With a free screen recorder, it's easy to capture and share footage straight from your desktop. Fancy showing other people how to play big name games on YouTube? Would you like to make demos to show off your apps, or to teach others how to use specific software? We've got the tool for you. The simplest screen recorders simply capture what's on your screen and save it in AVI format, but the more advanced free tools also offer editing, picture-in-picture, live streaming, and gameplay optimization. However, you have to be careful – many free recorders will add unsightly watermarks to your clips or let you record only a handful of videos before demanding payment, so it's essential to pick the right software first to avoid disappointing results.
Here's our pick of the best free screen recorders that will help you record or stream professional-quality video from your desktop or webcam. Setup takes a little while If you’re a keen gamer, is easily the best screen capture software for you. Unlike the hugely popular FRAPS (which only lets you record for 30 seconds at a stretch unless you’ve bought a license, and applies a watermark to the resulting footage), OBS Studio is open source, and completely free to use without restrictions. Free screen recorder OBS Studio supports both streaming and recording in high definition, with no restrictions on the number or length of your creations. You can stream live to Twitch or YouTube gaming, save projects and come back to them later, or encode your footage in FLV format and save it locally. Because OBS Studio can record directly from your graphics card, it’s able to capture games running in full-screen mode (many other screen recorders can only record if the game is windowed), with customizable hotkeys to control the recording.
OBS Studio can also make full use of multi-core CPUs for improved performance, and can record at 60FPS (or even higher). It might take a little while to set it up exactly how you want, but OBS Studio is by far the best and most powerful screen recorder for gamers. Only exports to WMV format OBS Studio is our top choice for recording from a desktop or webcam, but comes a very close second. Despite being a free version of a paid program, FlashBack Express won't put ugly watermarks over your recordings or impose time limits, and it's packed with features and tools that rival many premium programs. Its interface is less intimidating than OBS Studio, so if you've never used a screen recorder before, it's an excellent choice. You can record from your whole screen, a window, a selected area, or a webcam.
Once you’ve finished, your recording will appear in a simple editor, where you can crop and trim it to suit your needs, then export it to YouTube, an FTP server, or your PC. That’s all fairly standard fare for a free screen recorder, but take a minute to dive into Flashback’s advanced options and you’ll find a wealth of thoughtfully designed settings that will make your desktop recordings look truly professional. The recorder can automatically obscure passwords entered on screen, replace your silly wallpaper with a plain one, hide messy desktop icons, and highlight your mouse pointer to make it easier to follow. There's also a dedicated gaming mode that lets you define the number of frames recorded per second. There’s no limit on the length of your recordings unless you choose to set one, which can be useful if there’s a chance you might accidentally leave the recorder running.
You can also choose to break long recordings up into chunks – a brilliant touch that helps you avoid creating huge, unwieldy files. Your recordings won’t be watermarked, either. You’ll need to upgrade to one of the premium versions of Flashback to save in a format other than WMV, but that’s the only significant limitation of this brilliant free screen recorder.
Developer Blueberry Software has also released a free screen recorder designed specifically for games –. This recorder captures HD in-game footage, with hardware acceleration for AMD and Nvidia cards, and Intel CPUs.
Not suitable for games If you want to record a presentation, software demonstration or tutorial, give a try. It's a browser-based tool, which means it's not suitable for games, but for any other tasks it's ideal.
The first time you use Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder, you'll be prompted to download a small launcher application. You'll then be provided with a control bar packed with more options than you'll find in most desktop screen recording software. You can capture footage from your desktop or a webcam, and record audio from your PC, microphone, both or neither. You can record the whole screen, select an area manually or choose one of the preset resolutions – ideal if you’re recording a clip for YouTube, for example, and don’t want to use a separate video editor to resize it later. Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder also offers customizable keyboard shortcuts for speed and convenience.
You can choose whether or not to include the cursor in the recording and take your pick from a range of output formats including MP4, WMV, AVI, MOV and many more. You can even add annotations during the recording. Once you’re done, you can save the recording as a video file or GIF, upload it directly to YouTube or Vimeo, or send it to Google Drive or Dropbox. You can also edit the clip. Selecting this option will download an additional component – Apowersoft Video Editor – which lets you make simple adjustments before exporting your video in your preferred format. A truly exceptional tool.
