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[___mandrake___]

What digital audio workstation should I use to produce music to my game? What I want is to write a score with prerecorded real music instruments. I tried with garage band but it only has midi instruments to be used to create scores. All suggestions are welcome but I would prefer those that are free

[Tonlistar]

I for one love Reaper. It is free and has a cheap license option if you choose to go that route while also having powerful real instrument recording capability. Sure it isn't as grand looking as other DAWs, but you can get great themes to spruce it up a bit. I know a few big time composers that also use FL Studio. The industry go to these days seems to be either Nuendo or Pro Tools... but those will cost a good penny. In the end there is no right DAW. Just matters on your personal preference. Happy DAW hunting! Links below to the mentioned DAWs.

CHEAPEST
https://www.reaper.fm/

ARGUABLY BEST
https://new.steinberg.net/nuendo/

avid.com/pro-tools

https://www.image-line.com/flstudio/

[Golds]

I've had a lot of fun with Reason in the past. But these days a lot of people I know are using Ableton Live. That said, a billion people produce audio in Audacity alone.

[Mark @ SONiC Fuel]

It's a very personal decision really. You can only really try some out and see which workflow works for you.

For game audio, I personally would rule out Ableton as it's a bit too confining really. I use Cubase myself, but that's because I've been using it for nearly 30 years now - kinda used to it. Reaper gets a lot of +1's these days from many audio developers... but yeah, try some of the recommendations out and see how you go.

BTW - for sound design I often use stereo editors like Sound Forge or Wavelab depending on what I'm trying to achieve.

Mark.

[Duccoz]

I use Audacity myself and think it's pretty easy to combine sounds with.

https://www.audacityteam.org/

[Deckhead]

Ardour is free and open source. I think it's amazing.

[ozoner]

I for one love Reaper. It is free and has a cheap license option if you choose to go that route while also having powerful real instrument recording capability. Sure it isn't as grand looking as other DAWs, but you can get great themes to spruce it up a bit. I know a few big time composers that also use FL Studio. The industry go to these days seems to be either Nuendo or Pro Tools... but those will cost a good penny. In the end there is no right DAW. Just matters on your personal preference. Happy DAW hunting! Links below to the mentioned DAWs.

CHEAPEST
https://www.reaper.fm/

ARGUABLY BEST
https://new.steinberg.net/nuendo/

avid.com/pro-tools

https://www.image-line.com/flstudio/

Just saying that Reaper isn't free, it has fully functional 60-day evaluation. After that the program still runs normally, it just asks you to buy it each time you open it.

[Lance of Longinus]

I've been using LMMS since a very long time; it's 100% free, easy to use and I'd say it's good enough for the beginning (though I compose mostly via trial and error).

About a year and half ago I got FL studio. But I haven't done anything in it so far and have been procrastinating when it comes to getting into it. So I'm not sure how good it is.

[Deckhead]

Cakewalk Sonar has just been released as a free download.

[AlinaHypeTrain]

Pretty sure someone's typed it already, but the DAW itself doesn't matter that much - all of them have pretty much the same functionality in general. So it's a matter of habit and comfort: I prefer using Logic Pro X on mac and a new free Cakewalk for their user-friendly interface. Heard that many sound designers are switching to Reaper now, but I just can't get accustomed to that one

[laneyman]

If you have a mac or ipad then garageband is a fantastic DAW with an easy learning curve. If things go well then it's easy to move onto Logic Pro and all your Garageband project will be cross compatible with Logic.

[D410]

Ableton Live for sure.

[sly_hikari03]

mixcraft or fruityloops are what I use.

would love to get cubase...