List of free software for audio
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This list of free software for audio lists notable free and open source software for use by sound engineers, audio producers, and those involved in sound recording and reproduction.
Contents |
Audio analysis [edit]
See also: Spectrum analyzer
| Name | Creator | Linux? | Mac OS X? | Unix? | Windows? | Note | Licence |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baudline | SigBlips contract engineering design and development firm | Yes | Yes | Yes | baudline signal analyzer - a scientific visualization tool | proprietary and GPL source code licenses are available | |
| BRP-PACU | Yes | Yes | Dual channel FFT tool for equalization of sound systems using the transfer function. | GPL | |||
| Praat | Paul Boersma and David Weenink of the University of Amsterdam | Yes | Yes | Yes | A program for the analysis of speech in phonetics. | GPL | |
| Sonic Visualiser | Centre for Digital Music at Queen Mary, University of London | Yes | Yes | Yes | GPL | ||
| Spek | Alexander Kojevnikov | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | GPL | |
| WaveSurfer | Yes | Yes | Yes | Permissive free software |
Converters [edit]
See also: List of audio conversion software
| Name | Creator | Linux? | Mac OS X? | Unix? | Windows? | Note | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Max | Stephen Booth (site) | No | Yes | No | No | Not to be confused with Max/MSP | GPL |
| FFmpeg | Fabrice Bellard | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Audio & video. | GPL or LGPL |
| MPlayer | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Audio & video. | GPL | |
| Fre:ac (formerly BonkEnc) | Robert Kausch | No | No | No | Yes | GPL |
DJ Software [edit]
See also: Category:Audio mixing software
| Name | Creator | Linux? | Mac OS X? | Unix? | Windows? | Note | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mixxx | Mixxx Development Team (site) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | GPL | |
| Xwax | Mark Hills | Yes | No | No | No | GPL |
Modular systems [edit]
| Name | Creator | Linux? | Mac OS X? | Unix? | Windows? | Note | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| jMax | Yes | Yes | no longer supported | LGPL | |||
| SynFactory | No | No | No | Yes | GPL | ||
| VisualAp | Yes | Yes | Yes | GPL | |||
| aRts | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | GPL |
Platforms [edit]
Various projects have formed to integrate the existing free software audio packages.
| Name | Creator | Description | Note | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu Studio | Linux distribution | various | ||
| dyne:bolic | Linux distribution | various | ||
| AGNULA | Linux distribution | |||
| Musix | Linux distribution | various | ||
| 64 Studio | Linux distribution | |||
| Planet CCRMA | set of packages (in RPM format) |
Programming languages [edit]
Many computer music programming languages are implemented in free software. See also the comparison of audio synthesis environments.
| Name | Creator | Linux? | Mac OS X? | Unix? | Windows? | Note | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Csound | Csound community, Barry Vercoe | Yes | Yes | No? | Yes | LGPL | |
| SuperCollider | SuperCollider community, James McCartney | Yes | Yes | Yes? | Yes | GPL | |
| ChucK | Yes | Yes | No? | Yes | GPL | ||
| Nyquist | Computer Music Project at Carnegie Mellon University, Roger B. Dannenberg | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||
| Pure Data | Pd Community, Miller Puckette | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | BSD-like |
Radio broadcasting [edit]
See also streaming below.
| Name | Creator | Linux? | Mac OS X? | Unix? | Windows? | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airtime | Sourcefabric | Yes | No | No | Successor to Campcaster Airtime website |
|
| ARAS | Erasmo Alonso | Yes | No | No | ARAS website | |
| Campcaster | Sourcefabric | Yes | No | No | ||
| OpenBroadcaster | OpenBroadcaster | Yes | No | No | OpenBroadcaster website | |
| Rivendell | Paravel Systems | Yes | No | No | Rivendell website |
Recording and editing [edit]
The following packages are digital audio editors.