Note that the 'Download desktop version' button links to a program called Apowersoft Screen Recorder Pro. This is a trial version of a premium application, and is more limited than Online Screen Recorder. Not suitable for games is a free screen recorder designed to grab webcam and desktop footage – not in-game action.
Starting a recording is simple – just click the button, then select an areas of the screen and tap Ctrl+R. Your recordings won’t be watermarked, but you’re limited to five minutes of footage at a time. That might not sound like much compared with some of the free screen recorders here, but it’s plenty for an average YouTube video tutorial. Once you’re done, you can preview your video and export it to your hard drive, to YouTube, or to TinyTake’s own cloud storage service, which gives you 2GB for your clips. Other tools, including annotations, are exclusive to the premium versions of TinyTake, which are designed for commercial use.
TinyTake is a lean, streamlined screen recorder, but the lack of editing tools is a shame, and places it below Apowersoft Free Online Screen Recorder in our ranking. Restricted output options Xsplit’s streaming and recording software comes in two flavors: and. They’re very similar, but the latter is designed chiefly for gamers, while the former is a more general-purpose screen recorder. Xsplit Broadcaster is a free screen recorder with three tiers: free, personal (for keen streamers), and premium (for commercial use). The free edition of places a watermark over recordings over 60fps, or at resolutions higher than 720p. That’s a major drawback compared to OBS Studio, but Xsplit’s simple interface might make that compromise worthwhile if you’re only intending to publish to YouTube at standard definition.
The free screen recorder can capture input from any source, including your screen, a video card, webcam, media file, or a specific program. Its game-detect function triggers automatically when you begin playing, and the results can be output as a video file, or streamed directly via Twitch, YouTube Live, and Facebook Live, to name just a few. Watch our rundown of our favourite free video editors.
If you’re a serious musician, podcaster, or budding audio engineer, you care about the quality of your recordings–or you should. And that’s why the audio recording programs you use matter. However, I’d like to add that it’s not the software that makes the music. It’s your skills as an audio engineer. To illustrate, I’d like to tell you a story of an interesting email thread a while back. This guy was looking for a home studio and he was asking around for where to go.
An acquaintance of mine chimed in with his answer, with some details about studios and such but there was one comment that really infuriated me: You might want to have someone who’s recording onto protools. (sic) Ugh Now, I know that not all musicians are engineers so I should really let that slide. And this person is actually a really great musician, but he’s a little off in what makes up a great studio. The thing that bothers me is that software companies are so good at brainwashing the public into believing that their software is crucial to the makings of a good record.
It F.ing isn’t. It doesn’t whether you use Pro-Tools, Nuendo, Cubase, Sonar Producer, Logic Pro, Digital Performer, GarageBand, Live, or any of the other software that’s for sale out there. It’s the least important thing in the grand scheme of: “hey I want to know how to record my songs or have someone do it for me.what should I buy first?” The software isn’t going to tell you what sounds good.
It’s not a robot that knows how to engineer. It can’t tell you if you’re overcompressing your drums.
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This is something that the engineer needs to know. This is the skill of the engineer, regardless of what software he’s using. Pro-Tools is not going to make your music sound any better. Ask yourself: If you install (insert preferred software here) onto your computer, is it going to make the any better? Is it going to make the sound of your pre-amps any better?
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Will it walk out of the computer, look at your monitors and say, “Gee, maybe you should a little further apart for better imaging.” No, it’s not some mega nerdy Cylon engineer. It’ll just do what you tell it to do. And if you feed it garbage it will give you trash. Skills Make Sounds – Not Software So think more about what skills you need to actually record a great sound than the software that you’re told you desperately need to get. Yes, you need software.
If you, or the engineer you hire, is great at using it. I use Logic, do I recommend Logic to everybody.
