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This comparison 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.
| Name | Creator | Linux? | macOS? | Unix? | Windows? | Note | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BRP-PACU | Yes | Yes | Dual channel FFT tool for equalization of sound systems using the transfer function. | GPL-2.0-or-later | |||
| Praat | Paul Boersma and David Weenink of the University of Amsterdam | Yes | Yes | Yes | A program for the analysis of speech in phonetics. | GPL-2.0-or-later | |
| Sonic Visualiser | Centre for Digital Music at Queen Mary, University of London | Yes | Yes | Yes | GPL-2.0-or-later | ||
| WaveSurfer | Yes | Yes | Yes | BSD-like |
| Name | Creator | Linux? | macOS? | Unix? | Windows? | Note | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FFmpeg | Fabrice Bellard | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Audio & video. | LGPL-2.1-or-later, GPL-2.0-or-later |
| fre:ac | Robert Kausch | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | formerly BonkEnc | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| Libav | Libav team | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Audio & video. | LGPL-2.1-or-later, GPL-2.0-or-later |
| MPlayer | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Audio & video. | GPL-2.0-or-later | |
| Name | Creator | Linux? | macOS? | Unix? | Windows? | Note | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mixxx | Mixxx Development Team | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | GPL-2.0-or-later | |
| Xwax | Mark Hills | Yes | No | No | No | GPL-2.0-only | |
Various projects have formed to integrate the existing free software audio packages.
| Name | Creator | Description | Note | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| AVLinux | Linux distribution | various | ||
| dyne:bolic | Linux distribution | various | ||
| Musix GNU+Linux | Linux distribution | various | ||
| Planet CCRMA | set of packages (in RPM format) | |||
| Ubuntu Studio | Linux distribution | various |
| Name | Creator | Linux? | macOS? | Unix? | Windows? | Note | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Integra Live | Birmingham Conservatoire | No | Yes | No | Yes | GPL-2.0-or-later | |
| Libvisual | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | LGPL-2.1-or-later | ||
| VisualAp | Yes | Yes | Yes | GPL | |||
| Name | Creator | Linux? | macOS? | Unix? | Windows? | Note | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| LilyPond | Han-Wen Nienhuys and Jan Nieuwenhuizen | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | a music engraving program | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| MuseScore | Werner Schweer | Yes | Yes | Yes Various BSDs [1] | Yes | a WYSIWYG scorewriter with midi playback and audio export | v4: GPL-3.0-only v0-3: GPL-2.0-only with font exception, Proprietary (mobile app and online service) |
| Impro-Visor | Bob Keller | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | lead sheet notation, jazz improvisation, auto-accompaniment | GPL-2.0-or-later |
Many computer music programming languages are implemented in free software. See also the comparison of audio synthesis environments.
| Name | Creator | Linux? | macOS? | Unix? | Windows? | Note | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Csound | Csound community, Barry Vercoe | Yes | Yes | No? | Yes | LGPL-2.1-or-later | |
| ChucK | Ge Wang, Perry Cook | Yes | Yes | No? | Yes | GPL-2.0-or-later (Mac, Linux, Windows versions) Proprietary (iOS version) | |
| 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-3-Clause | |
| Sonic Pi | Sam Aaron | Yes | Yes | ? | Yes | MIIT | |
| SuperCollider | SuperCollider community, James McCartney | Yes | Yes | Yes? | Yes | GPL-3.0-or-later | |
| TidalCycles | Alex McLean et al | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | GPL-3.0-or-later |
See also streaming below.
| Name | Creator | Linux? | macOS? | Unix? | Windows? | Note | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Airtime (software) | Sourcefabric | Yes | No | ? | No | Successor to Campcaster | From 2.5.2: AGPL-3.0-only 1.6 to 2.5.1: GPL-3.0-only |
| Campcaster | Sourcefabric | Yes | No | ? | No | GPL-2.0-or-later | |
| OpenBroadcaster | OpenBroadcaster | Yes | No | Yes | No | AGPL-3.0-or-later | |
| SDRangel | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | GPL-3.0-or-later |
The following packages are digital audio editors.
