What are some good free music making software?

[ghosty]

The 2 primary programs I use are Reason, Audacity and on occasion I have used Garage Band. Audacity is a great freeware audio editing program and I use that to edit the samples I use in my songs. It allows you to save in either .aif .wav or with an additional free plug-in you can save in .mp3 format. It can be downloaded for free form their website, they just recently came out with a newer version too that has more capabilities. There are versions for both Mac and Windows. And if you have a Mac the latest version allows you to use the Plug-ins that come standard with macs these days.

Ableton Live, is a decent program but it's setup is not very friendly for those just getting into music making. Many MIDI controllers these days do come with the "lite" version of this, the downside is the inability to save and limited features. I have the lite version but have never delved too deep into it.

Depending on the style you plan to make, Garage Band can be good or bad, for live basement type recording it's decent, and if you have even a semi-decent knowledge of audio processing and filtering, you should be able to get decent sounds recorded... However with that said if you plan to make heavily electronic oriented tracks, or use lots of samples, for making more hip-hop style beats. Garage Band really isn't the way to go, it's sample library and synth capabilites are VERY limited. If this is the route you plan to take your best bet would be to invest in a MIDI controller or keyboard and plan on purchasing a legit copy of a program like Reason, Fruity Loops, Cubase, Logic or the full version of Ableton Live (which has many more capabilities than the "lite" and free version.) I personally prefer Reason as I find it very user friendly (especially the newest version), the sound librarys included with it are great and add-on librarys called re-fills can be downloaded for free or cheap. and it is VERY capable. 90% of the work done on my songs is done in Reason. The downside is Reason legit, is about a $300-$400 dollar program and you'll need a keyboard or MIDI controller to utilize any of the synths (the drum module doesn't require one as the drums samples can be programmed in a step edit mode). Highly worth it in the long run though, as it is used by many artists, including myself.

Also if you plan on recording live instruments with a computer you'll want to look into an outboard audio box, such as an M-Audio Mbox or (depending on your budget) a Digidesign 002 or 003 (more expensive but profesional grade, I hope to get one eventually). The built in audio cards, becasue of other process happening within the computer run into latency issues and blah blah blah (wow I guess I really have learned stuff in college)

That should give you a good start, I'd also check the links Sunny D posted.

[SunnyD]

You'd be surprised at all of the electronic things that people do with GarageBand,

Check out Garageband.com and see for yourself, it's so tight.

Lots of garbage, but on the other side, there is a lot of good stuff too!!!

[cygnustaxt]

The 2 primary programs I use are Reason, Audacity and on occasion I have used Garage Band. Audacity is a great freeware audio editing program and I use that to edit the samples I use in my songs. It allows you to save in either .aif .wav or with an additional free plug-in you can save in .mp3 format. It can be downloaded for free form their website, they just recently came out with a newer version too that has more capabilities. There are versions for both Mac and Windows. And if you have a Mac the latest version allows you to use the Plug-ins that come standard with macs these days.

Ableton Live, is a decent program but it's setup is not very friendly for those just getting into music making. Many MIDI controllers these days do come with the "lite" version of this, the downside is the inability to save and limited features. I have the lite version but have never delved too deep into it.

Depending on the style you plan to make, Garage Band can be good or bad, for live basement type recording it's decent, and if you have even a semi-decent knowledge of audio processing and filtering, you should be able to get decent sounds recorded... However with that said if you plan to make heavily electronic oriented tracks, or use lots of samples, for making more hip-hop style beats. Garage Band really isn't the way to go, it's sample library and synth capabilites are VERY limited. If this is the route you plan to take your best bet would be to invest in a MIDI controller or keyboard and plan on purchasing a legit copy of a program like Reason, Fruity Loops, Cubase, Logic or the full version of Ableton Live (which has many more capabilities than the "lite" and free version.) I personally prefer Reason as I find it very user friendly (especially the newest version), the sound librarys included with it are great and add-on librarys called re-fills can be downloaded for free or cheap. and it is VERY capable. 90% of the work done on my songs is done in Reason. The downside is Reason legit, is about a $300-$400 dollar program and you'll need a keyboard or MIDI controller to utilize any of the synths (the drum module doesn't require one as the drums samples can be programmed in a step edit mode). Highly worth it in the long run though, as it is used by many artists, including myself.

Also if you plan on recording live instruments with a computer you'll want to look into an outboard audio box, such as an M-Audio Mbox or (depending on your budget) a Digidesign 002 or 003 (more expensive but profesional grade, I hope to get one eventually). The built in audio cards, becasue of other process happening within the computer run into latency issues and blah blah blah (wow I guess I really have learned stuff in college)

That should give you a good start, I'd also check the links Sunny D posted.

yeah reasons the best, i've been using it since the first version came out, I love it. It's probably the easiest program i've used. Only reason i didn't mention it was the hefty price tag. Though I use it along with EZDRUMMER with the drumkit from hell vst in cubase and i can pretty much do anything. I also like guitar rig but im not a big fan of version 3, I thought the second one was easier for me to use.

[silkyblue]

:jointsmile:


rock on

[makedownrecords]

hello .... i don't use capital letters ...... ....... another program i've had some success with is HYDROGEN .... it was a linux based program that turned mac os x .......... if ya know open source stuff this is the shiz ...... it is a drum machine that will load up any wav file you have ...... / .... you can also use audacity to create these ......!!!!!!!!!!! ........ so then it also becomes a sampler .......... i only hate it cause it doesn't have a gate mode as a sampler does ..... it only triggers ....... BUT ...... if you like programming, all day, you can do the exact thing i am complaining about ......... then you can import your work into garageband via new audio device ............ also the program has links to free drum kits that i've checked out ..... very decent! ..... here's the link Ardour and Hydrogen Tutorial ........ enjoy ..... also look up hho generator on youtube ........ crazy stuff!