If you want to record music on your phone, you can do it with mobile DAWs. They work perfectly and offer great features.
These Android and iOS music apps are great for capturing ideas anywhere and anytime you want. Also, there are free mobile DAWs and premium ones.
All apps offer great features like instruments, effects, sequencers, drum machines, loops, etc. You can create simple or complex music on your phone.
DAW apps are great because you can share them with your bandmates or with your friends on social media.
Also, if you are interested, you can check the best free digital audio workstations and pick one for your home recording studio.
What’s The Best Mobile DAW?
I tested many pro and free mobile music creation apps and made a list of them. Here are the best DAWs for Android and iOS you can download and make music on your smartphone.
1. BandLab
BandLab is one of the best mobile DAWs for music creation. It has many amazing features that allow you to create music on the go. It’s made by a company that offers a free digital audio workstation – Cakewalk.
Cakewalk by BandLab has a really beautiful and modern interface. It’s very easy to use. You can do many things with this app. You can record audio, use 300+ MIDI instruments, use effect presets, collaborate with others, and share your music.
Has great tools for mastering, loops, audio editing, and much more. A great free music-making app in your pocket. It also has a desktop assistant.
- Price – Free
- OS – Android & iOS
2. FL Studio Mobile
FL Studio Mobile is a little brother of the well-known DAW by Image-Line. It’s a fully-featured digital audio workstation on your phone. You have amazing features and options and can create music or capture ideas wherever you are.
Has a very beautiful and easy-to-use interface. If you are familiar with the desktop version, it will be easier for you to navigate through the app. The features FL Studio Mobile offers are recording, mixing, sequencer, effects, multiple file export formats, etc.
Also includes virtual piano and drum pads. This is a professional music creation app you can have on your phone.
- Price – $14
- OS – Android & iOS
3. Caustic 3
Caustic 3 is one of the best mobile DAWs with a huge synth and effects collection. It’s inspired by rack-mount synths and sampler rigs. Has a great interface and excellent features. Creating music with this app is awesome.
The amount of instruments Caustic offers is amazing. The collection includes Organ, BeatBox, Subsynth, 8BitSynth, Modular, and more. Additionally, you have a mixer, sequencer, EQ, limiter, and all the tools you need to create music.
It supports WAV files and you can add your files too. You can store your files in storage and access them anytime.
- Price – Free/$10
- OS – Android & iOS
4. N-Track Studio
N-Track Studio is a professional DAW for Android and iOS. It’s a feature-packed app for music creation. You can record, mix, and use effects, and instruments. Making music on a smartphone is easy with this awesome app.
Features N-Track Studio offers are a sequencer, looper, tempo match, pitch shift, etc. Also, it includes guitar amps, bass amps, a drumkit, a mixer, and more awesome features. Great app for any type of music genre. Has high-quality exporting options.
All this is packed in a beautiful interface. Easy to navigate and use instruments and effects.
- Price – Free/$30
- OS – Android & iOS
5. Audio Evolution Mobile Studio
Audio Evolution Mobile Studio is one of the greatest mobile DAWs you can create music with. It’s very easy to make music on your phone or tablet with this app Very professional and modern interface makes navigating and using the app fun. And features of this music software are excellent.
It’s a fully-featured DAW with recording, mixing, and editing capabilities. You can work with loops and use various VST instruments and effects plugins. Has a great mixer that makes audio mixing easier. Additionally, it has an awesome automation option.
It allows the exporting of audio in various formats such as WAV, FLACC, and OGG. You can share it on SoundCloud and other platforms. Also, you can export them to use in other digital audio workstations.
- Price – $10
- OS – Android & iOS
6. Soundtrap Capture
Soundtrap Capture is another music-making and sharing app for your smartphone. With this app, it’s very easy to capture ideas, record them, and share them with your friends or the world. You can use it on your phone, tablet, and desktop.
