KVR Audio

Zexila · Post by **Zexila** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 4:21 pm

From Cockos:

We also offer classroom licenses and discounted-to-commercial license upgrades. For these and any other license needs, please email licensing@cockos.com.

not free, but you can score bargain for whole class I guess, so they can use really great DAW, beats everything else you can find.

musiclover55547 · Post by **musiclover55547** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 4:38 pm

deastman wrote:It isn't free, but Reaper is pretty darn cheap and has a generous evaluation period.

This post should be trumpeted; I don't use Reaper (I don't have the band-width to learn another DAW,) but Reaper lovers LOVE Reaper! I've never seen such a unified user community.

It's under $100USD!

xoxos · Post by **xoxos** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 7:48 pm

Giò wrote:I'd have to look for a free instrument bundle - some common ones, just for doing some exercise, you know - and... a free loop pack could be useful as well. Any suggestion?

if you're intending to impart erudition to your students, then certainly you ought to make yourself familiar with free vst resources before you start to teach. there are plenty of good ones by this point, so many that many of them are obscured by competition in the marketplace.

for instance, the mda plugins are a wonderful general purpose effects suite, but many poster poo-poo them in order to encourage the public to pay for other products. (they may only be pc not mac)

the rest of yall folks.. when dude asks for free, $60 is not free... understand $60 is more than some people see in a long ass while, and you are boring me with your bourgeois "i have $60 so everybody should" attitude.

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Sat Oct 31, 2015 7:59 pm

LMMS is getting better and better actually. And it should be easy enough to learn, as it has the FL Studio step sequencer approach. It comes with some synthesizers, most notably ZynAddSubFx, but you can always load up VST's too of course.

Giò · Post by **Giò** » Mon Nov 02, 2015 12:23 pm

You're really helping me guys, I may be near to my final choice.

My course will be quite short and I may have really beginner and mixed students with different expectations (teens, adult, musicians, people want record their music, people want to get into sound engineer or electronic production world).
I want to give them the basis of recording and producing on a digital sequencer and I want to arrange it on a solid sequencer they can continue using after the course, but I want they can decided to move to another DAW without struggling too much.

I really like Tracktion and Reaper, but they haven't an integrated instruments library. I prefer to leave to my students a pack of common instruments for exercising, but I'd have to give them a bunch of different free instruments from different brands.
Studio One instead can give them a variety of instruments working in the same sampler and this seems to me a better an and less confusing solution for a beginner needs. Yes, they can't have full-function eq and comp. But if they like the software and need to have more tools for their productions they can upgrade to Artist for an affordable price.
I'm just a bit surprised I can have this kind of software for free, so I'm scared I can find some horrible limitations once I start studying it deeply. I've just found that it exports exclusively in wav, but this is not tragic. If you have experience with this version and you've found other bad limitations please tell me.

ATN69 · Post by **ATN69** » Mon Nov 02, 2015 12:40 pm

I prefer to leave to my students a pack of common instruments for exercising, but I'd have to give them a bunch of different free instruments from different brands.

That's even easier. There are so many free plugins and some of them hold really high standard.

..the DAW just need to handle third party plugins.

chk071 · Post by **chk071** » Mon Nov 02, 2015 12:45 pm

Giò wrote: I really like Tracktion and Reaper, but they haven't an integrated instruments library. I prefer to leave to my students a pack of common instruments for exercising, but I'd have to give them a bunch of different free instruments from different brands.
Studio One instead can give them a variety of instruments working in the same sampler and this seems to me a better an and less confusing solution for a beginner needs. Yes, they can't have full-function eq and comp. But if they like the software and need to have more tools for their productions they can upgrade to Artist for an affordable price.
I'm just a bit surprised I can have this kind of software for free, so I'm scared I can find some horrible limitations once I start studying it deeply. I've just found that it exports exclusively in wav, but this is not tragic. If you have experience with this version and you've found other bad limitations please tell me.

Note that neither the free Prime, nor the Artist Version of Studio One offer 3rd party plugin support, so your students won't be able to use anything else but the included stuff in those DAW's, even if they or you choose to upgrade to Artist.

