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Free audio software 

This list of free software for audio lists free software for use by sound engineers, audio producers, and those involved in sound recording and reproduction.

Contents

Audio analysis

See also: Spectrum analyzer
Name Creator Linux? Mac OS X? Unix? Windows? Note Licence
Praat Yes Yes Yes GPL
Sonic Visualiser (site) Yes Yes Yes GPL
WaveSurfer Yes Yes Yes Permissive free software
BRP-PACU (site) Yes Compares the output FFT (measured) to the input FFT (reference) live signals using the Transfer Function H(f). GPL
Jaaa (site) Yes signal measurement
* Japa (site) Yes for equalization of sound systems and other similar uses

Converters

Name Creator Linux? Mac OS X? Unix? Windows? Note License
MediaCoder Yes Yes No Yes Audio & video. Batch mode. Uses Windows codecs. Mozilla Public License
MPlayer Yes Yes Yes Yes Audio & video. GPL
WinLAME Michael Fink No No No Yes Easy interface. GNU
BonkEnc Robert Kausch No No No Yes GPL

Modular systems

Name Creator Linux? Mac OS X? Unix? Windows? Note License
jMax Yes no longer supported LGPL
SynFactory No No No Yes GPL
aRts Yes Yes Yes No GPL
CPS (link) No No No Yes

Platforms

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

Many computer music programming languages are implemented in free software.

Name Creator Linux? Mac OS X? Unix? Windows? Note License
Csound LGPL
SuperCollider GPL
ChucK GPL
Nyquist
Pure Data

Radio broadcasting

Name Creator Linux? Mac OS X? Unix? Windows? Note
ARAS (link) Yes No No radio broadcast automation
SomaPlayer Yes No No radio broadcasting scheduler automation
Campcaster Yes No No
Rivendell (link) (site) Yes No No radio automation

Recording and editing

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
Audiobook Cutter Free Edition No No No Yes MP3 audiobook splitter
Computer Muzys KVR Audio/Computer Music No Yes No Yes Released free with every issue of the Computer Music magazine
Ecasound Yes Yes No audio recorder
Freecycle Yes No No beat slicer
Jokosher Jokosher community Yes No No multi-track audio editor
LMMS Tobias Doerffel Yes Yes as of 0.4.0 with Qt4 Yes as of 0.4.0 with Qt4 Intended as a replacement for Cubase-like software (DAW)
Mp3splt Yes Yes Yes splits MP3 and Vorbis files without decoding (see mp3splt-gtk and libmp3splt)
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
Snd (link) Yes Yes No audio editor
SndBite (link) Bill Poser Yes Yes Yes Yes Editor for cutting a recording into many small pieces.
SoX Yes Yes Yes Yes command-line multi-track audio editor/processor
Sweep Conrad Parker Yes No Yes No
Traverso DAW (link) Yes Yes Yes multi-track audio recorder/editor/mixer
WaveSurfer Centre for Speech Technology at KTH Yes Yes Yes Yes

Softsynths

Name Creator Linux? Mac OS X? Unix? Windows? Note
ZynAddSubFX Yes Yes Yes Mac OS X version is limited

Streaming

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

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 Yes Yes Yes a graph-based multimedia framework
JACK Audio Connection Kit (JACK) Yes 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 a sound server

Trackers

Name Creator Linux? Mac OS X? Unix? Windows? Note
Buzztard Yes Unknown Yes Unknown Buzz clone
CheeseTracker Yes Yes No Impulse Tracker clone
ModPlug Tracker No No No Yes released as free software in 2004
MilkyTracker. Yes Yes Yes Yes Fast Tracker clone
Psycle Yes Yes Unknown Yes a tracker combined with modular capabilities
Schism Tracker (link) Yes Yes Yes Impulse Tracker clone
SoundTracker Fast Tracker clone

Other

Name Creator Linux? Mac OS X? Unix? Windows? Note
abc notation
Gnaural. Yes Yes Yes Yes Binaural beat and pink noise generator
Hydrogen Yes Yes Yes Yes an advanced drum machine
libsndfile Yes Yes Yes Yes library for reading and writing many sound formats

See also

External links

Free software portal
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