YanKleber
Retired
Every now and then I see a thread asking about what are the 'best' DAW for begginers and such and there is a lot of professional tools out there suitable for this questioning. Being someone that lives in country where the wages has different parameters I can consider myself a 'guy-in-a-budget' so I will always look for cheap stuff that fulfill my needs. So when I am shopping for software and gadgets I rarely goes after something that is full of bells and whistles that I probably never will use. First because I prefer the stuff that goes directly to the point (simpler to use) and second because I don't want to pay for 'hocus-pocus' features or super-pro resources that my usage don't ask for.
Thinking about this, I made a quick research of what I called 'DAW for the poor' that focus specially in the price. They are cheap and even a teen living in a folks house bedroom or the weekend self-producer with a very limited amount to put on his hobby will be able to pay for. This is the perfect alternative for those that wants to keep out of the piracy software.
COCKOS REAPER
REAPER | Audio Production Without Limits
This is my very first option. I know about people that uses it professionaly, so it is for the poor but not only for the beginner. Talking about this, it may be not the best option for whose never played recording. I am a Reaper user and consider myself a begginer though, and it does OK for me. The advantage of this software, in my opinion, is that you can start fresh with it and as you grow in studio knowledge you won't have to switch to a different DAW. You can just stick with it. Let's talk about cost... it is only $60 either for personal as professional use (see their site for parameters), but the guys at Cockos has a peculiar approach about their product: you can download Reaper and try it literally forever for free. Yes, you read it right. the 'demo' version has all features unlocked and never will expire. The only thing is that any time you start the software it will popup a window reminding you that it is not free and that you should pay/register if you like it.
N-TRACK
n-Track Studio Multitrack Recording Software & Digital Audio Workstation
It was a pleasant surprise for me. It was the first DAW I tried in my whole life over 10 years ago. I sincerely thought that it didn't exist anymore but then I stumbled with it. It is definitively a beginners software. It is very simplificated but does the job. The problem is that if you are going to take the recording stuff seriously at certain point you WILL want to migrate to a professional tool. But if you are just engaged on hobby or self-production and don't have big expectations about to get into this business, it worthes a try specially for the price. You can download a demo version that will work for ten days and then after that you will have to buy it. Along the demo period it will annoy you with a 'sound watermark' that plays three notes every 50 seconds. The price? Cheap! It is only $19.99.
GARAGE BAND
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gar...WWW-NAUS-ITUHOME-NEWAPPLICATIONS&ign-mpt=uo=2
This is a DAW software for whose uses a Mac. Although the words 'poor' and 'mac' will toughly be found together in the same phrase, I decided to include it here because it is cheap, cheap, CHEAP! I am not a Mac user (I am poor!) but I have read that it normally already comes installed in the new Macs as a standard part of the package. If not, you can purchase it at Apple Store for as little as $15. It is really CHEAP.
MIXCRAFT (Mac)
Mixcraft 6 | Music Recording Software | Acoustica
The more expensive one in this list ($70) but still being a very good option. It has a very clean, intuitive and straight forward interface that allows you right in the first look to get what is going on. It is considered the 'PC version' of the Mac Garage Band DAW and one of its main glances is that you can really learn how to use it fast. Even if you never have used a DAW before, just install it and in very small time you will be recording your tunes.
A NOTE FOR LINUX USERS
What could be more cheap than absolutely free? So here we go with this that seems to be the ONLY free option for Linux till the date, contribution of our mate DM60. The DAW name is ARDOUR (https://ardour.org/) and as DM60 advised, though, it may not work with all USB AI. With his experience he did it with a Presonus AI but got no luck with the Tascam 1800. It may worst a shot for whose has a Linux running system.
For whose are brave at heart is always the chance of one of the Windows DAWs mentioned above to run with a little help of Wine. Being Reaper as light as it is I wouldn't be surprised if it would work nicely, but there is always the question of compatibility with the hardware. In all DAWs for Windows mentioned they should run OK with Asio4All driver. In the case of Linux running these applications within Wine, if I am not wrong the proper drive would be WineAsio. Not a Linux expert here though.
