Imagine this: You’re browsing Sweetwater.com, looking for software to bolster your virtual rig. Maybe you need some new plug-ins or a total studio overhaul starting with a new DAW, or you’re just beginning to dabble in virtual music production and need software to use alongside your recently acquired MIDI controller or beat pad. The prices are looking pretty nice until you notice a critical phrase in the titles of these products: something akin to “Academic,” “Student,” or “Educational” versions. Whatever the permutation, don’t fret! You may be surprised to learn just how accessible student pricing can be!
Since we can’t include every piece of software in this article, it’s essential to understand what these terms mean when viewing our site. Software that is labeled “Student” is intended for current students, while “Educational” software usually comes in packages with multiple licenses. Educational bundles are intended for educators, including homeschooling, middle and high school, undergraduate, and graduate or post-graduate programs. Anything “Academic” can qualify for someone in either student or educator positions. The primary differentiator rests on the fact that educational packages are intended to be used with multiple seats, i.e., licenses for concurrent use by more than one student that are purchased as a single transaction.
So, who qualifies? And how? It’s safe to assume that almost any real-life situation in which somebody would be described as a student, teacher, or instructor can qualify for educational pricing. While each company dictates the specific terms of approval, you can typically rely on the following to validate your educational pricing status:
- Current student or faculty ID
- Picture or screenshot of the current class schedule
- Recent pay stub
- Recent payment receipt for this (or a future) semester
- Official letter from the school confirming current enrollment or employment
To be sure, you should contact your Sweetwater Sales Engineer at (800) 222-4700 about any prospective purchases or if you have any questions regarding possible eligibility. With all that said, let’s dive into some of the best software deals for students and educators available today!
Note: At Sweetwater, we know there’s no such thing as “best” when it comes to music gear. Every player and artist has unique tastes, which is what makes selecting gear so fun! The items on this list feature some of our favorite products from top manufacturers to help you start your buying journey! Explore these recommendations and dive into Sweetwater’s massive collection of gear on our online store. For personalized picks and expert advice, please contact our knowledgeable Sweetwater Sales Engineers at (800) 222-4700!
- Software Activation
- Avid: Pro Tools
- Reason Studios: Reason 13
- Steinberg: Cubase, WaveLab, Dorico, Nuendo & HALion
- Soundtoys 5.5 Plug-in Bundle – Academic
- iZotope: Elements Suite, Music Production Suite & RX Post Production Suite
- PreSonus: Studio One 7
- FabFilter: Effects Plug-in Bundles
- Sonnox: Effects Plug-in Bundles
- Avid: Sibelius
Software Activation
If you’re unfamiliar with purchasing software, then you’ll be delighted to learn that Sweetwater makes it easy. We’ve worked continuously to enrich your experience, from ongoing education for knowledgeable tech and content support to step-by-step instructions to download, install, and activate your new software. Licenses are stored and managed through several avenues, like cloud-based systems, iLok devices, or virtual program managers connected to your account.
Avid: Pro Tools
Few software products are so synonymously tethered to the world of professional music and “real” studio work as Avid’s Pro Tools. Avid has reimagined the all-encompassing recording and production suite to cater to musicians, engineers, and audio specialists of any caliber. Pro Tools variants include Artist, Studio, and Ultimate — each is capable of handling the majority of recording and production tasks. For example, Avid’s introductory Artist subscription gives you more than 100 studio-grade plug-ins capable of recording up to 16 simultaneous inputs, with room for 64 MIDI tracks, 32 audio tracks, and 32 instrument tracks. You even get Celemony’s Melodyne essential — an industry-standard pitch-correction software — for free, which usually retails for $100. As you move up from the Artist tier, creative capacity explodes, ensuring you’ve got consistent access to a comprehensive MIDI and audio writing and recording suite. Those interested in navigating the different tiers can learn more with Sweetwater’s handy Pro Tools Upgrade Finder.
Reason Studios: Reason 13
For the uninitiated, a “DAW” is a “Digital Audio Workstation.” The DAW is the fundamental powerhouse of your production. Plug-ins, mixing/mastering tools, virtual instruments, effects, recording, and more all live within the architecture of a DAW. Reason Studios’ creative potential rests within the company’s distinctive approach to form and function — its user interface design emulates the style of rackmounted gear and modules, including comprehensive interconnectivity options that provide nonlinear flexibility in composition without sacrificing the familiarity of hardware-based arrangements. Reason features an immense suite of instruments, effects, and customization tools to accommodate almost any style of music. What’s most impressive, however, is that Reason can function as a plug-in within another DAW. That’s right; if, for example, you’re more of a Pro Tools or Studio One producer, then you can still enjoy all of the artistic freedom and modular-inspired workflow of Reason in your DAW of choice. Check out the article below for more information and DAW buying advice.
