Traction is famous for its Waveform DAW and other digital instruments. Still, among the premium range of products, it also offers you a featured free digital audio workstation in its T7 DAW. It claims to be the world’s best and genuinely unlimited music production tool and comes with no track or plugin limitations like other free tools. I am running Windows 7 64 bit OS on a PC using Reaper as my DAW. I was wondering what is the best practice for installing VSTs and the best Folder location to keep all your VSTs. I use a variety of plugins from Waves to free plugins I download from the Internet. There are two main issues I'm confused regarding where to house these plugins. If you are a beginner with a limited budget in the audio editing industry, luckily you can opt for free DAW software. Here are 6 best DAW for beginners. For editing and recording, Audacity is one of the best DAW for beginners. It is not only popular but also the most widely used free DAW software across the globe. So, if you just want a shortcut to pro-quality mixes, watch this free masterclass now: But if you just want to learn about VST Instruments specifically, keep reading. VST Instruments. The better your recordings sound, the better your final mix will be. Which is why VST (Virtual Studio Technology) instruments can level up your songs immediately.

What is a DAW?

More reads on DAW (Digital Audio Workstations):

• How To Choose Suitable DAW for Yourself
• Best Laptops for Music Production

The Components of a DAW

Standard features of a DAW

One of the features that brought about the popularity of DAWs is the ability to ‘undo’. Younger music producers might not have put much thought into this, but our more senior music producers would call this feature a godsend. Back in the days before DAWs existed, you would have to physically cut & stick a recording tape if you wanted to make an edit.

DAW must-know:

Read more on audio plugins & MIDI controllers:

• Best Audio Plugins for Aspiring Music Producers
• MIDI controllers – What are they & how to choose one?

Which DAW Should I Use?

Imagine you’re learning to drive. You would have to choose to learn a manual or automatic car. Learning to drive an automatic is simple because you don’t have to acquire every knowledge at one go. You would b able to

1 – Your computer operating system and hardware

We’re not – going to do the comparison on which OS is better or more superior. The answer to that question is always – it depends.

Back then, Mac

I believe a good way to ensure you’re on DAW that you want to use for a long time, is to look for a DAW that installs on both Mac and PC. Why? Because you want to be open for collaborations between music producers – as the internet today allows for more and more collaboration.

2 – Audio Plugin Compatibility

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Does your favorite audio plugins offer AU & VST plugins? Does your chosen DAW support them and have 32-bit & 64-bit plugin compatibility?

3 – Your Music Production Goal

Are you able to produce quickly on your DAW? Or do you find yourself constantly stopping your creative workflow to fix errors and figure out functions when producing on your DAW?

If you’re new, you may not

• Do you plan to arrange & print music sheets?

4 – Your Budget

Always, always, take advantage of season sales to buy or upgrade your DAW. It doesn’t matter if your favorite DAW just spewed up an update, you can usually afford to wait.

Some of the most successful music producers I know, produce on old DAW systems. So unless you really need to spend money on a DAW upgrade, it usually pays to wait it out – for a seasonal sale, like Black Friday or Thanksgiving.

Coming back to budgets. Choose a DAW that you can afford.

A quick tip here. You don’t have to always buy the biggest version of the DAW.

Take Presonus Studio One for example. It offers three versions, from Studio One Prime (the free version), Artist and Professional. If you’re a singer-songwriter who do occasional recordings and use some instrument samplers – Studio One Artist would be good enough for you. It offers the same functionality from recording, editing, mixing and light mastering – you can do it all in the Artist version. And guess what? For only 25% of the price, you pay for the Professional version.

Besides, you can always upgrade your software later on when you feel you need more. Just another reason why I would recommend going for a DAW that offers sequential upgrades or crossgrades.

Few more advice:

1. Buy a genuine copy please. When you spend actual money on a DAW, you’ll use it. Plus you get a peace of mind, no crashes, no nonsense.
2. Go dongle-free. DAWs like ProTools and Cubase require you to use an i-Lok dongle to run. I never liked that. The number of times I got nightmare thinking I misplaced the dongle somewhere is not worth it. Then again, that’s a piece of personal advice.
3. Less is more. The more features a DAW has, the better it is, right? No. Most of the time, you’ll find yourself only using 20% of its complete features to get your music done.

