Best Free Software for Making Music on Windows

[¿Que?]

I understand there's a free version of protools and then there's acidXpress. Is there anything else. How do these free versions compare to each other and to the paid versions?

Muchas Gracias Compañeros.

[Apoi_Viitor]

Depends on the kind of music really. But anyways, the software you use isn't that important, especially now due to the massive amount of free vst effects out there. Plus, I have a friend who's on some electronic record label and he uses nothing but Audacity.

Personally, I use Acoustica Mixcraft, and although it isn't free, they used to (I think they still do) have the full software available for free, the only thing is that they have this voice that says "Welcome to Acoustica Mixcraft..." after the song you are working on ends in playback. That said, Acoustica sucks for editing sound, but if your looking to organize sound clips into a structure/format, it's perfect.

[¿Que?]

Depends on the kind of music really. But anyways, the software you use isn't that important, especially now due to the massive amount of free vst effects out there. Plus, I have a friend who's on some electronic record label and he uses nothing but Audacity.

Personally, I use Acoustica Mixcraft, and although it isn't free, they used to (I think they still do) have the full software available for free, the only thing is that they have this voice that says "Welcome to Acoustica Mixcraft..." after the song you are working on ends in playback. That said, Acoustica sucks for editing sound, but if your looking to organize sound clips into a structure/format, it's perfect.
Well, I was hoping to do both. I incorporate sound clips and actual instruments in my music. I liked garageband when I was on a mac...

[Apoi_Viitor]

Well, I was hoping to do both. I incorporate sound clips and actual instruments in my music. I liked garageband when I was on a mac...

Oh, well it's probably as good if not better than garageband in both of those respects.

[¿Que?]

Oh, well it's probably as good if not better than garageband in both of those respects.
Ah, okay, I'll check it out!:thumbup1:

[Rooster]

I found Audacity to be quite useful. There's also a bunch of stuff you can download for it like extra effects. If memory serves it, it works quite like a basic protools. I've used it a lot over the years and never had a problem with it.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

[¿Que?]

I found Audacity to be quite useful. There's also a bunch of stuff you can download for it like extra effects. If memory serves it, it works quite like a basic protools. I've used it a lot over the years and never had a problem with it.

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
Yes, I've used audacity. I found it quite useful on the mac, but not necessarily for laying down tracks, more of post processing kind of stuff, I guess.

[Fawkes]

I just recently started using Ableton, and while it's definitely not free, it's an amazing software worth checking out if you're looking to do a lot of production stuff. I don't have much experience really in any freeware DAWs, but you could try torrenting Ableton. However, I've heard from some people that if you torrent ableton, it will work fine for a period of time (i.e. just long enough for you to start working on some projects) before becoming inaccessible, thereby forcing you to actually buy it if you want to retrieve your files at all. As douchey as it is, still a pretty ingenious way to coerce people into buying it. Either way, that's all from hearsay, I don't have any experience with that happening.

If you're looking to mix midi with instruments you've recorded yourself, ProTools is definitely a good bet as opposed to something like Logic which is more tailored toward digital production. Again, it's not free, but you could always try torrenting.

While it's definitely true that any software is what you make of it, some are stronger than others in certain areas. For example, ableton's the only DAW (that I know of) that offers both linear and non-linear editing, something that I think is a major plus and actually encourages you to experiment around, plus it can be used for DJing too (if you have any interest in that). Conversely, ProTools is great if you want to do a mix between digital production and "traditional" sound engineering/recording. I guess just try downloading trial versions of stuff and finding freeware things til you come across something that works for you. If it's something you need to buy, try torrenting it or maybe just saving up for it if that's a viable option (check out student discounts if you're in school). Also, see if anyone you know has any software, as you are often able to download it to more than one computer (FinalCut, for example, allows 5 downloads, though that's obviously not useful for this).

Unfortunately I don't really know of any free softwares that fully much up to their commercial counterparts as far as capabilities, but like I said, I don't have much experience with freeware stuff, so there could easily be some out there that are just as great. Sorry I couldn't offer any better suggestions, but good luck with it.