Im looking after a free or very cheap DAW for recording, mixing and mastering. Ive been using an old cracked version of logic latly that has alot of bugs.
It needs to have plugin support though so I can have the possability to run overbridge in the future. And to get free plugins. 
(Yeah, im really on a budget atm)
Ive been looking into Reaper(not free but cheaper than others) Ardour and Tracktion.
Does anyone have any experience with the above or any other free/cheap DAWs?
Ive got a Mac btw. Unfortunately…
Harrison Mixbus is cheap (they often run sales when you can get it for half price and sometimes even for quarter price) and really good for these jobs.
supports industry standard plugin formats. available for all three major desktop platforms including Linux, and license terms allow it to be installed on all your computers if you have several.
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Ardour. LMMS.
But, I would just use GB on a Mac if I had nothing else.
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Reaper
No frills, no synths etc. like the expensive DAWS but for audio and midi recording it’s just the job. There are a lot of built-in REA plugins that I haven’t really investigated but I’ve never had a problem with any VST, VST3, AU plugins. It opens super fast, loading current projects. Highly recommended.
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Reaper is free to try WinRAR style. Give it a go, and if you like it enough once you can afford it go ahead and buy it so you can make money from it.
If Bitwig didn’t have GRID (essentially Modular with a twist) I would’ve just gotten Reaper instead.
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Thirding reaper. Even against the big kids it’s great. Straight forward on the surface yet packing considerable flexibility underneath. I can’t remember it ever crashing on me.
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Yah I love reaper…but bitwig is on my radar.
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Bitwig 8-Track is free and offers some pretty cool features. It’s definitely geared more for electronic music I think, but there’s still plenty to work with so long as you’re ok with only having 8 tracks to work with.
Reaper if you only want recording, mixing, and mastering.
oh, i wish it was, but actually
Bitwig Studio 8-Track is available exclusively through bundles with selected partners.
which is ≠free.
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It’s not readily downloadable but there are a few promotions and give aways. I was able to just sign up and was able to get it without much hassle.
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Harrison Mixbus is essentially the same as Ardour, which is effectively free (on Linux at least).
in general, yes.
it’s a stable version of Ardour with less features than current upstream, but with addition of proprietary Harrison algorithms that make the difference.
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I must admit that I just downloaded Mixbus, saw it was based on Ardour and didn’t really investigate further as I never really got on well with Ardour - and Reaper then became available for Linux anyway. So thanks for the extra information.
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Logic’s well worth the investment and cheaper than a lot of its contemporaries at $200.
Reaper is only $60 and pretty great, although I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention that the Overbridge beta is essentially broken in it right now. Neither Elektron nor Cockos (the Reaper dev) seem particularly interested in addressing it.
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Traktion T7 is definitely free, worth mentioning.
I downloaded it l, haven’t tried it- definitely more midi focused.
For the people suggesting Logic, I’d recommend spending a couple hundred extra and get Studio One- that way you wouldn’t be chained to Apple. Very similar from my experience and the UI for the instruments look less cheesy
reaper is not good with overbridge here, bitwig is maybe way to go, overbridge is great on bitwig, and I like bitwig overall, no complains.
I don’t disagree with the idea of avoiding being chained to Apple, but “a couple hundred extra” versus Logic is literally double the price. Logic’s Alchemy synth is also substantially better than anything included with Studio One (I’ve used both). Some of the older instruments and FX have mediocre UIs but they all sound good.
One thing that’s worth considering if you’re a little brave is that KVR has a buying/selling forum where people regularly sell licenses for most DAWs. Studio One Professional almost never goes for over $200 there (I would know, I sold it once). There are some pretty good bargains to be had there, just check user feedback first.
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Reason 11 intro is 80€. Works perfectly with overbridge VST.
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I wish I knew about this a couple weeks ago 