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The best free music-making software on the net
You don't have to spend a fortune to get top-quality music production results - here are 27 reasons why
The MusicRadar Team, Wed 20 Feb 2008, 11:24 am UTC
Never before has making music been so affordable, easy and accessible. A thriving industry has driven prices of instruments and recording equipment progressively downwards, enabling a whole generation of music lovers to write and record their own tunes without spending a fortune on gear.
However, thanks to passionate - and crucially, generous - software developers, music makers can also legitimately download powerful music production tools for absolutely nothing. And, amazingly, these often rival the commercial products in terms of quality and usability.
We’ve rounded-up 27 of the best free plug-ins and other software tools that we could find, providing a link and screengrab for each one. Everything from synths to sequencers is covered – most are PC only (although there is stuff out there for Mac), but all can be downloaded and used without charge.
We think this is a pretty comprehensive list, but do you know better? If there’s an amazing free music-making tool that we haven’t covered here, let us and your fellow musicians know about it in the Comments section below.
Index - Jump to:
Sampling
Audio editing
Drum machines
Real instruments/ROMplers
Synthesizers
Effects
Sequencers
Miscellaneous
Sampling - back to index
1. HighLife R1
PC – VST/VSTi host
DiscoDSP’s HighLife R1 is a fantastic VST sampler with a plethora of features, including effects, amplitude and modulation filters, and a multimode filter. It’s a breeze to create patches from scratch, even compared to some commercial samplers such as Kontakt and HALion.
Screengrab
Website: http://www.discodsp.com/highlife/
Audio editing - back to index
2. Audacity
Mac/PC - Standalone
Audacity is an impressively fully-featured audio editor. It’s easy to use and there’s a large library of optional extras including export as MP3 and VST plug-in support.
User comments (12)
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i read that MAGIX just released a free version of the MusicMaker called MusicMaker for MySpace...sounds great...as the MAGIX MusicMake is great and powerful music tool.
http://www.magix.com/us/music-maker/ -
For Guitar effects, the DEMO of guitar rig is very usable, all the effects are in there, the limits are on session time (it stops after 30 minutes, BUT, it only closes the program, it can be used for an infinite number of thirty - minuteses) and loading and saving of your own sounds, these, i have found, can be worked around very easily. it's a really great bit of standalone guitar and bass software, and can be worked around.
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Anyone know of a good free Mac software sampler? Hopefully that supports Logics AU?
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re: ACID XPress, I don't think there are any restrictions regarding commercial use, but I think you'd have to D/L and install it to be sure -- they don't show you an EULA before the download. I've made good use of ACID Pro 4 in the past, but haven't upgraded to any newer versions. In particular I find a great way to build up a drum track quickly.
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Kristal audio is pretty nifty for direct guitar recording and multi-tracking in general. Just plug in a Line6 POD or equivalent via a USB socket and away you go...
http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/ -
which one is the best for guitar recording??
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You need to get Helix by Audjoo into the synths section.
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More free soft can be found on kvraudio.com. You'll have to register first though....
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Dan the man is right to shout about Shortcircuit - it blimming great for nowt - check it out at http://vemberaudio.se/shortcircuit.php
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There's no trackers here? And I also miss CM's own DS404 (free?), which I love.
J.
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