My philosophy is that any software that you’re comfortable using is the best software for your situation. The skill and knowledge of engineering is infinitely more important than any audio recording software that’s out there. Now that we’ve got that rant out of the way, let’s talk about what software solutions you have available, both free and paid. Will show you a lot of different options that will give you decision anxiety, so we’ve compiled a list for you to reduce your hyperventilating so that you can go back to what you set out to do before, make music. Top 5 Free Audio Recording Programs Most run-of-the-mill, audio recording apps that come pre-installed on your computer just won’t cut it (with the possible exception of GarageBand for Macs, a fairly high-quality recorder for simple projects), and you also may not be willing or able to spend an arm and a leg for professional grade software.
However, you’re in luck. There are some great free tools that actually don’t suck and can produce the kind of quality recording that will make anybody who listens to your works of art–or wit, if you’re a podcaster–sit up and take note of what you have to offer. Here are some of the very best, completely free recording tools that will help bring your sounds to life. Audacity Available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux Audacity is the go-to open source audio recording application, and as long as your goals aren’t overly ambitious, it puts an enormous amount of power in your hands. It can record just about anything you throw at it, whether it’s from a microphone, through the line-in jack, or live streaming audio (if supported by your sound card), all in a lightweight and clean interface. Many recording enthusiasts, especially podcasters, appreciate Audacity’s uncomplicated user experience and ease of use.
Audacity supports recording in sample rates from 44.1 to an excessive 192 kHz, which sets the stage for studio-caliber and even ultrasonic recordings, if you have the hardware to handle it. Also included is support for 32-bit floating point, providing ample headroom for your recorded signal. It comes with effects such as an equalizer with helpful presets, pitch, speed and tempo controls, delay, compressor, fade in/out, and a noise remover. You can expand this palette thanks to Audacity’s generous support of VST, LADSPA, Nyquist and Audio Unit plugins. Audacity’s strength is its simplicity. While you can make it do multi-track recording if you’re so inclined, it will never gain centerpiece status in a true recording studio. However, it is beginner-friendly, easy to utilize for quick edits that need to be made on the fly (whether that means filtering out unwanted noise, boosting vocals or other frequencies through equalization, or just cutting and pasting), and extremely well-suited for simple hobbyist and podcast recording applications.
Garageband Available for Mac OS only Garageband comes free with any Mac computer and is actually pretty legit for most recording needs. Although it can’t do major processing like its big brother Logic, it’s more than able to do any type of multi-track recording and minor mixing work. Highly recommend for the bedroom recordist that’s just starting out and needs a simple solution to lay down some demos. Traverso Available for Windows, Mac OS, and Linux Traverso, another fully featured DAW that’s sure to meet common recording needs, is all about convenience. This program eschews a traditional “menu” structure in favor of innovative keyboard and mouse shortcuts, which brings a crisp immediacy to recording tasks. There’s no doubt about it–there will be a bit of a learning curve–but the developers claim to have integrated input and execution so seamlessly that you practically learn how to do things as you go along. Furthermore, users have an array of options that make recording demo CDs a snap.
You can create tables of contents and burn discs without ever leaving Traverso. Other features that dovetail nicely with the “stay out of the way” philosophy behind Traverso include non-destructive editing, or the ability to use plugins and make edits without changing the actual sample, and lockless real-time audio processing, which reduces latency and streamlines performance. Traverso’s commitment to intuitive recording and mastering controls makes the program stand out among its similarly free counterparts. Ardour DAW Available for Mac OS and Linux Ardour is yet another great free DAW: one that is taking aim at cream-of-the-crop professional software and is promising for real studios with low budgets. It features non-destructive editing, 32-bit float, supports unlimited tracks, and has extremely flexible routing capabilities. With support for LADSPA, LV2, and VST plugins, you’ll be able to make your favorite customizations without a hassle.
Synchronization with video is supported, and full handling of MIDI recording, playback and editing is expected with the highly-anticipated release of the third edition of Ardour. The thing that really sets Ardour apart from the rest of the pack is what’s under the hood. It runs on JACK, an underlying sound server that facilitates low-latency audio recording and communication among various programs. Although Ardour itself only runs on Mac OS and Linux at present, a Windows port has been conceptualized and efforts towards building one are in full swing as of June 2012, and JACK is already a true cross-platform utility that runs on the aforementioned systems as well as Windows. JACK is excellent at handling MIDI, so Ardour will take full advantage of that upon the release of the third edition. Ardour is complex and certainly not for newbies.
