LinuxSampler

Last updated
Repository
Operating system Linux, FreeBSD, OS X, Windows
Type Software sampler
License Freeware / Source available (code reuse restricted to non-commercial usage)
most sub-components under GPL / LGPL [1]
Website www.linuxsampler.org

LinuxSampler is music sampler software aiming to provide a pure software audio sampler with professional grade features comparable to both hardware and commercial software samplers, as well as to introduce new features not yet available by other samplers. Much of LinuxSampler is free software, but commercial reuse of some, such as the back-end, is restricted.

Contents

Concept

LinuxSampler was designed as a sampler back-end, decoupled from any user interface. It provides a native C++ API as well as a network interface using an ASCII based protocol called LSCP [2] for controlling the sampler and managing sampler sessions. Also, there are already two convenient frontends for LinuxSampler, QSampler and JSampler.

Due to the decoupled design the sampler can be controlled with the GUI frontend(s) even from another computer, probably even running another OS like Windows or OS X. SMP and cluster support is planned for future releases. There is a graphical instrument editor called gigedit, [3] based on the GUI library GTK+, which can be used to edit and create Gigasampler format instruments and can either be used as a stand-alone application or in conjunction with LinuxSampler. [4] The latter case allows to play and edit instruments at the same time, making all modifications with gigedit immediately audible, without having to reload the instruments into the sampler.

Platforms

LinuxSampler, as the name indicates, was originally conceived to run on Linux, but thanks to the abstraction of audio and MIDI drivers and platform dependent functions, the sampler was successfully ported to Windows, OS X and FreeBSD.

The Windows version of LinuxSampler can work in standalone mode providing ASIO audio output and MME MIDI input, and as a VSTi plugin providing full integration with VST sequencers. The OS X version supports jackd audio output and CoreMIDI input. The Audio Unit interface (AU plugin) is in beta[ when? ].

Goals

It is planned to support all common sampler formats in LinuxSampler, but at the moment[ when? ] the work is concentrated on the Gigasampler format. Beside that, the goal is to design a new, sophisticated sampler format, more powerful and more flexible compared to any sampler format currently available in the world.

There is a feature list with more information about the current development plans available. [5]

Licensing

Most components are distributed as free software, under either the GNU General Public License or the GNU Lesser General Public License. However, the software license of the sampler backend prohibits commercial use. For commercial use, permission and terms must be sought from the developers. [6] The backend is thus not free software. The ban on commercial use does not prohibit the use of LinuxSampler for commercial music production, which is explicitly allowed. [7]

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ardour (software)</span> Open-source digital audio workstation

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">FL Studio</span> Digital audio workstation

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Virtual Studio Technology</span> Audio plug-in software interface

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rosegarden</span> Digital audio workstation program for BSD and Linux

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renoise</span> Digital audio workstation

Renoise is a digital audio workstation (DAW) based upon the heritage and development of tracker software. Its primary use is the composition of music using sound samples, soft synths, and effects plug-ins. It is also able to interface with MIDI and OSC equipment. The main difference between Renoise and other music software is the characteristic vertical timeline sequencer used by tracking software.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Konsole</span> Terminal emulator

Konsole is a free and open-source terminal emulator graphical application which is part of KDE Applications and ships with the KDE desktop environment. Konsole was originally written by Lars Doelle. It ls licensed under the GPL-2.0-or-later and the GNU Free Documentation License.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Scanner Access Now Easy</span>

Scanner Access Now Easy (SANE) is an open-source application programming interface (API) that provides standardized access to any raster image scanner hardware. The SANE API is public domain. It is commonly used on Linux.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">MythTV</span> Free and open source home entertainment application

MythTV is a free and open-source home entertainment application with a simplified "10-foot user interface" design for the living room TV. It turns a computer with the necessary hardware into a network streaming digital video recorder, a digital multimedia home entertainment system, or home theater personal computer. It can be considered a free and open-source alternative to TiVo or Windows Media Center. It runs on various operating systems, primarily Linux, macOS, and FreeBSD.

Ecasound is a hard-disk recording and audio processing tool for Unix-like computer operating systems including Linux, Mac OS X, and FreeBSD.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LiVES</span>

LiVES (LiVES Editing System) is a free and open-source video editing software and VJ tool, released under the GNU General Public License version 3 or later. There are binary versions available for most popular Linux distributions (including Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Suse, Gentoo, Slackware, Arch Linux, Mandriva and Mageia). There are also ports for BSD, and it will run under Solaris and IRIX. It has been compiled under OS X Leopard, but not thoroughly tested on that platform. In early 2019, a version for Microsoft Windows was announced, with a release slated for in the second half of 2019.

gtkmm is the official C++ interface for the popular GUI library GTK. gtkmm is free software distributed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LMMS</span> Free software digital audio workstation

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">REAPER</span> Digital audio workstation by Cockos

REAPER is a digital audio workstation and MIDI sequencer application created by Cockos. The current version is available for Microsoft Windows and macOS, as well as for 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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">PeaZip</span> File archive computer program

PeaZip is a free and open-source file manager and file archiver for Microsoft Windows, ReactOS, Linux, MacOS and BSD by Giorgio Tani. It supports its native PEA archive format and other mainstream formats, with special focus on handling open formats. Version 9.4.0 supported 234 file extensions.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LV2</span> Open standard for audio plugins

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).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">JUCE</span> C++ Cross-Platform Application Development Framework

JUCE is an open-source cross-platform C++ application framework, used for the development of desktop and mobile applications. JUCE is used in particular for its GUI and plug-ins libraries. It is dual licensed under the GPLv3 and a commercial license.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Qtractor</span> Digital audio workstation application for Linux

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.

A software GNSS receiver is a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver that has been designed and implemented using software-defined radio.

mpv (media player) Free and open-source media player software

mpv is free and open-source media player software based on MPlayer, mplayer2 and FFmpeg. It runs on several operating systems, including Unix-like operating systems and Microsoft Windows, along with having an Android port called mpv-android. It is cross-platform, running on ARM, PowerPC, x86/IA-32, x86-64, and MIPS architecture.

References

  1. ↑ license on linuxsampler.org
  2. ↑ LSCP
  3. ↑ gigedit
  4. ↑ Live editing
  5. ↑ feature list
  6. ↑ "Download page with licence information". LinuxSampler is licensed under the GNU GPL license with the exception that USAGE of the source code, libraries and applications FOR COMMERCIAL HARDWARE OR SOFTWARE PRODUCTS IS NOT ALLOWED without prior written permission by the LinuxSampler authors.
  7. ↑ "FAQ page with license information". Every indirect commercial usage of LinuxSampler, which essentially means using its audio output, can of course be used in commercial applications like music productions, live shows, etc.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.