| Name | Creator | Linux? | Mac OS X? | Unix? | Windows? | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ardour | Paul Davis | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | multi-track audio recorder |
| Audacity | Dominic Mazzoni | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | multi-track audio recorder |
| AudioChain | Florian Paul | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | multi-track audio recorder |
| Ecasound | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes limited support through Cygwin | audio recorder | |
| Eisenkraut | Hanns Holger Rutz (site) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | connects to SuperCollider |
| harmonySEQ | Rafal Cieslak (site) | Yes | No | No | MIDI sequencer | |
| Jokosher | Jokosher community | Yes | No | Yes | multi-track audio editor | |
| LMMS | Tobias Doerffel | Yes | Yes as of 0.4.0 with Qt4 | Yes | Free cross-platform alternative to commercial programs like FL Studio®, which allow you to produce music with your computer. |
|
| MusE | Yes | No | No | MIDI sequencer | ||
| Qtractor | Yes | No | No | A non-destructive multi-track audio and MIDI Workstation (DAW) | ||
| ReZound | Davy Durham | Yes | No | No | No | Graphical audio file editor |
| Rosegarden | Yes | No | No | MIDI sequencer and multi-track recorder | ||
| SoX | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | command-line multi-track audio editor/processor | |
| Sweep | Conrad Parker | Yes | No | Yes | No | |
| Traverso DAW | Remon Sijrier (site) | Yes | Yes | Yes | multi-track audio recorder and editor | |
| WaveSurfer | Centre for Speech Technology at KTH | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Softsynths [edit]
See also: Software synthesizer
| Name | Creator | Linux? | Mac OS X? | Unix? | Windows? | Note | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bristol | Yes | No | No | Emulation of many vintage synthesizers | GPL | ||
| FluidSynth | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | SoundFont player / renderer | LGPL | |
| ZynAddSubFX | Yes | Yes | Yes | Mac OS X version is limited | GPL |
Streaming [edit]
These programs are for use with streaming audio.
| Name | Creator | Linux? | Mac OS X? | Unix? | Windows? | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Icecast | Yes | Yes | Yes | a broadcast server, serves audio signals to clients over the HTTP protocol | ||
| PeerCast | Yes | Yes | Yes | a peercasting tool | ||
| Firefly Media Server | Yes | Yes | Yes | streams music to DAAP clients like iTunes and Rhythmbox | ||
| VideoLAN | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | media and server programs for video and audio streaming |
Technologies [edit]
| Name | Creator | Linux? | Mac OS X? | Unix? | Windows? | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) | Yes | a sound card management system in the Linux kernel | ||||
| DSSI | Yes | a plugin architecture for software synthesizers | ||||
| GStreamer | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | a graph-based multimedia framework | |
| JACK Audio Connection Kit (JACK) | JACK Team, Paul Davis | Yes | Yes (JACK OS X) | Yes (jackdmp) | a sound server | |
| Linux Audio Developers Simple Plugin API (LADSPA) | Yes | a plugin architecture for digital signal processing | ||||
| Open Sound System | Yes | Yes | a standard interface for making and capturing sound in Unix operating systems | |||
| PulseAudio | Yes | Yes | Yes(Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD) | Yes | a sound server |
Trackers [edit]
These music sequencer programs allow users to arrange notes (pitch-shifted sound samples) on a timeline: see tracker (music software).
| Name | Creator | Linux? | Mac OS X? | Unix? | Windows? | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buzztard | Yes | Unknown | Yes | Unknown | Buzz clone | |
| CheeseTracker | Juan Linietsky (site) | Yes | Yes | No | Impulse Tracker clone | |
| MilkyTracker | (site) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Also runs on various other platforms including but not limited to Windows Mobile, PlayStation and AmigaOS 4. |
| OpenMPT | Olivier Lapicque | No | No | No | Yes | released as free software in 2004 |
| Psycle | No | No | No | Yes | a tracker combined with modular capabilities | |
| SoundTracker | Yes | No | Yes | No | Fast Tracker clone |
Other [edit]
| Name | Creator | Linux? | Mac OS X? | Unix? | Windows? | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aria Maestosa | Auria | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | a multi-track MIDI sequencer |
| Gnaural | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Binaural beat and pink noise generator | |
| GNU LilyPond | Han-Wen Nienhuys and Jan Nieuwenhuizen | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | a music engraving program |
| Hydrogen | Yes | Yes | Partial | Partial | an advanced drum machine | |
| Impro-Visor | Bob Keller | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | lead sheet notation, jazz improvisation, auto-accompaniment |
| orDrumbox | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | a Java based drum machine | |
| libsndfile | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | library for reading and writing many sound formats |