Best Free DAWS for Windows & Mac

So you’re just starting out and want to look for a free DAW. No problem, here is a list of the best free DAWs in our opinion.

• Compatible with most VST plugins
• Streamlined user interface that a beginner would enjoy using.
• Tools from pro-DAW softwares e.g. Warp Time, automation and sub-mix tracks.
• No track-limits or anything like that.

Tracktion 7 is definitely one of the best free DAW with full features in the market. It has an amazing dark GUI, which promotes more focus when you’re producing music. You can do multitrack recordings, MIDI composing and mix without limits in it.

It limitation comes in if you’re into doing heavy post-production work where it lacks multi-screen features, a proper metering mixer, and music to picture capability. However, at a free price tag, no other DAW comes close to the value Tracktion is offering.

2 – Garageband (Mac-only)

• Lots of instrument samples, loops, and synths.
• Multitrack recording ready.
• Extremely easy-to-use interface and fun

If you’re on a Mac, it’s a no-brainer to download Garageband from the AppStore and start making music right away. Garageband, as we know it today, has become so user-friendly, that even a non-musician can produce music with it.

The downside to Garageband is when you need pro-features such as plugging in 3rd party plugins to process your audio and MIDI tracks, which it does not have support for.

3 – Audacity (Mac and Windows)

• Multi-track audio recordings

Audacity is not quite a DAW but more so an audio editor, like Adobe Audition. However, don’t be fooled by its simple appearance. The audio editing ability in Audacity is quite near to what you can do on a full audio editor like Audition. It’s an audio editor that I would recommend all music producers to have on their computer, as it offers audio editing capabilities such as noise removal, key changing, etc – that is absent on some DAWs.

The downside to Audacity is that the e

4 – Ocenaudio (Mac and Windows)

• Lightw
• Better designed GUI, compared to Audacity.
• Effects bundle that is based on real-time application and fine-tuning (reverb, EQ, and compression)

Ocenaudio is another audio editor that seems to rival Audacity. One added advantage of Ocenaudio is that it has a pretty simple and beautiful graphic user interface which makes its favorable for first-time users. Contrast to Audacity, it also allows you to preview your audio effects changes before you hit commit, something that Audacity doesn’t have in store, yet.

Doesn’t have multitrack support but if you need a good audio editor, definitely worth a try.

5 – PreSonus Studio One 4 Prime (Mac and Windows)

• Seamless drag-and-drop type of workflow
• Unlimited audio & MIDI tracks.
• Amazing DAW for freemium users.
• Professional type of DAW. But limited in features.

Experience the power of Studio One in a smaller package. You get the same functionality but at the cost not having the full suite of plugins, effects, and instruments. So things are really basic but good enough for recording, editing, and mixing of smaller music projects.

You’ll, however, start to hit limitations after a while. You’ll quickly find the itch to upgrade in order to use 3rd party plugins or simply having more effects or instruments to produce with.

• Great free DAW for MIDI compositions and editing.
• Multitrack ready and comes with comprehensive audio and MIDI editing capability.
• VST support ready.
• No multiprocessing

A true modern DAW that would excite aspiring music producers, that brings many valuable features especially the refreshing graphic user interface. Podium can feel a little confusing at first, but once you got the grasp, shouldn’t be hard to produce some of your first music pieces with it.

You could even customize the look and feel of the DAW if you like.

7 – Ohm Studio (Mac and Windows)

• Ambitious real-time collaborative DAW.
• Modular mixing/routing options
• Cloud-based setup. Runs on both platforms, Mac & PC.

Ohm Studio is an interesting & ambitious DAW that envisions music producers to collaborate real-time with their DAW over the cloud. The current DAW version has pretty basic functions that work – automation, 3rd party VST plugin support, and audio recording but don’t expect too much from Ohm Studio, yet. It misses some other important functions such as MIDI quantization functions and audio editing.

Best DAWs for Windows & Mac (Paid)

Ready to go for full-scaled DAWs and produce real music like the pros do? Let’s introduce you to some of the best DAWs in the music industry.

1 – Avid Pro Tools (Mac and Windows)

• The industry standard DAW for recording & post-production.
• World-class mixing and mastering.
• Over 60 plug-ins, access to a library full of loops and samples.
• Only works with AAX plugin formats.

