When choosing software to make music, the most important thing is to find something easy enough to use to start with, and something that will fit both you budget and skill level.
LMMS has keyboard shortcuts and a user-friendly design that makes it perfect for newcomers — and for those with more experience coding, it is entirely open-source and can be customised further because there is no company trying to reap financial benefits from it. Plugin effects can be added to your favourites to suit each individual song.
Logic Pro
Logic Pro is an advanced audio production suite that can accomplish everything a modern DAW can. Producers or singers that use it can produce anything in the studio.
The main screen is that of a mixing console with a single arnpager timeline, a wave editor, MIDI piano roll, step sequencer, event list editors and event list managers with user defined visualisations. It is possible to configure the user interface to suit personal tastes; simply hide and reveal tools where needed.
A new drum plugin developed specifically for the best way to create realistic rhythm parts as quickly as possible, dubbed Drummer, is one of the shining new stars. Other useful amenities include quick comping using click and drag, Track Alternatives that let you store multiple versions of tracks within the project and Smart Controls that let you make adjustments to patches by using keyboard shortcuts on any instrument, or even vocal, track. A suite of new effects like distortion and reverb are included as well.
GarageBand
Apple’s version of the ‘prosumer’ audio editor Cockos Reaper stripped bare – from composing to mastering, from staving to banging our head on the mixing desk – plough through music production: a free solution – every sound and effect you can think of! You want virtual guitar amps/cabs/pedals? Done! How about an assortment of effects and an automation tool?
Garageband’s piano roll: record, edit and play back your MIDI! Easy to edit the timing of notes: quantize your parts (align note slips to your projects meter grid, OR the default of the passed:tempo grid!), and you can change which chain (sample patch) plays your recorded notes, and from which velocity!
Also in contrast to Logic Pro, Garageband has no view for mixing tracks and plug-ins, although it does allow standard dynamics and effects plug-ins such as the compressor, channel EQ, limiter, multipressor, exciter, distortion and stereo enhancer, as well as a basic rudimentary mixer with volume, panning and track header.
Audacity
Audacity, a free, open source, multi-tracked audio editor. It can even record live audio via a microphone or mixer input. It can digitise recordings from cassettes, records or minidiscs, and export in different formats, making it perfect for beginners and pros alike.
Editing sound clips can be achieved by cutting them, copying them, ordering multiple tracks, or performing a merge, potentially using the Noise Removal Tool to decrease the levels of background noise, increasing volume amplification levels, or changing speed/pitch tracks.
Many Effect, Generator and Analyzer commands have keyboard shortcuts that put commands to use without leaving the program’s main window. Some commands will also let you use realtime plugins from an installed virtual instrument host program menu. Learn more about these features: visit ‘Audacity Help’ at http://audacitysupport.com, which offers multilingual versions in languages including French German Spanish or Russian, and many others, and with import/export file format examples.
Mixxx
Mixxx is a powerful DJ software program that will allow you to mix music with MIDI and HID controllers, CD players and even turntables. It has a massive music library, a beat matching engine, sound effects and looping features, 4 deck mixing, an advanced music editor for creating/saving one-shot samples, support of various audio formats and it can also detect the tempo of any track estimated, recognise the keys of songs for harmonic mixing, and record every live mix you create in a HD quality – Mixxx is a comprehensive djing companion.
Music Library offers you to easily organise your library by playlists or crates. Using intuitive search using various types of search fields, fast table search allowing hierarchical sort by tag filtering, it is a great tool to track your music library. Just hide tracks from view to free some space (you can unhide them anytime). Be aware, when item is removed from view from Mixxx, it’s not a real delete physically, it just removes extra information that Mixxx has stored about your files (for example cue points, beatgrids, hotcues, etc) – click item in sidebar Library to bring the item infront and choose Hide from Library in its context menu.
Top 5 Music Making Software
