1. Logic Pro
This is by far the best music production software that is only available for MAC but in terms of user-friendly, and capabilities.
You have so much control over your sound, there are so many effects such as reverb, delays, space designer, amps, compressors, pedalboards, distortion, overdrive, phasers, limiters, noise gates, de-essers, EQ's, auto filters, directional mixers, stereo spread, BPM counter, level meter, tuner, multimeter, modulation, chorus, ensemble, flanger, tremolo, spreader, pitch correction, vocal transformers, exciters, gain, and so much more.
If these aren't enough for you, you can also purchase additional effects from third party companies. All those effects go hand in hand with the 100s of included virtual instruments, you can plug in a USB midi keyboard and record your own productions in no time.
Use the software to polish up your tracks, get creative with automation for mixing and mastering, with logic it just makes sense. If your not sure if it is for you and don't want to pay the hefty £199.99 that it costs, but still want to try it out I recommend getting Garage-band as it is free and with a similar layout as logic but with much fewer effects, instruments, feature capabilities.
2. Pro tools
I don't have any experience with pro tools but know that this is the music production software that industry professionals use, in fact it is the original recording software and has more in depth audio recording features such as the recording modes: normal, loop, destructive, quick punch, track punch, and destructive punch.
The software that you would purchase is a little confusing as a yearly subscription for the software costs about £95 whereas the full perpetual version can cost £599. Even though I do not have any experience using it, I have watched many tutorials when I first started learning music production on various different softwares and I feel strongly that I could use Pro Tools using the same techniques that I have learned with Logic.
3. Propellerhead Reason
software for windows is very different to logic, it focuses more on imitating real hardware with cables that can be adjusted in your project as if you actually had the vintage analogue gear. It is easy to use, with lots of features, instruments but less control/choice and whilst it is good for creating productions, it is not really an all in one software, mixing and mastering processes would suffer if it was completed on reason alone.
Don’t get me the wrong reason is powerful and is great, but still falls to third place for me. The software costs around £299 and you can get a 30-day free trial so that you can try it before you buy it.
4. FL Studio (Fruit loops)
This is another software that is another music production software that producer friends of mine use. It is set-out differently to other production softwares and uses loops or sequencers similar to how a drum machine works. You set the BPM, select your sound and then create a rhythm with the sound. This software is capable of making some great professional music but I would not recommend it for beginners as it can be difficult to use well. It costs £199 and extra software instruments can be purchased at an additional cost.
5. Ableton Live
Ableton live is a free software that is probably one of the easiest for beginners. The interface is minimal which makes it user friendly and once you've got the hang of that and want to unlock the additional features and functions you can purchase Ableton live suite for up to £750 to take your music to the next level. The Ableton DAW is focused on experimenting and being creative, the strong points for the Ableton software is working with electronic sounds and samples but it just may not be as good as the other softwares mentioned above.
6. Cool edit pro
Falling in sixth place, whilst the name doesn't do it justice, it is a FREE, and is a very useful software for windows, If you want to record your own instruments, and record vocals, mixing with simple effects such as reverb, echo, de esser's etc, it might be for you! It made sixth due to lack of functionality, but it makes perfect software for a beginner still learning the ropes. There are of course many if not hundreds of great music production softwares that we have not mentioned but let me know in the comments what your favourite software is and why as someone looking for a software will find it helpful.
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