Pro Tools is the industry standard DAW used by most pro audio engineers and music producers. The biggest Hollywood soundtracks and music pieces have a very big chance of being mixed in Pro Tools.

Choosing Pro Tools and learning it means you speak the same ‘language’ whenever you enter any recording studio in the world. Some recording studios expect that you are proficient with Pro Tools.

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The learning curve to learning Pro Tools DAW might be steeper than other DAWs, but learning aside, Pro Tools offers a lot of power under it hood with complete editing & mixing capability. There are a few types of Pro Tools version for every producer with different needs. You can even subscribe a membership to using Pro Tools.

2 – Apple Logic Pro X (Mac)

• Most complete DAW from the box, hands-down.
• Amazing MIDI editing functionality.
• You get over 7000 apple loops, sound library, instruments, synths, effects, and everything!
• Best all in one DAW – recording, composing, mixing & mastering.
• Supports AU plugins.

Logic Pro remains one of my favorite DAW to go for if you like producing with lots of loops, instruments, synths and samples. It comes with plenty of loops and samples right out the box, which you can use to produce literally any music genre. If you’re just starting out, you probably don’t even need to buy any third-party plugins to begin producing, because everything works and sounds great, out of the box.

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Great MIDI editing capabilities, complete mixer support, audio editing and even a score-editor – for you arrange and print scores. It’s also pretty darn affordable, at only USD199.99, given the amount of content you get.

The downside I can think of Logic Pro is probably the lack of audio editing tools within. Some music producers also find the workflow on Logic Pro to be a little more tedious, compared to other DAWs like Studio One, for instance.

3 – Presonus Studio One (Mac and Windows)

• Progressively popular for mastering tracks
• Drag & drop workflow, designed to ease the life of musicians.
• Lots of effects plugins and great mixing functions.
• Constantly make updates based on feedback from users.
• Samples, loops and sound content not as complete as Logic Pro.

Think of Presonus Studio One as a modern DAW that aims to simplify the process of recording, editing, mixing & mastering for any music composer or producer. At the time of writing, Presonus Studio 4 has evolved from a basic impressive DAW to what I could say an industry-ready DAW.

The interface is designed for a drag and drop kind of workflow. You can simply drag instruments, effects, loops and more into the arrange window and begin producing away. Routing capabilities are amazing, powerful automation functions, lots of plugins & tools to play with and support 64-bit mixing and mastering.

It loses out on the content it packs with. The amount & quality of the loops, synths, and VSTs instruments you get with Studio One is a far-fetch from those you get in Logic Pro. However, I think it’s a real deal, considering how well-built the DAW is and how it is constantly getting frequent updates.

4 – Ableton Live (Mac and Windows)

• A staple DAW amongst electronic, trap and hip-hop producers & DJ.
• Seamless integration of DAW into live sets.
• Very fast effect tweaking, that’s why it’s used by many.

The latest version (at time of writing), Live 10 – gives an extensive update towards the whole look and feel of the entire DAW, especially the arrangement view, which is something that users have been requesting for.

Ableton Live is an extremely versatile DAW – great for both producing and performing. Because it has become such a staple in the industry, you’ll also find a lot of music hardware like the Ableton Push, Launchpad, Novation Launchkey

Choose Ableton Live if you are into electronic music, where you come into lots of sample chopping, tweaking and loop mangling.

The DAW makes you think of music composition differently, as a linear DAW – compared to most DAWs. Contrast to other traditional DAWs where you’ll build a song gradually, in Ableton you’ll find yourself putting down sound bits & ideas as clips, and then reconstructing them to form a music piece.

The best way to understand this is to try Ableton Live yourself. Download the free trial and make some music on your computer now!

5 – Steinberg Cubase Pro (Mac and Windows)

• Filled with advanced editing features. So much that you might even use them all!
• Great sounding effects and VSTs, out of the box.
• Didn’t really find the virtual instruments too impressive however.
• Have one of the best MIDI editing capabilities in the market of DAWs.
• Efficient workflow once you learn it. MixConsole offers pro-mixing experience.

Cubase excels in MIDI editing and audio based processing. The company that developed Cubase named Steinberg – is also the one who developed VST (Virtual Studio Technology). Most of the VSTs, from virtual instruments to software effects & signal processors you use today existed thanks to Steinberg.

