FL Studio is considered to be a beginner’s program. Such a judgment is erroneous: Deadmau5, Martin Garrix, Afrojack, Anacondaz beatmaker Timur Esetov, Mike Oldfield and a parodist Enjoykin use “frutics” on a regular basis, and Avichi wrote all his hits with her help. It is hardly possible to name each of them as beginners.

FL Studio offers a slightly different approach to creating music and principles of working with tracks – in these moments the DAW is more like a soft step sequencer than a regular music recording program. Nevertheless, the possibilities of FL Studio are wide, and with the proper straightness of the arms and head on the shoulders, the workstation allows you to achieve impressive results.

Included with FL Studio is a wide selection of instruments, synthesizers, effects and plug-ins aimed at creating electronic music. The sound quality of individual elements is not the highest, but this is enough for most work tasks.

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Ask any music forum what software to use for recording music, and someone will definitely advise you on Adobe Audition. For all its popularity, Audition is not a digital workstation, but just an audio editor.

A rich selection of built-in effects and functions is primarily aimed at recording and processing voice, although any audio signal can be recorded using Audition. The editor is easy to learn and use, and supports all existing audio file formats.

Despite this, the program lacks functionality: Audition cannot work with VST instruments (only with effects), and does not have MIDI support – you can forget about Piano Roll, virtual synthesizers, and so on. If the studio work will consist only in recording audio (live instruments), then Audition will become an indispensable assistant, but if you want versatility from your studio, then choose something else.

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Everyone who has anything to do with music has heard of Avid Pro Tools – the Avid workstation has long been considered the industry standard in recording, mixing and mastering. Nevertheless, one should not expect any revelations from Pro Tools – externally and functionally, the program offers exactly the same possibilities as any other DAW.

Avid Pro Tools only works with AAX and RTAS plug-ins (see the Guide to Plug-in Formats and DAW Compatibility), but not all third-party developers release their products in this form. Despite the fact that Pro Tools includes VST / AU-To-RTAS / AAX converters, the developers do not promise full support for formats other than AAX.

Avid Pro Tools is a wise choice for those planning to go with their projects to a professional recording studio in the future and get the maximum compatibility – Pro Tools is everywhere. The program has three global disadvantages:

If everything is clear with the first and second, it is difficult to explain the slowness. Competitors are constantly expanding the list of features aimed at improving the usability, but Avid does not seem to be interested. Any innovations that users ask for are introduced by the creators reluctantly and very slowly.

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If your studio is built around a Mac, and GarageBand is limited, then Logic Pro X is worth a look. Musicians who choose Logic Pro X get a productive digital workstation with an intuitive, uncluttered interface, ready to produce music in a wide variety of styles.

The Apple Workstation is very popular in the music industry and is present in almost any studio (along with Pro Tools, Cubase, and Ableton) that has a Mac. The popularity of Logic plays into the hands of beginners – on YouTube there is a huge number of training videos on all aspects of working with the program, up to courses on creating a finished track using only built-in tools.

Together with the program, users receive a huge library of content over 70 GB in size. It contains a wide variety of virtual instruments (both typical and rare), synthesizers, plugins, loops and samples, virtual drummer parts and much more. It will not be difficult to master all this – in terms of the simplicity of work, Logic has practically no equal, the convenience of work is put at the forefront (not at the expense of functionality).

The flagship DAW is built on the same principles and user interface approaches as GarageBand. For this reason, the transition from Garage to Logic will be painless not only in terms of adapting to the new program, but also in terms of transferring projects – DAW easily opens projects created in the mobile and desktop versions of GarageBand.

The main problem with Logic Pro is project sharing, especially if none of your friends have a MacBook. Although in this case the options for transferring information remain, albeit not the most effective (see Exporting and Importing Information Between Different DAWs)

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GarageBand is installed by default on all Apple computers, laptops, tablets, and smartphones. If you’ve bought a brand new MacBook to work with music, GarageBand is the perfect place to begin your first musical experiments and learn the basics of recording and music production.

GarageBand is easy to learn and beginner-friendly. The program comes with a large collection of plugins, virtual instruments and other audio content, which will be more than enough for the first time. Inside Garage you will find a virtual pedalboard, a set of virtual amplifiers, an excellent software drummer X Drummer, and a number of other features. In addition, the desktop GarageBand can be synchronized with the mobile version of the application via iCloud: we created a project on an iPhone, sent it to a MacBook for further work.

Despite such richness, you should not consider GarageBand as your main workstation – the functionality of the program is basic, and it is aimed specifically at novice musicians. At some point, the Garage’s capabilities will cease to be enough – you will have to look for a more productive replacement. At this point, you will have two paths:

In general, if the requirements for DAW functionality are not great and you need something simple to solve non-trivial studio tasks, choose GarageBand. If you need something more advanced and productive, then look towards other programs.

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The richness of functions and prevalence directly affect the price of the final product – the cost of some programs can go up to several hundred dollars. Nevertheless, the high price does not guarantee ease of use: among the less popular programs there are those that not only cost less, but may also be more convenient to use.

Supported OS: Windows, macOS
Supported plugin formats: VST, AU
Cost: from $ 99
Official website: https://www.ableton.com

The release in 2001 of the first version of Ableton Live was a breakthrough for the music industry. The musicians appreciated the approach to designing the program interface, equally well suited for both sound recording and live performances. In addition to the traditional DAW, users got at their disposal another musical instrument, albeit a software one.

Today Ableton Live is considered the standard in the music industry. Live is the perfect choice for musicians who want to create new loops and samples in a couple of clicks, control all elements of the project and experiment with sound and effects. If you are into electronic music, start with Ableton. Besides being comfortable and flexible, it will make your life easier during live performances.

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