DOWNSTAGEDownstage
Price$0 Free to record, mix and release.
Tracks48 channels.
65 rack units, 33 pedals and eight effect buses built in. No account. Apple Silicon, macOS 13 or later.
Free DAW for Mac · made for loud rooms
New in 1.1
33 pedals
Mastering
Tempo detection
Quantize
Every screen
DOWNSTAGE
Record. Mix. Play it loud.A multitrack recorder and an analog-style console in one window. 48 channels, a desk that lines up like the real thing, a 64-slot rack of 65 classic units, a 33-pedal board, tempo detection, quantize, a page on every screen — and a price tag of zero.
What's inside · new in Downstage 1.1
A WHOLE STUDIO. ONE WINDOW.
The desk, the outboard rack, the pedalboard on the floor, the reverb units in the machine room and the mastering chain down the corridor — all in one app, all free, all in the same session.
33 STOMPBOXESBoss from DS-1 to SY-1 and the bass line, Big Muff, Tube Screamer, Memory Man, Space, RE-201 — six slots, any order.
TEMPO FROM THE AUDIOOne BPM, or a grid that follows the band.
QUANTIZE THE HITSCut at the attacks, phase-locked across the kit.
MASTERINGTG chain, Shadow Hills, Massive Passive, Maag.
480L + LARCTwelve programs, six faders, the red display.
EVERY SCREENEdit, Mix, FX or Rack full screen on each display.
KEMPER & TUNERTwelve profiled rigs, a tuner, an EQ tuned by note and scale.
The console
A DESK, NOT A SPREADSHEET
Every strip looks and works like a channel on a large-format console — and every strip has the same sections at the same height, so your eyes read the whole board at once.
01
SSL-STYLE STRIPS
High-pass, four fully parametric bands over a live analyser, four inserts, eight FX and eight aux sends, pan, a one-VCA selector and slim SSL faders with gain-reduction meters.
02
GROUPS A–D
Four stereo groups that are full channel strips. Route any channel with the M and A–D buttons right beside its fader.
03
CUE MIXES THAT WORK
Eight stereo aux outputs, pre or post, with a seven-band EQ, the master into the phones and a click that stays out of the room.
04
EVERYTHING LINES UP
Channels, click, groups, FX returns, VCAs, aux outputs and master, left to right, over the whole screen — or Mix, FX and Rack each on a display of their own. Solo a group or a return and its channels come with it; solo safe and AFL on the auxes, like a real desk.
More screens
ONE DESK. EVERY SCREEN.
Plug in a second and a third display and send Edit, Mix, FX or Rack to each, full screen, with no top bar — the arrangement in front of you, the whole console on one side, the rack on the other. Every screen plays the same session: move a fader on one and it moves everywhere. Close a screen with its × and the page is free to go to another.
Display 2 · Mix
Main · Edit
Display 3 · Rack
Recording
HIT RECORD. KEEP EVERY TAKE.
Nothing you play is ever thrown away. Record over what is there and the old pass stays underneath; punch in on the fly or on a range with pre-roll; loop a section for as many passes as it takes. Then drag across the best moment of each take and press “Use this” — comping the way Pro Tools taught your hands, with markers where you expect them and the mix out of the door in WAV or MP3.
NON-DESTRUCTIVE
New passes land on top, drawn as you play; the old ones stay underneath and in the take list, ready to comp, in files named after the channel and the take.
PUNCH & PRE-ROLL
Free punch while playing, auto punch on the loop range, 1–4 bars of pre-roll, loop recording.
COMPING
Open the takes under a track, drag across the good bit of any of them and press “Use this”.
TEMPO, GRID & QUANTIZE
Find the BPM and the grid in the audio — steady, or bar by bar for a band without a click — then quantize the hits, phase-locked across a drum kit. Plus a click strip with its own EQ and headphone sends.
MARKERS
Memory locations: keypad Enter drops one, “. 3 .” jumps there, ⌘5 lists them all with the export range.
WAV & MP3
The mix, every stem or every output, of the song, the IN–OUT range or the loop, with a real progress bar.
Tempo and quantize
TIGHT WHEN YOU WANT IT.
