There are two plans to choose from: Pro Tools and Pro Tools Ultimate. you can record up to 128 tracks simultaneously, with capabilities for up to 64 separate hard-wired inputs/outputs (if your hardware can handle it). Taken at a mixing level, the software will support up to 512 instrument and 1024 MIDI tracks, meaning you won’t be held up no matter how big your projects get. There are even 120 plus bonus plugins included. Take a look at other product reviews and shop for the best audio interfaces available online. With their newest update (12), you get Mimic, a fun new sampler for the modern beatmaker and producer. It is designed for quick and immediate triggering, chopping, and manipulation. The update also includes a huge sound bank with more than 29,000 device patches, loops, and samples. They still offer their classic, but still unique, Matrix Pattern Sequencer for controlling tracks with a maximum of 32 steps per pattern. There’s VST support and an Ableton Live link in case you prefer producing in Reason but sequencing live playback in Ableton. But, like any software, it’s about feel and preference, and Reason has more than a few loyal fans. In our experience, the Suite is a little overkill for the average producer, so we’ve chosen the Standard here. It offers you unlimited audio and MIDI tracks for wherever your project takes you, 12 send and return buses for effects, up to 256 different mono ins and outs, the ability to capture MIDI inputs for live programming, some cool complex warp modes, and more. They’ve included more than 1,800 different built-in sounds (all in all a 10GB library!), plus 37 audio effects and 14 MIDI effects, all included in the Standard edition. Ableton Live 11 software comes with a host of features perfect for any beat maker—up-and-coming or experienced. One of the biggest updates with the Live 11 edition is its comping capabilities. You can organize multiple passes of an audio or MIDI performance into individual takes, and you can link two or more audio or MIDI tracks to edit the content simultaneously. Interested in reading more reviews? Take a look at our selection of the best DJ equipment items. There’s plenty of simultaneous audio recording, plus smart MIDI sequencing features like a multi-track editing function. There’s a “drag and drop” loop comping feature, plus more than 30 native effect plugins included. They even offer built-in Melodyne functionality (though with the Artist version, it’s just a trial), which offers an insanely premium level of pitch correction. If you’re trying to compose a track with an infectious beat, check out our selection of the best beat-making software. However, for the budget-conscious, Acid Music Studio 11 is a great option that will give you some solid starter features, such as pro-quality, 24-bit, 192 kHz multitrack sound, powered by a 64-bit engine. It includes eight virtual instruments and six effect plug-ins. Choose from over 2,500 loops used to produce hip hop, house, and rock.You can record unlimited audio tracks, live track multiple instruments simultaneously, and custom map shortcuts onto your keyboard. It has VST plug-in support, so you can expand the software’s functionality with whatever plug-ins you need. Finally, you can export in mp3, Wav, or FLAC files for whatever you need. They call that multi-note functionality Direct Note Access (or DNA, for short), and how it works is pretty cool: You take input audio, whether it’s a single vocal line or full-on guitar chords, and feed it into the software. It’ll then map out each note onto a piano-roll-like interface so you can isolate pitches, smooth them out, or even drag them to another note. This award-winning pitch plugin will interface with almost every major DAW and will become an indispensable part of your production arsenal. The device itself comes with two Phantom-powered mic or inputs for using a microphone or tracking instruments directly. There’s also a built-in condenser mic right on the front. But what really makes this shine is the intuitive Spire software. Once you pair it up, you can record several simultaneous tracks via the Spire device. And then, once you get to mixing and mastering (that’s right, you can mix and master right on your phone), iZotope has put in a cool graphical interface that lets you virtually drag tracks on an X/Y access to pan them left or right and place them as higher priority in the mix (when dragging them up and down). It all works via iZotope’s award-winning Neutron automated mixing algorithms, and it really is an impressive piece of software—on your phone or otherwise.
