Tech Reviews: Soundtrap

There are many online DAWs (digital audio workstations) to choose from, and it can be a bit mindboggling deciding which to use – or indeed, if it is worth the time and effort (and potentially money) it takes to get one up and running with a class.

What are the reasons for using a DAW anyway? Using technology for the sake of it is a distinct no-no, and teachers don't have the time for that anyway. So the short answer is that DAWs enable you to produce music that you cannot physically play by yourself, and create music and podcasts that sound really professional. Online DAWs work ‘in the cloud’ so there is no software to install and maintain, and students can access their work from anywhere and carry on being creative in their own time. They are an easy-to-use creative tool that can also be used anywhere to bring quality music to your fingertips.

Does Soundtrap fit the bill for this? Yes. Can you achieve all those things with a minimum of fuss? Yes. Is it free? Yes… but there are differences between the free and paid versions that are worth knowing about, which I will describe later.

Getting going with Soundtrap is easy – it is colourful and friendly to look at, and if you've used any similar programs before, the basics are intuitive and comparable with other DAWs. Even if you are a complete novice, there are easy-to-understand tutorial videos that will get you up and running within minutes, and the whole thing works either on a computer or a mobile device. There are plentiful loops to drag and drop, and importing MIDI or audio is as simple as can be. To create tracks from scratch, you can draw notes onto the piano roll editor with your mouse, ‘play’ using your computer keyboard (this feels surprisingly natural after a bit of practice), connect a MIDI keyboard, or create a drumbeat on a grid. Recording audio is easy, via a built-in microphone on your device or a mic connected via a USB port. The synth option even gives you the opportunity to learn about oscillators, filters and LFOs, just as you might on a more sophisticated DAW.

If starting off with loops – students adore loops, after all – one of the features I like best is that you can choose a key and a tempo to work in, and Soundtrap will adjust the loops to fit. This makes it much easier to combine loops with self-inputted tracks, and to create projects that fit your educational purposes.

You can layer up tracks to your heart's content. Once you have got some basic tracks into Soundtrap, there are lots of ways you can edit them and learn from the process. Any section can be looped, muted or soloed. In the piano roll, you can change the duration or pitch of any note. You can sharpen up the accuracy of rhythms by quantising to a chosen value, which can help students learn about note duration and the way that effective rhythms are put together. The velocity (volume) of individual notes can be edited to create a musically effective phrase. If you have recorded some audio (say, a vocal line) you can experiment with adding different effects to this, or edit by cutting, moving or pasting. You can also hear what it would sound like if you applied autotune, although to save this you need to have a paid-for account.

All of the above features are easy to use and easily adapted for whatever type of project you have in mind. It is even easy to set up collaboration, so that you could have students working on the same piece from different devices or computers. Once finished, you can mix your final product by setting levels and panning each track, and then export your finished piece as an audio file to release to the world.

So far, so brilliant. So where are the drawbacks? All of these are to do with the free version of Soundtrap. Features on this are limited (reduced number of sounds and loops, no automation, no autotune), although you still have plenty to play with that can be of huge educational use and produce great-sounding results. The real problem with the free version is its collaboration and social media side, and the ensuing GDPR and safeguarding nightmares.

The paid educational plan has a free 30-day trial (which may be long enough for a short project) and an extremely well-thought-out, COPPA-compliant ‘walled garden’ to keep students protected. Prices start at £199 per year for up to 50 users; for me to provide Soundtrap accounts for all 720 of my Key Stage 3 students would cost £2,695. Teachers can oversee all accounts and view all work created, and create assignments and templates. If you have queries or problems, support from Soundtrap is fast, efficient and friendly.

If you have the money to spend, this is a truly excellent resource.

Visit www.soundtrap.com for more.