Having previously hinted that it might consider developing VST plugins , Music Tribe, the parent company of Behringer, has now gone a step further and confirmed that it’s creating its own DAW . What’s more, this will be free.

In a statement on Facebook , the company said: “It’s now official. We will be creating our own Music Tribe DAW.

“This is a massive undertaking, which will take at least 18 months and for that purpose we have now assembled a large development team.

“Our Music Tribe DAW will also include samples and VSTs plus connections to third-party VSTs. Our goal is to include the very best features available, including multiple user interfaces for both recording and DJ.

“We would love to develop this together with you and hence encourage you to share your preferred platforms and features so we can consider your input. Our opportunity is that we have no legacy platform to maintain, which will allow us to think “blue sky” and combine the “best of all worlds”.

“Best of all, the DAW will be FREE of charge! Our goal is to empower all musicians to record, mix, edit and publish their music.”

Behringer's biggest challenge?

Behringer is right to conclude that it has a big job on its hands. Developing a great DAW is going to be difficult, but convincing people to abandon their current platform and start using it is going to be even more tricky.

That said, few would have predicted a few years ago that Behringer would become one of the world’s most prolific and successful hardware synth manufacturers. When the company sets its mind to a task, it has a habit of being successful.

Whether the likes of Ableton, Steinberg and Image-Line will be quaking in their boots just yet is debatable, but if Behringer is serious about this - and it sounds like it is - the music software market might be set for a significant shake-up...