Where to Find Music Mixing Software

by Ashan R. Hampton

Overview

With the widespread availability of digital technology, anyone with a computer can easily create songs at home. However, gathering the necessary equipment for creating music mixes or recording baby's first song can get costly. Fortunately, several audio production programs are available online for free. Some music software is geared toward professional musicians or studio producers and requires a high learning curve. However, there are far more music production programs available online for general users or novices who simply want to make a digital mixtape of their favorite songs or who want to explore DJ-style club mixing.
Audacity

Audacity is the most popular open source music production software available on the Internet. With Audacity, audio can be recorded, edited and mixed with other sounds or special effects. It is user-friendly and available for all PC and MAC computer operating systems. Although Audacity developers do not offer live technical support, written documentation such as user manuals, tutorials, tips and frequently asked questions is available under the "Help" section of the website. Troy Dreier with "PC Magazine" gave Audacity a good review and reminded users that it can be used to record any sound being filtered through the computer. Audacity can be downloaded for free at audacity.sourceforge.net.

Audacity software

Shareware Options

Cnet download.com is a clearinghouse for all types of open-source software and offers a wide variety of MP3 and music mixing programs. All programs are spyware and virus free, and most software has been rated by site editors or reviewed by other users, which prove helpful in deciding which programs to download. Some of the most frequently downloaded audio production and recording software includes Virtual DJ, Audacity, FL Studio and Magix Music Maker 15. Although the majority of the music programs available are open-source, full versions, some are only trial versions and subject to feature limitations. Wave Pad Sound Editor is another free audio production program, which is distributed by NCH Software. Music files can be recorded, cut, copied, sliced and saved in a variety of formats. Wave Pad also includes an internal CD ripper for extracting music directly from a CD into the software. The Wave Pad software is available online at nch.com.au/wavepad.
Considerations

With open-source audio software, professionals and beginners can create music mixes for a variety of occasions quickly and easily. When developing compositions for professional use, however, it is best to use industry standard software such as Adobe Audition, Pro Tools or Fuity Loops. Choosing which software to use for mixing music is based on personal preference and production needs, but freeware or shareware considerably reduces the costs of audio production and increases the choices.