If you want to turn your bedroom into Muscle Shoals, Pro Tools is the software that helps to turn music into magic.īut it’s not cheap. #4) Pro Tools First: Limited Access to the Industry Standard It’s perfect for podcasters or music producers and highly recommended if you’ve got time to tinker. What we loved the most were the built-in effects like equalizer, pitch, delay, reverb, and fade in/out. If you have the supporting hardware to handle it, you can produce real studio-quality sound. Once you get the hang of it, however, you can record just about anything you want. It’s a bit cumbersome to operate and you won’t be able to record tracks quickly right from the get-go. The thing is that, even with recent upgrades, it still looks a bit ancient, and as a beginner, you probably won’t use 80% of the features that clutter the nav bar.

Loaded with effects, high sound quality, tons of plugins, and comprehensive editing features, it’s amazing we had the audacity to rank this audio editor #2 (see what we did there?). But GarageBand is just so easy we had to rank it #1. That being said, once you get the hang of it, it’s awesome. And one thing you’ll notice about it as soon as you fire it up is that it’s anything but easy to operate. It’s a great piece of free recording software, but this list is aimed at beginners. Let’s set the record straight on Audacity before we get to the details. “Wait, Soda PDF! Audacity is the most popular free audio recording software in the world. The mix of versatility, ability, and aesthetics puts Apple’s DAW at the #1 spot on this list. Whereas most free software offers built-in instruments that sound like bargain bin guitars bought at a tag sale, GarageBand’s instruments are studio-quality. Where it really appeals to beginners (other than ease of use) is its awesome catalogue of virtual instruments. Tracks are color-coded and almost everything else you need is done via a drag-and-drop process. Even if you’re a complete novice who doesn’t know what DAW stands for, you can easily start recording multi-layered tracks like Young Guru in no time. If you’re familiar with Apple (who isn’t?), you know they are really good at making things look pretty while still maintaining high functionality. Smooth, intuitive, and more powerful than you’d expect from a free piece of software, it is the perfect centerpiece for any budget home studio. Since its release in 2004, GarageBand has arguably become the most popular DAW. The Two Best Free Recording Software Studios

#5) Ardour: Not Pretty But Highly Functional.

#4) Pro Tools First: Limited Access to the Industry Standard.

#3) Hya-Wave: The Extreme Budget Option.

The Two Best Free Recording Software Studios.

Easy autotune online