Some have complained about the potentially confusing graphical user interface (GUI), which is quite inaccessible to someone who’s never seen or seriously worked with a DAW before. But if you’re an audio engineer of any level of experience and strapped for cash, you may find that Ardour fits the bill for your projects quite nicely. Jokosher Available for Windows and Linux Jokosher is billed as the “musician’s DAW” and the Linux alternative to GarageBand, the standard, pre-installed, easy-to-use workstation for Macs. Here, you won’t find advanced editing and mastering tools by the names that most engineers know: it’s a program that speaks in a music maker’s language. While not as heavyweight as its counterparts, Jokosher takes a lot of the guesswork out of the recording process for people who are new to it. All of the basic, expected editing tools are at the user’s disposal.
Startup is fast, easy and straightforward. Tracks are called “instruments,” and you can literally set them up based on the type of instrument you’re intending to record. If it’s an acoustic guitar for example, simply select “Acoustic Guitar” and the track will be clearly labeled as such with a cute picture to boot, providing a nice visual layout of instruments used in the mix. Jokosher supports LADSPA plugins only, and as of June 2012 it’s still in its early development stages.
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But for musicians and podcasters who want to record simple products and get a first taste of manipulating tracks in a DAW, this simple program is hard to beat. Alternative to Pro-Tools That Won’t Break the Bank Most of the big pro studios are using to make all the records going to the radio these days, but it’s slowly losing its status as an industry standard due to the quality of its competitors. There are plenty of lower-cost DAWs and a wealth of free and inexpensive plug-ins that bring professional studio sound right to your computer. Even though Pro Tools is the premier name in the industry, there is really no special voodoo under the hood.
It is simply a graphical user interface that lets you move some bits (and thus sounds) around inside your computer. There is no difference in the way Pro Tools sounds and the way any of its competitors sound, period. So you can comfortably make a foray into saving money by purchasing one of the many alternatives to Pro Tools –none of which will cause even your fans to hear a difference. Steinberg Cubase There is the perennially popular, which is perhaps the granddaddy of them all so to speak. The German-engineered application is perhaps the Mercedes-Benz of DAWs, offering pioneering technology and reliable performance. 2. Logic Pro X Apple has two DAWs in its stable: a veritable discussed before. In both cases, the quality of these programs is very high and both will work with a wide assortment of audio hardware.
CakeWalk Sonar another huge name in the DAW world. Running exclusively on PC, Cakewalk’s SONAR program has been around for a long time. This program is imminently powerful and is built on Roland technology. Cockos Reaper Perhaps the best-kept secret in the world of DAWs is Reaper. Change from ost to pst. Is a heads-on contender for any other DAW on the list, including Pro Tools. The best part is that Reaper is not only among the best, it is also one of the least expensive, coming in at only $60 for the discounted license. All the features are there: real-time recording and editing, unlimited track count, VST and DX plug-in support, and more.
Studio One is a great option as well. It contains everything you need to produce music and seems very intuitive and easy to use. In fact, it’s probably the only DAW that might make me switch from Logic. A lot of my producer and engineer friends use it and they swear by it, citing its ease of use, sound quality and simplicity with production.
There is nothing wrong with using Pro Tools, of course. But if you can’t afford to shell out the big dollars for the industry’s biggest name, you still get the great results with the above applications.
Audio Recording Programs for Any Situation All of the above are solid apps with unique feature sets and strengths, dedicated fan bases, and active support and development teams. The free DAWs don’t have the advanced functionality of much more expensive, industry-standard solutions, but depending on your needs I’m sure you’ll find something that works for you. Try them out and decide which combination of user experience and specific features works best for you. Happy recording!
Parts of this post were contributed by Daniel Kimbrel and Jessica Josh. If you would like to submit a guest post, Daniel is a movie buff and freelance writer. He contributes to a number of music sites online. Jessica Josh is an Australian freelance writer and blogger. Since 2007 she has been writing about weddings, fashion, and music.
