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The advent of home studios and DIY music production has been a revolution among aspiring musicians. And, with the popularity of home recording, there are more software solutions to help you achieve your creative goals than ever before. When you’re searching for new tools to add to your sonic tool set, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the available options. Whether you’re looking for DAW software or virtual instruments and processors, it’s not always obvious who is innovating and who is imitating. Let’s take a look at some software tools that have truly changed the game for home studios.
Roland Cloud Software Instruments
One thing most music producers have in common is their constant quest for sounds, and the Roland Cloud software instrument program makes it easy to tap into a huge range of classic Roland synth and drum sounds — whether you’re looking for plug-ins for your DAW or new sounds for your Roland hardware. Once you set up your Roland Cloud account (there are four tiers available), you’ll have access to a ton of well-curated sonic content including sound collections for your favorite Roland instruments. Speaking of Roland hardware, Roland Cloud offers many Plug-Out–compatible software instruments (allowing you to use your hardware as a control surface for its corresponding plug-in) and ZEN-Core sounds that can be played on a range of Roland instruments, including the Jupiter-X, the Fantom series, the MC-707 Groovebox, and the AX-Edge keytar, among others.
Bottom line: Roland Cloud gives you access to a ton of virtual instrument plug-ins and sounds for your Roland hardware instruments at a great value.
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Native Instruments Komplete 13 Ultimate Software Production Suite
For years, Native Instruments’ Komplete has been one of the most comprehensive software packages around, giving you the bulk of NI’s acclaimed virtual instruments and effects processors in a value-packed bundle. Even by previous standards, Komplete 13 Ultimate delivers an amazingly huge range of music-making tools to explore. Preloaded on a high-performance USB 3.0 hard drive, Komplete 13 Ultimate offers over 115 virtual instruments and effects with 65,000 preset sounds and a total of 600GB of content. From epic symphonic sounds to modern synthesis, from classic studio effects to unique sonic manipulators — Komplete 13 Ultimate gives an aspiring producer all the sounds they need to create music in practically any genre.
Bottom line: With Komplete 13 Ultimate, you'll have enough software instruments and processors to tackle any music-production, film-scoring, or sound-design project.
iZotope Neoverb Reverb Plug-in
Thanks to AI-assisted processing and its innovative Reverb Assistant, iZotope’s Neoverb reverb plug-in makes it easier than ever to craft a reverb sound that fits perfectly in your mix. You tell Neoverb what type of reverb you’re going for — how big of a space, how realistic or dramatic it needs to sound, and whether you want it clean, dark, bright, or airy. Neoverb will then listen to your mix, dial in a reverb that meets your criteria, and show you how the reverb may potentially mask other elements in your mix. Neoverb can even give you EQ suggestions for your dry tracks so that the reverb can respond to them in a more sonically pleasing manner. As a budding producer or engineer, you’re constantly being taught not to overuse reverb, to make sure it doesn’t blur your mix or muddy it up, and other precautions. Neoverb includes tools to help you avoid all of these common mix mistakes while it also generates fantastic-sounding reverb.
Bottom line: You'll be using reverb on the vast majority of your projects, and iZotope's Neoverb delivers premium reverb quality while saving you the time normally spent getting it to sit well in your mix.
Toontrack EZbass Virtual Bass Guitar Software
Most recording musicians know the Toontrack name thanks to EZdrummer, their software solution that puts a pro drummer in your DAW along with handy songwriting and arrangement tools. Now replace the “drummer” with a “bassist,” and you’ve got EZbass. This easy, great-sounding software instrument makes it simple to add a professional-sounding bass part to practically any composition. If you don’t play bass and want to record your own full-band compositions, then EZbass is nothing short of a miracle. And, even if you do play bass, EZbass makes it easier and faster than ever to come up with complementary parts, experiment with arrangements, get inspiration to create new grooves, and much more.
Bottom line: EZbass is like having a professional session bass player on call for your projects that never overplays (unless you tell it to).
PreSonus Studio One 5 DAW Software
Now in its fifth generation, PreSonus Studio One DAW software succeeded in offering musicians, producers, and engineers a fresh experience in an already-crowded DAW-software market. Studio One quickly earned acclaim for seemingly simple things like drag-and-drop support and a great selection of native plug-in processors as well as for more advanced capabilities like its Project page for mastering and arranging complete albums. With Studio One 5, the interface has matured, the native effects package is better than ever, and you have even more advanced functionality in the form of Clip Gain Envelopes, the Show page live performance tool, the console-like Listen Bus, the highly anticipated Score View, and more.
Bottom line: PreSonus Studio One 5 DAW software offers advanced production tools in an intuitive, easy-to-learn environment.
PreSonus Sphere Software Subscription Service
When you’re just starting out with music production, it can be overwhelming to try to piece together the software elements you need, like DAW software, virtual instruments, processors, and so on. PreSonus puts you on the fast track toward production excellence with their Sphere software subscription service, a budget-friendly way to load up your production capabilities. With a Sphere subscription, you get access to Studio One Professional DAW software, Studio One Remote control software for your tablet, Notion scoring software, the complete collection of PreSonus virtual instruments and processors, a massive content library, and much more.
Bottom line: Once you have an audio interface, the PreSonus Sphere software subscription gives you everything else you need for computer-based music production.
Universal Audio LUNA DAW Software
A free DAW with an impressive collection of free software instruments and processor plug-ins, Universal Audio’s LUNA software is a dream come true for Apollo audio interface users. If you’re a Mac user with an Apollo interface, then there are zero reasons not to try LUNA. Designed to combine a console-like workflow with advanced editing capabilities, LUNA offers everything you need to sketch musical ideas, record your album, and even master your tracks using Universal Audio’s acclaimed UAD Powered Plug-ins. Even better, it’s completely free for Mac-based Apollo users (it’s not Windows compatible). LUNA’s advanced production capabilities and seamless integration with UAD Powered Plug-ins make it a worthy alternative to a DAW software that costs hundreds of dollars.
Bottom line: LUNA offers a full-featured DAW environment for Mac-based Apollo users. And it's free!
Even just a decade ago, these software titles would have sounded too good to be true. There’s never been a better time to be producing music, and these game-changing software solutions give you a ton of production power. If you suspect one of these solutions may be the game-changer your studio needs, then give your Sweetwater Sales Engineer a call at (800) 222-4700 — we’re happy to share some expert advice to get you just the right tools and help your studio grow in the right direction!
