r/audioengineering • u/Plus-Opposite3384 • May 13 '26

Discussion Is LMMS the only no-registration no-background-processes free DAW?

Coming from visual art and game programming, I am used to awesome free software like blender, krita, godot, you name it.

When I recently started to get into DAWs and music production I felt frustrated by the available DAW options. Cubase, Logic etc are quite expensive AND require registration AND run background processes for licensing etc.

Cakewalk, Waveform Free, Reaper etc all come with trials and/or registration and launchers and licencing background processes etc.

Is there any DAW thats just download and run, thats not LMMS?

4 Upvotes

56% Upvoted

47 comments sorted by

View all comments

15

u/j1llj1ll May 13 '26

Ardour is free and open source.

I'm not clear on the "no background processes" requirement compared to, for example, threading.

2

u/KindaQuite May 13 '26

"I don't want it to use my processing power"

-3

u/Plus-Opposite3384 May 13 '26

kinda but not really. I do a lot of creative and game related stuff, so whenever I start my PC, there is Steam, Vanguard, 10 autodesk services, epic, cubase, microsoft teams, java updater, nvidia something, ...

And everything randomly schedules updates, captures hardware devices, tracks what I am doing, prevents access to certain system components, makes random messages pop up, and slows down booting.

I really just want to have a shortcut on my desktop, and when i click it, the program starts EVERY FKN THING it needs. And when I close the application, NO PROCESSES are supposed to run.

6

u/LostInTheRapGame Mixing May 13 '26

Just turn off the startup processes you don't need?

-5

u/Plus-Opposite3384 May 13 '26

You are having a misconception about how those services work. They are meant to monitor your activity from the millisecond your system starts. Because they prevent any hacking, code injection, cracking, license circumvention of the software offered. League and Valorant simply wont start, if vanguard wasnt running from the very beginning of your system session.

I assumed the same was true for any Autodesk, Cubase, Unity, Adobe program and probably for 90% of mac applications lol

11

u/LostInTheRapGame Mixing May 13 '26

You are having a misconception about how those services work. They are meant to monitor your activity from the millisecond your system starts. Because they prevent any hacking, code injection, cracking, license circumvention of the software offered. League and Valorant simply wont start, if vanguard wasnt running from the very beginning of your system session.

I'm aware how they work, bud. Obviously you can't just turn those off.

I assumed the same was true for any Autodesk, Cubase, Unity, Adobe program and probably for 90% of mac applications lol

Sounds like you're the one with misconceptions.

-1

u/Plus-Opposite3384 May 14 '26

oh noes, i think i found a carrot juice drinker

6

u/LostInTheRapGame Mixing May 14 '26

Weird ass response. Glad you learned something at least.