Best Free Audio Recording Software For Windows 10
If you’re a serious musician, podcaster, or budding audio engineer, you care about the quality of your recordings–or you should. And that’s why the audio recording programs you use matter.
Realtek HD Audio Manager is the seventh-best Audio enhancer software in our list. It is an open-source graphics equalizer for Windows 10. It is an open-source graphics equalizer for Windows 10. You will get different options to change the sound settings in the speaker, microphone, stereo mix, and line input. Best Free Audio Recording Software. Check out some of the great options in Free Audio Recording Software category: 10. Audacity is the most popular & useful name in the category of best free audio recording & editing software. With a clutter-free & straightforward dashboard, the program makes the recording sound a hassle-free process.
However, I’d like to add that it’s not the software that makes the music. It’s your skills as an audio engineer.
To illustrate, I’d like to tell you a story of an interesting email thread a while back. This guy was looking for a home studio, and he was asking around for where to go.
An acquaintance of mine chimed in with his answer, with some details about studios and such but there was one comment that infuriated me:
“You might want to have someone who’s recording onto protools. (sic)”
Ugh…
Now, I know that not all musicians are engineers so I should let that slide. And this person is a great musician, but he’s a little off in what makes up a great studio.
The thing that bothers me is that software companies are so good at brainwashing the public into believing that their software is crucial to the makings of a good record.
It REALLY isn’t.
It doesn’t matter whether you use Pro-Tools, Nuendo, Cubase, Sonar Producer, Logic Pro, Digital Performer, GarageBand, Live, or any of the other software that’s for sale out there.
It’s the least important thing in the grand scheme of:
“hey I want to know how to record my songs or have someone do it for me….what should I buy first?“
The software isn’t going to tell you what sounds good. It’s not a robot that knows how to engineer a great guitar sound. It can’t tell you if you’re overcompressing your drums or flooding your vocals with reverb. This is something that the engineer needs to know. This is the skill of the engineer, regardless of what software he’s using.
Pro-Tools is not going to make your music sound any better.
Ask yourself:
If you install [insert preferred software here] onto your computer, is it going to make the acoustics in your room any better?
No.
Is it going to make the sound of your pre-amps any better?
No.
Will it walk out of the computer, look at your monitors and say, “Gee, maybe you should space those monitors a little further apart for better imaging.”
No, it’s not some mega nerdy Cylon engineer.
It’ll just do what you tell it to do. And if you feed it garbage it will give you trash.
Skills Make Sounds – Not Software
So think more about what skills you need to record a great sound than the software that “they” tell you that you desperately need to get.
Yes, you need software. But any software is great if you, or the engineer you hire, is excellent at using it. I use Logic. Do I recommend Logic to everybody. Not really.
My philosophy is that any software that you’re comfortable using is the best software for your situation. The skills and knowledge of engineering are infinitely more important than any audio recording software that’s out there.
Now that we’ve got that rant out of the way let’s talk about what software solutions you have available, both free and paid.
A quick search on Amazon will show you a lot of different options that will give you decision anxiety, so we’ve compiled a list for you to reduce your hyperventilating so that you can go back to what you set out to do before, make music.
71 Free Shortcuts to Easy Separation and Balance in Your Mixes
If you’ve been struggling to hear all the instruments in a mix, my EQ cheatsheet will help you out.
- Learn to clean up your low-end, reduce bleed in your drums and eliminate annoying resonant frequencies from your recordings.
- Get rid of muddiness in your low-mids, tame the harshness in your mix, and get rid of your boxy sounding drums.
- Learn where to add presence to your vocals, brilliance to your acoustic guitars, thickness to your keyboards or weight to your bass. These tips are broken down by instrument and help you fix your frequency problems with simple solutions that you can use right away.
Top 5 Free Audio Recording Programs
Most run-of-the-mill, audio recording apps that come pre-installed on your computer just won’t cut it (with the possible exception of GarageBand for Macs, a reasonably high-quality recorder for simple projects), and you also may not be willing or able to spend an arm and a leg for professional grade software.
