Comparison of Music Composing Software: Audacity, REAPER and

FL Studio

Yanzhong Gu

Suzhou Foreign Language School, Suzhou, China

Keywords: Music Composition Software, Audacity, REAPER, FL Studio, Music Generation.

Abstract: As a matter of fact, with the digital technology continuing to evolve, music composition software has become

an essential tool for musicians and producers especially in recent years. With this in mind, this paper explores

three prominent music composing software, i.e., Audacity, REAPER, and FL Studio. By analysing their

functionalities, application scenarios, and practical results, this study highlights the strengths and limitations

of each software respectively. To be specific, results reveal that while all three offer comprehensive features

for music production, they cater to different user needs and preferences according to the analysis. In detail,

Audacity excels in comprehensive music composition, REAPER offers advanced recording and editing

capabilities as well as good synchronization, while FL Studio is known for its intuitive interface and extensive

plugin support. Overall, this comparison provides valuable insights for choosing the most suitable software

based on individual requirements and future trends in music production and offer a guideline for software

selection at the same time.

1 INTRODUCTION

The advent of computer technology has

revolutionized music composition, offering

unprecedented tools and techniques for creators. The

history of computer music can be traced back to the

mid-20th century, with early developments such as

electronic synthesizers and digital audio workstations

(DAWs). The rudimentary direct digital synthesis

program developed by Max Mathews, in 1957,

established the fundamental support for the music

composition by computer in the current days. From

the beginning, only simple synthesis techniques were

employed. However, after the expansion in flexibility,

elasticity, and generality of comprehensive

development, fully-fledged languages began to

emerge in the field of computer music. Along such

development, several typical synthesis techniques

were proposed, including table-lookup oscillator.

Moreover, many of the basis for the field were

introduced by Mathews in MUSIC. One specific

principle could be the principles of unit generator,

which was still frequently being used as a crucial

module and compiler to contemporary systems,

introduced by Mathews in MUSICIII (Lazzarini,

2013). To be specific, the beginning of the

discoveries in music composition occurred between

1950s - 1960s. The first attempt was investigated by

American musician Joseph Schillinger. Next Max

Mathews provided a new technical platform for music

composition. From 1970s on, more and more ranges

of digital breakthrough came into the public, such as

the MIDI protocol and the first working station with

music (DAW). Overtime, these tools have evolved

from rudimentary systems to sophisticated software

capable of complex music creation and manipulation

(Roads, 2015; Collins, 2017). In the modern period,

many of the softwares, including FL Studio and

Ableton Live, experiment with more innovative ideas

and real-time processing, making the composition of

music more practical and interactive.

Contemporarily, music composition software

plays a critical role in the industry, providing both

amateur and professional musicians with the ability to

compose, record, and produce music efficiently.

Many Software represent some of the leading

solutions in this domain. These platforms offer varied

functionalities and user experiences, each with its

strengths and limitations (Brønnick, 2019; Browne,

2020). Although many of the current technologies

had been appeared in decades before, as for the idea

of interactive function for music composition, it still

has a high potential for us to explore the nature of

192

Gu and Y.

Comparison of Music Composing Software: Audacity, REAPER and FL Studio.

DOI: 10.5220/0013512400004619

In Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Data Analysis and Machine Learning (DAML 2024), pages 192-197

ISBN: 978-989-758-754-2

composition to improve the algorithms and also

softwares. Moreover, in the current days, huge

degrees and facets of the field are being carried out

for researches to incorporate many of the original

ideas with the advanced technology, resulting in a

comprehensive development (Eigenfeld, 2007).

Recent advancements in music composition

software have introduced a range of innovative

features. Ableton Live is renowned for its live

performance capabilities and loop-based composition.

By choosing such software, it is especially helpful for

improvision work as well as giving the user more

freedom: from real-time function to MIDI processing.

Logic Pro X is favoured for its robust recording and

editing tools as it contains a huge library providing a

range of virtual or digital instruments and audio plug-

ins, while FL Studio is celebrated for its user-friendly

interface and extensive sound library. Moreover, FL

Studio’s function is extremely outstanding for its

synthesizer and sequencer (McCormick, 2021; Garcia,

2022). Research in this field has focused on

comparing these software tools based on their

functionalities, ease of use, and suitability for

different music production environments. Several

studies have highlighted the unique features of each

software, revealing their impact on music creation

and production (Jensen, 2018; Wong, 2023).

