Ableton Forum

I doubt they'd have DSL or Cable and probably flaky dial-up, so downloading files of 100 MB - 1.5 GB depending on daw and extra plugins/sample packs etc would be a hell of a PITA.

Cracked software usually f**ks up in some way or another anyway. EIther viruses, f**king up the registry and not being able to be uninstalled or expiring at some time or other from what I hear. Totally not recommended, someone I know from work had to reinstall windows from scratch thanks to running a crack of cubase. I have more self-respect than to run cracks, I work hard and pay for the support and upgrades and don't have to live in fear of the Waves police subpoenaing me.

On windows, Kristal as mentioned before is a decent audio daw for free. Audacity is also free. You can still find Cool Edit for free if you look around. Reaper - free trial and then 50 bucks for the non commercial license, has more features than most DAWS costing 500 bucks (on windows at least) and paying the 170 dollar upgrade for a commercial license is done purely on a basis of trust.

Or on Linux, Ardour, Rosegarden, Audacity (again), JAMIN (mix finalizing/mastering), freewheelin' (loop type software).

MOst of the free applications either have no MIDI or very rudimentary MIDI features.

Cut down versions of Sonar, Cubase, etc come for less than 130 bucks. They might be missing a few high end plugins and one or two advanced editing capabilities but have the core everyday features required.

it should be said that the Reaper trial is non-crippled and non-expiring.
It is the full program, but you know that you ought to pay them for it at some point if you start to use it a lot. Honestyware ?

So although this is great for poverty stricken musicians, it is probably not great for the purposes of Pop Slut's experiment. I think that the experiment is to prove that you could make a commercial track with free software. Commercial Reaper licenses are $225.

I think this rules Reaper out of the experiment.

Ubuntu Studio - http://ubuntustudio.org/
Dynebolic - http://www.dynebolic.org/index.php?show=features

Wow - I had no idea there was so much brilliant free stuff about.

Thanks for the tips - keep em coming.

I think that the experiment is to prove that you could make a commercial track with free software.

Precisely - with the emphasis on free.

I'm not trying to build a studio on the cheap.

Atomikat wrote:

babkubwa wrote:Buying a copy of ableton in tanzania is about half a years rent! not likely!

What? no cracked software in Tanzania? it's everywhere...

without a doubt. Sure 99% of tanzanias music industry is the result of a cracked cubase sx.

Angstrom wrote:it should be said that the Reaper trial is non-crippled and non-expiring.
It is the full program, but you know that you ought to pay them for it at some point if you start to use it a lot. Honestyware ?

So although this is great for poverty stricken musicians, it is probably not great for the purposes of Pop Slut's experiment. I think that the experiment is to prove that you could make a commercial track with free software. Commercial Reaper licenses are $225.

I think this rules Reaper out of the experiment.

I would argue that Reaper provides a great opportunity for folks who don't have any money to start producing. Then when they make trax that are commercially viable they can buy a license. My 2c

pulsoc wrote:

Angstrom wrote:it should be said that the Reaper trial is non-crippled and non-expiring.
It is the full program, but you know that you ought to pay them for it at some point if you start to use it a lot. Honestyware ?

So although this is great for poverty stricken musicians, it is probably not great for the purposes of Pop Slut's experiment. I think that the experiment is to prove that you could make a commercial track with free software. Commercial Reaper licenses are $225.

I think this rules Reaper out of the experiment.

I would argue that Reaper provides a great opportunity for folks who don't have any money to start producing. Then when they make trax that are commercially viable they can buy a license. My 2c

that's possibly the way it would actually work in "real life" but I still don't think it falls within the way that Popslut has defined his terms.

Because its a bit like saying "I got a free Ferrari", simply because you test drove one and then six months later on you earned enough to buy it. It's not really classed as free then is it, merely the cost has been deferred.

len9 wrote:Kjaerhus Audio's Classic Series of plugins is free quite useful in a utility sort of way.
They have a good part of the basics covered!
http://www.kjaerhusaudio.com/classic-series.php

+1

I've been trying to get a decent sound from a 8 track live recording of my mates band. Could *not* get the sound right with eq8 and compressor II. So I turned to Kjaerhus classic compressor and classic eq and got it to sound right with minimal tweaking.

The classic master limiter is top notch as well - brilliant for taming the peaks from a drum kit.

I wish you well with your project.

Oh forgot to add: check out this site http://www.bostreammail.net/ers/vstplugins.html, iblit and poly iblit are amazing.

Nice idea!

Don't have any experience with freeware..

Good luck with your project dude.

Looking forward to hearing the results!

Angstrom wrote:

pulsoc wrote:

Angstrom wrote:it should be said that the Reaper trial is non-crippled and non-expiring.
It is the full program, but you know that you ought to pay them for it at some point if you start to use it a lot. Honestyware ?

So although this is great for poverty stricken musicians, it is probably not great for the purposes of Pop Slut's experiment. I think that the experiment is to prove that you could make a commercial track with free software. Commercial Reaper licenses are $225.

I think this rules Reaper out of the experiment.

I would argue that Reaper provides a great opportunity for folks who don't have any money to start producing. Then when they make trax that are commercially viable they can buy a license. My 2c

that's possibly the way it would actually work in "real life" but I still don't think it falls within the way that Popslut has defined his terms.

Because its a bit like saying "I got a free Ferrari", simply because you test drove one and then six months later on you earned enough to buy it. It's not really classed as free then is it, merely the cost has been deferred.

I think the ferrari analogy is really bad, but you are correct in that the OP concerned setting up a 'freeware' DAW. I was responding more to babkubwa's position.

pulsoc wrote:

Angstrom wrote:

pulsoc wrote: I would argue that Reaper provides a great opportunity for folks who don't have any money to start producing. Then when they make trax that are commercially viable they can buy a license. My 2c

that's possibly the way it would actually work in "real life" but I still don't think it falls within the way that Popslut has defined his terms.

Because its a bit like saying "I got a free Ferrari", simply because you test drove one and then six months later on you earned enough to buy it. It's not really classed as free then is it, merely the cost has been deferred.

I think the ferrari analogy is really bad, but you are correct in that the OP concerned setting up a 'freeware' DAW. I was responding more to babkubwa's position.

In these type of situations you might be suprised how forthcoming some of the developer companies are. I don't want to name the company, but i was on the edge of a deal that saw a software developer give up a bunch of NFR liences to help out in a teaching situation that would not have been able to obtain the licences any other way,, some times it's a good idea to take a chance, write to a developer and see if you can't get some kind of sponcership deal from them. The worst that will happen is they will say no,,

As the open source alternative to MAX/MSP, you might find 'pure data' to come in handy in your setup:

http://puredata.info/

Steep learning curve, but also lots of downloadable patches from the community:

http://puredata.info/community/patches

Yellow Tools has a free version of their Independence sampler with 2gb of content.