The metronome in the edit bar listens to your session and finds the BPM, the beat and the first downbeat. Steady tempo for music played to a click; Follow the performance for a band that breathes — a tempo for every bar, so the grid follows them.
Then press Q. Every attack is cut a few milliseconds before it and moved onto the grid, the slice before stretches to meet it and a short crossfade joins them. Select the whole kit: every track gets the same cuts and stays in phase.
- 1/4 to 1/32 · triplets
- Strength & swing
- Hits or clip starts
- Already tight? Left alone
- One undo
The rack
64 SLOTS. 65 UNITS.
Patch outboard onto any insert of any strip. Each faceplate is laid out like the hardware, carries a strip of masking tape with the channel it lives on, and opens a menu of factory presets chosen for what that box does best — plus your own, in every session.
Dynamics
- API 2500 · API 525
- 1176 FET · LA-2A
- Golden Age Comp-54
- Distressor
- dbx 160 · dbx 166
- Alesis 3630 · Behringer Composer
- Midas PRO dynamics · DS201 gate
- De-esser · Transient designer
- Mastering Abbey Road TG chain, SSL bus, Vari-Mu, Fairchild, Shadow Hills, Massive Passive, Maag EQ4, mid/side, Edison EX1, multiband, brickwall limiter
Strips, EQ & meters
- SSL 4000 E · Neve 88RS
- API 512 + 550A + 527
- EMI TG12345 · Siemens Sitral
- Midas XL4 · Soundcraft · Mackie 24·8
- Pultec EQP-1A · Neve 1073
- Siemens W295 · API 560
- Guitar & bass EQ tuned by note and scale
- 31-band graphic EQ · Tape · Lo-fi
- Tuner · Spectrum · Phase scope · Stereo image
Amps & pedals
- Kemper Profiler
- Marshall JCM900 + 1960 · Vox AC30
- Fender Twin · Roland JC-120
- Orange Rockerverb · Brunetti
- Ampeg SVT · Ashdown · Markbass
- Six-slot pedalboard Boss DS-1 to SY-1 and bass, Big Muff, Small Stone, Memory Man, Dyna Comp, TS808, Talkbox, Space, Eterna, RE-201, RE-555
- GT-style multi-effect board
- Wah · Flanger · Phaser
- Dimension D · Leslie 122
Amps and pedals
STOMP ON IT.
Mount the pedalboard on a DI guitar or bass: six slots in the order of the chain, any of 33 classic compacts in each, every knob where it sits on the real one, footswitch and red LED included. Then into a Kemper rig, a Marshall, a Vox, a JC-120 or an SVT.
Boss
DS-1Distortion
SD-1Super OverDrive
BD-2Blues Driver
OD-1OverDrive
MT-2Metal Zone
GE-7Equalizer
CS-3Compression Sustainer
CP-1XCompressor
CE-1Chorus Ensemble
BF-3Flanger
PH-3Phase Shifter
CH-1Super Chorus
DD-3Digital Delay
RE-2Space Echo
RV-6Reverb
OC-5Octave
SY-1Synthesizer
BB-1XBass Driver
BC-1XBass Comp
GEB-7Bass Equalizer
CEB-3Bass Chorus
LMB-3Bass Limiter Enhancer
ODB-3Bass OverDrive
Electro-Harmonix
Big Muff πElectro-Harmonix
Small StoneEHX phase shifter
Memory ManEHX Deluxe analog delay
MXR · Ibanez · TC Helicon
Dyna CompMXR compressor
TS808Ibanez Tube Screamer
TalkboxTC Helicon Talkbox Synth
Eventide · Mr. Black · Roland
SpaceEventide reverb
EternaMr. Black shimmer reverb
RE-201Roland Space Echo
RE-555Roland Chorus Echo
Effects
EIGHT BUSES OF SPACE
Every channel, group and the click has eight FX sends. A new session starts with the 480L, a vocal plate, delay, Space Echo, Quadraverb, SPX, chorus and shimmer; each of the eight buses loads any of these units — true stereo in, so a guitar on the left gets a room that leans left — comes back on its own strip with EQ and inserts, and goes to sleep when nothing feeds it.
LEXICON 480LWith its LARC remote: twelve programs and six faders, Spin and Wander.