It has a beautiful and modern interface. Offer a great sequencer where you can add tracks and record sound. You can connect microphones or instruments and record them. Also, Soundtrap Capture has features like autotune, automation, pattern beatmaker, and a library of loops and sound presets.
If you want an easy and quick way to capture your ideas with a sharing option, then Soundtrap is one of the best choices for you.
- Price – Free
- OS – iOS
7. Cubasis 3
Cubasis 3 is a fully-featured DAW for smartphones. It’s made by Steinberg, the team behind a very famous digital audio workstation Cubase. It allows you to record high-quality music on your phone or tablet. It’s a complete portable DAW and you can create music anywhere and anytime.
You can record, mix, and edit audio with Cubasis 3. You can do it with unlimited audio and MIDI tracks. It offers features like time stretching, pitch shifting, automation, audio, and midi editors, etc. It also includes many instruments and effects plugins.
With Cubasis 3 you can export your finished music to Cubase, Google Drive, external drives, etc. It supports 24-bit/48kHz audio recording.
- Price – Trial/$50
- OS – Android & iOS
8. Reason Compact
Reason Compact by Reason Studios is one of the best mobile DAWs on the market. With it you can create music quickly and easily and also you can use it in their main digital audio workstation Reason. The only downside of this app is that it’s available only on iOS.
You can do anything you want with Reason Compact. It has every tool to record, mix, edit, and master tracks. Has a big library of plugins and instruments. They include another app Figure Wand which includes instruments such as bass, synth, and drums.
If you have used Reason then the interface will be very familiar. With the features and tools, this music app offers, it’s one of the best software to create music on your phone.
- Price – Free
- OS – iOS
9. RD4 Groovebox
RD4 Groovebox is one of the easiest-to-use mobile DAWs with amazing features and recording capabilities. Has a very easy-to-use interface with great options, effects, and instruments. It’s a music-making app with analog synthesizers, effects, and drum machines.
With RD4 you can create four tracks and add instruments to each channel. It includes instruments such as two analog synths and a drum machine that includes various famous kits such as 808, KR55, RZ1, Linn, and more. Additionally, you can use built-in effects like reverb, delay, phaser, filter, and distortion.
RD4 supports MIDI keyboards. You can connect your device and start recording. Also, it has a sequencer with two banks and eight bars per instrument.
- Price – Free
- OS – Android & iOS
10. J4T Multitrack Recorder
J4T Multitrack Recorder is a high-quality digital audio workstation filled with features. Quickly record your ideas or demos on your phone. It’s an amazing tool for creative musicians and songwriters. The app is available only on Android phones.
J4T allows you to create four tracks simultaneously. Has track editing and loop features. You can easily import and export MP3 and WAV files. The library includes effects such as fuzz, chorus, delay, reverb, and phaser. For mixing, you can use a built-in EQ and compressor.
The interface of the J4T app is modern and slick. Navigation through different screens is very easy and intuitive. Excellent multitrack recorder for demos and quick ideas.
- Price – $3.5
- OS – Android
11. MultiTrack DAW
MultiTrack DAW is one of the most powerful mobile DAWs for iPhones and iPads. It’s a feature-packed app for music creation on the go. Has a very intuitive, modern, and easy-to-use interface. One of its best features is track freeze which reduces CPU usage.
You can create up to 32 stereo tracks in MultiTrack DAW. And you can record 16 tracks at the same time. Has tools like EQ and compressor for mixing and effects such as delay and reverb. You can easily record, mix, and master songs on your phone.
Other features of this DAW are looping, metronome, time signatures, and built-in Wi-Fi for file sharing. You can export files in various formats such as WAV, MP3, FLAC, OGG, and more.
- Price – $5
- OS – iOS
Conclusion
Mobile DAWs are great tools for recording your ideas or demos on your phone. Because you can record music on your phone, you will never lose or forget musical ideas. You can download music-making apps for free and start saving your demos on your phone.
Some digital audio workstations for mobile are very powerful and some of them are simpler. Each of these apps has its purpose and advantages. Try them and use the one you like the most.