| Name | Creator | Linux? | macOS? | Unix? | Windows? | GUI toolkit | Note | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ardour | Paul Davis | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | GTK+ | multi-track audio recorder and editor | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| Audacity | Dominic Mazzoni | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | wxWidgets | multi-track audio recorder and editor | GPL-2.0-or-later, CC BY 3.0 (documentation) |
| Ecasound | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes limited support through Cygwin | command line | audio recorder | GPL-2.0-or-later | |
| Gnome Wave Cleaner | Jeff Welty | Yes | No | No | GTK+ | audio editor | GPL-2.0-or-later | |
| Jokosher | Jokosher community | Yes | No | Yes | GTK+ | GPL-2.0-only with exception | ||
| LMMS | Tobias Doerffel | Yes | Yes as of 0.4.0 with Qt4 | Yes | Qt | multi-track audio editor intended as a replacement for Cubase-like software (DAW) | GPL-2.0-or-later | |
| MusE | Yes | No | No | Qt | MIDI sequencer | GPL-2.0-or-later | ||
| Qtractor | Yes | No | No | Qt | A non-destructive multi-track audio and MIDI Workstation (DAW) | GPL-2.0-or-later | ||
| Rosegarden | Chris Cannam | Yes | No | No | Qt | MIDI sequencer and multi-track recorder | GPL-2.0-or-later | |
| SoX | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | command-line | multi-track audio editor/processor | LGPL-2.1-or-later, | |
| Sweep | Conrad Parker | Yes | No | Yes | No | GPL-2.0-or-later | ||
| Traverso DAW | Remon Sijrier | Yes | Yes | Yes | multi-track audio recorder and editor | GPL | ||
| WaveSurfer | Centre for Speech Technology at KTH | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Tk | BSD-like | |
| Stargate DAW | Stargate DAW | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | multi-track audio recorder and MIDI Workstation (DAW) | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| Name | Creator | Linux? | macOS? | Unix? | Windows? | Note | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| FluidSynth | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | SoundFont player/renderer | LGPL-2.1-or-later | |
| TiMidity++ | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | GPL-2.0-or-later | ||
| Yoshimi | Alan Calvert | Yes | No | Yes Various BSDs | No | Forked from ZynAddSubFX in 2009 | GPL-2.0-or-later |
| ZynAddSubFX | Paul Nasca | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | GPL-2.0-or-later | |
| WildMIDI | Yes | ? | ? | ? | Some alternative to TiMidity | Player: GPL-3.0-or-later Library: LGPL-3.0-or-later | |
These programs are for use with streaming audio.
| Name | Creator | Linux? | macOS? | Unix? | Windows? | Note | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Firefly Media Server | Yes | Yes | Yes | streams music to DAAP clients like iTunes and Rhythmbox | GPL-2.0-or-later | ||
| Icecast | Yes | Yes | Yes | a broadcast server, serves audio signals to clients over the HTTP protocol | GPL-2.0-only | ||
| VLC media player | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | media and server programs for video and audio streaming | VLC: GPL-2.0-or-later libVLC: LGPL-2.1-or-later | |
| Name | Creator | Linux? | macOS? | Unix? | Windows? | Note | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) | Yes | the sound card driver and management system in the Linux kernel | GPL-2.0-or-later LGPL-2.1-or-later | ||||
| aRts | Yes | an audio programming API and sound server for general desktop, no longer in development | GPL | ||||
| DSSI | Yes | a plugin architecture for software synthesizers | LGPL-2.1-or-later | ||||
| GStreamer | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | a graph-based multimedia framework | LGPL-2.1-or-later | |
| JACK Audio Connection Kit (JACK) | JACK Team, Paul Davis | Yes | Yes (JACK OS X) | Yes (jackdmp) | a sound server for integration of general and low-latency pro audio applications, including timebase transport | GPL-2.0-or-later LGPL-2.1-or-later | |
| Linux Audio Developers Simple Plugin API (LADSPA) | Yes | a plugin architecture for digital signal processing | LGPL-2.1-or-later | ||||
| Open Sound System | Yes | Yes | a sound card management and driver system for Unix operating systems | BSD-2-Clause CDDL-1.0 GPL-2.0-only Proprietary (formerly) | |||
| PipeWire | Wim Taymans | Yes | Yes (FreeBSD) | a media daemon, unifying JACK Audio Connection Kit, PulseAudio, and GStreamer | MIT License | ||
| PortAudio & PortMidi | Ross Bencina | Yes | Yes | Yes | a cross-platform, open-source C language library for real-time audio & midi I/O | MIT License | |
| PulseAudio | Yes | Yes | Yes (Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD) | Yes | a sound server for general desktop and multihost LAN applications | LGPL-2.1-or-later | |
| sndio | Yes | No | Yes (FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD) | No | sound and MIDI server | ISC |
These music sequencer programs allow users to arrange notes (pitch-shifted sound samples) on a timeline: see tracker (music software).