However, you’re in luck. There are some great free tools that actually don’t suck and can produce the kind of quality recording that will make anybody who listens to your works of art — or wit if you’re a podcaster — it up and take note of what you have to offer.
Here are some of the very best, completely free recording tools that will help bring your sounds to life.
1. Audacity
Available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux
Audacity is the go-to open-source audio recording application, and as long as your goals aren’t overly ambitious, it puts an enormous amount of power in your hands. It can record just about anything you throw at it, whether it’s from a microphone, through the line-in jack, or live streaming audio (if supported by your sound card), all in a lightweight and clean interface. Many recording enthusiasts, especially podcasters, appreciate Audacity’s uncomplicated user experience and ease of use.
Audacity supports recording in sample rates from 44.1 to an excessive 192 kHz, which sets the stage for studio-caliber and even ultrasonic recordings if you have the hardware to handle it. Also included is support for 32-bit floating point, providing ample headroom for your recorded signal.
It comes with effects such as an equalizer with helpful presets, pitch, speed and tempo controls, delay, reverb, compressor, fade in/out, and a noise remover. You can expand this palette thanks to Audacity’s generous support of VST, LADSPA, Nyquist and Audio Unit plugins.
Audacity’s strength is its simplicity. While you can make it do multi-track recording if you’re so inclined, it will never gain centerpiece status in a true recording studio. However, it is beginner-friendly, easy to use for quick edits you need to make on the fly (whether that means filtering out unwanted noise, boosting vocals or other frequencies through equalization, or just cutting and pasting), and extremely well-suited for hobbyist and podcast recording applications.
2. Garageband
Available for Mac OS only
Garageband comes free with any Mac computer and is pretty legit for most recording needs.
Although it can’t do major processing like its big brother Logic, it’s more than able to do any multi-track recording and minor mixing work.
Highly recommend for the bedroom recordist that’s just starting out and needs a simple solution to lay down some demos.
3. Traverso
Available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux
Traverso, another fully featured DAW that’s sure to meet common recording needs, is all about convenience.
This program eschews a traditional “menu” structure in favor of innovative keyboard and mouse shortcuts, which brings a crisp immediacy to recording tasks. There’s no doubt about it–there will be a bit of a learning curve–but the developers claim to have integrated input and execution so seamlessly that you practically learn how to do things as you go along. Furthermore, users have an array of options that make recording demo CDs a snap. You can create tables of contents and burn discs without ever leaving Traverso.
Other features that dovetail nicely with the “stay out of the way” philosophy behind Traverso include non-destructive editing, or the ability to use plugins and make edits without changing the actual sample, and lockless real-time audio processing, which reduces latency and streamlines performance. Traverso’s commitment to intuitive recording and mastering controls makes the program stand out among its similarly free counterparts.
4. Ardour DAW
Available for Mac OS and Linux
Ardour is yet another great free DAW: one that is taking aim at cream-of-the-crop professional software and is promising for real studios with low budgets.
It features non-destructive editing, 32-bit float, supports unlimited tracks, and has extremely flexible routing capabilities. With support for LADSPA, LV2, and VST plugins, you’ll be able to make your favorite customizations without a hassle. Synchronization with video is supported, and full handling of MIDI recording, playback and editing are expected with the highly-anticipated release of the third edition of Ardour.
The thing that sets Ardour apart from the rest of the pack is what’s under the hood. It runs on JACK, an underlying sound server that facilitates low-latency audio recording and communication among various programs. Although Ardour itself only runs on Mac OS and Linux at present, a Windows port has been conceptualized, and efforts towards building one are in full swing as of June 2012, and JACK is already a true cross-platform utility that runs on the aforementioned systems as well as Windows. JACK is excellent at handling MIDI so that Ardour will take full advantage of that upon the release of the third edition.
Ardour is complex and certainly not for newbies. Some have complained about the potentially confusing graphical user interface (GUI), which is quite inaccessible to someone who’s never seen or seriously worked with a DAW before. But if you’re an audio engineer of any level of experience and strapped for cash, you may find that Ardour fits the bill for your projects quite nicely.
