free DAW question

bdkauff · Post by **bdkauff** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 4:16 am

Hey,
I'm wondering if any of you guys know of any reliable way to download a DAW like pro tools for free. Its just so expensive and I'm new to all this so I don't want to plop down the $250 or whatever. I'm on a Mac powerbook with OSX 10.4.7.

Cheers

Wiglaf · Post by **Wiglaf** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 4:35 am

Don't post c**p like that here. Buy it, you lazy pirate.

KnowGood · Post by **KnowGood** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 4:49 am

Wiglaf wrote:Don't post c**p like that here. Buy it, you lazy pirate.

Hahahahahahaha!

Wiglaf · Post by **Wiglaf** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 4:55 am

KnowGood wrote:
Wiglaf wrote:Don't post c**p like that here. Buy it, you lazy pirate.
Hahahahahahaha!

You won't be laughing if VSE gets shut down, I'm afraid.

Or was it my buy it pirate rhyme?

translucencecs · Post by **translucencecs** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 5:21 am

Giving you the benefit of the doubt as you said "LIKE" ProTools, and assuming that you just want freeware DAW software:

Kristal is free and pretty good - check it out HERE - unfortunately PC-only.

If you can live without MIDI, you can get Audacity HERE - it's a windows prog but will run on an Intel Mac, I believe.

Quartz AudioMaster can be got HERE - it has MIDI support and although the free version only supports 4 tracks, more tracks can be bought. You'll need to register to download it.

Anvil Studio is pretty good and is available HERE - unlimited MIDI tracks for free, plus one minute of audio. $19 gets you 8 full audio tracks to play with.

Buzz is an AWESOME freeware composition package that supports VSTs, DX plugins, hard disk playback, and many, many good things. It's an advanced tracker and can be had HERE - HIGHLY recommended - I used it for 5+ years before giving up on software almost completely to just use hardware.

Sadly, you may have to lay down some money on a PC for most of these, though!

translucencecs · Post by **translucencecs** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 5:31 am

Thinking about it, you could also install a free version of Linux and a bunch of free Audio stuff for that on your Mac, too.

toadmanxtro · Post by **toadmanxtro** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 5:46 am

Also you will probably need a soundcard of which many of them come with a light version of a particular software.
Although many still arn't Universal Binary, or whatever thats called, yet.

Cheers

MissionBrown · Post by **MissionBrown** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 6:21 am

Get a copy of "Computer Music" magazine from any month and they include everything you need to get started on the cover disc.
Not free but really cheap.

As far as protools goes.
Even if you did download a copy, it wont work without the hardware

KnowGood · Post by **KnowGood** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 4:07 pm

Wiglaf wrote:
KnowGood wrote:
Wiglaf wrote:Don't post c**p like that here. Buy it, you lazy pirate.
Hahahahahahaha!
You won't be laughing if VSE gets shut down, I'm afraid.

Or was it my buy it pirate rhyme?

I'm laughing with you on this one. And yes, it was your lazy pirate rhyme.

crufty · Post by **crufty** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 4:51 pm

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
http://ardour.org/
http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/
http://plugin.org.uk/

Most have mac packages for use.

MrHope · Post by **MrHope** » Wed Jan 17, 2007 5:06 pm

There used to be a free version of Logic for Mac called Logic Fun. It was only available from the German website.
I'm not sure which Mac programs are out there but try http://hitsquad.com also try http://versiontracker.com and of
course you could google "Mac freeware audio" and get links.

haj · Post by **haj** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 9:12 pm

Good proper responses.

Anaki_Muon · Post by **Anaki_Muon** » Fri Jan 26, 2007 10:04 pm

What are you guys busting this guy's balls for? There is a free version of Pro Tools available!

Check it out here. Please note, by the way, the download link goes to Digidesign's website, so I think it's pretty legit.

EDIT: My bad. It appears Digidesign no longer offers Pro Tools Free.

Post by **Stab Frenzy** » Sat Jan 27, 2007 5:39 am

Pro Tools Free was only for Windows 98 anyway.

Audacity is the closest thing to PT that can be had for free. It runs on both Windows and OSX.

You can download free demo versions of a couple of programs too, if you wanted to you could get the demo version of Live, which disables saving and rendering to disk, and use Jack to route the output to Audacity for rendering. It would mean that you could work on stuff but not be able to save and come back to your songs. It would mean that you could at least have something to learn on and then if you liked it you could buy it later on.

Ableton Demo here

Jack from here

Free 30 day trial of Apple Logic Express