Free DAW from PreSonus

[64Guitars]

Considering the fact that it's free, this DAW from PreSonus looks pretty good. The main limitation is that it doesn't support VST/AU and other third-party plugins. But it seems to have a lot of really cool features for a free DAW, including 8 native effects plugins, unlimited audio and MIDI tracks, and 200 sampled instruments for use with the included Presence virtual instrument (shown in lower-right quarter of photo below).

http://www.presonus.com/products/Studio-One/explore/start-free-go-pro

Click the following image to view it fullsize:

[Greeny]

That looks pretty cool. Thanks for the heads-up!

[Rata-tat-tat]

PreSonus WOW... I'm gonna have to check this out!!! I love their digital mixing consoles....

[phantasm777]

i looked at the first page. do you know if it has the capability for unlimited tracks? i need to try a new daw, as hard as it is to do so for my kindergarten-ass!

[64Guitars]

do you know if it has the capability for unlimited tracks?

They say it does. I can't speak from experience because I'm not a Windows user so I haven't tried it.

• Unlimited audio tracks, MIDI tracks, virtual instruments, buses, and FX channels

i need to try a new daw, as hard as it is to do so for my kindergarten-ass!

If you're looking for something that's easy to learn, you might want to give Jokosher a try. It's somewhat like Apple's GarageBand, though not as powerful.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jokosher

http://www.jokosher.org/

http://www.jokosher.org/jokosher-tutorial/


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulIMsJpz6CQ

[AndyR]

That Presonus stuff does look pretty good.

[phantasm777]

has anyone used this? made a song with it? i'd like to know what they think of it.

[AndyR]

Not yet, but I've got my eye on it (Presonus). Hoping to give the free one a go soon (if it's any good, I want the "bionic producer", or whatever its called, version)

My laptop is almost dead and won't be much use for it. I'm going to be moving my wife's current desktop into my studio soon (when we've bought her a shiny new laptop), that will run it happily.

The only reason I didn't download it onto hers the other day is that she's worried I'll "break" her computer while her writing stuff is still on it!! (And I'm not confident enough that it will all be fine, so I wasn't prepared to go "don't be so daft woman!!" )

If and when I do get going I'll give a shout. Meantime, if anyone else tries it, I'll be very interested to hear about it.

[AndyR]

Well, I've got the free version of Presonus's Studio One installed now...

Woof!!!

Definitely worth a try folks

All I've done so far is pull in a mixture of mono and stereo wavs (originally recorded on the BR1600) - bass, acoustic guitars, lead vocal, and click, from a demo of a thing I'm working on with someone else. They just happened to be what I had lying around on the PC.

It's using the PC's soundcard without even asking questions, and I suspect that setting up my external audio/midi interface would be a doddle.

I've learnt to bring the tracks in, use the mixing console and all the effects included. I set up insert effects, created effects buses and routed signals about, etc, etc... I even accidentally learnt how to use track/mix automation... all without going near the manual.

Last night I had a little look in the manual... looks to me like recording, editing audio, using the midi tracks and virtual instruments, etc, etc, will be a similarly easy experience.

I'm hooked on using the BR1600 for tracking, mixing, and mastering at the moment. I don't see that changing in the immediate future, but this free Studio One will make collaborating a whole hell of a lot easier.

But I am now seriously considering getting one of the fully paid up versions.

With this free one, though, already I don't see me using my Cakewalk HomeStudio 2004 anymore, nor the old version of Audacity that I have.


For the price (), and ease of download/instal, it is defintely worth a look-see. I have a feeling that if you've never used a DAW before it might be a bit daunting - but that's gonna be the same with any DAW, I guess.

It feels like these guys are "fired-up" and want to make a sh1t-hot DAW, and they're happy to give away the basic version, which does in fact do everything you need to get rolling.

Quite impressed so far....

Thanks for the heads-up 64!!

[DannyB_KY]

I received an email this morning for discounts this holiday weekend. Looks pretty cool!

Unlike Sonar, it works for Mac OS X also.

Like 77, I'm kindergarten with these things. No, I'd be more like pre-school......