I’m looking to set up a machine for my stepdad to record and edit music on. Audacity is the first choice that comes to mind, but I’m wondering if there are better/more fitting to usecase options out there.
Audacity is an excellent recording program.
Hydrogen is an excellent drum machine.
There is a free software DAW named Ardour which seems pretty complex, but I don’t do enough audio production to compare it against commercial alternatives.
LMMS is also pretty cool.
Then there’s always MilkyTracker if you want to go medieval.
IMO, where FOSS audio production shines is not in any specific DAW software, but in the capabilities offered by toolkits like Jack and PipeWire to take audio and MIDI outputs of any program and plug them into the inputs of any other program. The ability to run commercial VST plugins in WINE is a bonus.
There are dozens of arbitrary synthesizers and sequencers out there, all with unique perks and rough edges. But there is strong infrastructure to create a pipeline from all of these individual components. You are required to fuck around with it.
