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Qtractor is an Audio and MIDI multi-track free music production software. Qtractor DAW Features: Multi-track audio sequencing and recording. Traditional multi-track tape recorder control paradigm. Audio file formats support OGG (via libvorbis), MP3 (via libmad, playback only), WAV, FLAC, AIFF and many, many more (via libsndfile). Download VST VSTI AU RTAS AAX DAW Plugins Free FL Studio Ableton Live Logic Pro Cubase Pro Tools reFX Nexus Sylenth Massive Xfer Serum Spire Kontakt 5 Waves.

Multi Track Free Vst Dawn
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Multitrack Editor

It’s amazing how many free Digital Audio Workstations (DAW for short) are available these days for recording, creating, editing and mixing music from a simple home computer setup.

When I first started getting into recording music from home, I thought it was pretty much required to spend a few hundred dollars (at least) on music recording software, but it turns out that’s not the case at all.

In fact if you’re a beginner just starting out, you’re much better off not buying a DAW right away.

It’s better to test a few different DAWs at first, some free versions and demos, to find out what fits your style and workflow the best.

There’s nothing worse than spending several hundred dollars on software that you later find out that you don’t like, so it’s important to take some time when it comes to choosing a DAW.

If you’re looking for a new DAW or are just starting out, here’s a list of the best free Digital Audio Workstations that are currently available to download and try out.

Pro Tools First

Pro Tools has been one of the top Digital Audio Workstations for a long time. It is used in many professional studios and is considered the industry standard in some circles. But Pro Tools also receives a lot of criticism for the way Avid chooses to handles things.

Avid released a completely free version of Pro Tools earlier this year called Pro Tools First. It has a lot of good things going for it, with a couple of significant drawbacks. The free version is a great way to try out Pro Tools without having to commit to spending a fortune on a full license or a subscription plan.

Here’s a comparison chart that lists the differences between the free and paid versions of Pro Tools.

Pros

Supports recording 16 mono/stereo audio and instrument and MIDI tracks.
Supports ReWire.
Comes with Xpand!2, a virtual instrument plugin with 1000’s of built-in sounds for drums, strings, pianos, loops, synths, etc; plus over 20 Pro Tools plugins are included.

Cons

Plugins can only be purchased through Avid’s marketplace; you can’t install plugins from outside sources.
Supports just three projects at one time.
Projects are stored in the cloud (with offline caching).

Studio One 3 Prime

The other big-name free DAW up for the taking that works with Mac and PC computers is Studio One Prime. Unlike most other free DAWs it offers unlimited audio tracks, MIDI tracks, buses, and FX channels. The main limitation is you can’t load 3rd party plugins with the free version because there is no VST support—and that’s a pretty big issue.

The $99 PreSonus AudioBox USB audio interface comes with a free download of Studio One 3 Artist, which sells for $75 separately. It’s a step-up from the free version and adds a number of additional features, but VST and ReWire support costs an extra $79 as an add-on.

Here’s a comparison chart at PreSonus listing all the different features between each version of Studio One.

Pros

Impressive interface and workflow, with advanced multi-track editing and comping, automation, and full MIDI support.
Supports unlimited audio tracks, MIDI tracks, buses, and FX channels.
It comes with 9 high-quality effects, including Ampire, Beat Delay, Chorus, MixVerb, EQ, Presence XT sampler, etc.

Cons

No VST plugin support.
Just one virtual instrument included.

Podium Free

One of the better options for a free DAW is Podium Free, the freeware edition of Podium. It’s a fully-functional DAW for Windows that supports recording and editing audio and MIDI, and it can load VST plugins as well.

Pros

VST plugin support.
Identical to the commercial version of Podium, with a few limitations.
Can download and use freely, registration optional.

Cons

Windows only.
Plugin multi-processing is disabled on free version.
ReWire and 64-bit mixer engine disabled on free version.

Tracktion T5

If you truly want to go the free DAW route, Tracktion 5 is one of the best options. It’s not encumbered by the usual limitations like other brands. It’s a fully-operational DAW, complete with VST and ReWire support and unlimited tracks. T5 also supports automation and it has audio comping, latency management, track freeze, MIDI learn, and more.

Pros

Supports unlimited VST/AU plugins and ReWire.
Unlimited number of audio and MIDI tracks supported.
Works with Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Cons

Single window user interface.
Less overall features than the big name stuff like Pro Tools First.

DarkWave Studio

DarkWave Studio is another freeware DAW that is available for Windows. It’s designed with an emphasis on creating electronic music. It supports VST and VSTi instrument and plugin effects. DarkWave Studio features a modular approach and it comes with a bunch of bundled plugins.

Pros

VST plugins supported.
Multi core & multi CPU support.
Regularly updated.

Cons

Windows only.
Not well known, not much info.

Reaper

Reaper is a popular DAW that’s loaded with tons of features and a very user-friendly license policy. There’s an older free version of Reaper available, v0.999. It hasn’t been updated in 10 years and won’t be updated again, but it still has a number of useful tools for recording and editing music.

However, it doesn’t really make any sense to even bother with the free version of Reaper because the full version only costs $60. Don’t let the price fool you. It’s a full DAW with the same level of features as the expensive stuff. Plus it has a 60-day trial period to demo the full software.

Additional Options

Audacity – It’s not a DAW precisely but Audacity is highly-capable open source audio software for multi-track recording and editing—it even supports VST plugins. It works with Windows, Mac, and Linux and it’s free.

LMMS – While it does not offer any type of external audio recording, LMMS is free open-source software for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It comes with some included effects and instrument plugins. It supports MIDI and 3rd-party VST plugins.