This makes Cubase one of the most solid DAW in the market when it comes to 3rd party VSTs and DAW stability.

Another thing I like about Cubase is that it has cross-platform compatibility – where you can run it on a Mac or PC. In contrast to Logic Pro which excels in MIDI composing but only runs on a Mac – you don’t restrict yourself to computer platforms with Cubase.

There are lots of features and advanced functionality built in Cubase, however, you may find it to be a bloated DAW software.

I personally found Cubase to be one of the best DAWs that I enjoy using. And the downside to it for me (coming from a Logic Pro experience), is the lack of good sounding virtual instruments. The virtual instruments that come out of the box with Cubase just didn’t quite click with me and I found myself using the virtual instruments from Native Instruments’s Komplete instead.

6 – FL Studio (Mac and Windows)

• Easy to learn and make music on. Even for non-musicians.
• Buy once, get lifetime updates.
• Lots of tutorials on the internet.

One of the reasons why FL Studio is so popular is because it was pirated a lot, back then and even today.

FL Studio offers you a way to produce beats quite easily, even without a MIDI controller – by just clicking in notes. It makes an excellent DAW for electronic music producers who

With the most recent update, FL Studio 20 – now there is an intuitive mixer, sequencer, VSTs, and effects that we’re seeing it catching up with mixing & mastering capabilites like the ‘serious’ DAWs such as Logic Pro, Cubase or Pro Tools.

You’ll also find a big community online working with FL Studio which you can share projects, templates, tips & tricks with.

7 – Cockos Reaper (Mac and Windows)

• Best DAW to consider on a budget.
• Highly tweak-able and customisable – if you like tweaking things.
• Less bloat and uses
• Steeper learning curve.

When you first launch Reaper, you’ll be overwhelmed by how complex everything looks. Once you learn it however, you’ll find how intuitive and fast Reaper can be.

Reaper is a very customizable DAW, where once you understand its workflow – you’ll find that it does everything you need it to do. You could even download scripts or even write your own scripts and add workflows and functions to the DAW. Imagine being able to change the fonts on the program itself or use a Cubase skin, so your version of Reaper looks like Cubase.

While it only costs $60, Reaper also comes with over 100s of plugin effects. And really is a no brainer, as it works on both Mac and PC.

Conclusion

It’s my hope that this post sheds some light for you in choosing DAW to start producing music with.

Remember to spend some time producing with each DAW, before ruling out whether you like using it or not. An experienced producer would be able to produce the same high quality of music on any DAW.

The major difference between DAWs are usually its workflow. In terms of sound quality, you can really achieve the same world-class sound on literally most DAWs.

Did I miss any of your favourite DAWs here? Have questions about choosing a DAW and getting started? Post your comments below and let’s discuss.

It’s amazing how many free Digital Audio Workstations (DAW for short) are available these days for recording, creating, editing and mixing music from a simple home computer setup.

When I first started getting into recording music from home, I thought it was pretty much required to spend a few hundred dollars (at least) on music recording software, but it turns out that’s not the case at all.

In fact if you’re a beginner just starting out, you’re much better off not buying a DAW right away.

It’s better to test a few different DAWs at first, some free versions and demos, to find out what fits your style and workflow the best.

There’s nothing worse than spending several hundred dollars on software that you later find out that you don’t like, so it’s important to take some time when it comes to choosing a DAW.

If you’re looking for a new DAW or are just starting out, here’s a list of the best free Digital Audio Workstations that are currently available to download and try out.

Pro Tools First

Pro Tools has been one of the top Digital Audio Workstations for a long time. It is used in many professional studios and is considered the industry standard in some circles. But Pro Tools also receives a lot of criticism for the way Avid chooses to handles things.

Avid released a completely free version of Pro Tools earlier this year called Pro Tools First. It has a lot of good things going for it, with a couple of significant drawbacks. The free version is a great way to try out Pro Tools without having to commit to spending a fortune on a full license or a subscription plan.

Here’s a comparison chart that lists the differences between the free and paid versions of Pro Tools.

Pros

• Supports recording 16 mono/stereo audio and instrument and MIDI tracks.
• Supports ReWire.
• Comes with Xpand!2, a virtual instrument plugin with 1000’s of built-in sounds for drums, strings, pianos, loops, synths, etc; plus over 20 Pro Tools plugins are included.