Additionally, in order to understand deeper into the

basics and radical details behind musical composition,

many of the elements are taken into account to

evaluate the advances and researches. By taking into

considerations, much of the music composition is

composed of rhythm, melody, accompaniment, and

also these factors could be applied to computerized

technologies as well. In detail, starting with rhythm,

it represents the structures between the notes and

frequently results into certain patterns. In the path,

dealing with rhythm is a huge problem as a

computerized rhythm involves particular

arrangements of notes. However, along with great

expansion of academic studies and researches carried

recent years, many researchers raise the general

understanding to access rhythms, for instance, Wang

et al. combined statistics with fitness algorithm.

Furthermore, in responding to more understanding of

rhythm, researchers also delved into the work of

creating automatic processing, for instance, filling the

gap between drum beats. Moving onto the melody

and accompaniment, according to recent researches,

more appealing and intriguing melodies were created

by randomization currently, and both of the features

could be enhanced by imitation and mimicking

without the disruption of original structures

(Fu,2021).

This paper aims to provide a comprehensive

comparison of music composition softwares in

different areas, Audacity, REAPER, and FL Studio,

addressing the need for an informed decision-making

process when selecting music composition software.

The research will examine the basic principles of

music composing software, detailed descriptions of

each software, and their respective strengths and

limitations. The final section will explore future

prospects and improvements in this technology, as

well as giving potential limitations of current state to

provide a more critical projection of the future

development of the area. To sum up, this paper could

generate a more direct and apparent distinction of the

software for giving a more visualized view to choose

these electronic applications as well as raising the

awareness of future directions.

2 DESCRIPTIONS OF MUSIC

COMPOSING BASED ON

SOFTWARE

Music composition software enables users to create

and manipulate music through digital interfaces. The

basic principles involve digital audio workstations

(DAWs), which integrate various tools for recording,

editing, and mixing audio tracks. These platforms

typically feature virtual instruments, MIDI

sequencing, and audio effects (Chadabe, 2017;

Hughes, 2019). Going back to concept and reasoning

of choosing computer to compose music,digitalized

processing gives several attractive supports for

musicians, that is the large storing capacities of

memory and the capability of sequencing instructions

with high speed and precision. These essential part of

computer composition could be attributed to memory

and central processing unit-the fundamental parts of

computer based music software. To be more

understandable, the CPU could resemble nerves in

human. Consequently, it takes up the major role to

transmit certain signals and communication between

various components, as well as monitoring the rests.

Nevertheless, it is important to distinguish between

the conceptions of languages and devices,and the

computer as a whole (Willian & Buxton, 1977).

Besides, when it comes to analog and digital

differences, one of the principle is the method in

converting musical signals into digital format. In

particular, sampling and quantization are involved:

sampling is a way that use a simulation of signal to

monitor and record the value at a specific rate to

transfer analog information digitally, and

Comparison of Music Composing Software: Audacity, REAPER and FL Studio

193

quantization. Moreover, taking u as the role in the

conversion and estimation of simulated value into

discrete data. Another, significant section is the MIDI,

which is a standard protocal to define details of

digitalized musical transportation, e.g., note, pitch,

and melody. In addition, a further theory is music

generation. Particularly, two prevailing techniques

are randomizing algorithms (involving randomizor to

create distinctive and highly-varied music), and

GANs (a method of using AI technology to generate

sound that versimillitude real musical sections).

Along with basic generation process, the technology

of synthesization could give higher standard of

altercation. Synthesis, involving subtractive, additive

synthesis, and frequency, amplitude modulation, are

applied to form complex music qualities and tones for

further shift in parameters and adjustments.

These days, there are a series of unique programs

and programming languages for music composition,

creating a platform for users to operate on the control

panel. Currently in the mainstream, there are those of

high-level languages that broaden the criteria from

acoustic levels to musical levels. They offer more

functionalities, from real-time operation to more

advanced composition and synthesis. In comparison

to previous programming languages decades before,

many of the high-level languages give necessary

operation of flow paradigms,fitting them more

directly. For instance, they give convenience of

handling flow of time and construct a hierarchy

system to organize some of the parameters

structurally. Using illustrations, Pla is a highlevel

music programming language written in SAIL

(Gareth & Curtis, 2009). Pla is a suitable illustration

of programs as it minimizes the power dissipation and

provides reliance to guarantee the stability of

hardware.

Figure 1: A sketch of sound loading for Audacity (Franklin,

2006).

