What is the best alternative to Cakewalk By bandlab?

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score 12 · Answer 1

SoundBridge (previously Lumit)

Top Con

No plugin bridging

You need to install the right version of the DAW (32 or 64 bit) depending on what plugins you use. See More

Top Pro

Surface compatible

All functionality is accessible on the Microsoft Surface. See More

Top Con

No typing keyboard to piano

You need to use a MIDI keyboard or manually press notes with the mouse. See More

Top Pro

Very quick and easy to learn

You can get a good understanding of this DAW in a few hours (faster if used tutorials). See More

Top Con

Copy protection still gives error

Top Pro

Free to use

A powerful, full-featured DAW that is free. See More

Top Con

No instruments

Comes with audio FX but no instruments. See More

Top Pro

Clutter-free interface

Little chance of getting lost or clicking the wrong button. See More

Top Con

No audio unit support

Top Pro

Fast

Incredibly responsive and quick. See More

Top Con

No video player

Specs

MIDI?:YES

Processing type:32-bit & 64-bit

Supported Plugins:VST

See All Experiences

12 1

score 92 · Answer 2

Waveform

Top Con

Crashes a lot

Top Pro

Linux support

Runs great on Linux(except LV2 Support). See More

Top Con

Not open source

Top Pro

Free version available

Older releases are available for free when new versions come out. See More

Top Con

Not suited for live performance

No session based Workflow (like Live/Bitwig), hiccups upon loading projects. See More

Top Pro

Clean interface

Top Con

No option to easily cut a file

There is no scissors tool or similar.... See More

Top Pro

ARM/ARM64 support

Runs on SBC (single board computer) systems like the Raspberry Pi3, Pine64, and ODroid development boards, as well as systems like the Pinebook and Chromebooks with ARM based SoC CPU's that have been reformatted with a Linux OS. See More

Top Pro

Easy to understand

Very logically structured. See More

Top Pro

Creative Tools

Has a Chord Track, MIDI pattern creator and great included tools. See More

Top Pro

Very stable

Top Pro

Ideal for beginners

Self-explaining interface. See More

Specs

Compatibility:Windows, Linux, Mac

See All Experiences

92 17

score 406 · Answer 3

Studio One

Top Pro

Efficient DAW workflow

The Studio One DAW doesn't expect users to deal with a lot of windows, answer questions, or use the mouse excessively. This DAW is known for lettings users be creative without getting in the way. See More

Top Con

The DAW can't be used as a ReWire component

The DAW can be used as a ReWire host, but cannot be used as a ReWire component. This is frustrating if you like some of the instrument sounds and virtual synths in Studio One, but prefer another DAW to do your main work in. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use DAW interface

All components are laid out in an understandable fashion and almost everything is drag and drop. See More

Top Con

Free version does not support 3rd party plugins

He can limit the tracks or etc., but no vst support for free version makes this piece of software a garbage! See More

Top Pro

Melodyne built-in

The Real Melodyne is integrated in the actual DAW. No other DAW is set up to streamline Melodyne. See More

Top Con

Bad customer service

Top Pro

Awesome smart tool

Hovering over different parts of the events in the arrange window activates different tools. See More

Top Con

Frustrating controls

The mouse wheel is used for both scrolling and for controls (fader, pan, etc.) manipulation, depending on what's under the pointer; you may very well be scrolling through the tracks in the mixer only to suddenly discover that you are changing the volume of a track because the pointer entered the fader space. Users have been requesting a fix for this for several years now (there can't possibly be anyone who thinks this is a good design), but it's still a problem. Also, you may try to select a track only to end up changing its color or some other unexpected behavior. See More

Top Pro

Creative songwriting and arrangement tools

Use the 'scratch pad' work on multiple versions for your song without leaving the main window. See More

Top Con

Archaic

Top Pro

Lightweight on lower CPU

Top Con

Interface

The interface Graphical is comic bookish. While the DAW is useful there are better interfaces out there. One of the biggest issues is how the signal path is selected. Other DAW's work more like a patchbay allowing for a more visual interaction with the program. Studio One is different and a little obtuse. For example, Digital performer 11, Protools 11, Sonar Producer provide a better experience. See More

Top Pro

Good interface compatibility

Works great with interfaces, and doesn't fight with ASIO drivers. See More

Top Con

Interface signal selection is obtuse and not as intuitive as other DAWs

Top Pro

Automatic delay compensation

When a plugin takes time to process a sound, the Studio One DAW detects the gap and compensates. See More

Top Con

Stuck notes when working with hardware synths

Working with multiple hardware synths with a MIDI hub is impossible as of version 6. SO creates stuck notes and it's midi panic system can't fix the issue. See More

Top Pro

Very stable DAW

Performance is rock solid and very efficient, even on lower spec computers. See More

Top Con

Limited feature set

Top Pro

Multiple key command templates

Possible to use key commands from Pro Tools, Logic, Cubase, etc. See More

Top Con

Crashes often, not very stable and runs poorly even on powerful systems

Top Pro

Drag and Drop feature is quite flexible and allows for massive free form modification on the fly

Top Con

Melodyne/Vocaline/Splitter

All those tools are there for a show off and crash engine 9 times out of 10. Using all 3 in one project will increase chance of crash by 3 making program unusable. See More

Top Pro

Eficient quality , all more easy and fast

Top Con

Built in instruments

All built in instruments and most of effect are primitive and worthless. See More

Top Pro

The best DAW in Market and future standard

Top Con

Not always clear how to undo your changes

Some controls are very easy to set, only to be nearly impossible to figure out how to undo. For example, hiding a track is a simple right-click away, but unhiding the track requires finding a hidden screen and clicking on a dot beside the track name. See More

Top Pro

Chord track

Chord track can be used by inserting chords or getting them from an inserted track. See More

Top Con

Non-free software

Does not respect your freedom. Does not provide source code. See More

Top Pro

Dedicated mastering page

Studio one has a page dedicated specifically to mastering which can be very useful when trying to finish your song. See More

Top Con

Automation

Only my complaint so far is the automation. It affects the fader, so if you use automation for the volume, the fader gets useless. Other DAWs such as Reaper and Mixcraft offers separate automation function and it doesn't affect the fader. Another one if I pick, the design of the plugins has been changed too colorful and it's not necessary though. I prefer the design of version 4, simple grey and white style. The prettier, the more CPU usage. See More

Top Pro

Bounces MIDI in place

When bouncing from MIDI to audio, a new track won't be created, the clip will stay in the same place. When bouncing a specific part of a MIDI clip, it will be placed in a new track. See More

Top Pro

Vocalign built in

Vocalign Project is can be integrated with the option to upgrade to Vocalign Pro. See More

Top Pro

Available with a rent-to-own option from Splice

For those that can't afford to pay for a full professional DAW in one swoop, this is an amazing opportunity to get Studio One 4 Professional in monthly payments. Pause and resume payments when you want or cancel at any time. See More

Top Pro

Score view

This view is very powerful because it not only “shows” the MIDI notes as a score, but it also lets you add, edit and remove notes in standard music notation. It includes all the formatting rules, articulations, note values, clefs and general symbols from Presonus’ Notion software. See More

Top Pro

Show page

Allows you to go from the studio to the stage or stream with other musicians through the interface. You can create a Setlist using your Songs created in Studio One, and combine them with a mix of live instruments, pre-recorded tracks, and virtual instruments. Each song in the Setlist can have its own unique instrumentation. Songs in your set can be rearranged on the fly using drag-and-drop, and any element from your Song files can be added to your Show via simple copy-and-paste or direct export. Switching to Performance view with a meter and customisable control over each parameter, means you can adjust in real-time while on Stage. See More

Top Pro

Almost perfect

Can't complain about Studio One so much. It is almost perfect. See More

Top Pro

Insert plugins on actual events, not just tracks

Have you ever wanted a delay on just a word or so. No need to automate or move to a separate track. No need to print it to the clip and run out of room on the audio file. Simply amazing feature. See More

