FREE/Almost Free Daws for those feeling left out or no $$$ to spend !

Someone has to mention the FREE Daws! Ok, Maybe not all of them are Free, but very low cost. Worth a look!
For now, for fun, to test waters, collect them all, etc.

- Magix Music Maker
- Tracktion T6
- Reaper
- Ardour
- Studio One Prime
- StageLight
- Pro Tools First
- Ableton Live lite
- Studio One Artist
- Ignite by Air
- Bitwig 8 Track
- Cubase AI or Elements
*Some are even Free with some Hardware (Mics, Interfaces, mixers, midi keyboards, etc)

Thanks for feedback, ended up editing post. Not meant to be a comparison, who is better than who.....more a list of names for those not familiar with availability or offers out there.

Magic Russ
A lot of these freebies are just cut downs of bigger products, though.
 
Most demos are save-disabled.  This tends to inhibit my ability to get comfortable with them, knowing I will not be able to keep my work.  A free or cheap entry level version is decent way of discovering if the workflow is right for you without committing to much money.

Good point, I look at it the same, and in looking around have figured that I like them all for different reasons. Good to see what’s out there, what your main or cherished daw may be missing or can possibly suggest for future releases, etc.

Never know what you may find or like out there.....

clintmartin
Tracktion 6 is the one I always recommend to friends. It is the full version, and can give anyone interested in Waveform a good idea of what to expect.
 

Exactly the point of my post here! To enlighten people that may not be aware of such things available out there!
Thanks for input!

Even though studio one prime is indeed a reduced version, unlike many lite versions, the engine is identical amd workflow for main components almost identical. The project files are even interchangeable. Plugs not available in prime are simply greyed out but present in case you jump back and forth. For a person who needs more for recording and mixing than composition with VSTs, it is surprisingly capable. It has unlimited tracks and the included effects are decent despite the channel strip (3 band eq with lowcut and simple compressor) being somewhat lacking. The one included instrument ( an all around rompler ) Presence will not be confused with Nexus or Kontakt, it is capable of more than I initially thought and can be expanded via samples.
I run an after school program where we work with pro and prime so that lower income kids can participate fully. As an icebreaker, i whipped up a simple song using nothing but Prime. They challenged me to create super dirty bass using Presence. Never finished mixing this, but this is what i cranked out in 15-20 minutes. No loops. To get more control I made separate track for kick snare and hihats.
There are no designated mix busses per say, but there are fx channels which basically function as busses if you skip adding fx.

Since we have short time, i did not bother with a full mix, but i made project file abailable to them to deconstruct excuse song length. Exported wrong and 5 minutes of it is dead air

https://drive.google.com/...zVU0/view?usp=drivesdk

Studio One Pro is $125 for Sonar crossgrade at JRRshop...
 
And you can get any of these for $99 or less:
 
Tracktion Waveform
Cubase Elements
Reaper
MixCraft
Harrison Mixbus
 
And for $50 you can get Overture, but it's not really a DAW.