5. Jokosher
Available for Windows and Linux
Jokosher is billed as the “musician’s DAW” and the Linux alternative to GarageBand, the standard, pre-installed, easy-to-use workstation for Macs. Here, you won’t find advanced editing and mastering tools by the names that most engineers know: it’s a program that speaks in a music maker’s language.
While not as heavyweight as its counterparts, Jokosher takes a lot of the guesswork out of the recording process for people who are new to it. All of the basic, expected editing tools are at the user’s disposal. Startup is fast, easy and straightforward. Tracks are called “instruments,” and you can set them up based on the type of instrument you intend to record. If it’s an acoustic guitar for example, simply select “Acoustic Guitar,” and the track will be clearly labeled as such with a cute picture to boot, providing an excellent visual layout of instruments used in the mix.
Jokosher supports LADSPA plugins only, and as of June 2012 it’s still in its early development stages. But for musicians and podcasters who want to record simple products and get a first taste of manipulating tracks in a DAW, this simple program is hard to beat.
Alternative to Pro-Tools That Won’t Break the Bank
Most of the big pro studios are using Avid Pro Tools to make all the records going to the radio these days, but it’s slowly losing its status as an industry standard due to the quality of its competitors. There are plenty of lower-cost DAWs and a wealth of free and inexpensive plug-ins that bring professional studio sound right to your computer.
Even though Pro Tools is the premier name in the industry, there is really no special voodoo under the hood. It is simply a graphical user interface that lets you move some bits (and thus sounds) around inside your computer. There is no difference in the way Pro Tools sounds and the way any of its competitors sound, period.
So you can comfortably make a foray into saving money by purchasing one of the many alternatives to Pro Tools –none of which will cause even your fans to hear a difference.
1. Steinberg Cubase
There is the perennially popular Steinberg Cubase, which is perhaps the granddaddy of them all so to speak. The German-engineered application is perhaps the Mercedes-Benz of DAWs, offering pioneering technology and reliable performance.
And if you need a guide to Cubase, my buddy Chris Selim over at Mixdown Online has just the training you need. (affiliate link)
2. Logic Pro X
Apple has two DAWs in its stable: Garageband, a veritable staple discussed before, and Logic Pro. In both cases, the quality of these programs is very high and both will work with a wide assortment of audio hardware.
3. Cockos Reaper
Perhaps the best-kept secret in the world of DAWs is Reaper. Reaper is a heads-on contender for any other DAW on the list, including Pro Tools. The best part is that Reaper is not only among the best, it is also one of the least expensive, coming in at only $60 for the discounted license. All the features are there: real-time recording and editing, unlimited track count, VST and DX plug-in support, and more.
4. Studio One
Presonus’s Studio One is a great option as well. It contains everything you need to produce music and seems very intuitive and easy to use.
In fact, it’s probably the only DAW that might make me switch from Logic. A lot of my producer and engineer friends use it, and they swear by it, citing its ease of use, sound quality, and simplicity with production.
There is nothing wrong with using Pro Tools, of course. But if you can’t afford to shell out the big dollars for the industry’s biggest name, you still get the great results with the above applications.
Audio Recording Programs for Any Situation
All of the above are solid apps with unique feature sets and strengths, dedicated fan bases, and active support and development teams. The free DAWs don’t have the advanced functionality of much more expensive, industry-standard solutions, but depending on your needs I’m sure you’ll find something that works for you.
Try them out and decide which combination of user experience and specific features works best for you.
Happy recording!
Parts of this post were contributed by Daniel Kimbrel and Jessica Josh. If you would like to submit a guest post, check out the guidelines here.
Daniel is a movie buff and freelance writer. He contributes to a number of music sites online.
Image by: Shawn Econo
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.
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.
Recording Software For Windows 10 Free
Cons:
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. 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
Audacity Free Download
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.
Audacity
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.