Top Pro

Clip gain envelopes

Clip Gain Envelopes represent a new layer of gain introduced in Studio One 5, which is independent from the audio event as well as the volume automation. This feature is ideal for applying gain correction before the signal hits the inserts, specially useful when dealing with extremely dynamic vocal tracks and sections in general that are too soft or too loud. The user can create breakpoints within the clip by clicking on the curve, and then dragging either up or down in order to increment or reduce the clip’s gain. These gain modifications will be shown on the waveform. The process is simple, fast, and extremely effective. See More

Top Pro

Working with your iPad makes it easier

Top Pro

Has retrospective recording

Retrospective Recording captures everything you play on your keyboard or controller—even without hitting record! It works invisibly in the background on a track-by-track basis. See More

Top Pro

Full Screen MIDI editor

Top Pro

Powerful Track/Channel search and filter options

Managing large projects with a huge track and channel count is now faster and easier than ever with the addition of powerful search and filter options. See More

Top Pro

Secondary Timeline Ruler option

View minutes:seconds with bars and beats at the same time! A must for film composers. See More

Top Pro

Notion 6 easy and full integration for scoring

Top Pro

Studio One+ Subscription - best subscription under 20$

Software of Studio One plus cloud storage and packs, and a lot of other stuff included just for a tiny fee each month or year. See More

Top Pro

Best stock plugins

Top Pro

Support for Atmos - Surround

They now support surround . in version 6.5. See More

Top Pro

Scratch Pad

Area to arrange all your tracks without touching the main arrangement. See More

Top Pro

Easy Macros and creating new ones

Top Pro

Easy sidechain routing

Top Pro

Big features in Minor Updates

Studio One doesnt wait putting big features until a major updates comes. See More

Top Pro

Size in HDD/SSD

It's the lightest DAW there is, Studio One is less than 400mb. See More

Top Pro

Converts project from Bitwing

Top Pro

Version 5 is the law

Specs

Compatibility:Windows, Mac

Max number of tracks:Unlimited

406 58

score 292 · Answer 4

Bitwig Studio

Top Pro

Great modulation system

Top Con

No native video playback monitoring

Doesn't have video playback monitoring for film / Tv and Gaming video audio. But can use MTC with 3rd Party Video Monitors or other DAW with video monitor capabilities. See More

Top Pro

Supports expressive MIDI - MPE

Makes use of the Seaboard, Linnstrument, Continuum and other modern expressive controllers. See More

Top Con

Unreliable for professional production

Full of random bugs. Bad performance when using many tracks. See More

Top Pro

Easy automation

The easiest DAW to do automation in. All you have to do is press record and start moving knobs, and that's it. See More

Top Con

Very bad performance when working with several tracks

Top Pro

Dual sequencer

The ability to run two sequencers at the same time, while swapping out sounds gives you great flexibility to complete a song. See More

Top Con

Pricey

Pricey in comparison with other major DAWs. See More

Top Pro

Touch screen support

This software has big, responsive, easy-to-handle controls that work really well on a touchscreen. Additionally, it has a tablet mode that re-organizes the UI to make it much simpler and perfect for smaller screen devices. This is both a mobile touchscreen app and a DAW at the same time! It even has a built-in keyboard/drumpad. See More

Top Con

Not open source

Top Pro

Open multiple projects

Top Con

No LV2

Has no support for LV2 plugins. See More

Top Pro

Highly modular

Top Con

UI gets frozen, VSTs crash all the time

Very frustrating to work with. See More

Top Pro

Cross platform and highly compatible

The Bitwig DAW runs on Mac, PC, and, Linux. This DAW also has the distinction of being one of the only DAWs that can run 32 bit and 64 bit plugins at the same time. See More

Top Con

Unpredictable behaviour when stacking many building blocks (e.g. selectors, layers)

There is too much focus on adding new features. Instead, it would be better to fix the vast amount of bugs that cause the software to glitch and crash repeatedly. See More

Top Pro

Ableton link support

Top Con

No Dolby Atmos / surround

Top Pro

Supports multiple midi instruments on one track

Being able to add multiple midi instruments on the same track is a nice feature. It allows for much easier setup for VSTs like Cthulhu. It's also nice to be able to have multiple instruments setup that can be toggled. See More

Top Con

Very bad marketing team

Very recently Bitwig changed the agreement for updates (one year subscription) without any communication prior doing that. Now they only include bug fixes and workflow improvements into one year subscription plan. Everything else like new instruments and effects and sound libraries will be sold as add on. See More

Top Pro

Very intuitive/user-friendly

Top Con

No ARA (audio communication e.g. with Melodyne / VocAlign)

Top Pro

Very good integration with Eurorack

Top Pro

Many high quality free sound packs

Top Pro

Supports sf2 samples out of the box

There is an instrument called Sampler which can correctly load sf2 instruments as a multisample preserving all individual sub sample settings and zoning. You do NOT need a VST to play soundfonts and you don't need to extract the sf2 samples! This is unique among all popular DAWs. See More

Top Pro

Create custom Synths/FX in the Grid

Create any style synth, wavetable, fm, analog, and fx in the grid. See More

Top Pro

Very powerful voice stacking mechanism

Top Pro

Very active development

Top Pro

Plugin crash protection

Plugins can be sandboxed. See More

Top Pro

Powerful devices/presets/sample browser

Top Pro

You can write your own controller support in Java

Top Pro

State of the art time stretching

Top Pro

Very efficient preset browser

Specs

Compatibility:Windows, Linux, Mac

See All Experiences

292 61

score 978 · Answer 5

Reaper

Top Pro

Highly customizable

You can easily customize a GUI. See More

Top Con

Long drop down menus

There are many features that you'll find nested deep in the menu system. This is fine, but can be a bit of a workflow-stopper. Everything is there but somethings are difficult to find. This can be remedied, somewhat, using the action list. See More

Top Pro

Extremely stable, rarely crashes

Reaper receives high praise for its stability. It's one of the many talking points of the software. See More

Top Con

Overwhelming amount of features available

The programmable interface means that tweaking features is daunting for some. See More

Top Pro

Supports unlimited number of tracks with unlimited number of effects

There are no limits to the amount of tracks or effects that Reaper can run. Reaper is stable enough to handle comically dense projects with style. See More

Top Con

Bad defaults, especially MIDI Editor

People dislike reaper because of the bad defaults. This is something the devs can work on but chose not to. See More

Top Pro

Constantly updated

Reaper's developers add features based on user request at lightspeed. This is what makes Reaper reliable and trustworthy. Fans of Reaper are so adamant about the software because of this. Contrary to Music Radar's review of FL Studio, Reaper is the true "People's DAW". See More

Top Con

Closed-source

The privacy conscious may be unnerved to find that Reaper is closed-source. This means that what the software may or may not know about you is invisible. Try to protect your data when using closed-source software. See More

Top Pro

Very low cpu usage

Reaper's will tailor itself to fit your computer's processing power by automatically using the "anticipative FX processing" feature. See More

Top Con

Feels like an unfinished product

There are lots of menu options and shortcuts, but then there's a ton of other stuff that's hidden away in options and "actions" screens, and absolutely none of it is intuitive. Also, many controls default to text boxes or basic sliders, when knobs would be more useful. See More

Top Pro

Easy to install

No complex activation shenanigans. No dongle and such. See More

Top Con

Midi latency is still an issue

Top Pro

Multiple recording and playback formats

Records in WAV, AIFF, FLAC, WAVPACK, OGG and MP3. See More

Top Con

The MIDI editor is not intuitive and feels very clumsy and inconsistent

It costs time and extra clicks to control the MIDI velocities. If you use the MIDI editor a lot, Reaper is just not for you. See More

