The Best DAWs for Beginners

The digital audio workstation, commonly referred to as a DAW, is a prerequisite piece of software for music and audio production. If you intend to do any sort of computer-based recording, one of the best DAWs for beginners will start you headed down that road. Our goal with this selection is to introduce you to popular offerings from major software suppliers, as well as some lesser-known ones, so you can be well equipped on your search for the perfect production platform.

If you intend to do any sort of computer-based recording, one of the best DAWs for beginners will start you headed down that road. Check out our picks for the best DAWs for beginners.

Table of Contents

What Is a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)?
Finding the Best Beginner DAW
Comparing the Best DAWs for Beginners
The Best DAWs for Beginners
   Acoustica Mixcraft 10 Pro Studio
   Avid Pro Tools Artist
   Bitwig Studio Producer
   Image-Line FL Studio 21 Signature Edition
   n-Track Studio 9 Suite
   PreSonus Studio One Pro 7
   Reason Studios Reason +
   Steinberg Cubase Artist 14
   Tracktion Waveform Pro 12
   Hit’n’Mix RipX DAW
   SERATO Studio
   DJ.Studio DAW
The Best DAW for Beginners is the One You Choose
People Also Ask …
Appendix

What Is a Digital Audio Workstation (DAW)?

The main software we use for recording, editing, sequencing, arranging, mixing and mastering audio and MIDI is called a digital audio workstation. With a DAW, you can record vocals and live instruments, play virtual instruments and program MIDI, slice and manipulate samples, compose songs, make beats, apply effects plug-ins for sound design and mixing/mastering, and so much more.

It’s the ecosystem within which we produce music. The software equivalent of an analog studio, the DAW functions as a console, racks of outboard effects processors and a tape machine. DAWs can also be employed on stage to play backing tracks or sound effects, program complete sets to a click track, trigger MIDI events on a timeline and more.

An essential part of any studio, the DAW additionally unites the various hardware components of a recording setup, including your audio interface, microphone(s) and MIDI controller. This important software is the centerpiece of everything we do in digital audio production.

Finding the Best Beginner DAW

The best way to find the right DAW for your needs is to establish your primary intention. Will you be recording yourself and other musicians? Honing your mixing skills? Making beats? All of the above? Most DAWs are designed for flexibility to tackle these tasks and more, though they don’t all reach the finish line the same way.

For instance, Avid Pro Tools—widely regarded as the industry standard in professional studios for years—excels at multitrack recording, editing, mixing and mastering. On the other hand, something like Image-Line FL Studio has a feature set geared toward electronic musicians, producers and beatmakers. It’s true that you can achieve mostly the same results with either, but their workflows are quite different.

You’ll need to decide whether you’ll be frequently capturing vocals and live instrumentation, in which case you’ll want a DAW with fast, intuitive multitrack recording capabilities. If you think you’ll be working heavily with virtual instruments, programming drums and creating electronic music, you may want a DAW with easy-to-use MIDI functions, as well as an onboard suite of software instruments, loops and samples. You might be a DJ, in which case we’ve included software catering to those specifics needs, too.

Take some time to consider your goals, then browse the list below. It’s also a great idea to find out which developers offer free trials of their DAW, so you can actually take it for a quality test drive before committing to one or the other.

Comparing the Best DAWs for Beginners

DAW	System Requirements	Popular Use Cases	Plug-in Support	Specialized Features
Acoustica Mixcraft 10 Pro Studio	Windows	Recording, producing, arranging, mixing	VST2, VST3	Mixcraft Remote app for iOS/Android, natively integrated Celemony Melodyne
Avid Pro Tools Artist	macOS, Windows	Recording, editing, mixing, mastering, post-production	AAX	Includes many analog-emulated plug-ins
Bitwig Studio Producer	macOS, Windows, Linux	Recording, producing, arranging, sound design	VST3, CLAP	Unique system with 40+ modulators to modulate any device, plug-in or hardware parameter
Image-Line FL Studio 21 Signature Edition	macOS, Windows	Sampling, sequencing, beatmaking, electronic music production	VST1/2, VST3, CLAP, AU	Renowned piano roll with deeply editable MIDI parameters
n-Track Studio 9 Suite	macOS, Windows	Recording, producing, editing, mixing	DirectX, VST2, VST3, AU, ReWire	Onboard Guitar and Bass Amp simulation plug-ins
PreSonus Studio One Pro 7	macOS, Windows, Linux (public beta)	Recording, producing, scoring, editing, mixing, mastering	VST2, VST3, CLAP, AU	Only DAW with direct Splice integration
Reason Studios Reason+	macOS, Windows	Recording, sampling, sequencing, producing	VST2, VST3	Usable as the Rack (plug-in) and the Studio (DAW)
Steinberg Cubase Artist 14	macOS, Windows	Recording, producing, scoring, editing, mixing, mastering	VST2, VST3	Comprehensive scoring and notation features for film, TV and orchestral arrangements
Tracktion Waveform Pro 12	macOS, Windows, Linux, Raspberry Pi	Recording, producing, mixing, video production	VST2, VST3, AU, LV2	Customizable user interface with color palette selector
Hit’n’Mix RipX	macOS, Windows	Stem separation, AI music generation, remixing	N/A	First-of-its-kind “AI DAW”
SERATO Studio	macOS, Windows	Sampling, sequencing, beatmaking, recording, stem separation	VST3, AU	Fast, intuitive beatmaking for beginners or pros
DJ.Studio	macOS, Windows	Automated set mixing/harmonizing, stem separation, generating visuals to accompany music	N/A	One-stop shop for creating polished DJ sets