- Large Hall
- Large + Stage
- Medium Hall
- Small Hall
- Random Hall
- Rich Plate
- A Plate
- Large Room
- Medium Room
- Small Room
- Ambience
- Rich Chamber
QUADRAVERBThe Alesis chain — EQ, chorus or flanger, delay and reverb in series — sixteen programs.
- Chorus Hall
- Flange Delay
- Gated Reverb
- Reverse Reverb
- Multi-tap + Verb
- Detune Doubler
- Big Snare
- Quad: all four
ABBEY ROAD CHAMBERSA speaker and microphones in a tiled room, fed through STEED.
- Mic distance
- Speaker
- STEED
- Width
FLANGERThe jet on a send: wet only, the channel and the return make the comb.
- Manual
- Width
- Speed
- Regen
- Negative
HALLA large room: early reflections and a long modulated tail.
- Decay
- Pre-delay
- Size
- Damping
- Low cut
PLATEDense and bright from the first moment, no early echoes.
- Decay
- Pre-delay
- Damping
- Low cut
DELAYTempo-synced, darker on every repeat, ping-pong.
- 1/1
- 1/2
- 1/4.
- 1/4
- 1/8.
- 1/4t
- 1/8
- 1/8t
- 1/16
CHORUSTwo swept voices, wide.
- Rate
- Depth
- Delay
SPACE ECHOThe RE-201: three tape heads, spring reverb, wow and tape age.
- Modes 1–4: echo
- Modes 5–11: echo + spring
- Mode 12: spring only
- All 3 heads on mode 11
SHIMMEREno and Lanois: a huge hall whose repeats climb.
- +12
- +7
- +19
- +24
- −12
- +5
LEXICONHalls, plates and rooms with spin and wander — eleven presets.
- Concert Hall
- Large Hall
- Random Hall
- Vocal Plate
- Rich Plate
- Chamber
- Large Room
- Small Room
- Ambience
- Chorus + Hall
- Echo + Plate
SPXThe classic multi-effect programs — fifteen of them.
- Rev 1 Hall
- Rev 2 Room
- Rev 3 Vocal
- Rev 4 Plate
- Early Ref
- Gate Reverb
- Reverse Gate
- Delay L,R
- Stereo Echo
- Stereo Flange
- Chorus
- Stereo Phasing
- Tremolo
- Symphonic
- Pitch Change
48Channels
65Rack units
33Pedals
12Effects
600+Presets
0Euro
Built-in guide
LEARN IT ON A REAL SONG
Press F1 in the app, or read the guide here: every window, every strip, every unit, and the full shortcut list, in six languages. The welcome screen opens the demo session too — an instrumental song made for Downstage, 22 channels mixed with groups, effects, outboard and automation, ready to be taken apart. To mix a real band, import the free multitrack sessions from Telefunken Elektroakustik.
FREE.
NO CATCH.
Free for personal and professional use. No account, no subscription, no ads, no tracking. The music you make is yours.
- Version
- 1.1.0
- File
- Downstage-1.1.0-macOS-arm64.dmg
- Size
- 131.6 MB
- Requires
- macOS 13 Ventura or later on Apple Silicon (M1 and later)
- SHA-256
5f0b88f9111f51a065b955212620024d15012c5bd33ed7840aaa87a85888a621
Download for Mac
- Open the disk image and drag Downstage into Applications.
- Open Downstage. It is signed and notarized by Apple, so the first time macOS only asks whether to open an app downloaded from the internet: click Open.
- Allow microphone access when you record for the first time, then pick your audio interface from the top bar.
A price check
WHAT A DAW COSTS
US list prices, before tax, as published in 2026. The cheap seat is usually the small one: fewer tracks, or a subscription that stops when you stop paying. Downstage stays at 48 channels, with the console, the rack, the pedals and the effects already inside, and it does not load other plugins.
DAWPriceTracksWhat that buys
Logic Pro
Price$199.99 once, or $12.99 a month in Apple Creator Studio.
TracksNo fixed cap
The Mac studio. Plugins, a large instrument library, Dolby Atmos. The iPad app is on the subscription, not in the one-time purchase.
