This is a list of 5 best free alternatives to FL Studio. Using these free FL Studio alternatives, you will also be able to easily record, mix, edit, and make great quality music on your PC. FL Studio is no doubt one of the best digital audio workstations, but it is not free, and leaves some of us (who normally prefers free software) with no choice than looking for free alternatives. Well, you would be glad to know that the free alternatives to FL Studio do exist and also bundle quite a similar set of features to FL Studio for making good music.
After going through a bunch of audio editing software, I have compiled a list of 5 free digital audio workstation software such as LMMS, Audacity, MuLab, etc. Among these software, Podium and MuLab come with both free and paid versions. Despite the paid versions, they still pack dozens of useful tools in the free version to record and create amazing music tracks.
Let us get started with the alternatives to FL Studio.
LMMS:
LMMS is probably one of the best DAWs (Digital Audio Workstations) and a decent alternative to FL Studio. It lets you create great music using various tools like the beat editor, synthesizers, trackers, bassline editor, sequencers, song editor, MIDI keyboard, and more. It also comes with a Piano-Roll window using which you can edit and create MIDI tracks by selecting desired pitch and inserting the associated notes. Apart from that, you can also change the note values by resizing the notes with your mouse. You can even add effects, distortion, and filters you like to pre-existing music tracks and then merge them into a single track.
LMMS offers 4 different sound synthesizers: Guitar synthesizer, Wavetable synthesizer, Sample Manipulation synthesizer by adding filters, and the last one comes with three different oscillators for changing frequency and pitch of the sounds. It even supports various standards like VST, SoundFont2, LADSPA, and more which also make it compatible for importing FL Studio projects and MIDI files.
You can read more about LMMS from here.
Audacity:
Audacity is also a free and pretty useful alternative to FL Studio using which you can record, mix, edit, and produce outstanding music as you desire. So, if you’re looking for an FL Studio alternative with features like effects, intuitive editor, multichannel recording, or audio analysis, then Audacity seems to be the best option for that. The “Effects” offered by Audacity sums up compression, equalization, changing pitch, and more. It also comes with a unique and useful feature called “Noise Removal” which allows you to remove different types of noises from your audio tracks. You can easily use this software to edit your audio files of different formats like MP3, AIFF, WAV, etc.
The best part of Audacity is that it lets you record live audio, adjust the speed of the recording, shift pitch, and also merge multiple tracks into a single creative piece of a music track. Apart from all these features, it also bundles other important features to trim audio with ease, silence audio, beat finder, change tempo, phaser, auto duck, amplifier, and many other.
If you would like to know more about Audacity, then read the full review here.
Tracktion 5:
Tracktion 5 is also one of the best FL Studio alternatives and an advanced digital audio workstation that comes with an intuitive interface for producing music with ease. It supports audio files, unlimited VST plug-ins, ReWire compatible, as well as video files from which you can edit the audio part in order to synchronize the audio with the videos. This music creator software bundles features like the sampler, sound effects, various mixing tools, and standard audio editing. Using this software, you can easily edit your music and use effects, VST plugins, and audio samples to enhance the quality of the music track.
You can even use external music instruments like a MIDI controller or synthesizer to play and record the resulting output. It also lets you use audio loops for creating simple arrangements of multiple tracks such that you don’t have to manually make the editing to the entire recording. You can also use VST instrument plugins and effects for your compositions and make custom samples to use for the entire track.
MuLab:
MuLab is another amazing digital audio workstation and a good free alternative to FL Studio. It comes with an intuitive interface and helps you record, edit, and create multi-track music with ease. The spark of this software is that it supports MIDI files, and comes with useful tools like equalizer, audio recording, reverb, synth, drum set, etc.
The free version of MuLab supports 8 VST plugins for each project, 4 tracks per composition, one MIDI input/output, and 2 audio input/output. If you exceed these free version limitations, then also you can use the software but a soft background noise will keep playing time to time. You will need to purchase the unlimited version to get rid of that noise, or stay within the limits of the free version.
The other features which might grab your attention are the streamlined mixer, samplers, synths, sample players, effects, slice drum loops, etc. This software is perfect for recording & mixing quick audio sessions and also to test various VST plugins. The only major drawback of the free version is the limitation of 4 tracks per composition, however, the mixer, MUX, and sequencer have no limitations and you can use them for creating amazing music tracks and live performances.
Podium:
Podium Free is a simple alternative to FL Studio and an effective digital audio workstation which allows you to record, mix, and edit audio, MIDI files, and also hosts effects and VST instrument plugins. This software can be used to easily record and edit audio and MIDI sounds with multi-tracking (single input/output per composition in free version). The best features of this software are standard editing & recording tools, a virtual mixer, supports external MIDI controller, and audio track bounce/freeze. The track bouncing and freezing features can assist you to minimize the load on CPU while using the free version.
Apart from that, you can also edit, mix, and add Bass, Piano, Hi-Hat, Drum, Jazz Guitar, and more to the tracks. Other useful features are the beat slicer, crossfade overlapping, merge/split tracks, fader, and more. If you would like to use some additional features like 64-bit mixer engine, ReWire, plugin multiprocessing, and more, then you can go ahead and purchase the paid version of Podium.
My Final Verdict:
If you’re looking for free alternatives to FL Studio such that you can make great music without paying a single penny, then using these digital audio workstations explained in this post is probably the best option for you. Personally, I like LMMS as it offers dozens of useful music creations tools like the beat editor, trackers, sequencers, bassline editor, support for MIDI keyboard, and more for free.
