DAW

Open most DAWs and you see the same layout: tracks stacked top to bottom, time running left to right in bars and beats, and a mixer with a volume fader for each track. Each track holds one part. An audio track holds a recording, such as a vocal from the microphone or a guitar through an interface. A MIDI track holds notes, played in or drawn on a grid called a piano roll, and sends them to a virtual instrument. Because those notes stay editable, you can fix a wrong one or swap the piano for a synth after you record.

A first song might go like this. Set the tempo to 90 BPM and turn on the metronome. Record four bars of chords and loop them. Record bass, drums and a vocal on their own tracks as overdubs. Then copy the bars out to the length of a song, balance the faders, add some reverb, and export the mix as an audio file.

DAWs also host plugins, instruments and effects that load inside the DAW, often made by other developers. On a computer the common formats are VST, on Windows and Mac, and Audio Units, on Mac only. On iPhone and iPad they are AUv3 plugins, which load inside GarageBand and other host apps.

GarageBand is Apple’s free DAW for iPhone, iPad and Mac. BandLab is free to use in a web browser and as a phone app. On computers, Logic Pro, Ableton Live, FL Studio, Cubase and Pro Tools are the big names. Instrument apps that record to an audio file work with any of them: the file goes onto a DAW track like any other recording.

Our guide to whether GarageBand is hard to learn names the three features to learn first in Apple’s free DAW, and GarageBand alternatives for iPhone compares the other options, from simple to serious.