to it as the software that they record and mix in their music
production software that's what they refer to as their DAW, D-A-W or digital audio workstation however
i have seen some people not many but there are some that refer to their entire recording rig
as a digital audio workstation so that's their audio interface their computer everything that
they use for recording that's their digital audio workstation but for this video i'm just going to
refer to it as the music production software so when you hear DAW or D-A-W in this video i'm
talking about the software so why not just call it music production software well one thing that i've
noticed from working in the audio industry for several years is that people here love acronyms
also you could look at things like software synthesizers and effects and that sort of thing as
music production software as well so a DAW or digital audio workstation is more like your
virtual studio this has your mixer you record into it you do your mixing in it so it's not
so much the synths and the effects it's more of the virtual studio where you're recording
mixing and maybe mastering so i said you might need one now this is a little bit harder question
to answer because it depends on you do you have an audio interface or maybe a USB microphone and
you're just going to be using it for streaming or Zoom calls that sort of thing if that's the
case then you don't need DAW software or do you plan on recording music but you already record to
a hardware recorder like a Tascam, MPC something like that and you think it's far superior than
recording on computer well you don't need a DAW and you already knew that but you just came here
to write that down in the comments so i guess i'll see you down in the comments now if you want to
make music on your computer or even on your iPad then you will need a digital audio workstation
of some sort okay so music production software it does all this amazing stuff like mixing and
recording it has effects and that sort of thing in it sounds expensive how much is it going to cost
now before i get into that i just want to talk about a newer way that you can make money from
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you can go into your account click on goodies and then in the special access section you'll see
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aren't already a DistroKid member click the link down in the description you'll save seven percent
on their already super low annual fee now back to that question how much does a daw or daw cost
well it all depends on the one that you go with but there are many free options out there plus if
you've already purchased an audio interface or maybe a midi controller they sometimes include
excellent free digital audio workstations with them like Ableton Live Lite or some include
Cubase LE alright but i said there are many free digital audio workstations out there and there are
so a few to mention are Tracktion Waveform Free, Cakewalk by Bandlab and Soundbridge those are all
unlimited free digital audio workstations that you can start making music in and there's no
restrictions in them Cakewalk by Bandlab and Tracktion Waveform Free were actually premium paid
for programs before and there still is a premium version of Tracktion Waveform but it just includes
a bunch of extra instruments and plug-ins and that sort of thing so it doesn't limit you from
making music in any way not having the premium version now if you're on an iPhone or an iPad
something like that you already get GarageBand included with it which is an excellent free DAW
that comes with your iOS device so what about the premium paid for digital audio workstations
like you probably heard a lot about fruity loops well first off it hasn't been called fruity loops
for over 17 years it's called FL Studio and it is a cool piece of software it's the first DAW
that i actually purchased and i really started with i found it pretty easy to start making music
digitally with virtual synths and samples that sort of thing but if you're more into making music
by recording audio it is a little quirky when it comes to the audio recording so you may want
to look at a different piece of software however FL Studio can do audio recording and you can put
together rock songs or whatever type of music you want in FL Studio and it might be the DAW for you
now some other very popular paid for digital audio workstations are Ableton Live, Pro Tools is another
one bitwig is one that's really starting to gain popularity Presonus Studio One is extremely
popular right now there's Cubase which has been around for a long time and continues to be an
excellent paid for digital audio workstation and if you're on a mac there's Logic Pro which is an
excellent digital audio workstation there's many other ones out there as well and i'm sure there'll
be people letting me know down in the comments what their favorite one is that i missed i'm
pretty sure that there's demos for all of these programs so i encourage you to download two three
maybe even four of these programs give them a good test drive see what one you like the best and what
one has the workflow that works best for you don't let somebody else tell you whatever their favorite
one is the best for you because it might not be the best DAW for you now check out even
more information on some of the best free DAWs available by clicking the video on the screen and
if you liked this video please give it a thumbs up also subscribe to the channel for more videos
like this thank you so much for watching for Audio Tech TV I'm Zane keep creating and we'll talk soon