Studio One is free!

If you’ve moved past GarageBand, don’t like it, or don’t want to shell out £140 for Logic Pro, Studio One is well worth downloading. Developed by PreSonus, it’s intended as a lead-in to its paid-for Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs), but there’s so much here that you may never need to get the credit card out.

Unlimited audio and MIDI tracks, virtual instruments, buses and FX channels? Check. Automatic latency compensation? Check. 32-bit audio processing? Check. Compatibility with Core Audio-compliant audio interfaces? That too.

There’s no support for external plug-ins in the free version, so if you have a library full of them, you may want to look elsewhere. Also, there’s limited access to PreSonus’ Ampire XT guitar amplifier modeller, so guitar players may find they need another modeller.

There are, however, a handful of included Native Effects plug-ins, including a Tuner, Chorus, and MixVerb.

This isn’t a demo version, it’s not time-limited, and for many part-time musicians out there, it’s all the digital workstation you’ll need.

Given the number of costs involved in music production, this is a welcome free app.