Review and shopping guide of the best digital audio workstations available today. Which music production software you need depends on a few factors, such as experience level, usage, and budget.
When you’re first starting out It’s fair to say that not many guys will commit to the expense of a. Without first “ getting their feet wet” with some free stuff To see if home recording is something they’ll actually enjoy. And if that sound like you right now perfect. Because in today’s post, I’m going to show several great ways to help get you started With my list of the Top FREE Recording Software Options of 2017. Let’s begin The 3 Best Options After days of in-depth research on this subject, what I discovered is that newbies basically have 3 FREE options to choose from: • Online Recording Sites • Free Downloadable DAW’s • Included DAW’s that come with an audio interface And while all of these are technically free, truth is NONE of them are 100% free.
Because while the software itself may be freeto use it, you still have to spend some money elsewhere. If not now, then eventually. So the new question I began asking was: Which of these solutions offers the best features for the lowest OVERALL price? And here’s what I discovered: Option 1: Online Recording Sites At first glance, the benefits of online recording sites seem promising • All files get stored in the cloud. • Social sharing is built-in. • You don’t need to bother with software licenses or downloads.
But once you look a little deeper, it’s also not hard to see the many downsides: • Unreliable Internet – All internet connections drop out occasionally, which could easily rob you of good recording takes. • Questionable Content Rights – Even if current “Terms and Conditions” give ownership to the creator, as Facebook and other big sites have shown, those rules are always subject to change. • Freemium Business Models – Many top sites bait you with a free signupbut ultimately charge monthly fees for full use of the product. And over time, those fees add up to more than the cost of a professional DAW. And that’s absurd.
So while it does have its advantages, online recording clearly isn’t good enough to pay for. And while I’m sure there are some musicians who have had success with online recordingI’ve honestly never met any of them personally. So personally, I would avoid these sites in general.

And I would especially avoid any sites that charge you anything. Of the truly free sites though, here are two that look pretty promising: • • NOTE: If you want to try online recording, but you don’t have a laptop yet, check out a Chromebook. If you aren’t familiar with them yet, Chromebooks are the laptops designed by Google that work solely as an internet browser. Because the stripped-down design uses no native applications, their price point is significantly cheaper than standard laptops.