Unfortunately you haven’t included Reaper by Cockos. Reaper is a monstrous powerhouse compared to EVEN Pro Tools, Logic, Cakewalk/Sonor (crap). Reaper is light on harddrive space, with the installation file of the entire full-fledged program just under 12 MB. However, they spared no expense on performance. Reaper, just like a normal DAW, and unlike a strange DAW that makes little to no sense, allows you to chain plug-ins and effects, AND change their parameters individually, on the fly, during playback (which is a normal feature Audacity does have).
Audacity’s interface leaves the phrase ‘mind-numbingly awful’ in mind. Go online and download themes for Reaper! Like how Pro Tools looks? Get the Pro Tools theme! Make your own theme, even. Reaper’s performance is also somehow bench marked as more optimal compared to many of the other DAWs the big-boys use.
The routing is incredible – MIDI and audio regions can be placed on the same track (side chain input for an effect, FX Gate opening-closing, whatever you would want to do with that). The multi-track routing is unequaled; each track can have absurd amounts of tracks (2(stereo) to 32 and more), allowing you to side-chain input any track with whatever signal you want in an extremely flexible environment. This is FAR beyond even what Pro Tools is capable of, let alone Audacity. In fact, Reaper has every feature that Pro Tools offers, even down to the deep stuff – SMPTE Time Code reading (AND generation, which is not a feature in Pro Tools!).
It can do everything. And WAY more. Reaper also has an Extremely intuitive interface; open up the DAW, and within one hour you’ll be keen on how it operates – no reading required. But, not too simple. Not only does it support VST plugins and DX plugins, it also comes with the standard Reaper plugins (ReaComp, ReaEQ, ReaVerbate, ReaDelay, etc.) and, a powerhouse FIR based linear-phase EQ & Spectral Compressor/Gate/Subtractor/Convolver (ReaFir). This plugin is capable of things that I have yet to see come into the Audio Industry in a main-stream way.
It also includes 100’s of JS plugins that are developed by Reaper, and users of Reapers. Reaper ALSO allows you to design your own plugins and effects! Chain effects together in one for a multi-effect, or create your own entirely from scratch that does whatever you imagine. Reaper is one of those products that blow your mind: – Small – Fast – FEATURES – THEMES – Plugins (use, or make your own) – Starts up in literally 3 seconds – Very comparable to Pro Tools, and in some ways, superior The features are never-ending. And the price is Free for the full version. There IS a trial (45 days), but the developers are SO nice, that all you have to do when the trail is over, is wait 5 seconds for the window to allow you to close it.
We’re talking maybe 10 seconds to start up, even with the annoying splash asking you to buy it. AND if you do, as I have done, it only costs $45 dollars.
But you don’t have to to use the full version. Unfortunately you haven’t included Reaper by Cockos. Reaper is a monstrous powerhouse compared to EVEN Pro Tools, Logic, Cakewalk/Sonor (crap). Reaper is light on harddrive space, with the installation file of the entire full-fledged program just under 12 MB. However, they spared no expense on performance.
Reaper, just like a normal DAW, and unlike a strange DAW that makes little to no sense, allows you to chain plug-ins and effects, AND change their parameters individually, on the fly, during playback (which is a normal feature Audacity does have). Audacity’s interface leaves the phrase ‘mind-numbingly awful’ in mind.
Go online and download themes for Reaper! Like how Pro Tools looks? Get the Pro Tools theme! Make your own theme, even. Reaper’s performance is also somehow bench marked as more optimal compared to many of the other DAWs the big-boys use. The routing is incredible – MIDI and audio regions can be placed on the same track (side chain input for an effect, FX Gate opening-closing, whatever you would want to do with that). The multi-track routing is unequaled; each track can have absurd amounts of tracks (2(stereo) to 32 and more), allowing you to side-chain input any track with whatever signal you want in an extremely flexible environment.
This is FAR beyond even what Pro Tools is capable of, let alone Audacity. In fact, Reaper has every feature that Pro Tools offers, even down to the deep stuff – SMPTE Time Code reading (AND generation, which is not a feature in Pro Tools!). It can do everything. And WAY more. Reaper also has an Extremely intuitive interface; open up the DAW, and within one hour you’ll be keen on how it operates – no reading required. But, not too simple.