The Best DAWs for Beginners

Acoustica Mixcraft 10 Pro Studio

Why It’s Cool: Acoustica Mixcraft 10 Pro Studio is a powerfully intuitive DAW designed by musicians, for musicians.

Things to Consider:

• Loop library includes 7,500+ selections
• Unlimited audio and MIDI tracks
• Compatible only with Windows

Shop Now: Acoustica Mixcraft 10 Pro Studio

Since 2004, Acoustica Mixcraft 10 Pro Studio has been a go-to choice for Windows-based audio engineers, producers and musicians. It features unlimited tracks, near-universal third-party plug-in support, seamless hardware integration, countless loops, numerous effects and intuitive control. There’s even a dedicated Performance Panel for playing live, as well as a unique video editing and scoring environment. Acoustica Mixcraft is filled to the brim with everything you need to make music, perform live or work on post-production audio.

Avid Pro Tools Artist

Why It’s Cool: Pro Tools has been the industry-leading DAW for professional studios around the world and has only improved its feature set and user-friendliness in recent years.

Things to Consider:

• 32 audio and 64 MIDI tracks
• 100+ instruments and effects
• No video engine

Shop Now: Avid Pro Tools Artist Perpetual License (Boxed)

Avid Pro Tools Artist is an introduction to one of the most widely recognized DAWs ever created, and though it’s considered the entry-level version, there is more than enough horsepower for even demanding users. With bundled software, including Celemony’s pitch-editing powerhouse Melodyne, iZotope RX 11 Spectral Editor for noise reduction, emulations of iconic analog gear, such as Pultecs, Fairchilds and more, you can instantly get your hands on advanced tools. Perhaps one of Pro Tools’ greatest assets is its ubiquity across the industry, meaning there’s an opportunity to share a common “language” with engineers and musicians everywhere. It also means you can bring your sessions to most professional studios and complete them there, if you wish.

Bitwig Studio Producer

Why It’s Cool: Bitwig Studio offers everything you’d expect from a modern music creation station, with a highly flexible, modular software structure.

Things to Consider:

• Contains linear and non-linear workflows for recording, sound design and live performance
• Smooth hardware integration with impeccable MIDI handling
• 90+ instruments and effects

Shop Now: Bitwig Studio Producer

Bitwig Studio Producer offers customized workflows for every style of creator and is a one-stop shop for bringing your ideas to life at every stage in the production process. Whether you intend to record and arrange, improvise on stage or design sounds from scratch, Bitwig easily adapts to your needs. A suite of powerful editing tools is built in, and there’s even an automatic time-stretching solution for audio clips, providing the ability to change the session tempo and have your recordings follow it. Bitwig Studio Producer’s onboard sampler is incredible for creatively manipulating audio, too.

Image-Line FL Studio 21 Signature Edition

Why It’s Cool: FL Studio has long been a standout choice for producing electronic-based tracks with ease.   

Things to Consider:

• 103 instruments and effects
• AI-powered stem separation
• Free updates for life

Shop Now: Image-Line FL Studio 21 Signature Edition

Image-Line’s FL Studio 21 Signature Edition caters to creatives, with an established roster of notable users, including Deadmau5, Metro Boomin, Southside, Hit-Boy and Basshunter, to name a few. From the moment you open a session, FL Studio’s easy-to-use step sequencer and advanced piano roll make it effortless to program beats and melodies. With genre-defining plug-ins like Gross Beat and more, FL Studio is a modern classic and an outstanding DAW for beginners to grow with. Reviewers at Guitar Center rate it a flawless 5/5 stars.

n-Track Studio 9 Suite

Why It’s Cool: n-Track Studio 9 is a versatile digital audio workstation featuring a robust set of creative tools.

