LADSPA is an acronym for Linux Audio Developer's Simple Plugin API. It is an application programming interface (API) standard for handling audio filters and audio signal processing effects, licensed under LGPL-2.1-or-later. It was originally designed for Linux through consensus on the Linux Audio Developers Mailing List, but works on a variety of other platforms. It is used in many free audio software projects and there is a wide range of LADSPA plug-ins available.
Ardour is a hard disk recorder and digital audio workstation application that runs on Linux, macOS, FreeBSD and Microsoft Windows. Its primary author is Paul Davis, who was also responsible for the JACK Audio Connection Kit. It is intended as a digital audio workstation suitable for professional use.
FL Studio is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed by the Belgian company Image-Line. It features a graphical user interface with a pattern-based music sequencer. It is available in four different editions for Microsoft Windows and macOS.
Virtual Studio Technology (VST) is an audio plug-in software interface that integrates software synthesizers and effects units into digital audio workstations. VST and similar technologies use digital signal processing to simulate traditional recording studio hardware in software. Thousands of plugins exist, both commercial and freeware, and many audio applications support VST under license from its creator, Steinberg.
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.
Rosegarden is a free software digital audio workstation program developed for Linux with ALSA, JACK and Qt4. It acts as an audio and MIDI sequencer, scorewriter and musical composition and editing tool. It is intended to be a free and alternative to such applications as Cubase.
Audio Units (AU) are a system-level plug-in architecture provided by Core Audio in Apple's macOS and iOS operating systems. Audio Units are a set of application programming interface (API) services provided by the operating system to generate, process, receive, or otherwise manipulate streams of audio in near-real-time with minimal latency. It may be thought of as Apple's architectural equivalent to another popular plug-in format, Steinberg's Virtual Studio Technology (VST).
MusE is computer software, a sequencer for Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI) and audio, with recording and editing abilities. It was originally written by Werner Schweer and now is developed by the MusE development team. It is free software released under GPL-2.0-or-later.
SoundFont is a brand name that collectively refers to a file format and associated technology that uses sample-based synthesis to play MIDI files. It was first used on the Sound Blaster AWE32 sound card for its General MIDI support.
Disposable Soft Synth Interface (DSSI) is a virtual instrument plugin architecture for use by music sequencer applications. It was designed for applications running under Linux, although there is nothing specific to Linux in the interface itself. It is distributed under the terms of a combination of LGPL-2.1-or-later and some BSD licenses, all of which are free software licences.
Waldorf Music is a German synthesizer company. They are best known for the Microwave wavetable synthesizer and Blofeld virtual analogue synthesizer.
Synapse Audio Software is a software company located in Germany. Previously known as Sonic Syndicate and headed by Richard Hoffmann, they develop music production software for the Mac OS and Microsoft Windows platforms. They started developing software in November 1998 as Sonic Syndicate and changed their name to Synapse Audio with the release of Orion Platinum in 2002.
REAPER is a digital audio workstation and MIDI sequencer application created by Cockos. The current version is available for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux. REAPER acts as a host to most industry-standard plug-in formats and can import all commonly used media formats, including video. REAPER and its included plug-ins are available in 32-bit and 64-bit format.
Ubuntu Studio is a recognized flavor of the Ubuntu Linux distribution, which is geared to general multimedia production. The original version, based on Ubuntu 7.04, was released on 10 May 2007.
LV2 is a set of royalty-free open standards for music production plug-ins and matching host applications. It includes support for the synthesis and processing of digital audio and CV, events such as MIDI and OSC, and provides a free alternative to audio plug-in standards such as Virtual Studio Technology (VST) and Audio Units (AU).
Qtractor is a hard disk recorder and digital audio workstation application for Linux. Qtractor is written in C++ and is based on the Qt framework. Its author is Rui Nuno Capela, who is also responsible for the Qjackctl, Qsynth and Qsampler line of Linux audio software. Qtractor's intention was to provide digital audio workstation software simple enough for the average home user, and yet powerful enough for the professional user.
Yoshimi is an open-source software synthesizer for Linux. It contains three synthesis engines, using additive, subtractive and wavetable synthesis. Any single patch can use one or all. A kit mode allows a patch to have up to 16 of engine sets to support multi-layered sounds/drum kits. A complete setup or instance can contain anywhere from one to sixty-four patches.
Calf Studio Gear, often referred to as Calf Plugins, is a set of open source LV2 plugins for the Linux platform. The suite intends to be a complete set of plugins for audio mixing, virtual instruments and mastering. As of version 0.90.0 there are 47 plugins in the suite.
