Best Free Music Recording Software For Mac

Aug 27, 2019 This free recording software for Mac will meet all of your common recording needs. It gives you a wide array of options that allows you to record demo CDs with absolute ease. Other brilliant features that it has include non-destructive editing, ability to edit audio files without changing their original quality, and lock-less real time audio. If you are in the music industry or if you are trying to get in, then you will need the best software with which you will be able to record all the songs and tracks. For this purpose you will be able to use certain Audio Recording Software. These Music Studio Software can be used very easily and some of them are free to use. Different types of Multitrack Recording Software or Studio Recording. Price: $249 (Free trial for 30 days) Get From Here. OBS Studio is free to use screen recorder software for Mac that is compatible with live streaming games on Twitch, can record real-time audio/video, and gives you a chance to customize your preferences accordingly. 8 Best DAW Software for MAC. Apple Logic Pro. It is the most advanced version of Logic. Whether you wish to mix, edit, write songs or make beats, Apple Logic Pro is one of the best DAW software for MAC. It has a modern interface to get quick results and deliver more power whenever needed.

Although there are a lot of audio recording programs out there claiming to record almost any sound play on computer, the fact you should always keep in mind is that only a few of them promise capturing high quality audio. Therefore, if you care much about the quality of your recordings, choosing a proper high-powered audio recorder could really matter. Are you just looking for such recording tool but with a low budget? Luckily, among the numerous audio recording software available on internet, we are glad to see most of them are offered for free. To help you quickly pick up the best free streaming audio recorder online, we complied a list of top 5 most popular free audio recording programs that can record streaming music, radios, in-game sound, music in videos, and any other sound play on Mac and Windows with high quality.

Top 1. Audacity (Mac & Windows)

As a well-known open source free audio recorder, Audacity is capable of recording and editing anything you throw at it, including audio through microphone and sound card all in a few clicks thanks to the clean interface. It also allows users adjust pitch, bass, and treble, or normalize noise and add effects like reverb and phasing to the recordings. In addition, it supports multi-track capturing to save a lot of time for you. And unlike most other free audio recorders which are free for a limited time or free with locked features, Audacity is a real free of charge audio recording application offered in full free version. Overall, Audacity offers one of the most robust packages available among free recording programs.

Pros:

1. Totally free and extremely easy to use;
2. Support recording any sound on computer;
3. Edit recorded audio's quality with many effects;
4. Support multi-track recording.

Cons:

1. Require plugins to accomplish optimal functionality;
2. Can't export audio recordings to MP3;
3. Effect editing is destructive to original audio track.

Top 2. Apowersoft Free Online Audio Recorder

Differing from Audacity or other free audio streaming recorder, Apowersoft Audio Recorder is a free online recording solution that needs no plug-in on Windows or Mac. It allows you record any sound from system sound card and microphone in high quality within 3 steps only. It fully supports capturing streaming music, radio stations, music in games, voice chats, etc. playing via devices like Windows Media Player, QuickTime, iTunes, Tablets, Chromebook, Android smartphones, iPhone, Windows Phone and more. Besides, it offers additional recording functions like converting audio records to MP3, WMA, AAC, FLAC, WAV, M4A, OGG, adding ID3 tags, sharing recorded audios online, playing recordings in real time, etc.

Pros:

1. Free and no need to install setup file on computer;
2. Support any sound sources;
3. Save recordings in multiple popular formats;
4. Support extensional functions for recording.

Cons:

1. Can't edit output audio quality;
2. Multi-track recording not supported.

Top 3. Ardour (Mac & Windows)

Ardour DAW is another great open-source audio recorder with professional music recording features and no cost. Developed by Paul Davis, Ardour is aiming at providing powerful recorder for studios who are at low budgets. Featuring highly versatile multi-track audio recording, Ardour can record and edit audios non-destructively or destructively. Its use of Jack, an underlying sound server, makes it compatible with a number of outside applications as well. With the release of third edition, Ardour is supposed to import video for film scoring purpose and record, edit MIDI without a hassle. However, unlike most of other free DAWs, Ardour comes with a confusing graphical user interface which is inaccessible for beginners. It's more like a professional tool developed for musicians or audio engineers.

Pros:

1. Free and professional;
2. Support multi-track recording;
3. Edit recorded tracks non-destructively.

Cons:

1. It's complex and difficult for newbie;
2. No built-in effects or instruments.

Top 4. Aktiv MP3 Recorder (Windows)

If you are looking for a free streaming music recorder that can convey CD, tape, DVD, live performance, TV, Internet radio, streaming music, video games and any other sound source into popular audio formats like MP3, WMA, OGG, VOX, AU, AIFF, then you can't miss Aktiv MP3 Recorder. As a full-featured audio recorder, the big difference between Aktiv and other free recording tools is that it comes with recording scheduler which provides you the ability to record streaming audio at certain times according to your requirements.

Pros:

1. Free streaming audio recorder;
2. Support most popular output formats;
3. Provide schedule recording tasks.

Cons:

1. Available for Windows only;
2. Installer contains some extra software.

Top 5. Traverso DAW (Mac & Windows)

Traverso DAW is another cross-platform free multitrack audio recording and audio editing suite with support for CD mastering and non-linear processing. Traverso is different with other in UI as it offers a unique user interface using both the mouse and the keyboard together for precision and speed. In addition, Traverso includes non-destructive editing, the ability to use plugins and make edits without changing the actual recorded sample. Also it is offering full support for ALSA, Jack and PortAudio, and lockless real-time audio processing.