Top Pro

Huge community support

Top Con

Lacks VSTis

Doesn't come with a wealth of VSTis. Plugins for things like piano, cello, guitar have to be found elsewhere. But is highly compatible with other providers of those products. See More

Top Pro

Comes with ~300 free plugins

In addition to its powerful inbuilt plugins, Reaper comes bundled with about 300 little plugins written in its own EEL2 (aka Jesusonic) scripting language. This is also open-source so the end user can create or edit preexisting ones to get exactly what they want. See More

Top Con

Unreliable controller interface support

Reaper may or may not natively support your control surface. If it doesn't, you can add it manually, but it may often lose connection to it (and will constantly nag you about the lost connection). See More

Top Pro

Auto-bridges 32-bit plugins in a 64-bit environment

When using a 64-bit installation of Reaper, all 32-bit plugins will still work alongside 64-bit plugins. On computers with an x86-64 CPU and an OS that supports multi-architecture, you can also run bridged 64-bit plugins on 32-bit Reaper. See More

Top Con

Super complicated and unintuitive DAW

Although many users have asked to make it simple, the dev team hasn't listened to it at all. Plus, many things are opposite comparing to other DAWs and it's pretty annoying. They may have reverse psychology. They're trying to make musicians to coders. You'll waste your time for tweaking it. Reaper also gives you a challenge how your memory function sucks. You'll easily forget anything if you don't use it for several days. Even though Reaper offers many time-saving features, you'll waste time remembering all of them. It's non-sense. See More

Top Pro

Portable

Reaper is lightweight enough to be run off of a flash drive; the installer weights less than 20 MB and the portable installation option is included in it. See More

Top Con

No native groove quantize feature

Straight quantization is available, but the Reaper 4 DAW is still missing groove integration. This feature can be made available with the free SWS extension. See More

Top Pro

DRM-free

Although it may seem otherwise, Reaper is shareware. After your 60-day free trial runs out, the program remains full-featured. Like WinRAR, the only person forcing you to get a license is you. See More

Top Con

Midi dropout or inconsistent when render a track

When rendering a track with multiple vst, the midi note either having drop out issue, or not playing on time in render. Tried all render method such as offline full speed, offline 1x and online render, with both case of enabling or disabling the "allow anticipative FX processing", even tried to change the performance options on individual track, the problem still occurs. However, it is still nice to do mixing and recording with all these handful of tools. See More

Top Pro

Application is extendable

Reaper has no limitations. Once you understand it, Reaper becomes a mixing, mastering and editing mainstay. Reaper punches way above its price range in terms of sheer brevity. See More

Top Con

Midi drum editing not so fast or easy

Cubase has more features for creating and editing midi drum tracks. See More

Top Pro

Very full featured but basic recording and production can be learned and done in a few hours

Without prior experience with DAW, you can install Reaper, set up ASIO drivers, connect to your amp and mikes, get the hang of recording/re-recording tracks, and render an mp3 in just a few hours. You can accomplish the basics very fast. See More

Top Con

Some edge features come across as somewhat janky

The video editor acts as its own little IDE rather than a polished plugin with a frontend like other JS plugins. The MIDI export function is not integrated with the larger render window. It's a sort of death by a thousand paper cuts - although many of the features that are janky here simply don't exist in other DAWs. See More

Top Pro

Many time-saving features

Thought has been given to many time-saving features and shortcuts which speed up workflow considerably. See More

Top Con

Potentially unattractive GUI

For some, Reaper appears very dated or clunky. The GUI is nowhere near as fluid as its competitors. Ableton, Bitwig, Reason (and others) all provide smoother animations or skeuomorphic feedback. Reaper's instruments and effects come in the form of sliders and very small knobs. It takes the user out of the fantasy of working with certain equipment. This makes Reaper very boring to watch from a distance for some. However, this means nothing in terms of Reaper's raw power. By trading appearance and initial impression for functionality, Reaper stays ahead. See More

Top Pro

Highly affordable

Reaper can be purchased in two different ways: A commercial license (225 USD) and a discounted license (60 USD). You can use Reaper unhindered with either license. You can only get the discount if your salary does not exceed 20,000 USD. See More

Top Pro

Lua scripting can be done in the DAW with a built-in IDE

Top Pro

Universal tracks

In Reaper, you can record MIDI and Audio onto the same track. As well, there are no distinctions between any form of audio. Surround Sound, Mono, Stereo files, and anything else you can think of; all of this can be recorded onto the same track. See More

Top Pro

Tabbing multiple projects

You can have multiple projects open via tabs at the top left. You can then drag and drop clips, instruments or ideas between projects with ease. See More

Top Pro

The software advances with you

If you want to use it as a glorified tape machine and nothing else, you'll still be able to get work done. If you want to learn all the shortcuts, scripts, custom actions and macros and really unlock what Reaper can do, you can do that as well. Either way, you'll still be able to make music. See More

Top Pro

Native Linux support

No need to install Wine, Reaper supports Linux natively! See More

Top Pro

Potential to be the most beautiful DAW

You can customize Reaper with hundreds of themes, or make them yourself. See More

Top Pro

Multi-level freezing

A freeze can be applied to a group, and then picked apart track by track. See More

Top Pro

Notation editing

Miraculously, composition-focused musicians can now find a home in Reaper. See More

Top Pro

Free Reaplugs VST/VSTi bundle

Allows usage of the basic bundled like EQ's and comp plugins in any DAW. See More

Top Pro

Clean, easy-to-read GUI

While some may disagree, the GUI has been widely celebrated for its informative nature. Everything you need to see is there or reachable. For more analytical types, Reaper can be of use. See More

Top Pro

Editing audio can be done on track

You don't have to go to a separate editor to edit audio files. You can work directly on the track, and drop/drag pieces to other tracks, sew them together. It's a fun sandbox and easy peasy. See More

Top Pro

OSC support

You can control almost everything via OSC (and MIDI, too). See More

Top Pro

Supports ReWire

Top Pro

Tool-less interface

Set the cursor, press a key, done. Reaper's cursor is extremely intuitive. A monkey could understand it. Unlike Cakewalk, Bitwig, etc., there is no need to switch cursor editing modes or work around "smart" cursors. See More

Top Pro

Smooth

Running smoothly with 50 tracks on i5 gen3 RAM 4GB laptop (mixing and mastering work done separately). See More

Top Pro

Lightweight and affordable price

These two things are the biggest advantage of Reaper. No other DAW can beat it based on CPU efficiency. Some people say Reaper isn't a professional DAW by look, but it's not true. Reaper is a full-featured professional DAW. You can do anything whatever you want for music production. The price is also reasonable. They are even generous with the evaluation policy. If they offer the simple and intuitive version, I'll be back to Reaper. See More

Top Pro

Runs well on Wine in Linux

While other DAWs drag their feet on Windows, Reaper hits a solid stride even on Linux. See More

Top Pro

Excellent license model

You can have one version and the future version when its out . See More

Top Pro

Can edit while you're recording

Reaper allows editing while you're recording for a performative and fluid workflow. This feature can also help save time when mixing. See More

Top Pro

Script tools

Can run edited Script tools programmed by users. See More

Top Pro

Good CPU multithreading support

Not like Ableton which forces all master/track plugins chain to 1-core See More

Top Pro

Can mix on arranger view without console (mixer) or inspector

Specs

Compatibility:Windows , Mac, Linux

Max number of tracks:Unlimited

978 188

score 215 · Answer 6

Cakewalk by Bandlab

Top Pro

ProChannel

It has an integrated Channel Strip on every track/bus with excellent and easy to use Audio FX: EQ, Comp, Reverbs, Saturation, Console Emulators etc.In addition to saving presets of the entire ProChannel chain (all modules), you can also save and load presets of individual modules. The per module preset controls are located on the left side of each module header bar. See More

Top Con

Old code

Cakewalk is based on old code, that is why you see errors randomly. Since more than a decade ago no function has been improved - they were more concerned in the past with buzzwords and packaging third party software than in improving their own tools. The result is that it is now a decade behind developing competitors. There are better DAWs on the market that outperform Cakewalk. Free doesn't mean having the latest and greatest in technology - Cakewalk has never had it, there are important components of that DAW that haven't been touched for almost two decades, and they will likely never get the upgrade they need. See More

Top Pro

SONAR Platinum without the 3rd parties like Melodyne, etc.

