It's also "for free" in Afrikaans, Catalan, Danish, English, French, Galician, German, Bahasa Indonesia, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Spanish and Swedish.

The term gratis in English comes from the Latin word "gratis" meaning "for thanks".

Thus sayeth Wikipedia, so it must be true.


Back on topic: What level skill are you aiming at here? You said you're competing against people who are putting together top-flight demos by some of the top players out there.

Are you trying to get to that level, or are you just trying for something better than "generic" backing tracks?