Best free DAW for beginners 2020 - Music production software

Best free DAW for beginners 2020 - Music production software

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  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 track waveform free if you've used track 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-ones 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 sand boxing 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 sound bridge 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 Sound bridge 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 sound bridge and the ritmix is a must download for you the next free daw is Roland Zen beats 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 Zen beats you get a collection of modern and legendary sounds with features like loop building beat sync and key Zen beats isa 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 sound pool loops that are included are a great way to learn how to arrange and edit music magic music maker free comes with four sound pools and three instruments and soundpools are like loop packs each one has a particular style and sound so all of the loops in the sound pool will work together easily but you can mix and match loops from all of the sound pools 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 thatmagix 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 tracksnine 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 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 buthas its own ardour twist if you're looking for that familiar layout editing and mixing style then you might want to give Ardour a trythe 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 chancesare 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 litecomes 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 Livelite 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 next if you like 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 simple green tech I'm phenomenal singh keep creating and we'll talk soon