Ableton Live Lite 9 – A fully-functional DAW that’s main limitation is it only supports 8 tracks/scenes. It’s not free exactly but it does come free with a number of MIDI and audio interfaces. One of the best and most capable free software add-ons if you can get a hold of it.

MuLab Free – A free version of MuLab that supports four tracks and eight VST plugins per project. Works with Windows and Mac OSX.

Ardour – A fully functional DAW for OSX and Linux. It’s not free but it can be purchased for as little as $1.

Wavosaur – Wavosaur is a free audio editor and audio recorder program that supports wav and mp3 files. Wavosaur can install VST plugins for real time effects processing. The program is freeware for Windows computers.

VST plugins are third party plugins. Many commercial and free plugins are available in this format.

VST plugins can be loaded in an effect slot using the slot's down arrow. The VST plugins appear in the effect selector's 'VST Plugins' section (Windows) / 'VST and AU Plugins' section (Mac).

If a VST plugin gets in a bad state somehow you can press the F5 key (Windows) / Command-R (Mac) while the plugin interface is visible. This will save the settings, reload the plugin and load the settings again.

Note: a VST plugin that's installed while MultitrackStudio is running may not be recognised automatically (the plugins are collected only once per session). You can press the F5 key (Windows) / Command-R (Mac) while an effect selector is visible in order to force VST plugins to be rescanned.

Most VST plugins are VST2 plugins, some are VST3. MultitrackStudio supports both formats.

VST2 plugins

Windows: VST2 plugins are .dll files. In the Plugin Manager a folder can be selected where the VST plugins are located. MultitrackStudio looks for VST plugins in this folder and its subfolders.
Mac: VST2 plugins are .vst files. They're located in the user or system Library/Audio/Plug-ins/VST folder.

Plugins that do supply a graphical user interface will be shown in a window with Bypass and Presets buttons. Plugins that do not have their own user interface will be made to look like native MultitrackStudio effects.

Any presets coming with the plugin appear in the Presets menu. The presets can be factory presets (stored in the plugin itself), presets stored in .fxb bank files or presets stored in .fxp files. MultitrackStudio looks for matching .fxb/.fxp files in the folder where the plugin is located, and all of its subfolders.

There are a couple of 'powered' plugins on the market that come with their own dedicated hardware to run on. These kind of plugins are not supported.

Some plugins generate MIDI data. This MIDI output is merged with the data coming from MIDI input devices if the plugin is in a recording audio track and Soft Monitoring is enabled.

Bridging

Note: bridging is available for Windows only. The Mac version supports 64 bit plugins only.

Both 32 and 64 bit versions of MultitrackStudio support 32 and 64 bit VST plugins. 64 bit Windows is required to run 64 bit plugins.64 bit MultitrackStudio runs 32 bit plugins 'bridged', or 'out-of-process' in computer lingo. Similarly, 32 bit MultitrackStudio runs 64 plugins bridged. This happens automatically.

Bridging plugins has some drawbacks: there's some performance overhead, and you may hear glitches while recording them at low latencies. It's best to use mostly 64 bit plugins with the 64 bit version of MultitrackStudio.

Note: not all VST plugins are happy running bridged. Some seem to work fine running one instance, but weird things happen if you add more instances. Some copy protection mechanisms may fail. Some won't work if UAC (User Account Control) is enabled on Windows Vista and newer.

A bridged plugin that crashes shouldn't tear down MultitrackStudio. You can choose to run a buggy plugin bridged for this reason. The Plugin Manager can be used to force new instances of a plugin to run bridged. The window title bar of a bridged plugin reads 'VST plugin (bridged): name'.

Under the hood
Each bridged plugin appears in the Windows Task Manager as 'MtStudioVSTServer.exe' (32 bit plugin) / 'MtStudioVSTServer64.exe' (64 bit plugin).

Customizing the VST folder

On Windows the Plugin Manager allows for specifying one VST folder. On Mac there are two default VST folders, and you can specify an additional one in the Plugin Manager. If you need more flexibility you can place an MtStudioLinks.txt file in the VST folder, a folder that's included by an MtStudioLinks.txt file or any of the subfolders. MtStudioLinks.txt must be a plain text file. NotePad (Windows) / TextEdit (Mac) can be used to create/edit such files.

This example file demonstrates the options:

Windows:
g:OtherFolder
g:OtherFolderTheReverb.dll
-SamplesDir
-BuggyPlugin.dll

Mac:
/Volumes/MyDrive/OtherFolder/
/Volumes/MyDrive/OtherFolder/TheReverb.vst
-SamplesDir/
-BuggyPlugin.vst

The first line includes the OtherFolder folder. The second line includes the TheReverb plugin. The third line excludes the SamplesDir subfolder, this can be useful if folders with huge amounts of samples slow down plugin scanning. The last line excludes the BuggyPlugin plugin.

Tip: you can press the F5 key (Windows) / Command-R (Mac) while an effect selector is visible in order to force VST plugins to be rescanned.

VST3 plugins

Windows: VST3 plugins are .vst3 files. 64 bit plugins are located in the C:Program FilesCommon FilesVST3 folder. 32 bit plugins are located in the C:Program FilesCommon FilesVST3 (if your Windows version is 32 bits), or the C:Program Files (x86)Common FilesVST3 folder (64 bits Windows version). There's no bridging for VST3 plugins, so 64 bits MultitrackStudio can only use 64 bits plugins and 32 bits MultitrackStudio can only use 32 bits plugins.