Cons

• Plugins can only be purchased through Avid’s marketplace; you can’t install plugins from outside sources.
• Supports just three projects at one time.
• Projects are stored in the cloud (with offline caching).

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Studio One 3 Prime

The other big-name free DAW up for the taking that works with Mac and PC computers is Studio One Prime. Unlike most other free DAWs it offers unlimited audio tracks, MIDI tracks, buses, and FX channels. The main limitation is you can’t load 3rd party plugins with the free version because there is no VST support—and that’s a pretty big issue.

The $99 PreSonus AudioBox USB audio interface comes with a free download of Studio One 3 Artist, which sells for $75 separately. It’s a step-up from the free version and adds a number of additional features, but VST and ReWire support costs an extra $79 as an add-on.

Here’s a comparison chart at PreSonus listing all the different features between each version of Studio One.

Pros

• Impressive interface and workflow, with advanced multi-track editing and comping, automation, and full MIDI support.
• Supports unlimited audio tracks, MIDI tracks, buses, and FX channels.
• It comes with 9 high-quality effects, including Ampire, Beat Delay, Chorus, MixVerb, EQ, Presence XT sampler, etc.

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Cons

• No VST plugin support.
• Just one virtual instrument included.

Podium Free

One of the better options for a free DAW is Podium Free, the freeware edition of Podium. It’s a fully-functional DAW for Windows that supports recording and editing audio and MIDI, and it can load VST plugins as well.

Pros

• VST plugin support.
• Identical to the commercial version of Podium, with a few limitations.
• Can download and use freely, registration optional.

Cons

• Windows only.
• Plugin multi-processing is disabled on free version.
• ReWire and 64-bit mixer engine disabled on free version.

Tracktion T5

If you truly want to go the free DAW route, Tracktion 5 is one of the best options. It’s not encumbered by the usual limitations like other brands. It’s a fully-operational DAW, complete with VST and ReWire support and unlimited tracks. T5 also supports automation and it has audio comping, latency management, track freeze, MIDI learn, and more.

Pros

• Supports unlimited VST/AU plugins and ReWire.
• Unlimited number of audio and MIDI tracks supported.
• Works with Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Cons

• Single window user interface.
• Less overall features than the big name stuff like Pro Tools First.

DarkWave Studio

DarkWave Studio is another freeware DAW that is available for Windows. It’s designed with an emphasis on creating electronic music. It supports VST and VSTi instrument and plugin effects. DarkWave Studio features a modular approach and it comes with a bunch of bundled plugins.

Pros

• VST plugins supported.
• Multi core & multi CPU support.
• Regularly updated.

Cons

• Windows only.
• Not well known, not much info.

Reaper

Reaper is a popular DAW that’s loaded with tons of features and a very user-friendly license policy. There’s an older free version of Reaper available, v0.999. It hasn’t been updated in 10 years and won’t be updated again, but it still has a number of useful tools for recording and editing music.

However, it doesn’t really make any sense to even bother with the free version of Reaper because the full version only costs $60. Don’t let the price fool you. It’s a full DAW with the same level of features as the expensive stuff. Plus it has a 60-day trial period to demo the full software.

Additional Options

Audacity – It’s not a DAW precisely but Audacity is highly-capable open source audio software for multi-track recording and editing—it even supports VST plugins. It works with Windows, Mac, and Linux and it’s free.

LMMS – While it does not offer any type of external audio recording, LMMS is free open-source software for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It comes with some included effects and instrument plugins. It supports MIDI and 3rd-party VST plugins.

Ableton Live Lite 9 – A fully-functional DAW that’s main limitation is it only supports 8 tracks/scenes. It’s not free exactly but it does come free with a number of MIDI and audio interfaces. One of the best and most capable free software add-ons if you can get a hold of it.

MuLab Free – A free version of MuLab that supports four tracks and eight VST plugins per project. Works with Windows and Mac OSX.

Ardour – A fully functional DAW for OSX and Linux. It’s not free but it can be purchased for as little as $1.

Wavosaur – Wavosaur is a free audio editor and audio recorder program that supports wav and mp3 files. Wavosaur can install VST plugins for real time effects processing. The program is freeware for Windows computers.