Not only does it support VST plugins and DX plugins, it also comes with the standard Reaper plugins (ReaComp, ReaEQ, ReaVerbate, ReaDelay, etc.) and, a powerhouse FIR based linear-phase EQ & Spectral Compressor/Gate/Subtractor/Convolver (ReaFir). This plugin is capable of things that I have yet to see come into the Audio Industry in a main-stream way. It also includes 100’s of JS plugins that are developed by Reaper, and users of Reapers. Reaper ALSO allows you to design your own plugins and effects! Chain effects together in one for a multi-effect, or create your own entirely from scratch that does whatever you imagine. Reaper is one of those products that blow your mind: – Small – Fast – FEATURES – THEMES – Plugins (use, or make your own) – Starts up in literally 3 seconds – Very comparable to Pro Tools, and in some ways, superior The features are never-ending. And the price is Free for the full version.
There IS a trial (45 days), but the developers are SO nice, that all you have to do when the trail is over, is wait 5 seconds for the window to allow you to close it. We’re talking maybe 10 seconds to start up, even with the annoying splash asking you to buy it. AND if you do, as I have done, it only costs $45 dollars.
But you don’t have to to use the full version. As of 2015 another great free-b is Studio 1, but skip the so-called free Pro Tools DAW, it is SO limited you would drop it in a heart beat. I have been a long time KAE user, and once you get past setting it up I feel it is STILL the best to get started with. Because a limit of 16 tracks make you WORK to make everything you record count, because the basic editing makes you SMARTER at editing, because the 4 included plug ins makes you REALLY THINK about WHY you are doing what you are doing. KAE is all you need for audio recording, and it supports VST’s with no problembut it DOES NOT support Midi of ANY kind, nor ANY TYPE of VSTi, so if you are not recording REAL instruments and audio, then you will not be able to handle KAE. As of 2015 another great free-b is Studio 1, but skip the so-called free Pro Tools DAW, it is SO limited you would drop it in a heart beat.
I have been a long time KAE user, and once you get past setting it up I feel it is STILL the best to get started with. Because a limit of 16 tracks make you WORK to make everything you record count, because the basic editing makes you SMARTER at editing, because the 4 included plug ins makes you REALLY THINK about WHY you are doing what you are doing. KAE is all you need for audio recording, and it supports VST’s with no problembut it DOES NOT support Midi of ANY kind, nor ANY TYPE of VSTi, so if you are not recording REAL instruments and audio, then you will not be able to handle KAE. I know audiotool music software is hard, (free no downloads) When watching and trying to copying a 3 min tutorial on youtube it takes hours (hours) just too get the same exact sound as the tutorial video. The learning part takes time, but with audiotool things do not work as the guy makes it look easy, (especially his tutorials) Not for beginners the titles (audiotool basics lesson #1 etc. The audiologic terms are not basic if no definition is explained. If you know music (notes on piano help big time or guitar is same as piano notes treble cliff whatever,(I went from guitar to piano quik and I’m not very smart either I figured it out.
You be shreddin (audiosauna) no time. Free music software no downloads just type audiosauna go studio., I turn the rain sound into a space shower, Sweep taps sound better than Michael angelo ‘batio’ even Mozart would shit. Of course on synthmesc.
Put time into audiotool if you think audacity is hard, see red. I know audiotool music software is hard, (free no downloads) When watching and trying to copying a 3 min tutorial on youtube it takes hours (hours) just too get the same exact sound as the tutorial video.
The learning part takes time, but with audiotool things do not work as the guy makes it look easy, (especially his tutorials) Not for beginners the titles (audiotool basics lesson #1 etc. The audiologic terms are not basic if no definition is explained. If you know music (notes on piano help big time or guitar is same as piano notes treble cliff whatever,(I went from guitar to piano quik and I’m not very smart either I figured it out.
You be shreddin (audiosauna) no time. Free music software no downloads just type audiosauna go studio., I turn the rain sound into a space shower, Sweep taps sound better than Michael angelo ‘batio’ even Mozart would shit. Of course on synthmesc. Put time into audiotool if you think audacity is hard, see red.