Tracktion 12 Free or Bitwig 8-Track for homerecording newbie?

[jonljacobi]

If one crashes and the other doesn't it should be pretty obvious.

Stability would decide it for me.

I updated Tracktion (later Waveform) for years but it always remain crash-prone. I finally gave up on it.

I've had far fewer issues, and no crashes with Tracktion v12 for the Mac. But Cakewalk has to be the king of the freebies on the PC side. There's also a free version of Multitrackstudio, Soundbridge, and others. Just try them out and see which fits best.