Steinberg: Cubase, WaveLab, Dorico, Nuendo & HALion
Contrary to what you might expect from a company specializing in software, Steinberg’s roots can be traced to 1983, just after the unveiling of the MIDI protocol. The rest, quite literally, is history, and Steinberg continues to innovate in the world of sound, sampling, recording, and post production. With Steinberg Cubase, you get an all-inclusive DAW capable of audio and MIDI recording and editing that’s brimming with compelling support features for work in virtual reality, multichannel surround sound playback, MIDI Polyphonic Expression (MPE), and more.
In need of a comprehensive mastering suite? Then look no further than Steinberg WaveLab! WaveLab is a superlative studio tool that any audio or video specialist will love for its deep dynamic exploration tools, restoration capabilities, advanced analysis, sound design, and video playback management. If scoring is where you’re working, then Steinberg Dorico has you covered, blending the accessibility, flexibility, and plug-in management of a conventional DAW with the must-have detailing, music notation, and nuanced performance-emulation tools needed for conductors and composers of any creed.
Steinberg Nuendo is your one-stop post-production shop to guarantee your A/V or multimedia project is in sync and sounding its best. Nuendo includes support for Dolby Atmos and immersive audio, industry-standard audio management, seamless video integration, and deep dialogue/ADR tools. Finally, we’ve got Steinberg HALion 7 — Steinberg’s solution for sound design, sampling, and synthesis. From spectral oscillators and FM synthesis to endlessly customizable modulation and multidimensional spatial exploration, HALion 7 allows musicians and composers of any style to experience the most esoteric reaches of sound design, with the workflow and UI to keep things cohesive yet inspired.
Soundtoys 5.5 Plug-in Bundle – Academic
Soundtoys 5.5 Academic plug-in gives you a battery of effects inspired by the company’s extensive collection of classic studio gear. A perennial favorite among Sweetwater Sales Engineers, Soundtoys effects let you do everything from adding subtle sonic enhancements to generating wild modulations. Perfect for sound design and electronic music, this innovative bundle of effects plug-ins is also great for many day-to-day mixing tasks. On top of that, version 5 of these amazing plug-ins comes with the new Soundtoys Effect Rack, which effectively integrates these 23 Soundtoys effects into a single plug-in, giving you more creative options for creating custom multi-effects. Put a powerful set of sonic tools in your DAW with the Soundtoys 5 Academic plug-in bundle!
iZotope: Elements Suite, Music Production Suite & RX Post Production Suite
Regarding cutting-edge, forward-looking sonic sculpting tools, iZotope is in a league of its own, blending creative workflows with intelligent technology that keeps you inspired while providing support that won’t be disruptive. Audio restoration, mastering and dynamics, equalization, and a full suite of compression, de-essing, pitch correction, and more are available with the iZotope Elements Suite 10 bundle — a package of four Elements-series plug-ins that deliver studio-grade tools to elevate any sound. Streamlined and elegantly oriented interfaces underpin the iZotope experience, masterfully concealing otherwise complex multimodal operations with a handful of easy-to-navigate parameters adaptable to meet your level of detail.
The iZotope Music Production Suite 8 – Educational plug-in bundle is an all-encompassing armature of composition and sound design tools. You get 12 premier plug-ins. iZotope plug-ins span the spectrum of 3D and immersive audio effects and sound design palettes to a multi-effects guitar rack, a comprehensive mixing suite, and a slew of mixing, mastering, and restoration tools.
iZotope RX Post Production Suite shares several plug-ins with MPS but swaps a few instrumental options for expertly designed mixing, dialogue, vocal processing, and spectrographic monitoring applications, including multichannel support for Dolby Atmos 7.1.2. Whether you’re working in music, ADR, or any multimedia project, this is the post-production engineer’s all-in-one solution for professional-grade sound management and creative sound design.