3 AUDACITY

Audacity is a software to record and edit sound file

with its particular features of cross-platform, and it is

an open source and beneficial for communicator to

utilize the technical functions (Franklin, 2006). A

typical example is shown in Fig. 1To begin with,

Audacity offers a wide range of functions. Firstly,

recordings. Audacity has multitrack recording, which

refers to the ability to record multiple audio tracks

simultaneously. It enables capturing various

sources,including instruments and vocals, to create a

complex piece of audio work. Along with it is the

real-time monitor, it helps adress the input volume

and sound quality during the whole recording.

Secondly, audio edition is extremely direct as it

provides simple edition techniques,such as copy, cut,

paste, trim and merger. Thirdly, for effect processing,

Audacity offers the changes in the volume by using

compression and advanced technique. Furthermore,

the application of sound effect is widely introduced

as well. For instance, shifts in pitches and speed as

well enhancing certain features to make the sound

more distinctive and interesting are all effective

methods for producing a nice piece of project. In

addition to the direct interface and visualized

platform for user to control, the interface also display

a wave diagram of sound to allow the user to

investigate and monitor the changes and observe the

results in a more apparent basis. According to the

aforementioned characteristics and advantages of

utilizing Audacity, it is noticeable that this software

could be applied to a broad range of music

compositions and adjustments in the sound. Audacity

not only could be used to generate simple sounds and

shifting music qualities, but also getting into the field

of more technical areas. For instance, even in those

movie or game, Audacity could allow the user to

make certain notes and sounding to create

corresponding atmosphere. Even more, in a more

contemporary application, people benefit from

Audacity by including the composition of

broadcasting using Audacity, and begins using such

devices for education purposes (Williams, 2020). To

be specific with educational ends, Audacity has a

positive impact on innovation of musical education

and cooperation. In a study, Pedagogy of Primary and

Pre-school Education successfully utilizes Audacity

and other music composition interfaces to provide

more cognition of children to study the music around

the nature and their environment.Besides,using

participants from kindergarten and primary school

students, students effectively studied the use of the

software to shift the pitches and also create sound

stories, such as “little mermaids” (Todea-Sahlean,

2017). In conclusion, many of the practical

application of Audacity show a positive influence

regardless of fields of application and age generations.

Such software include a comprehensive design in

order to match a demanding nature of music

composition and also generate outcome that benefit

society as a whole.

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4 REAPER

REAPER is a DAW work station developed by

American company Cockos which provides a series

of function including sound recording,editing,and

producing.In particular and in comparison to other

music composition softwares, REAPER has a relative

benefit of being extremely flexible in order to make

an accurate composition. Moreover, this software is

highly customized according to the users’ needs. For

instance, the user of REAPER could alter the

arrangements of layouts and platforms according to

personal needs,allowing mutual view modes as well,

such as track, mixing, time-line visuals for convenient

management and editing of programs. In other words,

the specific functions brought by REAPER could

expand and attract the interests from particular fields:

especially in game industries.For designing the sound,

REAPER could easily rely on multi-tracks recording

to produce the environment sounding,interacting

sound effects and speeches by characters in games.

Moreover, many of the video games, like those this

science fiction background, require special music

effect. Fittingly, REAPER supports the

corresponding needs, as it could import libraries of

various instruments and plugs-in of sound effect,

hence featuring the characteristics of several sound

effects. Besides, REAPER gives strong MIDI editing

for the background music. To solve the problems of

inharmonious between music and animation, the

software’s technology enables it to synchronize the

sound and animation themselves, which results in a

more perfect coordination. Along with

synchronization, a time line edition of REAPER also

enhance the fluency of whole composition.

Furthermore, the control of versions give permission

to monitoring the content of audio’s changes and

updates. In summary, game companies rely a lot on

REAPER to create a more appealing audio effects,

and currently developers and audio engineers discuss

gaming audio project and provide examples of the use

of REAPER in blogs and communities. In expansion

to the aforementioned plugins, REAPER gives

support for spatial sound processing, including the

plugins for ambisonic processing. Specifically, by

using encoding and decoding, many of the processing

is strengthened by using cross-platform and

conversion into other formates (Lossius & Anderson,

2014). For many scenarios apart from video games,

REAPER could be proposed to be utilized in several

activities incorporated with music. For a good

illustration, REAPER is used in an activity called

Musical collage where students gave a presentation

related to themselves using a collage made by

composition with REAPER. As one could see from

these typical softwares, many of them are suitable for

educational ends which indicated the convenience

and ease regarding the softwares (Belibou, 2021).