It is basically SONAR for free after they shut down. See More

Top Con

Frequent crashes

Cakewalk has constant errors such as engine crashing when working with songs with more than 100 tracks, it loses saved settings, BSOD, it randomly stops recognizing your midi controller and disconnects, do not try to disconnect it, the software goes crazy, your tracks are exchanged for other vst or midi clips known bug years ago. See More

Top Pro

Best plugins

There are a variety of tools available, including the fantastic reverb plugin from Overloud, Breverb2. See More

Top Con

Windows only

Cakewalk by BandLab is currently available exclusively for 64 bit versions of Windows 7, 8, and 10. There are no current plans for availability on other operating systems. See More

Top Pro

32/64 bits plugin

The program itself is only 64 bits but it runs 32 and 64 bits plugin. If you still have a great plugin that never got to 64 bits this comes in handy. See More

Top Con

Uses middleware for installation

It's a con for those who don't like having to use a program to install and update another program. The Bandlab's installer doesn't even have the courtesy to stop and ask you where you want the middleware installed. See More

Top Pro

Unlimited tracks

No track and busses limitation. See More

Top Con

Non-free software

Does not respect your freedom. Does not provide source code.also if it were really free, there wouldn't be any need for the Bandlab Assistant and signing up, and having to reauthorize every 6 months or drop into 'Demo' mode (get that? Demo mode in a FREE product :lol: :clap:), you would just download, install, done . . . there is a price to pay. See More

Top Pro

ARA 2 integration

This feature makes working with Celemony Melodyne and other ARA compatible plug-ins a breeze. See More

Top Con

Unfinished features

Cakewalk has some buggy and unfinished features, probably due to marketing decisions and the changes of ownerships: Staff view, Matrix View, Audiosnap etc. See More

Top Pro

Basic set of instruments

Cakewalk comes with a basic set of VST instruments: A general MIDI synth, drums, e-piano, bass and a string section. See More

Top Con

Crashes too often

For a complete and free package it is amazing what Bandlab is offering here. But crashes on startup or audio engine failures happen too often. See More

Top Pro

Updated frequently

Top Con

Doesn't always ask for or respect your drive assignment choices during installation

If you are squished for space on your boot drive, don't install this. It automatically sets up the Bandlab Assistant on C without giving you the opportunity to put it elsewhere. If you choose to use certain Cakewalkfeatures like the Drum replacer, it just starts installing all the drum samples onto drive C regardless of the fact that you've already set up a Cakewalk Content directory on D. See More

Top Pro

Intuitive workflow

Cakewalk comes with friendly defaults and it has a similar workflow to analog studio gear. See More

Top Con

Obsolete VST

Unfortunately Cakewalk has a kind of philosophy of recycling old plugins under the DX and DXi code such as the sonitus fx and the newly added Classic Creative Suite audio effects (which were included in old versions of previously known SONAR) in its new update, which requires to new users or beginners to look for free or paid plugins, since these plugins are once again surpassed by the best vst in the market in addition to that they often sometimes block the software and disappear strangely, which is sad since most Of the DAW's on the market, both paid and free, include their own factory plugins so that the user does not have to spend any penny on third-party plugins. See More

Top Pro

Much improved stability of late, especially recent releases such as 2019.07

Top Con

Stability and unfinished features

Stability and tools are unfinished. As an example, AudioSnap simply does not work as it should when editing transients in the audio and staff view it does not work correctly. See More

Top Pro

Advanced comping workflow with Audio and MIDI Take Lanes and Automation Lanes

Easily create a final comp of all your recorded takes with simple drag and select gestures using the smart tool. See More

Top Con

Incompatible hardware

If you like to work with external hardware, this software is not compatible with most software: when inserting an external effect on a track or bus, the DAW will crash and send you an error message. This is because Cakewalk has not fixed in years the problem with external insertions, which puts it behind the competition. See More

Top Pro

Laptop-friendly interface

Good for people with a small-screened laptop. See More

Top Con

No real support for synth hardware

SO3 cannot control your synth. You cannot see/control or access patches, their names, or SysEx. It seems that everything is centered around use of virtual instruments, and not hardware synth. See More

Top Pro

Edit MIDI Automation on Instrument Tracks

Top Con

Does not offer sampling instrument

Cakewalk does not have a sampling instrument for multisample playback and import. Third-party plug-ins exist but they often crash the DAW. It is strange that cakewalk does not have a sampler for the modern musician. See More

Top Pro

VST3 Support

Top Con

No future

Cakewalk by Bandlab does not have a promising future since the company that acquired it does not even market it. For example, Cakewalk's social media platforms are practically dead, the user base seems small and, in general, it seems past for high. The Bandlab pages are live, but without even minimal mentions of Cakewalk on your website or social media, it will one day die quietly. See More

Top Pro

Arranger Track

The Arranger track is an arrangement tool that provides several workflow benefits .For example, instantly swap the positions of the first and second chorus for all tracks, or copy the first verse in order to double its duration.Experiment with different song structures in a non-destructive and non-linear manner. You can Create arbitrary song sections anywhere on the project timeline and then stitch them together for seamless playback, sections provide an additional way to make time-based project selections and edits. You can also create an unlimited number of arrangements per project, which can all be exported simultaneously. See More

Top Con

Does not have a Drum sampler

In the same way, Cakewalk does not have a drum sampler for playing and creating beats from jazz musicians to EDM producers. See More

Top Pro

Highly customizable user interface

The Cakewalk By Bandlab DAW comes with a new and improved user interface with an additional focus on being customizable. See More

Top Con

Too laggy

It doesn't matter if you have a decent enough PC or solid and robust cakewalk is too laggy when one navigates between the mixing console the PRV. It is not optimized for Windows 10. See More

Top Pro

In-app updater

You can now download and install future updates directly from Cakewalk instead of using BandLab Assistant. See More

Top Con

Unusable Pro-Channel

Unusable third party Pro-Channel modules such as Softube (Mix Bundle) and Overloud (BREVERB and REMATRIX) will not work properly when trying to open a project with them will cause Cakewalk to crash on the desktop. See More

Top Pro

Articulation Maps

Cakewalk by Bandlab recently added Articulation Maps If you work with sample libraries and virtual instruments, articulation maps are sure to improve your MIDI and articulation / keyswitch workflow Articulation maps provide a much easier way to change articulation, without having to manually edit events MIDI on the track. See More

Top Pro

Export to Standard MIDI File

Top Pro

Step Sequencer

The Step Sequencer makes it easy to compose patterns using a grid, where each cell (step) represents a note. You create patterns by clicking the cells in the grid to turn notes on or off, or by using step recording. See More

Top Pro

In-app activation

You can now activate Cakewalk directly from within the app, without requiring BandLab Assistant. Cakewalk must be activate once every 6 months. See More

Top Pro

Cakewalk Theme Editor

Cakewalk Theme Editor allows you to easily customize the look of Cakewalk by editing existing UI themes or creating your own UI themes. You can change colors directly and you can even customize images when used in combination with an external image editor such as Adobe Photoshop. See More

Top Pro

Mix Recall

Mix Recall allows you to save and recall multiple mixes for the same project, without having to save multiple copies of the project file. A mix can be saved as a Mix Scene within the project, and each project can store multiple Mix Scenes. A Mix Scene contains all track, bus, hardware output, ProChannel and plug-in static and automation mix settings. See More

