hello all.
what do you folks think about free DAWS like LMMS, Podium, Waveform etc.....
do you think they're underrated and as good as others? is there anyone who ACTUALLY tried those?

 

I was a user of Cakewalk long before it was free so it's my DAW of choice either way. Tons of people use Reaper and it's effectively free. Never heard of any of the ones you're referring to though.

 

www.lmms.io

Ableton User versucht einen Beat in LMMS zu bauen | Vincent Lee

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https://qtractor.sourceforge.io


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https://ardour.org

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free podium

 

Just use reaper , its not free but the trial basically never end , and its far superior than any free ( or paid ) DAW

 

yeah cakewalk or of course reaper are the top dogs in that category

 

lmms seems like fl knock off a bit

 

I went from Cakewalk to Cubase to Reaper.
I love Reaper now. Which I had made the switch earlier.
ON free DAWS my feeling is if you can use the free DAW and it works for you there is nothing wrong with it.
DAW's are like people there are many of them. It's all up to you to learn it and can use it to accomplish your music. That is what's most important.

Linux is Free and it's no joking OS.

 

One of the software I've used the most is the free Jeskola Buzz (even more than Cubase which I've used since 1996). Buzz is amazing! And it has always been free. It can do things no other trackers (or even DAWs) can do.
I also like Podium Free and Cakewalk (Sonar, which is a bit unfair to call "free" since it's a full blown DAW that used to be quite expensive).

 

I used Buzz back in the day, my first modular environment ever, good times. Then the dev lost the source and I drifted off. I know it has been resurrected but the magic isn't there for me anymore.

For that style of tracking https://warmplace.ru/soft/sunvox/ does the trick.

 

years ago I've used MadTracker 2 (which is a newer version of FastTracker but with plugins...) and it was incredible. some of the melodies and sounds I've used in this tracker stuff were pretty impressive.

 

Another cool one totally free (not even nag screen) is Tracktion Waveform Free, the old Tracktion 7

 

The same happened to me. F*cking broken hard drive...

 

didnt like LMMS, ardour is cool apparently (hearsay), heard a funny anecdote about waveform that it crashes when you use VST3 stock plugins (genius coders indeed)
but tbh man just use reaper like winrar and never buy a license, like if people consider winrar to be freeware then why are they not doing the same with reaper? nagware gang

 

And who hasn't got about 7 copies of Ableton Live Lite laying about? I do.

It's a decent thing (if you like Live, that is) though you wouldn't do massive orchestral productions on it.

 

Harrison Mixbus is based on Ardour, so there's that.

But Ardour started as Linux software and any sort of VST support on Linux is a fairly new thing, so I wouldn't expect too much from it yet.

 

isnt behringer supposed to be working on a free DAW as well? That might be something.
I havent tried any of the ones you mentioned myself, but i wouldnt expect them to be in the same league as for example ableton. Altough Ableton is pissing me off lately as well.

 

tried all those, used Sonar as my primary DAW years back before it went free,
I ultimately settled on Reaper because it's the most reliable and infinitely free-to-try DAW,

it makes no sense to argue about DAWs when you don't thoroughly explain what exact features and functionality you expect from the choice

 

yeah that behringer DAW from march or so

 

and if you want to trigger reaper uses, call it nagware which is objectively correct

 

They're great for those starting out and short of money for the pro DAWS but they are nowhere near as good as the paid for, pro level DAWS (except for GarageBand... I scored my first film with it and won Best Original Score at a famous film school for which I cannot name!).