Reality Factory

I've done a little research on free audio programs and such in the past and here's what I came up with.
Feel free to ask questions and suggest sites.

For audio editing and manipulation, use Audacity. It is the best free audio software out there; if you need to edit audio for your project, you need Audacity.
For Audacity:
- 90 Free Audacity Plug-ins - several "native" Audacity plugins - effects, filters, and a couple of sound generators.
- Audacity VST Enabler - allows you to use VST plugins under Audacity. Nice little plug-in.

Alternatives to Audacity:

WavePad
http://www.nch.com.au/wavepad/

WavSter
http://www.code-it.com/KISS_free_wave_editor.htm

Wavosaur with VST
http://www.wavosaur.com/

Music Editing and Creation-

Loopers and Sequencing -
The only good free music looper out there that I know is ACiD xPress. It's a rather tone-down version of Sony ACiD, but it works fine for quick looping and provides basic effects like fading and track panning. Don't forget the 8Packs! Each week, a sample ACiD project file is released, bundled with free professional loops from the Sony Loops Libraries.

Kristal Audio Engine - http://www.kreatives.org

Trackers -
The best free tracker software I know of currently is Psycle. It supports VSTs and comes bundled with several native effects and generators. I recommend it for more advanced users as the interface can be a little confusing at first.
An alternative to Psycle is Jeskola Buzz, which is built on the same principle - VST hosted sequence.

Misc. Audio resources:

Information on VST
ShareWare Music Machine on HitSquad.com

Free VST Plugin lists:
Audio Mastermind
Gersic
KVRAudio (A very popular site and sometimes under heavy server load)
Audio Oracle

Voice Generators:

Cepstral text to voice gen if you need it
http://www.cepstral.com/demos/

and At&t text to voice gen
http://www.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php#top

k,
WavePad
http://www.nch.com.au/wavepad/

WavSter
http://www.code-it.com/KISS_free_wave_editor.htm

Wavosaur (O.o) with VST
http://www.wavosaur.com/

Neosound FX (the site looks cool)
[link deleted apparently spyware -darksmaster923]

Cestral text to voice gen if you need it
http://www.cepstral.com/demos/

and At&t text to voice gen
http://www.research.att.com/~ttsweb/tts/demo.php#top

Thanks for those links.
I tried out NeoSound FX and it's basically Audacity with spyware, so I'll exclude it.

Here's a good DAW:

http://www.kreatives.org/kristal/index. ... n=download

Thanks for the great links. I'm a bit of a newb in this dept.

Can you recommend a good freeware program to create music (rather than just sample or record it). I want a pretty spares drum and base track for my game.

You need a DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) and some VST (VIrtual Studio Techology) instruments and effects to make music. You'll also need a MIDI controller because doing it with a mouse and keyboard will take forever. All the programs listed here can be used to accomplish your task.

Audacity is the best. I use to edit my favourite songs.

sankha93 wrote:Audacity is the best. I use to edit my favourite songs.

Word up.
Audacity is what got me into audio in the first place, and I still use it all the time.

When you can actually afford Digital Performer or Cubase...you'll change your mind.

paradoxnj wrote:When you can actually afford Digital Performer or Cubase...you'll change your mind.

No, DP and Cubase are mostly music DAWs; I use Audacity for sound effects and such. For music I use FL Studio 8, which I know is the "n00b" DAW but it's still very powerful and is working OK for now while I save up for a better one. I do, however, have Komplete 5 which is excellent.

A DAW can be used for anything. I actually create sound effects using Digital Performer. I have the ability to layer them using tracks and use more advanced VST effects. I use Audacity for quick editing. I mostly use Digital Performer or Bias Peak for mastering. I used to use SoundForge, but I switched to Mac for all of my audio needs.