Through it, Mac laptops with a Touch Bar can transform it into drum pads or one-octave keyboards, making composing music much more intuitive. One of GarageBand’s standout features is the Touch Bar functionality. GarageBand’s rich sound library includes instruments, guitar and voice presets, drums, and much more.
Behind the shiny exterior hide many features you wouldn’t expect from free software. This free music-making software for beginners also allows you to color-code tracks in the dashboard for easier tracking. Its modern dashboard lays out functions intuitively, in stark contrast with some of the programs on our list that look like glorified file managers from the 90s.
The first thing you’ll notice about Apple’s free music production software is just how approachable it is compared to some of its competitors.
GarageBand is often lauded as the best option for absolute beginners, and Apple Logic Pro is its advanced sibling. We opted to include both within a single review because we believe transitioning from the best free recording software to a paid choice is made much easier by staying within the confines of one program and its familiar interface. Intro’s $99 price point is more than affordable for software this advanced, particularly if you have a knack for electronic music.Īpple is behind two incredibly popular DAWs - GarageBand, which is freeware - and Logic Pro. If you’re looking for the best cheap music production software for beginners, Ableton is an excellent choice. The Standard and Suite editions are substantially more expensive - $449 and $749, respectively. The Intro package will cost you a one-time fee of $99. Still, Ableton 11 Live Intro nets you four software instruments, over 1,500 sounds, 21 audio effects, and 8 MIDI effects. This music software for beginners differs from pricier packages in the number of available instruments, sounds, audio, and MIDI effects. PricingĪs mentioned, we’re focusing on Ableton’s Intro version here. As possibly the best electronic music software, Ableton also features rich automation options. You can later sort loops and clips in the Arrangement view.Ībleton also comes with MIDI sequencing, meaning you can practically turn anything - including sampled beats - into a MIDI file. Here, you can create so-called seams - a combination of effects, instruments, and sounds you’ve compiled to play together. Within it, you can freely mix and match different audio and MIDI clips to see if they work well together. What makes Ableton perhaps the best DAW for electronic music is the Session view. It’s essentially a multi-track dashboard, allowing you to easily mix and arrange effects, MIDI, loops, etc. The Arrangement view pretty much follows the well-known structure found with most recording software: It contains tracks laid along a left-to-right timeline. You can quickly switch from one to the other with the Tab key. FeaturesĪbleton Live’s core functionalities are split between two main screens: Session and Arrangement. As its name suggests, it’s also tailored for users interested in live performance. Despite somewhat limited features compared to pricier options, this affordable software is still a potent tool. Since we’re focusing on the best music-making software for beginners in this article, we decided to review the Ableton 11 Live Intro edition. The first version of Ableton saw the light of day in 1999 today, this music studio software is quite popular among producers, especially those working on electronic music.