It was formerly known as the Sonar DAW until Bandlab acquired the property and incorporated it into Cakewalk. If the big names are a little out of your budget and their trial versions are too limited for you, then this is one of the best free DAW for PCs (after showing Apple’s GarageBand some love earlier).

The full DAW in its entirety is free, no upgrades required.

It's highly compatible for both Windows and Mac also. Don’t be surprised if you’re dancing along as you create music in Ableton.

This digital audio workstation doesn’t care for the notion of producers sitting in a dark studio with bad posture at a screen - Live offers one of the most intuitive, and thus fastest and creative workflows available. Once, music production software was seen as something that existed only in the studio, but Ableton Live made the bold decision that a DAW was also to be a performance instrument, hence why so many artists, particularly those with a strong electronic element to their music, bring it on tour with them on their laptops.Ībleton fanatics will also tell you how much fun they have using it. For some time now, it has become not only one of the best DAWs available, but one that has had a huge influence on the other brands. You may already know that people who use Ableton don’t merely use Ableton, but will advocate for it with almost religious fervour. Has countless advocates from the music industry.Users love its fast and creative workflow experience.It comes with some excellent stock plugins, a large sound library, and even the most affordable version of Cubase stands up to the competition if your budget doesn’t stretch to Cubase Pro yet. And while the competition has increased fiercely since the early days of Cubase, it still stands firm as one of the very best choices for both Mac and Windows users. The standard, block-based arranging view we are so accustomed to in music production software now started in Cubase, and Steinberg also invented virtual studio technology (VSTs). Through its iterations and developments, Cubase introduced many features to DAWs that are now very difficult to imagine producing music without. It’s also one of the best DAWs for many reasons. Steinberg’s Cubase is up there with Pro Tools as one of the longest-running and storied pieces of music production software you can get your hands on. A digital audio workstation with lots of history, but plenty of development.

Daws for music production