Top Pro

Compatible with touchscreens

Top Pro

Runs smooth with lots of tracks and VSTs in a project

Without stuttering even without ASIO hardware because of recent overhaul of the audio engine See More

Specs

Compatibility:Windows

Included plugins:Yes

VST2:Yes (32 and 64 bit)

VST3:Yes

See All Specs

See All Experiences

215 54

score 21 · Answer 7

Soundation

Top Pro

Sound library

Extensive library with ready to use sounds. See More

Top Pro

Share music

Music can be shared as links: Example by HONESTandBLUNT. See More

Top Pro

Performance

Built using Google WebAssembly Threads. See More

Top Pro

Free version

Free version available (registration required). See More

Specs

Compatibility:Web

21 1

score 37 · Answer 8

GarageBand

Top Pro

Great sounding instruments

Top Con

No send/buss tracks

Tracks can't be sent into a buss channel for grouping tracks together. See More

Top Pro

Free if you have a Mac

Top Con

44.1K sample rate

The maximum sample rate is 44.1K. No 48K or higher. See More

Top Pro

Extremely easy

GarageBand is one of the most basic and user friendly DAWs, making it very easy to learn. See More

Top Con

Mixer console panel not available

Mixing must be done on the channel strip or by smart control panel only. There is no mixer with fader, vu meter and effects chain listing. See More

Top Pro

Good MIDI editing with quantization, piano roll and notation

Top Con

No sidechain effects

Can't manipulate other tracks with a sidechain trigger such as ducking with a compressor. See More

Top Pro

Amp Sims/ Pedal Effects/ Mics

There are several amp sims for guitar and bass or other direct input instruments. Different style speaker cabinets, microphones and mic placements. It also comes with a good selection of pedal effects. See More

Top Con

Platform dependant

Only for Mac. See More

Top Pro

Allows 3rd party plug-ins

Plug-ins for effects or sample instruments can be installed and work great. Must get the AU plug-in for Mac if available. See More

Top Pro

Easy automated drummer

See All Experiences

37 14

score 19 · Answer 9

Magix Music Maker

Top Pro

Easily extendable with new samples, plugins and VST instruments

MAGIX regularly releases new sample libraries (Soundpools), live sets and VST instruments, as well as new plugin integrations. See More

Top Con

It can go heavy on your system

Sometimes it can become quite heavy on your system and randomly crash. See More

Top Pro

MAGIX Magazine & Community

MAGIX Magazine has great articles and the Community is friendly. See More

Top Con

Bad performance

Crashes and glitches regularly. See More

Top Pro

Excellent VST instruments

Very high quality sound and varying VST instruments. See More

Top Pro

Easy to learn & use

It's very easy to learn your way through and master it. See More

Top Pro

Great interface

The interface is very clear, which makes it fast to create and easy to learn. See More

Top Pro

Music video full integration

With Premium version, you can add video and synchronize lyrics to your music video productions. Even better if you use along any of MAGIX pro video editors. See More

Top Pro

There IS a very good free version

MAGIX recently released a free version of it that is excellent and not crappy like others. It has most music creation features of the premium version, but only some basic VSI and sample library (both things easily extendable with MAGIX store's rich packages). See More

Top Pro

Constantly updated

MAGIX constantly updates all its software and listens to the community. See More

Top Pro

VST bridge

You can use both 32 bit and 64 bit plugins. See More

See All Experiences

19 8

score 30 · Answer 10

Zynewave Podium

Top Con

Not open source

Top Pro

Uncluttered

Most DAWs suffer from software bloat, with constant updates adding unnecessary features. Not Podium. This makes it easier to focus on making music. See More

Top Con

No VST3

No VST3 support. See More

Top Pro

MIDI editing

The piano roll is excellent. See More

Top Con

Low compatibility

Podium is for Windows only. See More

Top Pro

Excellent navigation

Using the navigator at the top of the screen, Podium users can click and zoom, adjust the edges of the viewed area, or click a programmable button to the left of the navigator that jumps to a selected view. See More

Top Pro

Works with advanced mice

Mice with 4-way scroll wheels are compatible with Podium. See More

Top Pro

Embedded editor

Zynewave plugins use custom editors that are built in to the inspector's rack panel, allowing users to adjust settings without having to open a new window. See More

Specs

Compatibility:Windows

See All Experiences

30 3

score 98 · Answer 11

Pro Tools

Top Pro

Great stock plugins

Top Con

Subscription based

Top Pro

Seamless integration with UAD

Top Con

Random crashes

Top Pro

Industry standard

Top Con

Quite expensive

Compared to other DAW subscription models. See More

Top Pro

Cross platform

Available both on Windows and MacOS. See More

Top Con

Ilok license manager

Top Pro

Frequent updates

Top Con

CPU hungry

System usage can be excessive. See More

Top Pro

Great support

Top Con

Very steep learning curve

Top Pro

Excellent UI

Especially for DAW veterans and Og's. See More

Top Con

Could benefit from more robust composition tools

Top Pro

Dark Mode

Finally Pro Tools Can be in dark mode. See More

Top Con

Lack of instrument bundle, despite two new additions

Top Pro

Wide audio format compatibility

Ease of integrating audio of different formats, sample rates; equal ease of exporting. See More

Top Con

Pro Tools isn't compatible with VST or AU plugins

Only AAX. See More

Top Pro

Video editing tools and capabilities

Top Con

Not amateur|Beginner friendly

Top Pro

Exceptionally deep shortcuts and workflow

Top Con

Hard and complicated shorcuts

Not easy to memorise them. See More

Top Pro

Track freezing abilities

Top Con

There is no free version

Top Pro

Advanced metering options with Peak, VU (Volume Unit), and Spectrograph views

Top Pro

Option for external DSP from Avid to help free up CPU

Top Pro

Customizable interface

Create and save youe own workspace layouts. and change the tone of the skin dark and classic See More

Top Pro

Excellent and pro mixing and recording tools

As the name tell See More

Top Pro

Fast 64-bit recording and mixing engine

Top Pro

Native integration with Avid’s control panels

Top Pro

Optimized for multiple screens

Top Pro

Broadest hardware compatibility

Top Pro

Great Import / export features

Top Pro

Excellent cloud collaboration integration

Top Pro

Interfaces easily with HDX and Pro Tools | Carbon

Top Pro

All languages supported

Top Pro

Unlimited tracks, buses, inserts, sends, returns, virtual instruments

Pro Tools effects, all customizable. See More

Top Pro

Automatic delay compensation

Used to fix timing issues between different tracks during mix down. See More

Specs

Compatibility:Windows , Mac

Max number of tracks:Unlimited

See All Experiences

98 11

score 50 · Answer 12

MuTools MuLab

Top Pro

Allows creating own synths and effects patches

MuLab includes MUX Modular, a modular synth and effect engine, that can be used to create and edito own synths and effects patches. See More

Top Con

Proprietary software

Top Pro

Free version and affordable full version

MuLab is available in a free version and the full version is highly affordable at only 69 euro all in. See More

Top Pro

Portable

Can be installed and run on a portable device such as a USB stick. See More

Top Pro

Comes with high-quality synths, samplers and effects

Having a variety of integrated synths, samplers and effects removes the need for new user to search for and buy extra VST plug-ins in order to make sound. See More

Top Pro

No-clutter interface

MuLab has a clean, minimalistic interface that uses highly distinct icons sparingly making it easy to overview. Much of the functionality can be found in right-click menus. See More

Top Pro

Low system requirements

In addition to having generally low resource consumption, MuLab is capable of taking advantage of multi-core CPUs and relieving the strain on machines even further that way. See More

Top Pro

Integrated multi-functional browser

Top Pro

REX file support

Top Pro

Multi-screen support

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Works on OSX and Windows. See More

Top Pro

Capable oscillators

MuLab includes oscillators with 300 selected waveforms and support for user waveforms. See More

Specs

Controller Support:Only Midi. No Mackie control

Features:Mixer GUI very limited

Compatibility:Windows, Mac

See All Experiences

50 8

score 41 · Answer 13

Zrythm

Top Pro

Monolithic

Unlike many Linux DAWs, Zrythm comes in one coherent program. See More

Top Con

Only free if you compile the source code

Top Pro

Free software

AGPLv3 licensed with source code available. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Installers can be bought for Linux, MacOS and Windows. Or you can compile the source code for free on any platform. See More

Top Pro

Intuitive U.I.

