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 audio recorder online, we complied a list of top 5 most popular free audio recording software 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 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.
Whether to buy a Mac or PC is a hotly debated topic among home recordists. Most professional studios used to favor Macintosh computers for recording audio. PCs were thought to have too many bugs to work well for audio. Even if this were true in the past, it’s not true anymore. Your decision between a. QuickTime Comes Built into Mac. Best for – recording voice over and editing. Audacity is a free and open source audio recording software for Mac. We use for recording audio for our YouTube channel. You have an option to choose the recording source (we use it with Blue Yeti mic), recording channel type, audio type etc.
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 desktop audio recording tools, 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.
1. Take some time for users to get used to the shortcuts;
2. Need plugins to edit audio non-destructively. 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. How to use gsnap autotune. 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 options. 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.
More Professional Audio Recorder for Low Budget
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 quick alternative solution 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.
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.
When choosing a Mac for music production, you have a few choices.
The first thing you have to decide is if you rather have a desktop computer or a laptop.
Best Imac For Recording Music Player
Typically, if this is your first mac, or you don’t already have a reliable laptop, I’d recommend going for a laptop. Having the ability to bring your studio anywhere is important.
If you prefer to have a large screen when making music and don’t plan on working in too many locations, a desktop computer might be a better option for you.
Once you have made that decision, you have to choose the best model for you.
Down below are my top 5 picks for the best Macs for music production.
Tip: When writing this article, I found that most of these computers were cheapest on Amazon. I recommend comparing prices on Amazonbefore buying directly from Apple.
Mac Pro
If money is not an issue, go for a Mac Pro.
Not to be confused with the Macbook Pro, the Mac Pro is apple’s most powerful desktop computer.
Its price starts at $3000.
The Mac Pro is packed with 12GB of ram. Its processor is quad-core and is 3.76GHz.
There are 4 usb 3.0 ports and 6 thunderbolt ports. As for connecting display, you can use either the provided thunderbolt ports or the hdmi port.
The hard drive is 256GB. Don’t be alarmed by the small storage capacity (compared to the 1TB+ computers that are standard today). The hard drive is a solid state drive (SSD). This means that there are no moving parts.
Solid state hard drives are a LOT faster than normal hard drives. Doing anything, from booting up, to loading up your favorite DAW, will happen in a fraction of the time that it would with a normal hard drive.
The newest Mac Pro model is noticeably compact.
The first thing you’ll notice about the Mac Pro is how small and compact it is. It is perhaps one of the smallest powerhouse computers in the market.
You can tell that the Mac Pro was designed very well. It runs incredibly efficiently and stays cool during use.
iMac
The nice part about buying an iMac, compared to a Mac Pro, Is that the display is built-in. No additional purchases are needed to get up and running with the iMac.
There are 2 main types of iMacs you could get: The Retina and non-Retina version.
The best iMac available is the 27 inch iMac Retina display model.
The Retina iMac starts at $2000 and has a few different variations.
The baseline iMac has 8GB of ram and a 1TB hard drive. It has a nice and powerful 2GB video card as well.
For the average producer, this is more than enough power. Even if you need more power down the road, the iMac is upgradable to 32GB of RAM.
To save some money, you can buy the non-Retina version for only $1099. It still has plenty of power from its 8GB of ram, 500GB hard drive, and 1.4GHz processor.
Mac Mini
Mac Minis have gone down in price a lot over the years.
They are still an amazing performer in the studio and have quite impressive specs for their price.
The cheapest one you could get is $500. If this is all you are willing to spend, by all means go for it, but I would recommend the next option up.
The next option up is $700, BUT has twice the ram, a 1 terabyte hard drive, and a much faster 2.5GHz processor.
The Mac Mini has 4 usb 3.0 ports, 2 thunderbolt 2 ports, and also an hdmi connector if you prefer hdmi over thunderbolt.
$700 is an incredibly low entry barrier to get a Mac. Of course you also need a monitor. Apple has their own expensive displays, but if you’re on a budget, you can pick up a third party thunderbolt monitor, such as the ASUS MX279H for only a couple hundred bucks.
Overall, the Mac Mini is an excellent choice for music production.
Macbook Pro
Without a doubt, the Macbook Pro is the best laptop for music production.
Out of all of the few laptops that Apple offers, the Pro model is the most powerful. While it is not as thin as the Air, it is still a lot more portable then most other laptops in the market.
Just like the iMac, there are both Retina and non-Retina versions. The non-Retina Macbook Pro starts at $1099 while the Retina Macbook Pro starts at 1299.
The Retina Macbook Pro comes in both 13 and 15 inch variations. It has 8Gb of RAM and a 2.7Ghz processor.
There is even a 128GB SSD hard drive built-in. If you pay a little more, you can get a 256GB hard drive.
The Macbook Pro has a long-lasting battery that will last for 10 hours. (That would probably translate to roughly 6 hours of heavy audio-editing in a DAW.)
Macbook Air
I included the Macbook Air on this list because it is what I found to be the cheapest Apple Laptop that would hold up to music production.
The Macbook Air starts at $900 and goes as high as $1199.
You can get your Air in either 11 or 13 inch variations. I would recommend going with the 13 inch model. Those extra 2 inches make a big difference!
The baseline 13 inch Macbook Air will cost you $1000. It has a 1.6GHz processor and has 4GB of ram. You’ll immediately notice that the Macbook Air is really fast! This is because of the 128GB flash SSD hard drive inside.
I don’t think I even need to mention how portable the Air is. You can stick the think in an envelope if you wanted to!
Overall the Macbook Air is a dream for producing on the go! It is surprisingly powerful and inexpensive.
Summary:
So there you have it!
I hope you have learned a bit more about which mac are best for music production. If you still have a question, drop a comment down below!
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