Comparison of free software for audio

This list 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.

Audio analysis

Name	Creator	Linux?	OS X?	Windows?	Note	Licence
BRP-PACU		Yes	Yes		Dual channel FFT tool for equalization of sound systems using the transfer function.	GPL
Praat	Paul Boersma and David Weenink of the University of Amsterdam	Yes	Yes	Yes	A program for the analysis of speech in phonetics.	GPL
Sonic Visualiser	Centre for Digital Music at Queen Mary, University of London	Yes	Yes	Yes		GPL
WaveSurfer		Yes	Yes	Yes		Permissive free software

Converters

Name	Creator	Linux?	OS X?	Unix?	Windows?	Note	License
FFmpeg	Libav team	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Audio & video.	GPL or LGPL
fre:ac	Robert Kausch	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	formerly BonkEnc	GPL
Libav	Fabrice Bellard	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Audio & video.	GPL or LGPL
MPlayer		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Audio & video.	GPL

DJ Software

Name	Creator	Linux?	OS X?	Unix?	Windows?	Note	License
Mixxx	Mixxx Development Team	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes		GPL
Xwax	Mark Hills	Yes	No	No	No		GPL

Modular systems

Name	Creator	Linux?	OS X?	Unix?	Windows?	License
aRts		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	GPL
Integra Live	Birmingham Conservatoire	No	Yes	No	Yes	GPL
Libvisual		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	LGPL
SynFactory		No	No	No	Yes	GPL
VisualAp		Yes	Yes		Yes	GPL

Platforms

Various projects have formed to integrate the existing free software audio packages.

Name	Description	License
64 Studio	Linux distribution
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

Players


Component	GUI	Programming language	Database	Description
Amarok	Qt	C++	MySQL
aTunes	Java
Aqualung	GTK+	C	no database
Audacious	GTK+	C	no database
Banshee	GTK+	C#	SQLite
Beep Media Player	GTK+	C	no database
Clementine	Qt	C++	SQLite3
Exaile	GTK+	Python	Pickle	Linux / Windows / OS X
Guayadeque	wxWidgets	C++, C	wxSQLite3
JuK	Qt	C++
Miro	WebKit in GTK+/Cocoa	Python	?
Muine	Mono	C#	no database	can use GStreamer and xine
Nightingale	XULRunner	C++	SQLite?	fork of Songbird, with Linux support
Quod Libet	GTK+	Python	Pickle	Linux / Windows / OS X.
qmmp	Qt	C++	no database
Rhythmbox	GTK+	C		not GNU Data Access
Songbird	XULRunner	C++	SQLite?	support for Linux was dropped
Tomahawk	Qt	C++	SQLite
XMMS	GTK+	C++	no database
XMMS2		C	SQLite

Programming languages

Many computer music programming languages are implemented in free software. See also the comparison of audio synthesis environments.

Name	Creator	Linux?	OS X?	Unix?	Windows?	License
Csound	Csound community, Barry Vercoe	Yes	Yes	No?	Yes	LGPL
ChucK	Ge Wang, Perry Cook	Yes	Yes	No?	Yes	GPL
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-like
SuperCollider	SuperCollider community, James McCartney	Yes	Yes	Yes?	Yes	GPL

Radio broadcasting

Name	Creator	Linux?	OS X?	Windows?	Note
Airtime	Sourcefabric	Yes	No	No	Successor to Campcaster
Campcaster	Sourcefabric	Yes	No	No
OpenBroadcaster	OpenBroadcaster	Yes	No	No

Recording and editing

The following packages are digital audio editors.

Name	Creator	Linux?	OS X?	Unix?	Windows?	Note
Ardour	Paul Davis	Yes	Yes	Yes	No	multi-track audio recorder
Audacity	Dominic Mazzoni	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	multi-track audio recorder
Ecasound		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes limited support through Cygwin	audio recorder
Gnome Wave Cleaner	Jeff Welty	Yes	No		No	audio editor
Jokosher	Jokosher community	Yes	No		Yes	multi-track audio editor
LMMS	Tobias Doerffel	Yes	Yes as of 0.4.0 with Qt4		Yes	Free cross-platform alternative to commercial programs like FL Studio®, which allow you to produce music with your computer. Intended as a replacement for Cubase-like software (DAW)
MusE		Yes	No		No	MIDI sequencer
Qtractor		Yes	No		No	A non-destructive multi-track audio and MIDI Workstation (DAW)
Rosegarden		Yes	No		No	MIDI sequencer and multi-track recorder
SoX		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	command-line multi-track audio editor/processor
Sweep	Conrad Parker	Yes	No	Yes	No
Traverso DAW	Remon Sijrier	Yes	Yes		Yes	multi-track audio recorder and editor
WaveSurfer	Centre for Speech Technology at KTH	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes

