free recording software

If you don't want to spend a lot of money on recording music, there is some free recording software out there you can use for your audio production. Freeware and open-source packages such as Audacity or Ardour are a great option for the casual recording engineer.

Recording software doesn't have to be complicated if you aren't going to be using any of it's features. I know that people can get overwhelmed with programs such as Pro Tools or Logic Pro because of it's abundance of features. This can turn you off if you just need something simple.

If you just want to be able to record a few tracks for yourself, make your own podcasts or do some audio work that doesn't need a whole lot of production, you might want to consider the options below.

Audacity

Audacity is a great starter program for interested audio enthusiasts or singer/songwriters who want to demo their songs. It's an opensource, downloadable and free recording software that has many great features. Since it's inception it's been gaining popularity and is one of the most popular free recording software on the internet.

If you want a powerful, but free audio software for your projects you should definitely check out Audacity. I'm a big supporter of everything open source, as I use open source software in many of my projects.

Although I am a Logic Pro user by heart, I completely support Audacity as a great free audio editing suite. As I said before, it's perfect for the casual musician or audio editor that doesn't need all the bells and whistles that the more commercial programs offer.

Here's an intro to audacity

Although free, and relatively simple to use, Audacity is a simpler affair than Ardour. Ardour offers an amount of features that rival both Logic and Pro Tools. For simple audio editing and podcasts, Audacity is definitely something to check out. Check out the video to audio editing with Audacity.

Ardour

Ardour is an open-source audio recording and music mixing package. It offers unlimited audio tracks and busses(of course limited to your CPU), non-destructive audio editng and is essentially a pretty decent audio recording software that allows you to record, mix and edit your music to your heart's delight.

The Ardour community of programmers and audio enthusiasts are working to make Ardour a great recording software works off of donations. So whenever you download their software, be sure to make a small contribution to their funds so they can continue bug testing and improving on their platform.

The SAE Institute was funding the Ardour project for some time. Sadly, they dropped their funding a while ago, but not before they had their own version of Ardour for SAE students. The SAE podcasts on YouTube have quite a few tutorials on how to work with Ardour.

Here's a video teaching you how to start a new session.

For more Ardour tutorials, check out the SAE tutorials

Many free options

There are quite a few free options to consider, and I have only mentioned two of my favorite audio editors for you to choose from. If you have anything else to add to this page, help us out by sharing your experiences or thoughts.

Don't want free recording software? Check out other options here

If you want to try Pro Tools out, head over that way.

If you are an Apple fan, be sure to check out Logic Pro