Advice on good cheap DAWS

I am currently looking for a new DAW that is $100 or less. I have been using Audacity that seems to cut out some of the frequencies of my recordings of electronic instruments. It sounds "thin." In fact, I get the impression it was designed for recording talk, as in an interview or something like that.

I have compiled a list of cheap DAWs that support VST effects and instruments. What do you think of these DAWs? Would you recommend any of them or do you have a suggestion of different DAWs to consider?

Reaper - $60
Live 9 Intro - Eur 79
Harrison Mixbus - $79
Traction 7 - $60
Cubase Elements 9 - $99.99

Thank you for your consideration.

Best,

Ben

 

I wouldn't recommend Live intro. It's too limited. You can only have a certain amount of tracks, effects, and you don't have access to max for live which I think is the best part of Ableton. I imagine Elements must be limited in similar ways. Those limits are creativity killers.

I've used Reaper and it's really nice. If you like Audacity you'll love it.
But I've never heard of Mixbus or Traction, and those look great too, at a glance at least.
I would look at these choices for now, I think they are better than the limited versions of the others.

 

Yeah, you're better off with a cheaper complete package than 'Lite' versions of expensive DAWs.

Out of the list you posted, I'd choose Reaper with my eyes closed. It's just a great piece of software with constant support and an impressive list of features. It goes head-to-head with most expensive DAWs.
If you're mainly into electronic music and less into recording, take a look at Renoise as well. Haven't used it, but some of my friends swear by it. They say it's very inspiring once you get the hang of it. Seems it's 68euros + VAT:
https://www.renoise.com/shop

 

Other DAWs are Ardour (more made for recording, https://ardour.org) and LMMS (similar to FL Studio, https://lmms.io/). They originate from Linux but have grown quite a bit and are also officially available for Mac and Windows.

Oh, and they cost nothing as they are open source. As you seems to focus on electronic music, I think LMMS will be the better choice for you.

If you rather want to buy something and if you are on Windows you also might have a look at FL Studio. The Fruity Edition is not as limited as the small versions of Live and Cubase but is still reduced (http://www.image-line.com/flstudio/). The advantage here is all upcoming updates (Majors included) are free.

 

Renoise is a sample chop ninja shop. Can't record multiple tracks in one take though, so it's a real pain if you want to record multiple algo tracks from a single organic source.

 

REAPER. Period.

My subjective experience. I tried Cubase, ProTools, Audacity. REAPER beats them all. Dont forget to get the (free) SWS Extensions and read up on whats possible with them! Simply amazing, workflow is fast as hell.

 

http://bedroomproducersblog.com/2011/05/16/bpb-freeware-studio-best-free-vst-host-applications/
an overview dated 2011 - some links are gone - some works

 

i'm a bit late
but Tracktion 5 is now free and really great ....
full featured app not a lite version...
it's a million time better than audacity.

 

in the "cheap" D.A.W i also like "Energy XT" a lot too..(39$)
http://www.energy-xt.com/

 

+1 for Reaper
mega expandable + customizable, tons of modulation options + unsane routing possibilities

 

Reason essentials is another possibility

 

I agree that Reaper is the only one worth considering. Such value for money. I bought it even though I use Samplitude... which is out of your budget range.

 

I've been pretty happy with MuLab (69 Euros). I've only started using Reaktor with it (less than a week)--but so far so good.