The costs of these DAWs vary as well, with Apple choosing to sell Logic Pro for a one-time fee of $200, Ableton selling Live in different feature tiers with costly upgrades available every few years, and AVID forcing Pro Tool’s devotees to buy into a subscription model.Īll of this would be enough to frighten a prospective music producer away from taking the plunge and buying their first paid DAW. When it comes to working strictly with MIDI, I will typically reach for Ableton Live, but if I know I’ll be working with audio inputs from microphones and instruments, I know I’ll end up in Logic Pro at some point. Each one offers some variation in user experience and some DAWs are better for particular workflows than others.

There are a lot of Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs) out there. Hopefully, at the very least, Cakewalk can stop you from making the same mistakes I made. If Cakewalk had been around and available for free back in 2013 I might have also avoided pouring dozens of hours into recording a mediocre EP in my dorm room using Audacity. If you are a PC user who does not yet have a DAW that fits your workflow, I would absolutely recommend giving Cakewalk a try: you have nothing to lose!

Cakewalk free download