| Name | Creator | Linux? | macOS? | Unix? | Windows? | Note | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MilkyTracker | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Also runs on various other platforms including Windows Mobile, PlayStation and AmigaOS 4. | GPL-3.0-or-later MilkyPlay: BSD-3-Clause | |
| OpenMPT | Olivier Lapicque | No | No | No | Yes | Released as free software in 2004 | BSD-3-Clause (since OpenMPT 1.17.02.53) / GPL-2.0-or-later, partly public domain |
| SoundTracker | Yes | No | Yes | No | Fast Tracker clone | GPL-2.0-or-later | |
| SunVox | Alexander Zolotov | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Also runs on Windows CE. | Proprietary (Music Creation Studio) BSD-3-Clause (Engine) |
| Noise Station | Mark Sheeky | No | No | No | Yes | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
| Name | Creator | Linux? | macOS? | Unix? | Windows? | Note | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gnaural | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Binaural beat and pink noise generator | GPL-2.0-or-later | |
| Hydrogen | Yes | Yes | Partial | Partial | an advanced drum machine | GPL-2.0-or-later | |
| libsndfile | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | library for reading and writing many sound formats | LGPL-2.1-or-later | |
| EasyEffects | Wellington Wallace | Yes | No | Yes | No | Effects processing for applications using PipeWire sound server | GPL-3.0-or-later |
A codec is a device or computer program that encodes or decodes a data stream or signal. Codec is a portmanteau of coder/decoder.
A digital audio workstation is an electronic device or application software used for recording, editing and producing audio files. DAWs come in a wide variety of configurations from a single software program on a laptop, to an integrated stand-alone unit, all the way to a highly complex configuration of numerous components controlled by a central computer. Regardless of configuration, modern DAWs have a central interface that allows the user to alter and mix multiple recordings and tracks into a final produced piece.
Max, also known as Max/MSP/Jitter, is a visual programming language for music and multimedia developed and maintained by San Francisco-based software company Cycling '74. Over its more than thirty-year history, it has been used by composers, performers, software designers, researchers, and artists to create recordings, performances, and installations.
In computing, a visual programming language, also known as diagrammatic programming, graphical programming or block coding, is a programming language that lets users create programs by manipulating program elements graphically rather than by specifying them textually. A VPL allows programming with visual expressions, spatial arrangements of text and graphic symbols, used either as elements of syntax or secondary notation. For example, many VPLs are based on the idea of "boxes and arrows", where boxes or other screen objects are treated as entities, connected by arrows, lines or arcs which represent relations. VPLs are generally the basis of Low-code development platforms.
Rhythmbox is a free and open-source audio player software, tag editor and music organizer for digital audio files on Linux and Unix-like systems.
Sound Juicer is the official CD ripper program of GNOME. It is based on GTK, GStreamer, and libburnia for reading and writing optical discs. It can extract audio tracks from optical audio discs and convert them into audio files that a personal computer or digital audio player can play. It supports ripping to any audio codec supported by a GStreamer plugin, such as Opus, MP3, Ogg Vorbis, FLAC and uncompressed PCM formats. Versions after 2.12 implement CD playing capability. Last versions produce lossy formats with default GStreamer settings.
PulseAudio is a network-capable sound server program distributed via the freedesktop.org project. It runs mainly on Linux, including Windows Subsystem for Linux on Microsoft Windows and Termux on Android; various BSD distributions such as FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and macOS; as well as Illumos distributions and the Solaris operating system. It serves as a middleware in between applications and hardware and handles raw PCM audio streams.
LMMS is a digital audio workstation application program. It allows music to be produced by arranging samples, synthesizing sounds, entering notes via computer keyboard or mouse or by playing on a MIDI keyboard, and combining the features of trackers and sequencers. It is free and open source software, written in Qt and released under GPL-2.0-or-later.
The table below provides an overview of notable computer-aided design (CAD) software. It does not judge power, ease of use, or other user-experience aspects. The table does not include software that is still in development. For all-purpose 3D programs, see Comparison of 3D computer graphics software. CAD refers to a specific type of drawing and modelling software application that is used for creating designs and technical drawings. These can be 3D drawings or 2D drawings.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to software:
Free Studio is a freeware set of multimedia programs developed by DVDVideoSoft. The programs are available in one integrated package and also as separate downloads.
DIPS (Digital Image Processing with Sound) is a set of plug-in objects that handle real-time digital image processing in Max/MSP programming environment. Combining with the built-in objects of the environment, DIPS enables to program the interaction between audio and visual events with ease, and supports the realization of interactive multimedia art as well as interactive computer music.