Things to Consider:

• Virtually unlimited number of audio/MIDI tracks
• Desktop and mobile versions with cross-platform compatibility
• Interesting 2D and 3D audio sonogram feature

Shop Now: n-Track Studio 9 Suite DAW

Studio 9 by n-Track debuted in its primitive form in 1995, born of the company founder’s desire to digitally record himself playing guitar. Almost 30 years later, and having long been a fully realized DAW, n-Track Studio 9’s purpose is to make music production a fun, engaging process. Highlights include a powerful piano roll for writing and editing MIDI, a built-in step sequencer, a VocalTune plug-in, and onboard guitar and bass amp emulations.

PreSonus Studio One Pro 7

Why It’s Cool: Studio One by PreSonus is a highly capable, professional DAW for every manner of music and audio production, boasting user-friendly approachability beginners won’t be intimidated by.

Things to Consider:

• 45 included effects plug-ins
• 7 onboard virtual instruments and over 40GB of sounds
• 2,500+ downloadable samples provided by Splice

Shop Now: PreSonus STUDIO ONE PRO 7

PreSonus Studio One Pro 7 is an all-in-one ecosystem to produce, record, mix, master and perform live through one intuitive piece of software. Not everyone who creates music wants to be a tech-minded audio engineer, and PreSonus recognizes that. With Studio One, virtually anyone can achieve pro-level results efficiently, via an intelligently designed DAW meant to keep artists locked in the creative flow—not wrestling with clunky, cumbersome software. As navigable as it is for beginners, experienced pros love PreSonus Studio One, too.

Studio One also pairs well with the PreSonus Quantum ES 2 and Quantum ES 4—high-quality, affordable audio interfaces for beginners starting their home studio.

Reason Studios Reason+

Why It’s Cool: Reason+ uniquely functions as a standalone Rack plug-in or as a full-fledged DAW.

Things to Consider:

• One-of-a-kind workflow for electronic producers
• Easy to get started and as deep as you want it to be
• Massive sound library of 30,000+ patches, loops and samples

Shop Now: Reason Studios Reason+

Reason+ is a rare DAW that has multiple personalities. One is the Rack plug-in, letting you virtually wire up instruments and effects to create novel new sounds. The other is the Studio, where it operates exactly like a digital audio workstation, where you can record, edit and mix tracks with ease. Reason is great for beginners because it prioritizes creativity and streamlines the production process with minimal barrier to entry.

Steinberg Cubase Artist 14

Why It’s Cool: Steinberg Cubase is suited for everyone from Hollywood composers and Billboard chart toppers to dabbling beginners and experienced project studio owners.

Things to Consider:

• Award-winning audio engine with up to 64-bit floating-point resolution at 192kHz
• Extremely flexible workflow for any genre
• Fully integrated vocal editing with VariAudio 3

Shop Now: Steinberg DAC Cubase Artist 14

Steinberg’s Cubase Artist 14 is a game-changing DAW for beginners and professionals alike, offering a multitude of advanced features for recording full bands, making beats, scoring films and anything else audio- and music-related you could possibly imagine. Ideas come together quickly with tools like Scale Assistant to keep you in key and Chord Pads to suggest progressions, and that’s barely scratching the surface. Cubase’s comprehensive functionality makes it one of the best DAWs, period.

Tracktion Waveform Pro 12

Why It’s Cool: The TEC Award-nominated Tracktion Waveform is an inspirational DAW with a ton of outstanding tools for beginners and pros.

Things to Consider:

• Massively upgraded UI in version 12, with customizable color palette
• Extensive hardware support for top brands, including Behringer and Native Instruments
• Uncluttered workflow removes features not explicitly needed to create music

Shop Now: Tracktion Waveform Pro 12

Tracktion Waveform Pro 12 is a powerful platform for modern musicians, decluttering its user interface and workflow for effortless, streamlined creation at any phase in the production process. Its slick, minimalist design philosophy is as suited to weekend bedroom producers as it is to world-touring DJs, so it doesn’t matter whether you’re a beginning audio enthusiast or a full-time professional—the creative capabilities are there, and they’re easy for anyone to navigate.

Hit'n'Mix RipX DAW

Why It’s Cool: The RipX DAW by Hit’n’Mix is unlike anything on this list, featuring a host of AI-driven features for DJs, remixers and more.

