Available for Mac OS only. Garageband comes free with any Mac computer and is pretty legit for most recording needs. Although it can’t do major processing like its big brother Logic, it’s more than able to do any multi-track recording and minor mixing work. MixPad Free Music Mixer for Mac v.3.33 MixPad Multitrack Mixer is a free music recording and mixing software for Mac OS X designed for easy audio production. Mix music, vocal and audio tracks, adjust the volume, pan, fade and more with MixPad as your digital mixing desk. The Audio Production and Recording category contains programs developed to let users edit, record, mix, tweak, encode, and compose digital audio files, including applications that convert MP3 files. NanoStudio Manual (PDF) NanoSync for Mac OS X and Windows NanoSync is a simple application for Mac or PC which allows you to transfer samples and final mixes to or from your device over Wifi.

If you’re a serious musician, podcaster, or budding audio engineer, you care about the quality of your recordings–or you should. And that’s why the audio recording programs you use matter.

However, I’d like to add that it’s not the software that makes the music. It’s your skills as an audio engineer.

To illustrate, I’d like to tell you a story of an interesting email thread a while back. This guy was looking for a home studio, and he was asking around for where to go.

An acquaintance of mine chimed in with his answer, with some details about studios and such but there was one comment that infuriated me:

You might want to have someone who’s recording onto protools. (sic)

Ugh…

Now, I know that not all musicians are engineers so I should let that slide. And this person is a great musician, but he’s a little off in what makes up a great studio.

The thing that bothers me is that software companies are so good at brainwashing the public into believing that their software is crucial to the makings of a good record.

It F***ing isn’t.

It doesn’t matter whether you use Pro-Tools, Nuendo, Cubase, Sonar Producer, Logic Pro, Digital Performer, GarageBand, Live, or any of the other software that’s for sale out there.

It’s the least important thing in the grand scheme of:

“hey I want to know how to record my songs or have someone do it for me….what should I buy first?“

The software isn’t going to tell you what sounds good. It’s not a robot that knows how to engineer a great guitar sound. It can’t tell you if you’re overcompressing your drums or flooding your vocals with reverb. This is something that the engineer needs to know. This is the skill of the engineer, regardless of what software he’s using.

Pro-Tools is not going to make your music sound any better.

Ask yourself:

If you install (insert preferred software here) onto your computer, is it going to make the acoustics in your room any better?

No.

Is it going to make the sound of your pre-amps any better?

No.

Will it walk out of the computer, look at your monitors and say, “Gee, maybe you should space those monitors a little further apart for better imaging.”

No, it’s not some mega nerdy Cylon engineer.

It’ll just do what you tell it to do. And if you feed it garbage it will give you trash.

Skills Make Sounds – Not Software

So think more about what skills you need to record a great sound than the software that “they” tell you that you desperately need to get.

Yes, you need software. But any software is great if you, or the engineer you hire, is excellent at using it. I use Logic. Do I recommend Logic to everybody. Not really.

My philosophy is that any software that you’re comfortable using is the best software for your situation. The skills and knowledge of engineering are infinitely more important than any audio recording software that’s out there.

Now that we’ve got that rant out of the way let’s talk about what software solutions you have available, both free and paid.

A quick search on Amazon will show you a lot of different options that will give you decision anxiety, so we’ve compiled a list for you to reduce your hyperventilating so that you can go back to what you set out to do before, make music.

71 Free Shortcuts to Easy Separation and Balance in Your Mixes

If you’ve been struggling to hear all the instruments in a mix, my EQ cheatsheet will help you out.

Learn to clean up your low-end, reduce bleed in your drums and eliminate annoying resonant frequencies from your recordings.
Get rid of muddiness in your low-mids, tame the harshness in your mix, and get rid of your boxy sounding drums.
Learn where to add presence to your vocals, brilliance to your acoustic guitars, thickness to your keyboards or weight to your bass. These tips are broken down by instrument and help you fix your frequency problems with simple solutions that you can use right away.

Top 5 Free Audio Recording Programs

Most run-of-the-mill, audio recording apps that come pre-installed on your computer just won’t cut it (with the possible exception of GarageBand for Macs, a reasonably high-quality recorder for simple projects), and you also may not be willing or able to spend an arm and a leg for professional grade software.

However, you’re in luck. There are some great free tools that actually don’t suck and can produce the kind of quality recording that will make anybody who listens to your works of art — or wit if you’re a podcaster — it up and take note of what you have to offer.

Here are some of the very best, completely free recording tools that will help bring your sounds to life.

1. Audacity

Available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux

Audacity is the go-to open source audio recording application, and as long as your goals aren’t overly ambitious, it puts an enormous amount of power in your hands. It can record just about anything you throw at it, whether it’s from a microphone, through the line-in jack, or live streaming audio (if supported by your sound card), all in a lightweight and clean interface. Many recording enthusiasts, especially podcasters, appreciate Audacity’s uncomplicated user experience and ease of use.

Audacity supports recording in sample rates from 44.1 to an excessive 192 kHz, which sets the stage for studio-caliber and even ultrasonic recordings if you have the hardware to handle it. Also included is support for 32-bit floating point, providing ample headroom for your recorded signal.

It comes with effects such as an equalizer with helpful presets, pitch, speed and tempo controls, delay, reverb, compressor, fade in/out, and a noise remover. You can expand this palette thanks to Audacity’s generous support of VST, LADSPA, Nyquist and Audio Unit plugins.

Audacity’s strength is its simplicity. While you can make it do multi-track recording if you’re so inclined, it will never gain centerpiece status in a true recording studio. However, it is beginner-friendly, easy to use for quick edits you need to make on the fly (whether that means filtering out unwanted noise, boosting vocals or other frequencies through equalization, or just cutting and pasting), and extremely well-suited for hobbyist and podcast recording applications.

2. Garageband

Available for Mac OS only

Garageband comes free with any Mac computer and is pretty legit for most recording needs.

Although it can’t do major processing like its big brother Logic, it’s more than able to do any multi-track recording and minor mixing work.

Highly recommend for the bedroom recordist that’s just starting out and needs a simple solution to lay down some demos.

3. Traverso

Available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux

Traverso, another fully featured DAW that’s sure to meet common recording needs, is all about convenience.

This program eschews a traditional “menu” structure in favor of innovative keyboard and mouse shortcuts, which brings a crisp immediacy to recording tasks. There’s no doubt about it–there will be a bit of a learning curve–but the developers claim to have integrated input and execution so seamlessly that you practically learn how to do things as you go along. Furthermore, users have an array of options that make recording demo CDs a snap. You can create tables of contents and burn discs without ever leaving Traverso.

Other features that dovetail nicely with the “stay out of the way” philosophy behind Traverso include non-destructive editing, or the ability to use plugins and make edits without

Free Recording Studio For Mac