you want to do music production at home but like most of us musicians you're on
a very tight budget no worries in this video I'm looking at eight of the best
free DAW software options for music production on Windows 10 in 2020 plus I
have three honorable mentions this is an update to my previous video as there's
been some changes if you're wanting to get into home studio recording or maybe
you just want to change up your music production software but you don't really
want to spend any money right now these free DAWs for Windows will really help
I'm Zane from audiotechtv.com and on this channel I do weekly audio tech tips
tutorials and reviews to help you conquer the tech and unleash your
creativity now links to all of the programs and
time codes are in the description now first up on the list of free daws is one
of the new updates it's tracktion waveform free if you've
used tracktion t7 or have heard of it waveform free is the next evolution of
t7 this one's not limited in any way so you can have unlimited tracks add
third-party effects and instruments and do everything the paid for version can
do it just doesn't have some of the add-ons and advanced features that
waveform Pro has you'll get the improved piano roll improved audio engine the
micro drum sampler which is an easy to use sample plugin plus you also get the
4OSC synth along with the same workflow that makes the tracktion DAWs
stand apart from the rest waveform free does include some basic
effects plugins but you can also add third-party plugins if you need to you
also get the pattern generator which will automatically create MIDI patterns
for you based on the style that you want waveform free also has the new plug-in
sandboxing feature so if a plug-in becomes unstable or crashes instead of
crashing the entire program the plug-in will just be disabled you can then
choose to try and re-enable it to see if you can get it to work again or remove
it from your project completely I personally find the waveform workflow to
be very quick and it allows me to focus on music
give it a try and see how it works for you next up is probably the most
complete free DAW on the list this is cakewalk by bandlab and what I
mean by most complete is that it comes with several virtual instruments and
effects that are great quality you actually get everything you need to
create music inside the box it used to be a paid for premium digital
audio workstation and before it became a free DAW it was known as sonar platinum
it doesn't have any limitations you can have unlimited audio MIDI instrument and
auxilary tracks in all of your projects and there's an interesting channel strip
that has some cool tape emulation and saturation effects and home studio
guitar players will probably like the included guitar amp simulator called th3
the free virtual instruments included with cakewalk are a bass guitar
instrument a drum kit a piano and a string instrument they all have some
decent presets that cover a variety of styles of music you are required to
download the band lab software in order to install cakewalk but that's a very
small price to pay for the audio production software that you're getting
for free third on the list is avid Pro Tools first now this one does have a 16
track limitation and there are also some limitations for adding third-party
effects and instrument plugins with Pro Tools first you get the same user
interface and workflow that the pros use if you ever plan on working in a pro
studio one day learning on this will help you as you'll likely encounter it
almost everywhere you can save unlimited projects locally on your computer and
have three projects saved in the cloud at any time this is kind of cool if you
use multiple computers like a laptop on the go and a desktop at home there are
some versions of Pro Tools first that you get with various audio interfaces
and other audio gear and these versions like the m-audio Edition or focusrite
Edition give you even more useful plugins that you can use in your
projects this next free DAW is for the Creator that just wants to use virtual
instruments and loops or samples this one is
LMMS this is a lot like FL studio it's very easy to start making music in
LMMS as long as you don't plan on recording instruments too much and you
just want to use virtual instruments for your music production as lmms does not
allow you to record audio into it you can record audio in another program and
bring it into lmms so you're not completely limited to virtual
instruments and this is an open-source digital audio workstation that's
completely driven by its community I'm sure as lmms continues to grow it will
continue to add more and more features including audio recording one day lmms
does come with some instruments and effects plugins but you'll want to add
some third-party plugins to give you more variety you can use your computer
keyboard to control instruments if you don't have a MIDI keyboard and of course
you can use a MIDI controller if you do have one or the other option is to
create and edit all of your MIDI by drawing it into the piano roll which is
very easy to do in lmms if you're enjoying this video so far please give
it a thumbs up as it helps the channel out and I appreciate it so much
now the next free digital audio workstation on the list is soundbridge
this free digital audio workstation focuses on simplicity they wanted to
create a DAW that's full-featured and easy to use the channel strip has many
presets and you can also add third-party plugins for more variety one of the
biggest highlights is the free ritmix drum plugin that you get with
Soundbridge as it's probably the best free drum machine plug-in out there you get
the MPC style pads that you can load your sounds into and edit however you
