Technology gives us so many options for making great music. In the past, you needed to pay for studio time to make some awesome tunes. These days, all you need is a Macbook and the right music production software. There are lots of options out there, but which ones are the best? Let’s explore some of the most popular music production tools for Mac.
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1. Ableton Live
Ableton Live is considered to be one of the best professional suites for making music. With the help of Ableton, you can make melodies in either Arrangement View or Session View. Arrangement View lets you compose with the help of audio tracks, these tracks represent different instruments. Alternatively, you can compose with the help of Session View, (here the sounds or instruments are saved as clips). When you change the position of a sound clip you can easily make changes to your original sequence. Using the Ableton Live software you can record live music, experiment with software instruments, and so much more.
2 . Garage Band
Garage Band is one of the leading music production tools, the great thing about Garage Band is that it’s perfect for beginners. The software has a straightforward interface where users can access a keyboard, synths, percussion, and more. You can access music lessons, music loops, and edit your performance as you please. A few of the key features include:
- Effects and amps for mic or guitar.
- Presets for recording guitar and vocals.
- Lesson function for the guitar or piano.
- Can access built-in loops.
- Learn all about chord mapping.
- You can use the app with USB keyboards.
- Various plug-in controls to choose from.
- Logic Pro X
Logic Pro X is one of the more advanced music production tools, generally speaking, it’s not recommended for beginners. The software includes plenty of great features including flex pitch, smart controls, logic remote, and track consolidation. Users can use the score editor to build their own MIDI and access the intuitive mixing tool. There’s an interactive drum kit, a simple interface, and various plug-ins and synths. You can also access a sound library with plenty of different effects to choose from.
The main interface is just underneath the dropdown menus, in this section, you can make changes to your music project as a whole. For example, if you wanted to switch the tempo of your track. If you’re new to music production you should consider watching a few logic pro tutorials before you brave this software. There’s lots of info online which can help you learn how to use this tool.
- Image-Line FL Studio
Image-Line FL Studio was originally called ‘FruityLoops’, the software made a real big impression in the electronic music scene. The brand has been around for over 20 years, many of the top DJ’s started out using FL Studio software. Using the trial you can create your projects, save them, then convert them into WAV or MP3. There are plenty of plug-ins and instruments that you can use with FL Studio, a few examples include synths like Harmless, Harmour, and Morphine.
- Cubase 11
Another leading brand of music production software, Cubase has been a popular tool for 30+ years. The newest version is called Cubase 11, offering plenty of attractive features for music producers. There’s a huge sound library, plenty of awesome plugins, and the new ‘monato legato glide,’ (Cubase 2021). Users can take advantage of the Scale Assistant tool, a great feature to help with songwriting. In the Key Editor section, you can set the scale, perfect your tune, and analyze MIDI recordings.
- Audacity
Music production software can get pretty expensive, if you don’t have a big budget to spend you might struggle. All is not lost though, there are a few music production tools that are free, including Audacity. The software has some great noise reduction settings, and it’s perfect for trimming and normalization. For these reasons it’s pretty popular with solo artists and podcasters. There are lots of cool features to take advantage of, including:
- Various effects, for example, change the tempo, pitch, or speed.
- Record audio live
- Create plug-in effects using Nyquist.
- Splice, copy, or mix sounds.
- You can edit MP3, WAV, AIFF, and more.
For optimum performance, you should ensure that you install the macOS 12 Monterey on your device. You can get all the information you need about this on the MacPaw website. Once you’ve got the right tools you’ll be well on your way to starting your music career.