Boone777 · Post by **Boone777** » Mon Nov 02, 2015 1:25 pm

Reaper + Kontakt Player ? Kontakt free comes with couple of good insruments is it still available I'm not sure.

do_androids_dream · Post by **do_androids_dream** » Mon Nov 02, 2015 2:03 pm

I think you're asking for quite a tall order if you want a good daw plus lots of effects and instruments for gratis. Some DAW companies offer student deals for multiple copies - maybe go down that route.

Amazing how Reaper never fails to come up in 'free' daw discussions.. It ain't free

KingClarkie · Post by **KingClarkie** » Mon Nov 02, 2015 5:01 pm

Giò wrote:I'm just a bit surprised I can have this kind of software for free, so I'm scared I can find some horrible limitations once I start studying it deeply. I've just found that it exports exclusively in wav, but this is not tragic. If you have experience with this version and you've found other bad limitations please tell me.

If you can live with the limited effects and single instrument then I doubt there will be any other limitations you will find unacceptable. Although some of the more advanced features of Studio One are omitted from Prime what's left is still pretty good for any DAW, let alone a free one.

Bear in mind also that the Presence XT instrument can be expanded using SoundFonts (not 'SFZ') so if you need more sounds it's possible to add them this way.

Zexila · Post by **Zexila** » Mon Nov 02, 2015 5:09 pm

do_androids_dream wrote:Amazing how Reaper never fails to come up in 'free' daw discussions.. It ain't free

Look again, each person that suggested Reaper mentioned that...also OP asked about it...

do_androids_dream · Post by **do_androids_dream** » Mon Nov 02, 2015 5:31 pm

Zexila wrote:
do_androids_dream wrote:Amazing how Reaper never fails to come up in 'free' daw discussions.. It ain't free
Look again, each person that suggested Reaper mentioned that...also OP asked about it...

I know (but it came up before that point as well).. but it always comes up lol. In fact I think it comes up in every single DAW thread at some point lol

Zexila · Post by **Zexila** » Mon Nov 02, 2015 5:43 pm

do_androids_dream wrote:
Zexila wrote:
do_androids_dream wrote:Amazing how Reaper never fails to come up in 'free' daw discussions.. It ain't free
Look again, each person that suggested Reaper mentioned that...also OP asked about it...
I know (but it came up before that point as well).. but it always comes up lol. In fact I think it comes up in every single DAW thread at some point lol

I know what you mean, I observed that behavior with Ableton Live fans over the years too, no matter what, you will find "In Live..." or something in that lines, like everyone is and should be using Live or that technique is only applicable to Live and etc.

magicmusic · Post by **magicmusic** » Mon Nov 02, 2015 5:58 pm

when want do a music production course then it is maybe usefull to give good results, when have a free DAW that can play easy general midi files. and the only that play general midi files without install something, is studio one prime. also prime have a very good distortion amp sim, you can draw lines and parabolic curves for controller and its easy to learn. sf2 soundfont files can load in the presence sampler in free version. so its possible to get more sounds with sf2. presence is great, because you can shift instrument. mean it use other sample of multisample but transpose to stay in tune. so its possible to make easy good double tracking with choir guitar etc that sound full and fat. there is also a gater sequence possible in sampler for each sound. really good idea and allow lots

studio one is intuitive. only big big disadvantage, free version can not load VST plugins and the pro version is very expensive. if presonus offer for 20-30$ VST/VSTi plugin support would be great. currently you need buy artist version, which cost around 100$. then can buy for around 90$ additional VST plugin support+AU support module. the pro version cost 380$ which have great multi instrument wire support, arranger track and more sounds.

the attached reverb in free version sound good, and bring good sound for general midi files too. also good preset settings are in

inkwarp · Post by **inkwarp** » Mon Nov 02, 2015 6:33 pm

i would recommend Zynewave Podium , a great free DAW. as for instruments and effects there are so many GOOD free plugins around that should be no problem at all.
mda, smartelectronix great effects. amazing freebie synths like Tyrell, Podolski, Zebralette, synth1, crystal etc

edit: forgot to paste link sorry:
http://zynewave.com/podium-free

Best free DAW