Softsynths

Name	Creator	Linux?	OS X?	Unix?	Windows?	Note	License
FluidSynth		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	SoundFont player / renderer	LGPL
TiMidity++		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes		GPL
Yoshimi	Alan Calvert	Yes	No		No	Forked from ZynAddSubFX in 2009	GPL
ZynAddSubFX	Paul Nasca	Yes	Yes		Yes	OS X version is limited	GPL

Streaming

These programs are for use with streaming audio.

Name	Linux?	OS X?	Unix?	Windows?	Note
Firefly Media Server	Yes	Yes		Yes	streams music to DAAP clients like iTunes and Rhythmbox
Icecast	Yes		Yes	Yes	a broadcast server, serves audio signals to clients over the HTTP protocol
PeerCast	Yes	Yes		Yes	a peercasting tool
VideoLAN	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	media and server programs for video and audio streaming

Technologies

Name	Creator	Linux?	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)	JACK Team, Paul Davis	Yes	Yes (JACK OS X)		Yes (jackdmp)	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	Yes	Yes(Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD)	Yes	a sound server

Trackers

These music sequencer programs allow users to arrange notes (pitch-shifted sound samples) on a timeline: see tracker (music software).

Name	Creator	Linux?	OS X?	Unix?	Windows?	Note
MilkyTracker		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Also runs on various other platforms including but not limited to Windows Mobile, PlayStation and AmigaOS 4.
OpenMPT	Olivier Lapicque	No	No	No	Yes	released as free software in 2004
Psycle		No	No	No	Yes	a tracker combined with modular capabilities
SoundTracker		Yes	No	Yes	No	Fast Tracker clone

Other

Name	Creator	Linux?	OS X?	Unix?	Windows?	Note
Gnaural		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Binaural beat and pink noise generator
GNU LilyPond	Han-Wen Nienhuys and Jan Nieuwenhuizen	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	a music engraving program
MuseScore	Werner Schweer	Yes	Yes		Yes	a WYSIWYG scorewriter with midi playback and audio export
Hydrogen		Yes	Yes	Partial	Partial	an advanced drum machine
Impro-Visor	Bob Keller	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	lead sheet notation, jazz improvisation, auto-accompaniment
Levelator	The Conversations Network	Yes	Yes	No	Yes	Tool that uses a compressor, normalizer and limiter to normalize volume levels in audio recordings of public talks.
libsndfile		Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	library for reading and writing many sound formats

Windows	Media Player Classic QuuxPlayer

Linux	Baudline Beep Media Player cmus Gnome Music Player Client Helix JuK Kaffeine LinuxMCE Muine Music Player Daemon Music on Console Noise Ogle DVD Player Rhythmbox Totem Xine XMMS XMMS2

Cross-platform	Amarok Audacious Banshee Clementine Exaile ffplay Kodi Miro Mpg123 MPlayer mpv Nightingale qmmp Quod Libet SMPlayer Songbird VLC media player Zinf

Freeware

Windows	Adobe Media Player AIMP BS.Player CrystalPlayer Dell MediaDirect foobar2000 GOM Player jetAudio KMPlayer MadCat Media Browser Media Go MediaMonkey Mod4Win Mpxplay MusicBee MusikCube InterActual Player PotPlayer QuickTime Quintessential Player Style Jukebox Winamp

Cross-platform	Boxee DivX Player iTunes Plex QuickTime RealPlayer

Commercial (proprietary)

Windows	Connect Player Iriver plus 3 JRiver Media Center PowerDVD TotalMedia Theatre SonicStage WinDVD Windows Media Center Windows Media Player Yahoo! Music Jukebox

Linux	Fluendo DVD Player

OS X	Centerstage DVD Player Front Row Peel

Mobile	CoreAVC CorePlayer Core Pocket Media Player doubleTwist RealPlayer TuneWiki Winamp

Lists

Video players Audio players Free software audio players Portable media players Personal video recorders

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