Best free - or nearly free DAWs

[Russell Grand]

Had been mentioned already, but Ardour belongs to the best. Advatanges over others: its cross platform and open source.
As its tied to Harrison Mixbus, the professional developement in the future is secured as well...

I keep getting discounts for Mixbus so I'd almost count that into the "nearly free" category too. E.g. a few days ago it was $39 including 5 plug-ins.

To be fair, for some of us, $39 isn't "nearly free."

[wetdentist]

Cakewalk by Bandlab > Sonar Platinum

[martinjuenke]

If you have a Mac and don't need high sample rates or external MIDI don't overlook Garageband.

+100

[hannesmenzel]

Of all DAWs worth their salt, Cockos Reaper is the best bang for buck hands down. More importantly, it always has been. Other 'elitist' brands eventually realized they better do something similar after destroying your wallet for years.

On the Mac, I'd say Logic is an even better bang for the buck. You get a wide range of top notch instruments, effects and other useful content. It would cost a lot more to add the equivalent to Reaper.

Actually, this holds true for about any DAW out there. Which makes... Reaper NOT the best bang for the buck. Just a DAW which is stripped off all the expensive stuff which is present in any other DAW. Actually, when you buy a commercial Repaer license, i'd consider it pretty expensive.

Although I also wouldn't say that $60 isn't really almost free I wonder what "stripped down" means in that context. Guess you mean that there are no virtual instruments included, I would argue that this is not a necessary part of a DAW. Plus some off the Pro Tools VIs are on sale for $1 almost one third of the year. Other than that I can hardly imagine a feature of the major DAWs that you don't have in REAPER.

[SoundPorn]

Cakewalk by Bandlab comes with Studio Instruments which is a couple gigs of drums, orchestral strings, electric piano, and electric bass guitar.

Cakewalk by Bandlab for sure. Comes with nice effects including prochannel plugins and Breverb2 and Rematrix (lite versions). Nice workflow and if you have Melodyne it integrates with ARA.

Reaper is excellent as well and is an excellent value. I would definitely go with Reaper over a lite version of another DAW.

But keep in mind that Reaper and Cakewalk don't come with virtual instruments (ok technically they come with super basic synth plugins), so if you use those then you have to factor that into the cost.

[AdvancedFollower]

Had been mentioned already, but Ardour belongs to the best. Advatanges over others: its cross platform and open source.
As its tied to Harrison Mixbus, the professional developement in the future is secured as well...

I keep getting discounts for Mixbus so I'd almost count that into the "nearly free" category too. E.g. a few days ago it was $39 including 5 plug-ins.

To be fair, for some of us, $39 isn't "nearly free."

How can you afford a computer to run the DAW if you can't afford a $39 DAW? Or the electricity to run it?

[Russell Grand]

Had been mentioned already, but Ardour belongs to the best. Advatanges over others: its cross platform and open source.
As its tied to Harrison Mixbus, the professional developement in the future is secured as well...

I keep getting discounts for Mixbus so I'd almost count that into the "nearly free" category too. E.g. a few days ago it was $39 including 5 plug-ins.

To be fair, for some of us, $39 isn't "nearly free."

How can you afford a computer to run the DAW if you can't afford a $39 DAW? Or the electricity to run it?

Huh? I'm not sure what that has to do with being able to afford a computer and electricity.

I was able to pay for a $1000 computer, but if I receive my electricity bill in the mail tomorrow and it's $39, I certainly won't go "woah, this month's bill is nearly free!" You might and, if so, that's cool.

Note: I never said 39 bucks was expensive for a DAW, but I don't consider it to be "nearly free" either.

[warp x]

A vote for Tracktion 7. Free, no limits, cross platform.

[AdvancedFollower]

Had been mentioned already, but Ardour belongs to the best. Advatanges over others: its cross platform and open source.
As its tied to Harrison Mixbus, the professional developement in the future is secured as well...

I keep getting discounts for Mixbus so I'd almost count that into the "nearly free" category too. E.g. a few days ago it was $39 including 5 plug-ins.

To be fair, for some of us, $39 isn't "nearly free."

How can you afford a computer to run the DAW if you can't afford a $39 DAW? Or the electricity to run it?

Huh? I'm not sure what that has to do with being able to afford a computer and electricity.

I was able to pay for a $1000 computer, but if I receive my electricity bill in the mail tomorrow and it's $39, I certainly won't go "woah, this month's bill is nearly free!" You might and, if so, that's cool.

Note: I never said 39 bucks was expensive for a DAW, but I don't consider it to be "nearly free" either.

DAWs usually cost ten times more than that, and the computer and other hardware required for music production as well as the electricity to run them adds up to even more. It's about the context. For example, $50 rent would be "nearly free", but a $50 coffee would be very expensive. So I'm not saying $39 is "nearly no money", I'm saying that for a DAW, it's virtually nothing.

[Kalamata Kid]

$39 is nearly free for a DAW similar to Cubase, Studio ONe, Waveform, Mixmaster, Reaper, Fl Studio, Mulab, Samplitude, Hollyhock, Bitwig.

I would also add Reaper for $60 to the almost free camp. But I may be pushing it here.

On the free category Cakewalk is the winner, IMHO. So if $39 is too much to spend get Cakewalk. Or see the list on page one of this thread.

[ramseysounds]

I've just downloaded Cakewalk Bandlab and am going to give it a whirl after I finish my current project, cos really running out of patience with Cubase, which is such a shame cos I love it

Oh and IMHO, if you don't have a $ to your name, $39 isn't 'nearly' free

[dupont]

my vote goes to Reaper by far the most powerful DAW.

[vitocorleone123]

Of all DAWs worth their salt, Cockos Reaper is the best bang for buck hands down. More importantly, it always has been. Other 'elitist' brands eventually realized they better do something similar after destroying your wallet for years.

It's a great value. But I hate it. Ergo, it isn't necessarily the best value. However, it's absolutely worth trying.

I'll stick with Waveform (which I know other people hate).

The "best" DAW isn't the cheapest or most expensive - it's the one that gets out of your way the most and let's you complete music.

[3ptguitarist]

Cakewalk by Bandlab > Sonar Platinum

Isn't it the same thing minus some vst's and effects?

I currently use it and came from sonar x3 studio. My vst's transferred over to the bandlab version.

[dellboy]

I'll stick with Waveform (which I know other people hate).

People hate Waveform - why ?

I have a license for Waveform 9 but rarely fire it up. Its a very capable DAW and very easy to use. Why anyone should hate such an inoffensive DAW makes me scratch my head. I can understand people hating Reaper, its one of those love - hate DAWs. You either love it or hate it. But hating Waveform is a new thing to me.