Top DAWs for Making Beats

FL Studio is the best DAW for purely making beats. Its graphical intuitive interface makes it so easy for any aspiring music producer to just pick up and start using. The channel rack and piano roll make it so simple to start building out drum patterns and melodic loops with just a few clicks. The FL Studio playlist then allows you to quickly construct your patterns into full beats. The simplicity of this DAW doesn't make you sacrifice the quality of sound either. So many top 40 hits have been produced right inside FL Studio.

Now aside from the user experience of the DAW, the price point is what separates it for me. If you look at their robust All Plugins Edition, it may seem like $499 is expensive. But, FREE lifetime upgrades is what puts this over the top for me. If you bought this DAW in 2005, you still can instantly update to its latest inception today. It will always hold its value as you can always upgrade for FREE. This is where FL Studio separates itself from the pack. If you're interested in making beats, FL Studio is a great option for you.

Logic Pro provides powerful creative tools for professional songwriting, music production, editing, and mixing. The only downside is that it's strictly for Mac users. This top DAW also comes with a huge collection of plugins and sounds to boost your creativity instantly. And because it's integrated into the Apple ecosystem, you can also control your sessions from your iPad or iPhone using its Logic Remote.

Another unique feature is spatial audio, which Apple now supports through its streaming service, Apple Music. Spatial Audio is the next generation of sound for beatmakers. With Logic Pro, it's never been easier to go beyond stereo and create fully immersive spatial audio mixes with its built-in Dolby Atmos sound engine. Produce your beats in an immersive three-dimensional experience and export to an Apple Music-compatible Dolby Atmos file. Whether you're working in the studio with a Dolby Atmos multi-speaker system or using a laptop with AirPods Max for binaural monitoring of your surround sound mix, Logic Pro delivers a powerful audio creation workflow space for you.

For those new to beat making and music production, this makes Logic Pro a compelling DAW to consider.

Reason is more than just a DAW to create beats. It is a music creation service for beginner and professional producers, artists, and sound designers. You can always find new sounds and make them your own, using all 75 instruments and effects that the legendary DAW is known for. You can also make music with Reason by plugging it into another DAW, as these instruments and effects are accessible with the Reason Rack extension, or just use the DAW as a standalone.

There is good Reason why it's our top DAW for sound design as its 75 instruments and effects have been used to create countless hits and unique sounds.

From a price point of view, I like what Reason has to offer. They have a subscription-based business model. So when you sign up, you get access to an incredible library of samples and sound packs, their instruments and effects, and of course the DAW. That flexibility is what makes it stand out, and starting at $1 per month, it's worth a shot no matter what DAW you decide to go with.

In FL Studio, the main problem I have is having too many windows and too many things to keep an eye on. The command keys are also not very intuitive, at least on the Mac version.

For music production, a lot of people look at Ableton and say it's too hard, and that's because of how it looks. It's not the prettiest DAW like FL Studio is. I've grown to enjoy the look of Ableton more and more. It seems very clear to me, but I can see why people would criticize it after using something like FL Studio which is so vibrant and smooth. Ableton can feel a bit barren and cold, but at the end of the day, your DAW for making beats is about sound, not the aesthetics of the software.

The Ableton workflow is phenomenal. When you open it, it's just this main window. You don't have a million things open at once. You don't have to bother with resizing all my windows. You can get to work.

Ableton is the best multi-purpose DAW for me. If you're doing audio editing, mixing, mastering, tracking vocals, etc. on top of making beats, then it is a great option for you to consider.

MASCHINE lets you easily create rhythms, melodies and harmonies with its powerful drum synthesizer, premium sounds, built-in samplers and more. Cutting edge software meets intuitive hardware for one super smooth workflow for making beats.

MASCHINE's 16 super-responsive pads make playing fun and easy. In Pad mode, fine tune your beats with its 16 super-responsive pads. Switch to keyboard mode and play like a piano. And in Step mode, the program sounds exactly where you want it and can automate the pitch, volume, LFO or any other parameter step by step for incredibly complex musical results in no time. For those that want that feel of making beats with their hands, MASCHINE gives that to you in an optimal and energetic way.

And the software integrates perfectly with the hardware and comes with everything you need to turn your ideas into finished music. Whether you're drawing and arranging your song, or mixing and playing it, MASCHINE lets you move from step to step without disrupting your creativity. The best of both worlds and an excellent DAW for making beats.

MPC 2 music production software is designed to be the ultimate platform for unlimited creative versatility with must-have tools for unmatched surgical control over your beats. MPC has gone from a highly regarded performance tool to a full DAW for making beats.

When it comes to making beats, MPC 2 makes it easy to creatively manipulate the timing and pitch of any source material: chopped vocals in an audio track, drum loops in a clip program, or orchestral phrases are loaded into the sampler program.

Similar to Maschine from Native Instruments, if you're looking to combine hardware designed for beat making with a DAW, the iconic music production sampler is worth a close look.

When it comes to workflow Studio One is a DAW you will love. Studio One pioneered the familiar drag and drop workflow, which continues to be a guiding principle of the user experience it provides. Sound loops, virtual instruments, plug-in effects, and even presets can all be dragged into your session from Studio One's creative browser. Copy effect sequences from one channel to another by simply dragging and dropping. Convert MIDI to Audio or Audio to MIDI using drag and drop. Upload and download files to and from your PreSonus Sphere Workspaces using drag and drop. Ease of use is the heartbeat of Studio One, so your mind is always on your inspiration - making beats. An excellent DAW for making beats.

If this was an article on the top DAW for audio editing, there would be a high likelihood that Pro Tools would take top honors. But this article is about making beats, and when it comes to that, Pro Tools isn't amongst the best pieces of music production software. Now that's not to say that you can't make dope beats in Pro Tools because you can. It's that you can't with the efficiency and fluidity that you can in some of the other DAW's in this list. Pro Tools is still a DAW you should be familiar with as your music career progresses. Many top sound engineers will be using this DAW for mixing and mastering, so having a general surface knowledge will be helpful.

Cubase is an OG to the DAW, as it was created in 1989 as a MIDI sequencer running on top of Atari. Now in version 11, it has gone through more than 11 iterations, having undergone a significant naming convention change and rewrite with the Cubase SX in 2002.

With that many years under its belt, it's not a shocker that this is a robust DAW and one that you can make some fire beats on. If beat-making is what you're solely focused on, you'd likely want to opt for one of the other DAW's mentioned in this list, but if you're looking for a full-blown music production suite, Cubase is one you should consider.

Cockos Reaper is a lesser-known DAW compared to some of the more well-known names at the top of this list - the first version was only released in 2005. But since then, it has gathered a strong fan base. At its core, this is a DAW that is fully customizable making it something that you can craft into your own.

Reaper has all the necessary features and functions that make it a complete DAW to compete with the biggest names. But I think the best part is the incredibly low price it's available for - which means this great DAW is in the price range of the majority of home studio owners. And there is only one model. So you can own its most robust version for next to nothing. Evaluate it for FREE.

Bitwig Studio gives you more control over your music, giving you access to all aspects of your production. Streamline your creative workflow and quickly turn ideas into full songs, tracks, and compositions. Those are all things that make an effective DAW for making beats. Bigwig is another DAW that is FREE to try, so I strongly consider you taking it for a test drive and seeing if the workflow is right for you.

For Mac users, you know Garageband is the free piece of music production software that comes with your computer. But you can do quite a bit with this FREE Daw. Sure, it won't be as robust for making beats as Logic Pro is, but if you just purchased a Mac and want to create some music, you can start making beats on Garageband.