Ability to add MIDI notes, Automate, & Modulate with ease alongside chord assistance. See More

Top Pro

Looks visually good and the performance is also amazing

Specs

Compatibility:GNU/Linux, FreeBSD, Windows, Mac

Plugin Compatibility:LV2, VST2, VST3, AU, LADSPA, DSSI

See All Experiences

41 8

score 679 · Answer 14

Ardour

Top Pro

Compatible with Linux, Windows 7/8.1/10 and macOS

Ardour is cross-platform and works on Windows & macOS. See More

Top Con

Too many plugins

It is hard to find good useful plugins. It looks like every developer's plugin has ended up in the list. See More

Top Pro

Open source

Ardour is open source, so it can be downloaded and modified without restriction. See More

Top Con

No support for VST plugins for OS X

Plugins can be used on OS X only if they are downloaded in AU format, which is supported. See More

Top Pro

Free version with minimal limitations

Unlike some other DAW's which often limit saving, exporting, or advanced features, Ardour permits you to try all the features for free, with the only limitation being ten minutes of project length maximum. Demo. See More

Top Con

Builds are paid

Pre-built releases are paid and the only way to get the program for free is to build it yourself. See More

Top Pro

Multi-display support

Top Con

Quirky UI and navigation

Top Pro

Linux version has JACK support

On Linux, you can use JACK to freely route audio and MIDI to and from other software as hardware. See More

Top Con

Not user friendly

Ardour can be difficult and unconventional to use. See More

Top Pro

Clean linear interface

Top Con

Relies on JACK

The Linux version relies on JACK to function correctly, and JACK is extremely difficult to install and configure. Ardour should have JACK support, but it should also connect directly and play audio on its own by default. See More

Top Pro

Inline mixing console

You can view and edit plugins directly from the console's mixing channels. See More

Top Con

No 'scenes'

Ardour doesn't have 'scenes' like Ableton does (would be very handy for live-preformances). See More

Top Pro

LADSPA plugins support

Top Pro

LV2 plugins support

Top Pro

VST3 Support in version 6+

Top Pro

Powerful routing

Thanks to JACK support, and the inclusion of built in tools, the routing options of Ardour are limitless. See More

Top Pro

Excellent support community

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac

MIDI:Yes

Plugin Support:VST, LADSPA, LV2

See All Experiences

679 112

score 378 · Answer 15

Audacity

Top Con

Not seen as a full DAW

Audacity doesn't have the capabilities of popular DAWs and generally isn't considered to be good option. See More

Top Pro

Free, open source and cross-platform

Audacity is available for free on Windows, Mac OS, and Linux with source code available here. See More

Top Con

Doesn't retain audio integrity

Audacity uses destructive editing, meaning applying effects, cutting, etc is non-reversable after you've saved a project. See More

Top Pro

Well maintained

Audacity is constantly updated. See More

Top Con

No real time effects

Users are unable to change effects in real time with Audacity. If effects are to be changed, no sound can be playing or recording. See More

Top Pro

Great community backing it

Top Con

Unable to use Synthesizers / virtual instruments

You can only use effect plugins or record live with this DAW. See More

Top Pro

Great for vocal track editing

Top Con

No native 64-bit version, therefore does not support 64-bit VST plugins

Audacity is available only as a 32-bit application, therefore even when running on 64-bit machines, it only supports 32-bit VST plugins unless they are converted to 32-bit using an application such as JBridge. See More

Specs

Platforms:Windows, Linux, Mac

See All Experiences

378 70

score 333 · Answer 16

Ableton Live

Top Pro

Advanced automation

You can add curves to automation. Additionally, Ableton lets users duplicate certain automations quickly. See More

Top Con

Expensive

At 749 USD, Ableton Live Suite (the most fully-featured edition) is more expensive than other DAWs. Ableton Live Standard can be bought for 449 USD. Ableton Live Intro can be bought for 99 USD. Rounding up, all three versions will set you back triple digits. That's before you get into additional sample and plugin packs, which also cost hundreds of dollars. Consider the price of the software before you enter the Live ecosystem. See More

Top Pro

Great for sampling

The Ableton DAW offers a great sampling experience, which can be approached in many different ways. Audio can be directly chopped, quantized, warped, and even chopped into MIDI clips. Ableton's built in sampler also allows clean pitching along with useful loop functions. See More

Top Con

Can't save keyboard shortcuts globally

There are no global keyboard shortcut editing mechanisms in Live. You are only able save keyboard shortcuts per project. This makes production a long-winded endeavor. To edit shortcuts on Live, use Ctrl + K, or CMD + K. See More

Top Pro

Great creative DAW workflow

Ableton's session view gives a much quicker, more flexible way of experimenting with ideas than a typical linear interface. In session view, each instrument part is a separate entity that can be mixed and matched with other parts without having to rearrange anything. Any and every effect is consolidated into one clean looking interface. It allows users to experiment with effects and other manipulations very quickly. Because of this, Ableton is known as one of the most creative DAWs out there. See More

Top Con

No SF2 support

Soundfonts need to be imported as samples, and they don't work as intended since the zoning is lost. See More

Top Pro

Optimized for playing live music

While all DAWs are capable of playing music live, Ableton Live is the most DJ friendly DAW out there as it allows mixing and mashing various MIDI or audio clips together in real-time while still making sure that they're in sync. See More

Top Con

Not very convenient for mixing

Top Pro

Outstanding EQ

Ableton's new EQ includes an integrated spectrum analyzer so users can see exactly which frequencies need to be adjusted. Additionally, this EQ cuts by 48 db. Up until Ableton Live 9, the EQ only cut by 12 db. See More

Top Con

No 32 bit VST support on newer

32-bit VST support for DAW in 2022 it's CON. Make a bridge! See More

Top Pro

Advanced content browser

The browser lets users choose from live Sets, tracks, clips, devices, presets, samples, etc. There is also an auto-play function for audio clips that enables users to browse samples quickly. The search function is also handy, but only for clips that are labeled appropriately. See More

Top Con

No Bounce in place

Live's freeze/flatten method of rendering clips is slow and doesn't work on single clips or regions. Bounce in Place has been requested for years by a lot of users, but devs are not listening. See More

Top Pro

Dual monitor support

Starting with Live 9, users can see session and arrangement views at the same time with dual monitor support. See More

Top Con

Sometimes very slow reaction

If you switch from one track to another with APC- or Push-Controller. See More

Top Pro

Comes with 70GB included sounds

15 software instruments, 55 audio effects and 17 midi effects. See More

Top Con

Outdated GUI

The GUI feels too old and ugly compared to other DAWs. See More

Top Pro

Max for Live lets users build custom tools

With Max for Live, users can create custom synthesizers, audio effects, sequencers, samplers, and more. Max for Live is a feature that is available starting with Live 9 Suite. See More

Top Con

No PDC

Even the latest 11… version doesn’t have PDC that work. Manual PDC introduction was a lough… See More

Top Pro

Endless creativity

After some training this daw can be used for doing anything. There are basically no limits. See More

Top Con

Plugins on frozen tracks are loaded and unloaded as the session opens slowing down opening and creating DSP limitations