PreSonus: Studio One 7
Launched in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, PreSonus has its roots in countless permutations of live audio: mixing consoles, recording hardware, groundbreaking DSP, and gigging musicians who work there. As a result, the company offers a DAW that considers the countless possibilities for use in the studio, on the stage, and across mediums, including video editing for live feeds. The DAW’s drag-and-drop arrangement blends the conventional structures of linear studio recording with the nonlinear modularity needed for live settings. Advanced mixing capabilities allow you to create intricate sidechain, effects/bus send, and grouped-control pathways that can be attenuated by external gear via MIDI. Flexible plug-in accommodation ensures plenty of personalization for virtual instruments, dynamics tools, and effects that sync seamlessly with Studio One’s architecture and sleek, user-friendly interface. A genuinely all-in-one software, PreSonus Studio One has everything you need, from basic ideation to recording, mixing, and mastering — it’s immediately available for professional-grade projects of any style.
FabFilter: Plug-in Effects Bundles
Every plug-in developed by FabFilter has been designed with laser precision, prioritizing one target area of audio and executing it with the utmost sophistication and quality. Though there’s a time and place to explore the re-creation and re-exploration of sonic territories covered by historic and vintage-inspired gear, FabFilter proudly looks to the future, approaching its plug-ins on contemporary terms that honor time-tested techniques without eschewing the possibilities of new conventions. Sleek interfaces inspire new approaches to workflow, thanks to real-time feedback that lets you immerse yourself in your sound. From highly versatile filters and multiband distortions to diverse equalizers, hugely customizable reverbs, and polyphonic synths, FabFilter’s virtual toolbox is a comprehensive compendium of pro-level resources. With multiple bundles available, producers, composers, engineers, and artists of virtually any creed are sure to find the right balance of diversity and opportunity to elevate their tracks instantly.
Sonnox: Plug-in Effects Bundles
Not unlike Steinberg, Sonnox’s roots are found in the 1980s, immediately carving out its space in the audio hardware landscape with its groundbreaking OXF-R3 mixer — what many consider to be the first digital mixing console to succeed in retaining the musicality that kept many interested in analog mixers over the usually sterile digital preservation. Since then, Sonnox has applied its vaunted expertise to bring EQ and dynamics plug-ins to studios, producers, engineers, and artists everywhere, instilled with a distinctive sonic flavor that can only result from the real-world experience in bridging the digital-physical divide that defines Sonnox’s legacy. In use in studios around the globe, Sonnox’s plug-in bundles include Restore, Essential, Enhance, and Elite, serving up a suite of cutting-edge tools that include EQs, dynamic processing, reverb, a transient modulator, SuperEsser, and more.
Avid: Sibelius
There’s an interesting trend in pop culture to conflate orchestral composition with the exclusively classical canon of music, e.g., that contemporary orchestras are meant to play the classics (when they’re not recording film scores or performing in avant-garde chamber groups). Of course, we know this isn’t true. Still, Sibelius takes a few extra steps to ensure it’s an adequately modernized software engineered to accommodate the technological pacing and needs of contemporary students, educators, and more. For example, Sibelius is designed for seamless integration with both Surface Pro laptop systems and iPads (via the Sibelius application) to score on the go, with full multi-gesture support and digital pens for quick annotating or notation. In desktop mode, deep ReWire capabilities make for painless compatibility with Pro Tools and most other DAWs. Plus, specific versions of Sibelius feature access to PhotoScore and AudioScore — intelligent software that automatically transcribes and plays scanned scores and inputted audio, respectively, into Sibelius-compatible staves.
Like Pro Tools, Sibelius is available in numerous configurations of educational pricing, with versions available for students, educators, and universities, as well as per-seat and multi-seat licenses. Moreover, options are available for perpetual licensing, optional renewals, and more, allowing you to easily tailor your Sibelius experience to your needs, regardless of where you find yourself in the spectrum of EDU orientations.
Get Pro-grade Sound at Student-friendly Pricing!
Well, what are you waiting for? High-quality, studio-caliber sound design, composition, notation, scoring, and production DAWs, plug-ins, effects, and more aren’t just for the pros! Sweetwater offers a wide array of EDU pricing to support students, educators, and institutions in continuing to provide access to the highest-quality music tools. If you are ready to dive into new software, need some clarity on pricing qualifications, or want to explore more software options, then call your Sweetwater Sales Engineer at (800) 222-4700. Want to browse the site more on your own? Check out our Software & Plug-in Bundles page for a comprehensive assortment of plug-in bundles and packages! Left-hand navigation options let you easily filter and refine your search to explore options specific to teachers, students, and/or institutions.