Interface / Recording Environment / WorkflowĪs I hinted at earlier, Ableton Live shares some things in common with Soundtrap, with one of the main similarities being that it has a rather minimal interface. Their DAW is Live, which is what we’ll be covering here. To that extent, it would be good to remember that “Ableton” is a company name, even if it has become synonymous with their DAW. It probably doesn’t hurt that Ableton Live is also a music producing powerhouse, and it’s lovingly used by plenty of YouTubers and even Timbaland.Ībleton is a German music software company responsible for the Live DAW, various instruments, sample libraries, as well as their hardware controller, Push. Pro Tools may well be the “industry standard.” But with the rise of electronic music, some surveys have it that Ableton Live is more popular than Avid’s monstrosity of a DAW. To see what you get at each subscription level and how they vary, it would be wise to refer to the Soundtrap website. There is also a 30-day trial so you can get a feel for the whole thing, but you will obviously be prompted to upgrade after.Īside from that, the subscription levels are as follows: Soundtrap Free is forever free, though you will likely be prompted to upgrade often, upon logging into the platform. This is, after all, one of the main attractions to Soundtrap – the ability to work remotely with friends, band members, session musicians, composers, and so forth.Īnd while Soundtrap is not a bad DAW unto itself, it really shines in the online collaboration department. Which means collaboration is also quite fluid. If you’re a newbie, the tutorials are certainly worthwhile. If you need a crash course, you can watch some of their tutorials, but if you have any kind of experience with DAWs, you will probably figure it out in no time at all. Soundtrap is an efficient, fast working environment that doesn’t take much getting used to. Soundtrap doesn’t play well (or as well) with certain browsers like Firefox, but aside from that, its compatibility is a thing of legend. With an internet connection, Soundtrap works on most operating systems, devices, and browsers. I’m not sure if they left anything out! If they don’t have it, it’s possible no one else does. Soundtrap has over 880 virtual instruments and effects. The exact count varies based on your subscription level, but with Soundtrap you can access as many as 19,540+ loops, 300 Splice loops, as well as 150,000+ sound effects from .Įven some of the most popular DAWs, including GarageBand, don’t come with that many options. There’s also an automated mastering feature built into Soundtrap, and it’s applied the moment you save your projects. GarageBand features similar functionality, with the rather significant difference that you can set up a complete effects chain in Soundtrap and tweak to your heart’s content. Whether you’re an artist, musician, beat maker, composer, or producer, there are use cases for each.įrom recording audio or MIDI tracks, to using the piano roll to sequence parts for synths, to making beats with the built-in beat maker, to taking a combined and integrated approach to music production, Soundtrap is fluid and flexible.Īnd keep in mind – you can do all this with friends, collaborators, musicians, producers, and whoever you invite to work on your project, whether simultaneously or asynchronously.Īlthough we get into some of the features that make Soundtrap especially versatile a little later, there are thousands of loops, hundreds of thousands of sound effects, hundreds of virtual instruments, effects and more, all at the ready, easy to manipulate.Īnother thing that’s relatively unique to Soundtrap is that virtual instruments often come pre-applied with effects and presets, near mix ready. Newbies can pick it up fast, experienced users can pick it up even faster. The interface is minimalistic, flat vector styled, but still attractive, and for the most part, unconfusing. And while it might be less graphically and visually stimulating than most, it seems they understand the advantages (such as less resource load) as well as Ableton does. It seems like the developers knew what they were doing when they created Soundtrap, because you’d be hard pressed to find a DAW that’s as straightforward and powerful as this.
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