like plus you can also use it like a sequencer if you're looking for an MPC
style plugin to make your beats or program drums with then soundbridge and
the ritmix is a must download for you the next free daw is Roland Zenbeats
this is a music creation platform that's designed to keep you in an effortless
artistic flow you can actually start a project on your computer and then
continue editing it on your phone or your iPad as there's apps for iOS and
Android that allow you to connect all of your projects together in Roland Zenbeats
you get a collection of modern and legendary sounds with features like loop
building beat sync and key Zenbeats is a great platform for aspiring
songwriters beat makers and producers and like I said you can easily take it
with you on the go or use it in the studio never stop creating with this one
seventh on the list of best free daws is magix music maker free I think this one
is great for newcomers to audio production as the soundpool loops that
are included are a great way to learn how to arrange and edit music magix
music maker free comes with four soundpools and three instruments and
soundpools are like loop packs each one has a particular style and sound so all of the
loops in the soundpool will work together easily but you can mix and
match loops from all of the soundpools to create your songs
I find that MAGIX Music Maker is a pretty easy program to learn and get
started with and you get basic effects plugins plus a guitar amp simulator
another plus is the instruments that magix music maker free comes with
actually sound decent two magix music maker free can be a great way to start
learning to make music and recording MIDI or audio on your computer it does
have some track limitations and it doesn't allow you to use third-party
plugins you'll have to upgrade your version for that and if you do upgrade
the Version you also open up many more sounds instruments and features too the
next free digital audio workstation on the list is Presonus Studio One prime
this is the free version of the very popular daw Studio One and here's what
you'll get for free unlimited tracks nine basic effects plugins prescence xt
synth plugin again a guitar amp simulator plus you get almost
one gigabyte of loops and samples to get you started creating music right away
the interface and workflow is decent and once you figure it out you'll realize
that you can make music pretty quickly with presonus studio one prime and one of
the biggest limitations of studio one prime is that you can't add third-party
effects or instruments you'll have to upgrade to the artist version and get
the VST add-on or you can go with the full professional version now for a few
honorable mentions and the first one is reaper it isn't free but you can
download the 60-day demo and it allows you to continue to evaluate it in full
after the demo expires having said that if you do decide to download and you
enjoy reaper please show them some support by purchasing a license it's
only like $60 and it will help them to continue to make this great software
also if you plan on using this one commercially you must purchase a
commercial license Reaper is a full-featured DAW with no limitations
the only limitations are what your audio interface can handle and what your
computer can handle so unlimited audio and MIDI tracks with an unlimited number
of tracks recorded at the same time Reaper comes with a large collection of
decent effects plugins plus you can add all your third-party plugins in Reaper
as well personally I think Reaper is a great alternative to Pro Tools the next
honorable mention is ardour this one is free if you download the source code and
compile it yourself which can be a huge pain it's also free with some Linux
distributions so technically it is a free DAW however if you want to use
Ardour without having to compile it yourself you can pay as little as $1 to
get it which is extremely reasonable ardour has no limitations unlimited tracks
buses sends inserts or whatever it also has a pretty advanced routing system if
that's something you're in need of it does come with a handful of plugins but
you can bring in all of your third-party plugins - the interface is similar to
Pro Tools but has its own ardour twist if you're
looking for that familiar layout editing and mixing style then you might want to
give Ardour a try the final free daw is Ableton Live Lite
this is a free daw that comes with pretty much every piece of audio hardware that
you can buy so you do have to purchase something to get it which is why it's on
the honorable mention list but chances are you will get it if you purchase an
audio interface or a MIDI controller I know I've gotten this free with several
pieces of gear and Ableton Live lite comes with the same workflows
instruments and effects as the standard version of life however you can only
have up to 8 audio and MIDI tracks this is actually still manageable for
creating music you can use Ableton Live lite like a traditional DAW and record
and edit on a linear timeline or you can start to build songs using the session
view the instruments and effects that it comes with are great but you can also
add third-party plugins to Ableton Live Lite as well if you've been interested
in using live but you don't want to spend the money right now to buy it give
live lite a try and start to get used to the software then when you're ready
to buy the full version you're going to be a pro on it click here for 30 free
VST plugins or click down here to see what youtube thinks you should watch
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channel for more videos like this thank you so much for watching for simple
green tech I'm Zane keep creating and we'll talk soon