Free (or super-cheap) DAWs?

Hello EKT. It's been many years now since I made music on my laptop, but I'd like to get back into it. Back in the olden days I used Ableton Live, but being older and generally wiser I'd rather not rely on cracked software this time around.

But I'd also rather not spend like £300 on what is essentially a fruity little hobby.

So - I was wondering if there's anything good or new in the world of free and open DAWs. Probably not, but it's worth a shot...

Alternatively, I'd consider buying a decent bit of kit for under £100.

Any ideas?

http://www.reaper.fm

It's brills.

That was fast - and it looks like just the ticket. Thanks Pete.

yep, i've been using reaper for the last couple of years and it's awesome.

Another vote for Reaper. It's good, and there's a lot going on under the hood to play with, e.g. Jesusonic.

ya reaper is great. Check out the automation options. It's the only daw with LFOs and envelope followers built in to every track! Super fun. :)

+1 for Reaper. In addition to being very stable, lightweight and functional, Cockos release updates and bug fixes often and the community in the Cockos forums is very helpful. I've used just about all popular DAWs and IMO Reaper doesn't come up short despite the price tag.

  On 9/4/2012 at 3:36 PM, slightlydrybeans said:

ya reaper is great. Check out the automation options. It's the only daw with LFOs and envelope followers built in to every track! Super fun. :)

Whaaaaat!? Missed these! Damn, I gotta get my music desktop working.

Reaper

Hey guys, thanks for all the ideas but can you PLEASE try to reach a consensus?

And once again, Reaper.

You can also check Renoise if you're not afraid of trackers.

On a similar note, but not to hijack the topic, what do people recommend for free or cheap mp3 DJ software? Likewise, in years past I just used cracked Ableton, but am more reluctant to do so these days. I'm not after anything fancy, just something to have some fun messing around with good tunes...

VirtualDJ?

  On 9/4/2012 at 4:12 PM, lin said:

And once again, Reaper.

You can also check Renoise if you're not afraid of trackers.

They can be fun together too.

I've used traktor, and it's not awful. Typical NI stuff though.

Renoise

  On 9/4/2012 at 6:33 PM, Dan C said:

Renoise

Stop touting that bloody tracker

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I use reniose :/ Its improved a lot in version 2.8.

JB 4eva

Hammerhead!

logic is insanely cheap these days...150 e ain´t bad for what it is

also, i've always really liked energyXT. very powerful modular capabilities and sequencing - 39 euro

http://www.energy-xt.com/index.php?id=0101

  On 9/4/2012 at 5:04 PM, Ron Manager said:

On a similar note, but not to hijack the topic, what do people recommend for free or cheap mp3 DJ software? Likewise, in years past I just used cracked Ableton, but am more reluctant to do so these days. I'm not after anything fancy, just something to have some fun messing around with good tunes...

Mixxx is what you want. It's still in development / beta, but from my experience it's proven better than the cheaper versions of Traktor and VirtualDJ. I'd be cautious of using it seriously, but for pissing about with a few mates on a DJ controller it does the job.

Also another vote for Reaper, there isn't really any better value for money DAW out there. I've had a bit of fun mucking about with Linux MultiMedia Studio before as well without having to fork out any money if that's of any interest, but isn't really up to the task if you want to want to make something beyond shitty jams with a few people that aren't really sure what they're doing.

i found Mixxx to be very poor. I have however been very impressed with Algoriddim Djay - which, despite it's rather crap-sounding name (reminds me of Dance Ejay lol) is actually bloody good and the beatmatching algorithms are probably the best i've seen - it's amazing what this thing happily syncs up with no need of warp-points or other such irritations. unfortunately it's Mac only i believe.