Most musicians, myself included, love the word free. Hey, we’re called starving musicians for a reason! I was scrummaging through the internet a few days ago trying to find & purchase an old song from the early 1920’s. After searching for this song for about an hour, it hit me that the song might be on YouTube. It was, and I didn’t have to pay to listen to it either.
Then I started thinking about all the free music related things that are available online. I fell down a rabbit hole…again! I figured it would be cool to gather up a bunch of sites and share them with you. Please note that I shortened the original links.
DAWS
From Wikipedia: A digital audio workstation or DAW is an electronic device or computer software application for recording, editing and producing audio files such as songs, musical pieces, human speech or sound effects.
Most musicians already own a DAW, but for those who don’t, or might want to change their DAW – here is a list of 5 free ones.
MuLab is available for Windows and Mac OSX for free from: https://goo.gl/zmsU7U
Audacity is available for free on Windows, Mac, Linux and other OS’s from here: https://goo.gl/AGX2TF
Studio One 3 Prime is available for free on Windows and Mac from here: https://goo.gl/T34m3P
Rosegarden is available for free on Linux from here: https://goo.gl/Pdi1qg
REAPER is available for free on Windows and Mac OS X from here: https://goo.gl/rcPQjr
VST PlugIns
From Wikipedia: Virtual Studio Technology (VST) is a software interface that integrates software audio synthesizer and effect plugins with audio editors and recording systems.
Truth be told, there isn’t a shortage when it comes to free VST plugins. The PlugIn Boutique caught my eye though. Once you get to their page, just click on FREE. There are 3 subcategories – Effects, Instruments, and Studio Tools, that lead to a bunch of freebies.
Music Downloads
Granted, most songs can be downloaded for {cough, cough} free these days. However, there are actually sites that offer free downloadable music ‘legally’. Believe it or not, Amazon offers thousands of songs which are free to download. They have everything from modern soundtracks to relaxation & meditation music.
Waves Audio
I’m sure most of you already know about this plugin/mixing/mastering site. Still, I think it’s worthy of an honorable mention. You’ll need to register on the site in order to download the freebies.
Music Courses
Edx.org is a great site for online music courses. A ton of them are free, and these specific few are from the Berklee College of Music. You’ll need to register on the site first. Each course is usually a duration of 6 weeks.
Metronome
Most DAWs come equip with a built in metronome, but I thought this site was pretty cool. FYI, if you type in free metronome on Google – they have their own that pops up at the top of the search.
Blank Sheet Music
You never know when you might run out of blank sheet music, right? Actually, this is not just plain old printable sheet music. If you look along the top header of the page, there are icons that represent different templates. Once you are good to go, just press the printer icon!
Online Guitar Tuner
I know, I know…you guitarists don’t need this. But, if you’re a beginner, you certainly can benefit from this site. They have 3 options to choose from – Acoustic, Electric & Bass.
Cover Art Designer
A lot of artists get their cover art from royalty free sites. However, there are many of us who like creating our own designs. This is a perfect site if you don’t have Photoshop. The layout is extremely similar, and many of the tools the same.
Dubstep Sample Packs
If you love Dubstep & Trap, then this is for you! This site has 1000’s of royalty free samples; you can even use them commercially.
Ear Training exercises
Do you have perfect pitch? Well, neither do I – but there are people who do. Here is a fun ear training exercise that can actually help you achieve perfect pitch. They also have other exercises, such as Melodic Dictation, Progressions & Chord Types.
Background noise generator
I don’t know about you, but I love listening to soothing nature sounds. As a matter of fact, I have them playing in the background as I write this blog. The site is really awesome! You can choose which sounds you’d like to hear, as well as adjust their volume. My favorite combination is – Thunderstorm, Forest & Water Stream.
Plink
Out of all the sites I’ve posted on the list, this is my favorite. The site describes it as a “multiplayer music experience”. In a nutshell, you press start, then press play. It takes some time to load depending on how many people are playing. Then you choose your username.
You’re then thrown into what looks like a moving DAW, and you instantly start hearing these crazy sounds. You can hold your finger down on the mouse button or tap it, while moving your mouse up & down the DAW. Every color represents a different instrument, so it gets pretty crazy sounding in there. The more people who are on at the same time, the better! Takes a little practice to get the gist of it, but once you do, it is quite addictive.
Hope you enjoyed this list of music related freebies. Which was your favorite one? If you have any sites you’d like to include, please add them below.
Wow! these are really useful sites, I’ve been using some of them, but thank you for sharing the other ones. 🙂 I’ll try them out. Thank you again.
Raven, thanks a lot, it’s really useful sites. Check out this one https://guitar-tuner.app/