I thought some here might find Studio One Prime interesting. I use the pro version that allows video playback in time for composing, among lots of other things, but as a free alternative to the popular Audacity (which I have never grooved with) this is pretty good, and IMO it is very user friendly for a DAW, especially if you are mostly recording audio tracks and adding in predone FX and music:

https://shop.presonus.com/products/studio-one-prods/Studio-One-3-Prime




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My system: i7 3770 Gtx1060 6GB

Sorry if this is the wrong forum, just audio is in our pipelines, whether part of iClone or not.

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My system: i7 3770 Gtx1060 6GB

I don't mean to highjack your thread but speaking about DAW there is also this solution:
Reaper
which, I believe is more affordable ($60 for <$20K gross revenu/$220 for commercial both same features) and more in the Indie spirit while having all the 'pro' features, including video playback.
There is no free version per say but you can try it for free.

I'm not saying mine is bigger than yours, I'm just proposing another alternative that also works very well

--
guy rabiller | GOETZIWOOD STUDIOS
"N.O.E." (Nations Of Earth) Sci-Fi TV Show, Showrunner.

Yeah, Reaper is great, and much more powerful than this freebie, but the learning curve can be painful. I mention Studio One because it is so easy, but by all means, try out Reaper too. But it will cost more in time, guaranteed. 




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My system: i7 3770 Gtx1060 6GB

I just wanted to point out another cool little option, there is a free version for Mac and Windows, and there are paid mobile apps for Android and iOS, I own both, but very reasonable $10 for all this little monster can do. It is essentially by design like a pared down Reason, it runs very well, the midi implementation and automation is fantastic, and the developer continues to improve it. I'm actually spending way more time using this than Studio One and all my expensive plugins. I haven't done much of this yet myself, but it has a very good little audio recorder and editor, it doesn't have in-line audio recording like a regular DAW, but you can record clips and load them in the sampler or the drum synth and add audio in line to your soundtrack by triggering the sample. You can export your project as stems with or without effects, so you can easily grab the isolated dialog tracks for lip syncing in iClone and your video editor. It has a good time stretch and pitch shifting tool in the audio recorder, so creating characters via pitch manipulation has a lot of control. You can bake in effects like reverb and delays etc. so they are there in iClone. And you can work on your dialog and sound track anywhere. I've been playing synths, hardware and software, for 35 years and this to me is an incredible little gem, anyhow, it is very logically laid out, powerful, and easy to grasp. There are excellent videos from the developer on YouTube as well on how to use the app. It is a lot less to take in than a full blown DAW, or Reason itself. IMO it is near perfect.

http://www.singlecellsoftware.com/caustic

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My system: i7 3770 Gtx1060 6GB

Alrighty, I hadn't tried using video in Reaper in a long while, nor have I really opened Reaper much since something like 4.6. I found I needed to install the 64 bit version of VLC for iClone's MP4 video to be usable, but now I gotta say, I'm in HEAVEN. You can even do crossfades of video now, this is really great. Reaper is the bomb. Now I can 'compose' my iClone stuff along with piano and get it in the flow musically, which was what I originally wanted to do when I started in with animation in the first place. Thank you grabiller, your suggestion here eventually, finally got me poking around in Reaper again and I honestly don't think I'll be opening Studio One much beyond mastering now. If even for that. I bought a license so long ago, but the updates are still free, this is just amazing.

Here's the website for anyone not inclined to use Google:

http://www.reaper.fm/

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My system: i7 3770 Gtx1060 6GB