Article: a free Windows-based software studio

[Chevolution]

This is dope! Thank you!

[Zackit]

Cool, thanks!

[Ciarciagallo]

Great article, thanks!

[mixyguy2]

Hi there... haven't been around these parts much lately, didn't realize this was still stickied here. Cheers to mixyguy2 for the newer links.  :) 

It is indeed an old and outdated article, but I just updated that first post with a Wayback Machine link, so at least it doesn't lead nowhere anymore. 

I may get around to doing an updated version of this article... if that's something folks would be interested in, feel free to say so here, it might help motivate me.  :)

I've found more than enough for my purposes, but others, esp people just starting out and not exactly rich, I think would benefit from a current version. "You get what you pay for" has more holes than a gopher-infested golf course when it comes to plugins.

In fact FWIW I'll take a crack at what my lineup would look like:

DAW: Cakewalk (I guess..tbh the only free one I ever liked was Audacity, so easy to use, but it's extremely limited)

Effects:
- EQ: TDR Nova (parametric), KarmaFX EQ (graphic)
- Reverbs: Valhalla Supermassive (also has delay), Voxengo Oldskool, SIR1 (IR reverb)
- Saturation: Klanghelm IVGI and MUC Jr
- Compressor: TDR Molotok
- Flange/phase: Valhalla Space Modulator 
- Vocal doubler: izotope Vocal Doubler
- Vocoder: TAL Vocoder 
- The Blue Cat, Melda, and Dead Duck suite of effects are also well worth a look

Instruments:
- Orchestral: Spitfire BBCSO Discover 
- Guitar: Acoustic: Ample Guitar M Lite; Electric: DVS Guitar, Shreddage 3 (unfortunately that requires Kontakt tho so "free" is only true if you have it)
- Drums: MT Power Drum Kit, Steven Slate SSD5 Lite
- Bass: Ample Bass P Lite
- Sax: DVS Sax  
- Strings: Spitfire Strings
- Synths:
  - Vital
  - Surge
  - Helm
  - OB-xd
  - Podolski
  - FB 3300
  - Triple Cheese
  - Zebralette 

[synthgeek]

I've found more than enough for my purposes, but others, esp people just starting out and not exactly rich, I think would benefit from a current version. "You get what you pay for" has more holes than a gopher-infested golf course when it comes to plugins.

Indeed, that saying was obviously started by someone trying to sell overpriced goods.

There does seem to be some interest here, I guess it would be worth updating this. Thanks for the recommendations, I see some stuff in there I haven't checked out yet myself. I have been playing around with some of the other free DAW choices recently, with the thought of a possible update to this in mind. Right now, LMMS is looking like my top recommendation, only because Cakewalk is more "freemium" than actually free, but I'll still mention it.

[mafbass]

TY!

[stevano92]

Cool info, thanks!

[gfrench]

Great article, thanks!

[DiBase]

I tried Podium first, which made me buy my first daw. If I'd recommend a free one it would be LMMS but that does not have real audio support, and is mostly just midi.

[a7564851]

Cool, thanks!

[melomood]

FB 3300 made the list. Noice

[synthgeek]

So, I've finally gotten a chance to put some good time in on an update for this article, and it should be up within a week or so.

[synthgeek]

A new version of this article is (finally) now available from the FSA website:

A free Windows-based software studio, 2021 update

The original post has been updated with the new link also.

[unkow]

A new version of this article is (finally) now available from the FSA website:

A free Windows-based software studio, 2021 update

The original post has been updated with the new link also.

Great writeup, thanks for taking the time to compile all this info.

And a quick PSA: if you are dumb like me and think "Cubase LE" is free -- it isn't, you can download it but you will need an activation code to get it to run. This activation code comes bundled with some hardware gizmos, so it's only free if you already bought the gizmo.

[synthgeek]

Great writeup, thanks for taking the time to compile all this info.

Cheers, thanks for taking the time to comment.