There have been a few requests for some free audio recording software options. Today we are going to go into a few of them here at Music Production Headquarters. If you are musician or home audio enthusiast on a tight budget or simply looking to save as much money as you can to get started these free audio recording software’s might be for you. As you may have already read there are a lot of things to consider like microphones, computers, audio interfaces, and possibly midi controllers to name a few.
We also have to look at a DAW or digital audio workstation. The essential requirement for such recording software is to offer optimum quality output. However, most of the pre installed audio recording apps coming bundled with your computer may not serve this purpose at best. On the other hand, spending a few hundred dollars may not be an options to own high-end professional quality audio software.
There is no need for you to fight with the run-of-the-mill type of software anymore, which can waste a lot of time. It will be worthwhile for you to know that there are some really user-friendly and absolutely free options for you to make use of. On knowing the functionality and features of these applications, you can make the best out of them and get started recording without spending money on software right away
We will further discuss about a few of such options, which you can freely download and try. However, you need to check for the required machine specifications and other custom requirements before downloading these like we talked about in a previous article. Below are 4 great options to get you started along with a few I mentioned here
Audacity
Audacity is top-rated audio recording software, which is available to be downloaded for free and is compliant with Windows, Mac as well as Linux operating systems. Audacity is an open-source application that can fit into any basic type of audio recording requirements. However, if you are looking for a high-end audio recording app with a lot of custom features, it may not be enough to satisfy you.
You can easily manage the clean and light interface of this app to record merely anything you need. For recording purpose, it can be integrated to a microphone through the line-in jack or can record from live streaming audio if your machine supports it with a sound card. It is evident from the online reviews that Audacity is the favorite choice of most of the recording enthusiasts and podcasters.
The sample recording rates ranging from 44.1 up to 192 kHz can be supported by Audacity, which makes it capable for studio as well as ultrasonic recordings (if you got the need for hardware support). Audacity also offers enough headroom for recording signals, Audacity supports for 32-bit floating point.
There are options to control effects with preset equalizer with pitch, speed, reverb, tempo, delay, fade in, fade out, compressor, as well as noise remover functions.
The major strength of Audacity is the simplicity. It is very easy to use and user-friendly software for beginners as well as hobbyist podcasters. You can make use of it in order to do multi-track recording at a base level and will be a great starting point.
To download Audacity, visit http://audacity.sourceforge.net/download/
Kristal Audio Engine
With the essential needs for basic recording and mixing under the hood, Kristal is very user-friendly recording software available for Windows OS. Kristal is not just a simple recorder or editor, but going a step ahead, it can be graded as a real DAW (digital audio workstation). Same as of Audacity, it also supports the sample rates of 44.1 - 192 kHz and 32-bit floating point.
The “Kristalizer” is the dynamic set of expert audio engineering tools available in this software. Kristal can comfortably handle the VST plugins and got the built-in support for ASIO plugins too. Those who use the ASIO sound card in their machine can utilize it and take advantage of the low latency.
However, there are some downsides. Kristal cannot natively export sounds to mp3 format and along with other things, it also loads the mixer as a separate plugin. This in turn can confuses the users a bit with a complicated interface. You cannot make use of it if you are highly ambitious and want to mix a lot of tracks because it only supports maximum of 16 tracks. Anyway, even being a free DAW, Kristal has got all the essential tools to handle a simple audio engineering project.
Visit http://kristal-audio-engine.en.softonic.com/ to download Kristal.
Ardour DAW
Ardour is a widely used free DAW, which is available for Linux as well as Mac operating systems. This promising audio software can be used as a handy tool to set up a real low-budget audio studio.
The major features of Ardour are 32-bit float, non-destructive editing, unlimited track support, and flexible routing features. Supporting the LADSPA, VST and LV2 plugins, Ardour can assist you in doing your desired customization with ease. It is expected that in the third release of this innovative software, there will be video synchronization, MIDI recording, playback and editing features available.
Ardour runs on an underlying specialized sound server that enables low-latency sound recording also and got a dedicated communication channel among various programs. Although it is being run on Mac and Linux OS now, a Windows port also is being conceptualized to be realized soon, probably with the third edition. However, JACK, the underlying sound server is a cross-platform utility, which can run on Windows platform too apart from Linux and Mac.
Ardour is bit complex to handle and will have a bit of a learning curve to truly understand the software.Some negative feedback is also there about the complicated interface, which is difficult for a novice to understand. But for an audio engineer who wants to enjoy the best in class from a free sound record application, Ardour is indeed the choice.
To download Ardour for free, go to http://ardour.org/download.html
Traverso
Traverso is another favorite DAW among audio engineers, which is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS. Traverso is convenient and can comfortably meet most of your basic audio recording needs.
The innovative interface skips the traditional menu‑type structure to pave way too many keyboard and mouse shortcuts to make the administration more quick and comfortable. There is of course a bit of learning involved to master it, but there are seamless options to be explored, which you can learn one by one on the go. The users can utilize a range of options in order to make the recording demo CDs a snap.
One unique feature that can be listed up along with its advantages includes the non‑destructive editing, with which you can use the plugins to do the editing without making changes to the actual track.
Another interesting feature is its lock less real-time audio processing to reduce latency. The non-conventional interface design as well as the big learning curve to master the controls are considered as drawbacks of Traverso, but its commitment to intuitive recording makes this software stand out in the line of free audio recording software.
In order to download Traverso, go to http://traverso-daw.org/download.html
You can try out the above audio recording software and decide which one works best for your purpose and make it your reliable audio recording partner.
What do you think? Which is your favorite? Did you have another software you prefer? If so let us know in the comments!