Well, that's it. I hope that it may be a good start for the ones that are completely lost into the DAW realm but specially has near to nothing in the wallet to spend on such software.
Thinking about this, I made a quick research of what I called 'DAW for the poor' that focus specially in the price. They are cheap and even a teen living in a folks house bedroom or the weekend self-producer with a very limited amount to put on his hobby will be able to pay for. This is the perfect alternative for those that wants to keep out of the piracy software.
COCKOS REAPER
REAPER | Audio Production Without Limits
This is my very first option. I know about people that uses it professionaly, so it is for the poor but not only for the beginner. Talking about this, it may be not the best option for whose never played recording. I am a Reaper user and consider myself a begginer though, and it does OK for me. The advantage of this software, in my opinion, is that you can start fresh with it and as you grow in studio knowledge you won't have to switch to a different DAW. You can just stick with it. Let's talk about cost... it is only $60 either for personal as professional use (see their site for parameters), but the guys at Cockos has a peculiar approach about their product: you can download Reaper and try it literally forever for free. Yes, you read it right. the 'demo' version has all features unlocked and never will expire. The only thing is that any time you start the software it will popup a window reminding you that it is not free and that you should pay/register if you like it.
N-TRACK
n-Track Studio Multitrack Recording Software & Digital Audio Workstation
It was a pleasant surprise for me. It was the first DAW I tried in my whole life over 10 years ago. I sincerely thought that it didn't exist anymore but then I stumbled with it. It is definitively a beginners software. It is very simplificated but does the job. The problem is that if you are going to take the recording stuff seriously at certain point you WILL want to migrate to a professional tool. But if you are just engaged on hobby or self-production and don't have big expectations about to get into this business, it worthes a try specially for the price. You can download a demo version that will work for ten days and then after that you will have to buy it. Along the demo period it will annoy you with a 'sound watermark' that plays three notes every 50 seconds. The price? Cheap! It is only $19.99.
GARAGE BAND
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/gar...WWW-NAUS-ITUHOME-NEWAPPLICATIONS&ign-mpt=uo=2
This is a DAW software for whose uses a Mac. Although the words 'poor' and 'mac' will toughly be found together in the same phrase, I decided to include it here because it is cheap, cheap, CHEAP! I am not a Mac user (I am poor!) but I have read that it normally already comes installed in the new Macs as a standard part of the package. If not, you can purchase it at Apple Store for as little as $15. It is really CHEAP.
MIXCRAFT (Mac)
Mixcraft 6 | Music Recording Software | Acoustica
The more expensive one in this list ($70) but still being a very good option. It has a very clean, intuitive and straight forward interface that allows you right in the first look to get what is going on. It is considered the 'PC version' of the Mac Garage Band DAW and one of its main glances is that you can really learn how to use it fast. Even if you never have used a DAW before, just install it and in very small time you will be recording your tunes.
A NOTE FOR LINUX USERS
What could be more cheap than absolutely free? So here we go with this that seems to be the ONLY free option for Linux till the date, contribution of our mate DM60. The DAW name is ARDOUR (https://ardour.org/) and as DM60 advised, though, it may not work with all USB AI. With his experience he did it with a Presonus AI but got no luck with the Tascam 1800. It may worst a shot for whose has a Linux running system.
For whose are brave at heart is always the chance of one of the Windows DAWs mentioned above to run with a little help of Wine. Being Reaper as light as it is I wouldn't be surprised if it would work nicely, but there is always the question of compatibility with the hardware. In all DAWs for Windows mentioned they should run OK with Asio4All driver. In the case of Linux running these applications within Wine, if I am not wrong the proper drive would be WineAsio. Not a Linux expert here though.
Well, that's it. I hope that it may be a good start for the ones that are completely lost into the DAW realm but specially has near to nothing in the wallet to spend on such software.
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