Freeware Tools: Anvil Studio 2015.07

By being able to craft just about every element of the song, including lyrics and multiple instrumental layers, Anvil Studio makes it almost too easy to compose songs. Its interface isn't very attractive, but with great user guidance and a wealth of features, it's an awesome app for any musician. There are more than 40 instruments to use and each one can be layered over other sounds so you can get a better idea of what the finished product will sound like. If you don't know a ton about music theory, you might feel a little overwhelmed at the amount of options.

Anvil Studio is a lightweight Windows application designed to help you record, play, and compose MIDI files, as well as mix multiple tracks into a single audio file.

It sports a clean and straightforward interface that gives users the possibility to play, pause, rewind, or stop the current audio selection. Anvil Studio offers support for WAV or karaoke file formats.

The applications enables users to change the tempo, enable or disable the metronome, synchronize MIDI and audio devices, apply audio effects, test MIDI connections, and record from a MIDI keyboard, microphone, electric guitar, or other instruments.

Furthermore, you can view information about each track (name, type, device, channel, instrument), adjust the volume and balance, and edit notes on a musical staff by inserting new ones, dragging notes of the staff, as well as cutting, copying, pasting, or deleting them. Plus, you can embed slurs, crescendos, decrescendos and repeat symbols.

Other important features worth mentioning allow users to automatically generate chord labels on the staff, enable the loop mode, insert time and key signatures, alter the reverberation level, edit percussion tracks, change the duration and start time of a note, edit the lyrics of the track, and create and change audio samples.

Anvil Studio lets you apply audio effects and filters (e.g. High-pass, Low-pass), use VU meters, zoom in of the sample level, and split a stereo audio into two mono tracks.

Last but not least, you can write comments about the current track, choose the devices connected to your computer and synthesizers, enter notes from external MIDI devices, use a virtual piano keyboard, merge and split items, and assign hotkeys for a better control over the entire process.

All in all, Anvil Studio offers a wide range of features designed to help you record, play, edit, and compose MIDI files.