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Thiscomparison of free software for audio lists notablefree 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 forequalization 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 atQueen 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 (inRPM 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 | amusic engraving program | GPL-3.0-or-later |
| MuseScore | Werner Schweer | Yes | Yes | Yes Various BSDs[1] | Yes | aWYSIWYGscorewriter with midi playback and audio export | v4:GPL-3.0-only v0-3:GPL-2.0-only withfont 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 |
Manycomputer music programming languages are implemented in free software. See also thecomparison 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 alsostreaming 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 aredigital 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 throughCygwin | 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 forCubase-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 atKTH | 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 withstreaming audio.
| Name | Creator | Linux? | macOS? | Unix? | Windows? | Note | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Firefly Media Server | Yes | Yes | Yes | streams music toDAAP clients likeiTunes andRhythmbox | GPL-2.0-or-later | ||
| Icecast | Yes | Yes | Yes | a broadcast server, serves audio signals to clients over theHTTP 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 | thesound card driver and management system in theLinux kernel | GPL-2.0-or-later LGPL-2.1-or-later | ||||
| aRts | Yes | an audio programming API andsound server for general desktop, no longer in development | GPL | ||||
| DSSI | Yes | a plugin architecture forsoftware 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) | asound server for integration of general and low-latency pro audio applications, includingtimebase transport | GPL-2.0-or-later LGPL-2.1-or-later | |
| Linux Audio Developers Simple Plugin API (LADSPA) | Yes | a plugin architecture fordigital signal processing | LGPL-2.1-or-later | ||||
| Open Sound System | Yes | Yes | asound card management and driver system forUnixoperating systems | BSD-2-Clause CDDL-1.0 GPL-2.0-only Proprietary (formerly) | |||
| PipeWire | Wim Taymans | Yes | Yes (FreeBSD) | a media daemon, unifyingJACK Audio Connection Kit,PulseAudio, andGStreamer | 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 | asound server for general desktop and multihost LAN applications | LGPL-2.1-or-later | |
| sndio | Yes | No | Yes (FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD) | No | sound andMIDI server | ISC |
These music sequencer programs allow users to arrange notes (pitch-shifted sound samples) on a timeline: seetracker (music software).
| Name | Creator | Linux? | macOS? | Unix? | Windows? | Note | License |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MilkyTracker | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Also runs on various other platforms includingWindows Mobile,PlayStation andAmigaOS 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, partlypublic domain |
| SoundTracker | Yes | No | Yes | No | Fast Tracker clone | GPL-2.0-or-later | |
| SunVox | Alexander Zolotov | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Also runs onWindows 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 usingPipeWiresound server | GPL-3.0-or-later |