Pro Tools
PriceFrom $0 Intro is free. Artist is $99 a year or $199 once. Studio is $299 a year or $599 once. Ultimate is $599 a year or $1,499 once.
Tracks8 to 2,048 audio tracks: 8, then 32, 512 and 2,048.
The post and record-label desk. The track ceiling is the edition you pay for.
Cubase
PriceFrom $99.99 Elements. Artist is $329.99, Pro is $579.99. The next version is a new purchase.
Tracks48, then no cap Elements stops at 48 audio tracks. Artist and Pro do not.
Windows and Mac. Score editor, VariAudio and the full mixer arrive as you move up.
Nuendo
Price$999.99 once. An update from the previous version is $199.99.
TracksNo cap
Cubase’s sibling for film, TV, games and broadcast, with a video engine and ADR tools.
Reaper
Price$60 or $225 The $60 license is for personal use, non-profits, or a business under $20,000 a year. Commercial use above that is $225. Sixty days fully working before you pay.
TracksNo cap
One version, no tiers. Windows, Mac and Linux. You bring your own plugins.
Reason
Price$299 once for Reason 13, or $169 a year for Reason+, which keeps the latest version and the extra devices.
TracksThe rack Instruments and effects are devices you cable, not a plugin list you buy one by one.
Windows and Mac. A subscription ends the extra devices when it ends; the $299 license stays yours.
Prices are the published US figures and they move; tax and local store prices differ. Product names belong to their owners and are used here only to say what each program costs. There is no affiliation or endorsement.
Questions
FAQ
What's new in 1.1?
A pedalboard with 33 classic stompboxes; a mastering section with the Abbey Road TG chain, Shadow Hills, Massive Passive and Maag; the Lexicon 480L with its LARC, the Quadraverb and the Abbey Road Chambers; Kemper, a tuner and an EQ tuned by note; EMI, Siemens, Midas, API and Golden Age units; over 600 factory presets plus your own; tempo and grid detection and quantize; the waveform while recording; Edit, Mix, FX and Rack on extra displays; session templates; dBFS meters and a master meter in the top bar; a clock-only mode for live recordings. If you have 1.0, it finds 1.1 by itself and offers to install it.
Is it really free?
Yes. Downstage is free for personal and professional use, including recording, mixing and releasing music commercially. You keep every right to your music.
Can I buy you a beer?
Only if you feel like it. Downstage stays free either way. If a song you made with it is out in the world and you want to say thanks, buy me a beer — or a brand-new Telecaster, should the night have gone that well.
Can I share, mirror or sell it?
No. Download it only from downstage.it. Redistributing, re-uploading, bundling, selling, renting or modifying the software is not allowed by the License Agreement.
Does it run on Intel Macs?
This version is built for Apple Silicon Macs (M1 and later) with macOS 13 Ventura or newer.
Does it load plugins?
No. Downstage comes with its own 65 rack units, 33 pedals and 12 effects, built into the engine, so sessions always open the same way on any Mac.
Can it find the tempo of a band recorded without a click?
Yes. Detect tempo listens to the session (or to the tracks you pick) and offers one steady tempo, or a tempo for every bar that follows the performance; it can also move the song so the first downbeat lands on a bar line. Quantize then works on that grid.
Can I use more than one screen?
Yes. With more displays connected, send Edit, Mix, FX or Rack full screen to each of them; every screen works on the same session.
Are the amps and compressors official?
No. They are independent models inspired by classic gear. Product names are used only to describe the sound they recall and belong to their owners; there is no affiliation or endorsement.
Where does the demo song come from?
It was created by Andrea Pollastri with Claude for Downstage: twelve stems of an instrumental song at 116 BPM, mixed in Downstage. It comes with the app to learn the console: open it, take it apart and remix it. See section 7 of the License Agreement.
Does it collect data?
The app works offline, with no account and no telemetry; it only asks downstage.it whether a newer version is out (you can turn that off). The website uses no cookies. It counts visits with a script from stats.misterdev.it; see the Privacy Notice.
How do updates arrive?
Downstage checks this site for a new version when it starts and from its menu. When one is out it asks, downloads it, checks its signature and checksum, and installs it when you quit — your session is saved first. If you prefer, download the disk image here and drag the app over the old one.