For example: If you freeze more than the allowed number of plugins on a UAD DSP device, when you open your session, Ableton will open and close all the frozen plugins on every channel even though they are not active in the session. The UAD control panel application displays the DSP usage of the hardware. During loading the levels (bars) will fluctuate by extreme amounts and typically will produce errors once the Ableton session is loaded. After the session is loaded, UAD plugins that should be running are disabled because there wasn't enough DSP available during load. The user then has to open and look at each UAD plug in to see if they are disabled and turn them off and on again to enable them. This illustrates there is enough room for the DSP load for unfrozen plugins, but that the loading process was at fault. See More

Top Pro

Multiple "workflows" or ways of achieving an outcome

Not everyone realizes this, but anything can be done in multiple ways in Live. Multiple ways of playing samples, multiple ways of slicing samples, multiple ways of sequencing MIDI, etc. See More

Top Con

No Dolby Atmos / surround

Top Pro

Exemplary time stretching facilities

Not only can the time stretching can be done in real-time, there are about a dozen of TC/E algorithms to choose from. See More

Top Con

No ARA (audio communication e.g. with Melodyne / VocAlign)

Top Pro

Minimum skeuomorphism

Skeuomorphism is described as retaining antiquated aesthetic features on an updated version of a device. For DAWs, this happens when an interface is littered with analog nobs, wires, and other things that are reminiscent of older technology. While this can be considered a stylistic choice for some DAWs, it tends to block progress towards better practices in music production. See More

Top Con

Classic arrangement workflow could've been better

Top Pro

Many software specific controllers

Many MIDI controllers have been developed for the exclusive purpose of being used with Ableton. Some popular Live controllers include Push, APC40, and Launchpad. See More

Top Con

Max makes startup longer

Top Pro

Widespread Online Support

The amount of well-versed tutorials and guides online can help you master Live in a few hours. Secret tips and tricks are also widespread. Forums are filled to the brim with support for any issue you can think of. See More

Top Con

Sound library sounds really bad

Top Pro

It is very stable

Maybe not on certain systems, but when used in an normal system it's very stable. See More

Top Con

Not very stable

Live has been known for its hilariously bad stability on weaker systems. But this is only when it is under enormous strain. It will be under enormous strain, too. Most people that work in this software love to fill their projects up with tons of cool ideas. Ableton should bear this in mind when continuing to update Live. See More

Top Pro

VST3 support as of Ableton 10.1

VST3s now run smoothly in Ableton 10.1 and up. However, be careful when loading in CPU-heavy plugins. See More

Top Con

No source code

This can be a privacy concern for some. See More

Top Pro

Can play a midi note from the middle

In Live V10, you can trigger MIDI notes without having to do so from the start. See More

Top Con

Limited routing

Tracks can go into groups and sub-groups (as of Live 10), and sends are available, but that's the extent of routing. See More

Top Pro

Very intuitive

Top Con

No LV2 support

Does not support the LV2 plugin standard. See More

Top Pro

Able to to download own skin/theme

You can make your own skin/themes online and use it in "preferences" tab! See More

Top Pro

Great midi features

Audio to midi, scales on piano roll, etc. See More

Top Pro

Reliable production software

Top Pro

MIDI notes can be forced to a scale

With a simple plugin, Ableton allows the user to pick from a wide variety of scales when triggering notes. See More

Top Pro

Great mixing

Top Pro

Great warping

You can easily warp audio with many different modes and resolutions, and change individual warp markers. See More

Top Pro

Filter browser

Top Pro

Auto Find Sample Similar

Specs

Controller Support:Yes

Compatibility:Windows, Mac

Max number of tracks:Unlimited (8 in lite)(16 in Intro)

Included sounds:5000+Sounds(70+GB)

See All Specs

See All Experiences

333 65

score 412 · Answer 17

FL Studio

Top Pro

Free lifetime updates

With the producer or signature bundle, updates are free forever. See More

Top Con

The Browser is archaic

Every time it has to refresh, it closes the entire menu. So if you just navigated several dropdowns to find an automation parameter of a third party plugin and you want to automate a second parameter, you have to navigate back to that dropdown all over again. Searching within the browser is a slapped on feature that only shows you a single result at a time, and you have to press a hotkey to cycle through them one by one. Really, your browser in FL is the Windows File Explorer, or Finder in OS I assume. The FL Browser is workflow molasses and should be avoided at all costs except to find samples you already know the location of. See More

Top Pro

Easy to install

No complex activation shenanigans. No dongle and such. See More

Top Con

Not intuitive for track based recording approach

Top Pro

Easy to learn DAW

The FL Studio DAW utilizes drag and drop, and can generally be learned quickly without any prior knowledge. There are also a lot of resources to help begginers and experienced users learn. See More

Top Con

Shortcuts are weird

And non-reconfigurable. See More

Top Pro

Inbuilt cross 32/64bit plugin bridge

You don't need to install/configure a third party bridge. See More

Top Con

Audio recording not as good as the other DAWs

Recording audio is always a problem in FL Studio. See More

Top Pro

Intuitive piano roll

Piano roll is a FL Studio's instrument step sequencer. It is considered to be among the most intuitive and flexible tools for quickly creating patterns and manipulating all aspects of each note. A single left click inserts a note, while a right click deletes it. It's possible to mute notes, splice them, stretch them, add shuffle, etc quickly. The Piano Roll caters for those new to Music Theory as well, containing an array of chords from which to choose, be it a Major, Minor, Minor 5th, Minor 9th, what have you. See More

Top Con

The GUI is very difficult to see

The color scheme of GUI is terrible. They use a lot of dark and similar color for the GUI. See More

Top Pro

Scalable interface

The interface adapts to the screen size it's used on. See More

Top Con

Most controls are hidden

In the mixing console, mid, bass, and treble are not explicitly stated as they should be. See More

Top Pro

Non-invasive DRM

Forget copy protection USB-dongles and phone-home activation. Just import a reg key file and your license is activated. See More

Top Con

Limited number of 125 mixer channels (500 tracks) and 10 effects slots

You can use the Patcher plugin or routing to the next channel, but it does not always work efficiently and properly See More

Top Pro

Has the best startup sound

Top Con

Not great for Mixing

Every channel should have input gain controller and extra plugins should be added for more creativity. See More

Top Pro

Powerful Sound Editor

Edison is a great way to record and edit samples, sound effects and is a very easy way to create sample packs and sound libraries. See More

Top Con

No Dolby Atmos / Surround

Top Pro

Supports resampling

Supports resampling (non stretch) which is something some DAWs don't support. See More

Top Con

Lack of other midi keyboard brands

Top Pro

Excellent for visual learners

All the stock plugins look really nice and really show users what is being done, it's a great way to learn mixing theory for a beginner. This approach makes FL Studio easy to learn compared to other DAWs. See More

Top Con

A

Top Pro

Great support & community, lots of tutorials

Top Con

Bad sound for expensive piano plugin

Rendered using the same MIDI note and compared it to the render on other daws, it's really bad. See More

Top Pro

Flexible non-linear workflow

Top Con

Crashes when loading plugs

Top Pro

Fully open: accepts a variety of formats

Accepts VST/VSTi (v2,v3) Wav, Aiff, Rex, Acid, Apple Loop, Ogg, Mp3 as well as almost every video format including Mov and Mp4. See More

Top Con

Brak ARA (komunikacja audio np. z Melodyne/VocAlign)

Top Pro

Sampler

FL Studio has a very unique sampler which allows all kinds of sounds to be experimented with, be it a siren, a water drop, or more commonly, the infamous "Progressive House" Kick. The Sampler also allows the user to retune a sample to any key he/she desires. See More

Top Con

Has a slight tendency to crash

Always save before loading a new VST or doing something important: FL is prone to crashes. See More

Top Pro

Very comprehensive plugin suite included

You have basic and advanced plugins right out the box. See More

Top Con

The soundfont player will trash your projects, no 64-bit version available

Remember that nice project with a soundfont in it ? Yeeeah, load it again and prepare to face stuck MIDI notes and a trashed project. See More