Pros:

1. Fullfeatured free recording app;
2. Innovative keyboard and mouse shortcuts;
3. Support non-destructive audio editing.

Cons:

1. Take some time for users to get used to the shortcuts;
2. Need plugins to edit audio non-destructively.

More Professional Audio Recorder for Low Budget - TunesKit

Of course, no piece of free software is without its shortcomings. So do those free audio recorders. They are not as advanced as other paid software in functionality. In case you are searching for such paid recording products with reasonable price, we highly recommend a best free sound recorder to you. The renowned program is called TunesKit Audio Capture. It's available for both Mac and Windows platforms. It costs $19.95 but with more powerful features, including multi-track lossless recording, automatically fulfilling ID3 tags, editing output quality, splitting or merging recorded tracks, etc. You can download the free trial versions as below to test it out by yourself. For complete tutorial, visit this user guide.

Conclusion & Suggestion

As you can see, all the above recording tools are free of charge to meet most of your recording needs with options of recording audio, adding effects, and cutting waveforms, as well as other basic recording tasks. To conclude, if you are referring an all-in-one application that combines easy operation and high performance, Audacity and Aktiv MP3 Recorder could be the best audio recording software. But if you concern more about the professionalism and quality, you are suggested to go for Ardour or Traverso DAW that are more professional oriented. Or alternatively, Apowersoft Audio Recorder could be a great choice if you don't want to install any software on your computer. If you still have no idea which one to choose, simply try them out one by one and decide which works best for you.

Nick Orin is a review writer, software geek and Mac OS enthusiast. He spends all his free time in searching useful software and gadgets to share with others.

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Hey guys, ODi Productions here with a recommendation article on what I believe are the best music recording software for beginners on both Mac and PC. If you watched my video on “How To Record Vocals at Home in 3 Easy Steps”, then you know that music software is the last part of a recording setup. In this article, I’m going to recommend 2 different programs that are perfect for amateur rappers and singers who are looking to start recording their own vocals at home. I’ll start off with my recommendation for Mac users, since I believe that this is the best music software for beginners overall.

Best Music Recording Software for Mac: Apple GarageBand (Free)

Best Music Recording Software for Mac is Apple GarageBand

For Mac users, the best music software for beginners is easily Apple’s GarageBand, which comes free with every Mac. No other music program really comes close to GarageBand in terms of user interface and simplicity. But don’t let GarageBand’s price-tag or simple looks fool you. When it comes to strictly recording vocals or instruments, this free program almost rivals its big brother, Apple’s Logic Pro ($199.99).

Best Free Music Recording Software For Mac

In GarageBand, recording and editing audio is extremely simple, not to mention it comes with a lot of high-quality effects and plugins that can really improve your sound.

Some of GarageBand's high-quality effects and plugins.

And if you don’t know how to use any of these plugins, GarageBand comes with factory presets that you can just slap onto your recordings to instantly improve your vocals or instruments. It doesn’t get much easier than that.

GarageBand comes with many factory presets for vocals and instruments.

(Of course, if you want a truly professional sound, you’re going to need some mixing and mastering by an audio engineer. But you can always record your vocals in GarageBand, and then just send your unedited recordings to the audio engineer.)

For Mac users, the beauty of GarageBand is that you probably already have it, so go ahead and start using it! Now that brings me to my recommendation for PC users…

Best Music Recording Software for PC: Acoustica Mixcraft 6 Home Studio ($49.99)

Best Music Recording Software for PC is Acoustica Mixcraft 6 Home Studio

The reason I chose Acoustica Mixcraft for the best music recording software for PC is because it is the closest thing to Apple’s GarageBand right now. Mixcraft has a pretty simple interface, although not as pretty as GarageBand, it still gets the job done for basic recording. Also, at a price-tag of $49.99 for the Home Studio edition, Mixcraft is one of the most affordable choices for PC music software on the market right now.

Best Free Music Recording Software For Mac Download

Mixcraft's interface is not as pretty as GarageBand's, but it gets the job done. (Source: acoustica.com)

Similar to GarageBand, Acoustica Mixcraft comes with a variety of good-quality effects and plugins that can really help improve your recordings if you learn how to use them.

A list of some of Acoustica Mixcraft 6's factory plugins. (Source: acoustica.com)

Luckily, Mixcraft also comes with some factory presets to choose from, but I personally believe GarageBand’s presets and plugins are much higher quality for vocals.

Mixcraft also comes with factory presets, although not as good as GarageBand's (Source: acoustica.com)

Either way, you can always record your vocals in Mixcraft, before sending them to an audio engineer for mixing and mastering.

Free Music Recording Software

Buy Acoustica Mixcraft Here

Acoustica Mixcraft 6 Home Studio Edition: http://amzn.to/1yt2KcW

That wraps everything up for thisarticle! If you have any questions, feel free to leave a comment below and I’ll do my best to help you out.

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