Overall, REAPER software provides a perfect

perform for music and sound engineers to create

specific musical tunes. Besides being regarded as

practical for producing fine outcomes, REAPER also

generates huge supports in researching and

development processes. Taking the research of

making a media playback with surround sound

system. The investigation using REAPER empowers

the researchers to obtain enough details either in a

software and hardware basis (Anwar et al., 2022). The

scheme is shown in Fig. 2.

5 FL STUDIO

FL Studio is celebrated for its intuitive interface and

pattern-based workflow, making it particularly

popular among electronic music producers and beat-

makers. Its step sequencer and piano roll are designed

for quick and efficient creation of drum patterns and

melodic sequences (Clark, 2020). FL Studio also

offers a wide range of plugins and effects, enhancing

its flexibility and creative potential.The software's

visual layout and easy-to-use tools make it accessible

Figure 2: Ambisonic Toolkit Paradigm for REAPER (Anwar et al., 2022).

Comparison of Music Composing Software: Audacity, REAPER and FL Studio

195

for beginners, while its advanced features cater to

more experienced users. FL Studio's lifetime free

updates and extensive online community support

further contribute to its popularity (Miller, 2021).

Despite its strengths, some users may find its

interface less suited for complex audio recording and

editing compared to other DAWs. Regarding the

application scenarios for FL Studio, besides being

capable of generating certain music composition and

audio effects, FL studio particularly involves the

technique of mastering, which includes EQ,

compression and limiting used for finalization.

Another superiority of choosing FL Studio is its

employment in live performances. The users could

real-time manipulate freely the control panels to

change certain musical sound conditions. This

advantage is used regularly in DJ sets. Furthermore,

the general platform also undoubtedly could be

carried in teaching scenario to convey ideas of

musical engineering concepts (Garg, 2021). Lastly,

many of the positive outcomes brought by FL Studio

could be evidenced by release of popular

music,where musicians and song composers, like

Avicii & Martin Garrix, use chartopping tracks from

the software. Moreover, with the unrestricted

imagination and innovation, users using the

technology could experiment with the extensive

library to develop special compositions.

6 LIMITATIONS AND

PROSPECTS

In the current status, every musical composition

softwares have common and also specific limitations

that need to be changed. When it comes to the three

aforementioned softwares, many of them are easy and

convenient to master for beginners or students.

However, they are generally not well compiled

enough for more advanced and complex

compositions, especially with high-standards

professional music work. Moreover, these softwares

display significant problems with the hardware or the

systems:to be specific, many of the applications are

incompatible with certain plugins from third party,

and they occupy on huge memory and resources from

processor, weakening the computer’s performance.

Future prospects in music composition software

include the integration of machine learning and

artificial intelligence to enhance composition and

sound design. These advancements could lead to

more personalized and adaptive tools, improving the

overall creative process. Additionally, increasing

cross-platform compatibility and user-friendly

interfaces will likely drive future developments in this

field. Furthermore, programmers could design more

complicated softwares for experts to take advantage

of, as well mitigating the negative effect of operation

of soft ware on computer performance. With the

advancement in technology and more development in

the concept of automation, more and more automatic

manipulation and operation of certain process should

be carried out by AI, which is one of the primary

focus.

7 CONCLUSIONS

To sum up, this research has compared three leading

music composing software, i.e., Audacity, REAPER,

and FL Studio. Each software offers unique features

suited to different aspects of music production, from

live performance and video game-based

programming to professional recording and tutorial

needs. As technology continues to advance, these

tools will likely incorporate new innovations, such as

AI-driven features, to further enhance their

capabilities. Understanding the strengths and

limitations of each software can guide users in

selecting the most suitable tool for their needs,

ultimately contributing to more effective and creative

music production. In the future, there should be

greater number of brand-new technologies and

softwares coming up in the vision. However, it is

important to comprehend the improvements and

advancements that could be done for a more

convenient and comprehensive developments of such

softwares. It could be the responsibility of both

developers and users to continuously monitor the

advantages and limitations of using certain

applications for a more direct communication. This

paper aims to research into and make comparison of

some of the currently available music composing

softwares. Making proposals of future prospects and

limitations as well, this paper hopes a better

understanding of this topic and give a more apparent

demonstration of the distinctions.

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