Things to Consider:

• Best-in-class stem separation
• Generates customizable music with AI
• A “DAW” in a broader, nontraditional sense

Shop Now: Hit'n'Mix RipX

“Innovative” and “unique” are a couple of terms that come to mind when attempting to describe the RipX DAW by Hit’n’Mix. While it technically is a digital audio workstation, it’s not a DAW in the terms we’ve outlined thus far. RipX, firstly, offers unparalleled stem separation for DJs and remixers, letting you break stereo audio files down to their constituent parts. Additionally, RipX provides access to leading AI music services, with the option to warp, manipulate and otherwise redefine those generations for an entirely new way of creating.

SERATO Studio

Why It’s Cool: SERATO Studio is one of the fastest, most intuitive DAWs for making beats, introducing beginners to the world of electronic music production.

Things to Consider:

• Built-in sampler and drum sequencer
• Includes stem separation
• 190+ instruments at your fingertips

Shop Now: SERATO Studio

SERATO Studio is a killer piece of production software for DJs and aspiring producers, featuring time-saving tools like Auto Chords and Play in Key to quickly sketch progressions and melodies. There’s also a versatile step sequencer for programming hard-hitting drums, and a Keyboard Mode that lets you play any uploaded sample like an instrument pitched across the notes of a controller. If you want to dive into the deep end of electronic instrumentals for pop, hip-hop, R&B and more, SERATO Studio is the perfect launchpad.

DJ.Studio DAW

Why It’s Cool: Touted as the “ultimate DAW for DJs,” DJ.Studio helps you craft stellar stage mixes from start to finish.

Things to Consider:

• AI-powered auto-mix assistant analyzes and sequences songs to harmonically flow
• Includes stem separation
• Used by 200,000+ DJs worldwide

Shop Now: DJ.Studio DAW

DJ.Studio provides all the tools necessary to create mashups, craft DJ and video mixes, and prepare live sets from your laptop. Simply connect DJ.Studio to your music library, allow AI to harmonize the playlist, dial in custom transitions and you’re ready to export a mixed set to your favorite platform. The intuitive timeline editor makes it easier than ever to visualize transitions and shape them to perfection, taking a diverse song selection and giving it the cohesion only a pro DJ can provide.

The Best DAW for Beginners Is the One You Choose

Selecting your first DAW can be likened to your taste in music—it’s very subjective and highly individualized, and there’s no “right” or “wrong” answer. Ultimately, the best DAW for a beginner is whichever you choose based on however you plan to employ it, whether you want a professional all-arounder like Pro Tools or Cubase, or a more function-specific DAW like Hit’n’Mix’s RipX or DJ.Studio.

Any fully realized DAW can be incredibly powerful once you’ve gotten to know it, so we recommend taking the time to find the right one for your needs and even connecting with a Gear Adviser if you have any questions. In the meantime, explore all our DAW offerings to see any of those not featured in this curated selection.

For more hot tips on bringing your home studio together, check out How to Choose the Best Home Recording Gear, as well as the Best Gifts for Music Producers (you deserve one).

People Also Ask ...

• Q: How do I know which DAW to use?
  • A: It depends on a variety of factors, such as your workflow preferences and how you intend to use it. Most importantly, you should ensure the DAW’s primary features and functionality with your vision. You should also consider things like operating system compatibility and personal budget.
• Q: Are DAWs hard to learn?
  • A: Yes, no and it depends. While the concept of a DAW—including navigating session timelines and recording basic tracks—is easy to grasp, advanced functionality, keyboard shortcuts, and the finer points of editing, mixing and mastering can take some time to learn, as the latter are each their own artistic and technical disciplines. Every DAW is slightly different, though, and some are considered more user-friendly than others.
• Q: Which DAW is easiest for beginners?
  • A: Pulling from our list, FL Studio is widely considered a powerful beginner-friendly DAW, while both PreSonus Studio One and Steinberg Cubase have workflows designed to maximize efficiency and creativity. Truly, any DAW becomes easier to use the more time you spend with it.

Appendix

Common audio plug-in formats:

• AAX: Avid Audio eXtension. Proprietary format optimized for Pro Tools.
• AU: Audio Units. Mac-only plug-in format developed by Apple.
• CLAP: CLever Audio Plug-in. Open-source plug-in format developed by u-he and Bitwig in 2022.
• LV2: Linux Audio Developer’s Simple Plug-in API Version 2. Royalty-free audio plug-in standard.
• VST: Virtual Studio Technology. Popular, widely used plug-in format originally developed by Steinberg and introduced with Cubase in 1996.