Any good, free DAWs you can recommend? (preferrably some with musical notation)

[Fynn]

So I was thinking of getting back into writing music. Any good software you know is available for free and can recommend it? It would be ideal if it allowed musical notation, as that would be the easiest way for me to write the music itself, but I learn fast, so I think I can handle something without it if you think it's recommendable enough. It would just make it easier for me if I could see and write the notes :p

[Slothy]

If you want a low cost option Reaper is pretty much the best out there. You can download and use it for free forever basically, but if you like it the license for non-commercial use is $60. Though looking at the site now it says free for 60 days. It used to be basically forever but you were encouraged to pay for it if you liked it so I'm not sure if it's really changed or if they're just not as up front about it. Either way, it'd still be 60 days where you can use the full features unlike any other demo version I've ever seen. And there's no shortage of virtual instruments out there to run in it.

As far as notation, I'm so out of the loop on the current programs and versions that I'm not sure. When I was up on them you could basically expect to either get a full featured DAW with mediocre notation capabilities or a program with great notation that was nowhere near being a full featured DAW. That said, I always preferred actually working in the midi piano roll anyway. You just get a lot more control if you want to go in and edit things by hand that way. I'd just dive into that stuff in a DAW and not worry too much about music notation.

On a somewhat unrelated note, I'd recommend checking out Reason as well though. It's very much not free (unless, well, I'm sure you can figure it out) and it's on version 8 now when the last one I bought was version 3 I believe, and it's not actually a DAW in the traditional sense, but it is totally self contained, loaded with instruments and customization, and I always just liked that and it's work flow. Plus it was always pretty easy on computer specs whereas most other programs aren't. Definitely look into it and maybe try the demo to see if you're interested in it. It won't be as powerful overall as a full fledged DAW, but the cost is lower and the performance is better than most, and if you did like it, you don't have to spend a ton more time and money finding VST's to run in it.

[krissy]

there's also some online options but they are not as good as the dedicated things
if you're running mac you should have garage band as well

vivi's right, notation is not something daw's seem to care about, but many will have 'paste chord in here' functionality

[Pheesh]

If you want notation then you should be looking into something like guitar pro. That way you can write practically any instrument you like, even if it won't sound completely organic. If you go the DAW route you're going to need to invest in a sound card, instruments, and VSTs at minimum.

If I were to recommend a DAW it would be Cubase because it's just the one I've grown accustomed to using. It does pretty much everything I could ask for and more, and I absolutely hated pro tools when I tried using it, which is the only other DAW I've given a proper go.

[Fynn]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I'll look into that stuff!

Though as I'm classically trained, it's a bummer that most don't use notation. I might actually end up using a separate notation program first just to visualize the pieces. Still, I'll try the stuff you mentioned out when I have a bit more time. It's good to know there's always someone willing to give advice on this here!

[Slothy]

When I was writing music somewhat regularly and getting it into the old DAW of choice, I usually wrote on paper first anyway since, like you, I knew sheet music pretty well (less so on piano than drums, but well enough). In the process I kind of got better at reading the piano roll. Comfort with it will come with time and practice, but by all means write however you're most comfortable then play it into the DAW.

[krissy]

Sort of related, what do you guys use for composition? Any math or anything? Paper? Or are there good programs that help with design of progressions et

[crashNUMBERS]

look, as far as Im concerned, with internet and pirating, almost everything is pretty much free enough
;)

Id say get Reason. there's no notation if you're referring to the musical staff and drawing the notes that way
but there is a piano roll and you can use your keyboard as a controller
so if you know tempo, time signature and how to play a bit piano then it is relatively close to musical notation
its also got a bunch of different pianos, synths, basses, drums, etc.

[Fynn]

I mean, I guess a mock piano is better than nothing, since I have been playing it all my life, so thanks :p

[Slothy]

Sort of related, what do you guys use for composition? Any math or anything? Paper? Or are there good programs that help with design of progressions et

I always just used paper and a keyboard.

[Fynn]

Sort of related, what do you guys use for composition? Any math or anything? Paper? Or are there good programs that help with design of progressions et

I always just used paper and a keyboard.

Yeah, same. I just have no piano with me now, so I wanted to get into the digital stuff

[crashNUMBERS]

dont be that guy
if you were seeking to use digital programming anyway for composition it wasn't gonna be anywhere close to live instruments
go into it with the joy of manipulating sounds
dont judge your fun before you even have it

[Fynn]

dont be that guy
if you were seeking to use digital programming anyway for composition it wasn't gonna be anywhere close to live instruments
go into it with the joy of manipulating sounds
dont judge your fun before you even have it

What exactly do you mean? Do you think I'm naive enough to think they're gonna sound like live instruments? Of course I wanna play around with sounds. I just said what I used for composition in the past and explained why being able to write notation is important to me.