Top Pro

Each update is major

When Image Line releases an update, it's safe to assume that there are major improvements in there. See More

Top Con

No channel folder and channel grouping in mixer

Top Pro

Unlimited creativity

With tools in the piano roll like the "Riff Machine", and the "Randomize" tool, you can literally let the computer automate the production if you want. In addition to plugins like "Gross Beat", Slicex, DirectWave, the ideas can be limitless. See More

Top Con

No Saturator

Only Waveshaper, Fast dist, Maximus + Soundgoodizer. See More

Top Pro

Good for the studio

Some DAWs are good for live shows, some DAWs are good for production, but the FL Studio DAW has carved its niche in the studio recording arena. See More

Top Con

Proprietary

Top Pro

Smooth UI

Compared to other DAWs, FL's UI moves at full monitor refresh rates while others are somehow laggy. See More

Top Con

Can not customize the GUI

Can not change the UI as you like. See More

Top Pro

Can import/export 32bit audio

Just as the internal engine bit depth, there's no loss in quality. See More

Top Con

Look

Top Pro

It comes as VSTi and Rewire

So you can use it inside another DAW. There's no other DAW capable of doing that. See More

Top Pro

The only DAW with a VJ graphic generation suite (ZG Editor Visualizer)

No other DAW has that. See More

Top Pro

Fully vectorial UI that will scale to virtually every screen

Because most DAWs don't scale well yet. See More

Top Pro

Sample/MIDI Manipulation in the Playlist Mode

The Playlist mode comes with various tools for cutting out sections of a sample, midi arrangement, or otherwise. One can also clone, mute, solo out, and stretch a sample by any degree, although the sample's key will change. See More

Top Pro

Flexible internal linking engine

Its linking engine and controller plugins are very flexible and useful all across the software. For mixing and also for performance mode. See More

Top Pro

Patcher: Modular environment

Patcher is similar to Max for Live in Ableton and The Grid in Bitwig and allows you to build your own complex generator and effect chains. See More

Top Pro

Perfect for engineering because of the production style workflow

The workflow for creating beats in FL Studio is among the fastest which make mixing and mastering a breeze inserting plug-ins and routing on the mixer. See More

Top Pro

It is the only DAW where you can program real scratching sequences (Turntablism)

You can make your own scratches with the "Fruity Scratcher" or "Wave traveller". See More

Top Pro

Imports video for scoring

You can open several video players. See More

Top Pro

It's possible to run FL Studio on Linux via Wine without a noticeable performance impact

Version 12 of FL Studio includes a new Generic ASIO driver that's capable of achieving same low latency performance as the native Windows version. Instructions on how to set up the DAW to run on Linux via Wine can be found here. See More

Top Pro

Reasonable and liberal license

Buy once, and you're allowed to use it on every computer you own. See More

Top Pro

Amazing sequencer to input midi

Top Pro

perfect for arrangement and homerecording

Top Pro

Complete control over multiple Launchpad Pro animation lightshow projects

Live can, but working with more LPs is a pain. See More

Top Pro

Shows other instrument notes in background if needed

Top Pro

A lot of good synthesizers and instruments (over 30)

E.g. Harmor, Flex, Sakura, Sawer, Sytrus, Poizone... See More

Top Pro

FL is famous for its great sequencer

Great software for creating rhythms. See More

Top Pro

Well-functioning mobile version

Top Pro

Large number of effects (approx. 70)

E.g. GrossBeat, Newtime (tuning), Patcher (own complex generators and effect chains), Maximus, Soundgoodizer... See More

Top Pro

Built in Audio Visualizer

Game Editor . lets you make cool sound-triggered animations in no time See More

Top Pro

Soundgoodizer

HAHA Soundgoodizer goes brrrrrr See More

Top Pro

Very flexible timeline

Top Pro

Best stretching algorithms in the market

Top Pro

Developed by a team of friends

Specs

Compatibility:Windows, Mac

Max number of tracks:500

Minimum install:768mb

Full sound library:Yes

See All Experiences

412 78

score 364 · Answer 18

LMMS

Top Pro

Free and open source

LMMS is available for free with source code licensed under GPL and available on GitHub allowing anyone to edit and extend the software as they see fit. See More

Top Con

No merging or splicing options

There is no feature that allows you to merge or splice tracks in LMMS. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

LMMS works on Linux, Windows and OSX. See More

Top Con

Cannot listen other tracks while recording

Can't listen to other track while record or playing other track . See More

Top Pro

Is a great open-source alternative to FL Studio

Interface look like FL Studio interface. Has many of the same windows such as step-sequencer, piano roll, playlist, mixer, etc. See More

Top Con

Limited mixer rack

You can only add Virtual Instrument tracks into the mixing console/rack. See More

Top Pro

Portable

LMMS is lightweight enough to be run off of a flash drive. See More

Top Con

Program crashes a lot

This happens more frequently when loading VST files. See More

Top Pro

VST Support

Uses VeSTige as the VST plugin. It has some bugs but most VSTs work with it. See More

Top Con

Limited effect plugin support

A lot of 3rd-party effect plugins don't work. See More

Top Pro

LADSPA plugins support

Top Con

Pitch bending could be more native

Sometimes you can pitch bend with the Piano Roll Editor but with many instruments you cannot and are limited to the pitch knob in the main plugin interface. See More

Top Pro

VST plugins support

Top Con

GUI is ugly

Top Pro

Sandbox layout

All windows in the DAW can be moved around freely and are not attached to a grid. See More

Top Pro

MIDI controllers support

Just plug in and play. Plug in the MIDI keyboard before opening LMMS and it'll automatically pick up that you've connected the keyboard. See More

Top Pro

JACK Audio Connection Kit support

Top Pro

Multiple languages support

Top Pro

Works with many VSTs and effects

Top Pro

Preloaded with basic VST instrument plugins and modifiers

LMMS comes with a triple oscillator, Gameboy sound emu, NES sound emu added into the software, which makes it easier to create sounds without the inclusion of external plugins. It is very accessible for beginners. See More

Top Pro

Computer Keyboard to MIDI

You can use your computer keyboard as a MIDI controller. See More

Top Pro

Easy to use

LMMS is ideal for beginners, as it is easy to use and comes with tons of ready to use instruments and samples. See More

Top Pro

No Scanning VST instruments/FX in LMMS

You can load a VST Instrument plugin directly from your desktop if you want to and it supports most of the ddl plugins, both 32-bit 64-bit. FX plugins need to be placed into your directed plugin folder e.g C :/Program files/LMMS/Plugins. See More

Specs

Platforms:Linux, Windows, Mac

Included sounds:Yes

Processing type:32-bit, 64-bit

Plugin Compatibility:VST, LADSPA

See All Specs

See All Experiences

364 81

score 14 · Answer 19

Stagelight

Top Pro

Extendable

Supports VST and VSTi plugins. See More

Top Pro

Affordable

The most affordable DAW solution out there. See More

Top Pro

Simple

Anyone can pick up and use this DAW to create music. See More

Top Pro

Cross-platform

Android, Windows, iOS, macOS and Chromebook. See More

Top Pro

Touch support

Works well with touch-enabled devices. See More

Top Pro

Built-in lessons

Top Pro

In-app store

Top Pro

Social media integration

Specs

Compatibility:Windows, macOS, Android, iOS

See All Experiences

14 6

score 4 · Answer 20

Magix Sequoia

Top Pro

Easy Automation

The automation in Sequoia is similar to Ableton's automation, but is just a bit simpler to use and navigate. See More

Top Con

Rather expensive

At $2970, it's one of the most expensive DAWs in the market. See More

Top Pro

Very easy and fast workflow

Able to work through most projects very quickly, everything can be on screen without feeling cluttered at all. See More

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