Whats A Good Music Production Software – This article is about free music production software. For more music software, visit our free VST plugins page.
If you’re new to music production, here’s the best music software for your studio. The article provides an overview of digital audio workstations, virtual instruments, audio effects and other essential tools for composing, mixing and mastering your music.
Whats A Good Music Production Software
We’ve included the best music making software in each category to help our readers get started making music on a computer.
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All music software on the list is compatible with Windows and macOS. We try to include Linux compatible apps where possible.
Think of the production software on this page as the most important building blocks of your music studio. These are the essential instruments and effects for music production.
Waveform Free is a powerful DAW that can load VST plugins. It is the best free music production platform on the market.
Waveform 12 Free is a free digital audio workstation developed by Tracktion Corporation. The DAW is the core of any music production software installation, and Waveform Free is the best you can get for free.
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This powerful music creation tool works on all major platforms (Windows, macOS and Linux) and offers all the features you need to record and mix a professional sounding track.
Waveform Free can record audio and MIDI. It has an audio mixer with built-in effects and advanced features such as automation, track analysis and much more.
More importantly, Waveform Free can load both VST and AU plugins. You can expand your music production workspace with hundreds of free VST plug-ins such as synths, samplers, effects and more. The most essential freeware audio plug-ins are presented in this article.
However, we recommend Studio One Prime if you’re a singer/songwriter who just needs a multitrack recording app with no VST plugin support.
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The hard truth is that no freeware DAW is perfect. A digital audio workstation should be the first item on your shopping list if you can afford to spend some money on music production software.
The most economical DAW on the market is Reaper. It costs $60 for a discounted license and comes with a very generous 60-day free trial.
Some people just use the trial version of Reaper for an infinite amount of time. But if you use Reaper to make music, be honest and support the developers by purchasing a license.
Other popular DAWs include Ableton Live, FL Studio, Steinberg Cubase Pro, and Bitwig Studio. Logic Pro X is the logical choice if you use macOS, and our favorite
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Top freeware T7 DAW alternatives are BandLab’s Cakewalk on Windows and GarageBand on macOS. Our readers also recommend Ardor, the free music production workstation for Linux.
If you are a Windows user, BandLab’s Cakewalk is a highly recommended free DAW. However, we chose Waveform 12 Free because it works on both major operating systems.
If you don’t want to use VST plug-ins and just need a free music production program to record and edit your music, try Studio One Prime or Pro Tools First.
Studio One Prime is the best free music production software for singer-songwriters. It’s a free DAW streamlined for audio recording and basic mixing tasks.
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The free version of Studio One comes with a built-in set of high-quality audio effects. This includes a channel strip with EQ and compression, reverb and delay effects, flanger, chorus, and even basic Ampire and Pedalboard (guitar processing effects developed by PreSonus).
It is important to note that the free PreSonus DAW cannot load VST plugins. This means that you are limited to using the effects included in the freeware version of Studio One. You can’t load virtual instruments on it either.
Users who need access to more advanced features can upgrade to Studio One Artist or Studio One Pro.
Another great free music recording app for singer songwriters is Pro Tools – Intro. It is based on Avid’s popular Pro Tools software. Like Studio One Prime, it has some limitations (mainly the inability to load external plugins), but its simplicity may suit less demanding users.
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So for musicians who need a DAW to record audio, Studio One Prime is one of the best options right now.
A music production setup is not complete without an audio editor. Audacity is the best free audio editing software on the market, which also works as an excellent free recording software.
Open-source and cross-platform, Audacity has a great selection of tools and effects to perform audio editing and recording tasks.
Audacity is developed by volunteers and is regularly updated almost every month. It is lightweight, stable and intuitive enough to be used by budding music producers.
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Audacity can also load VST, VST3, AU, LV, and LADSPA plugins. You can use your favorite mixing and sound design tools to edit audio in Audacity.
Surge XTi is the best free synth plugin. It is one of the most versatile free tools on the market. If you’re looking for a friendlier alternative, we recommend Matt Tytel’s Vital wavetable synthesizer.
This open source synthesizer is based on Vember Audio’s discontinued Surge virtual instrument. The developer has published the source code, allowing the open source community to improve the software.
The synthesizer has three oscillators with different types of synthesis, complex modulation, built-in effects and various presets. The interface is now more intuitive than in previous versions, making Surge XT more suitable for beginners.
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Surge XT is an open source tool that rivals some of the most popular synth plugins on the market. It is an indispensable sound design tool in any collection of music production software.
TX16Wx Software Sampler is the best free sampler plugin for your music production studio and one of the best alternatives to Native Instruments Kontakt.
The plugin can load WAV, AIFF, Ogg and FLAC files. It can also handle SoundFonts, SFZ patches, and Akai and EXS presets.
There are hundreds of free SFZ sound libraries you can find online, such as the fantastic Piano in 162 and the SM Drums acoustic drum kit.
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The TX16Wx Software Sampler features a powerful map editor, a non-destructive sample editor, built-in effects, time-stretching, unlimited modulation sources, and even the ability to record audio. You can capture any sound from your digital audio workstation and treat it as an audio clip.
The TX16Wx Software Sampler can be used as a standalone music production software or as a VST, VST, AU and AAX plug-in in a compatible digital audio workstation.
Most music making apps, whether free or paid, include a sampling tool. That said, the TX16Wx Software Sampler offers an advanced feature set for a sample-based music production workspace.
If you think the TX16Wx Software Sampler is too complicated, consider Grace, an intuitive freeware tool that only works on Windows.
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LABS is a free plug-in for Spitfire Audio sample players. It’s easy to use and includes some of the best sounding free sample libraries on the market.
However, it offers a fantastic collection of sound packs. All sound libraries are designed by Spitfire Audio, a leading sound label.
The two most crucial mixing tools at your disposal are an equalizer and a compressor. These two audio effects are the essential building blocks of any music production studio. Together with Digital Audio Workstation, they are the most critical music production software.
TDR Nova is the best free equalizer plugin you can add to your music making toolbox. It is a four-band dynamic equalizer with an additional high-pass and low-pass filter.
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TDR Nova can handle all kinds of mixing tasks such as a dynamic equalizer. You can use it as a basic parametric equalizer, a dynamic equalizer, a multiband compressor, a de-esser, a broadband compressor, or even a simple audio filter.
The two best things about TDR Nova are its flexibility and ease of use. Despite the plug-in’s advanced “Dynamic EQ” functions, even beginners can use the basic EQ functions. Advanced dynamic controls are disabled and ready to use by default
DC1A is the best free compressor plugin. It’s not the most resourceful compressor effect, but it’s the most intuitive.
Many newcomers to music production find the concept of dynamic range compression difficult to grasp. With the DC1A it’s just a matter of finding the right amount of compression and the rest of the magic will happen.
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The DC1A is the first compressor effect to add to your arsenal if you’re just starting out with music production software. More advanced music producers and experienced sound engineers should download TDR Kotelnikov, the best free mastering compressor on the market.
If you’re looking for a simple free compressor inspired by vintage limiting amps, check out the BPB Dirty LA.
A limiter is an essential tool in the audio mastering phase of music production. Also useful for mixing, but mastering is not possible without a limiter.
Mastering your most important projects is a task that you outsource to a professional mastering engineer. However, having a good limiter plugin is essential when mastering demo songs and song samples. And frankly, it’s fun mixing and mastering an entire song using nothing but free music production software.
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Another excellent free limiter plugin is LUveler by Thomas Mundt. It is less advanced than Limiter №6 and more suitable for beginners. And we also recommend
