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Free software programs

Oflameo edited this page Aug 29, 2025 · 37 revisions

abcm2ps

Convert ABC notation to Postscript sheet music for printing. One can even add guitar tablature using special fonts.

Link to abcm2ps web page

abcmidi

Convert ABC notation (which can be created in any text editor) to midi and back again.

Link to abcmidi web page

All of the Music

An application to generate by brute force all mathematically possible melodies and write them to MIDI files. The application accepts various parameters (e.g., pitch, rhythm, length) to mathematically exhaust all melodies that have ever been — and are mathematically possible. MIDI files were written to disk were copyrighted to Creative Commons Zero (CC0) to leave many (or perhaps all) melodies open for other songwriters to use without fear of being sued.

Link to All the Music LLC

Ardour

This program records, edits, mixes and masters audio and MIDI projects.

Link to program

Audacity - Audio recording and editing

Multi-track audio editor and recorder. It can be used to record real instruments and create sound samples.

Link to Audacity web page

Csound - Sound and music computing system

Csound has traditionally been used in a non-interactive score driven context, but nowadays it is mostly used in in a real-time context. Csound can run on a host of different platforms including all major operating systems as well as Android and iOS. Csound can also be called through other programming languages such as Python, Lua, C/C++, Java, etc.

Link to Csound web page

DrumGizmo - High quality drum composer

Multichannel multilayered drum plugin and stand-alone application. It enables you to compose drums in midi and mix them with a multichannel approach. It is comparable to that of mixing a real drumkit that has been recorded with a multimic setup.

Link to DrumGizmo web page

ffmpg

A complete, cross-platform solution to record, convert and stream audio and video.

Link to ffmpg web site

FLTK Midi Keyboard

On screen Midi Keyboard using FLTK GUI library and rtmidi MIDI library.

Link to FL_MIDIKeyboard source at github

FluidSynth - Software synthesizer

Real-time software synthesizer based on the SoundFont 2 specifications. It does not have a graphical user interface (though there are independend applications that provide one). Several applications utilize it as a library. It has even found its way onto embedded systems and some mobile apps.

Link to FluidSynth web page

FreePats - Sound Library

FreePats is a project for the creation of a free and open collection of digital instruments for music production. Sound banks are made by recording individual notes of an instrument, with different dynamics and articulations. Those recordings are the basic pieces of a sound bank, usually called samples of an instrument.

Link to FreePats web page

gramofile

Records/plays audio and has audio filtering to remove noise.

Link to gramofile web site

GT

Midi utilities with GUS support

Link to source

GUS patch tools

Gus patch utilities based on timidity-tools.

Link to source

Hydrogen - Drum machine

Advanced drum machine. It's main goal is to bring professional yet simple and intuitive pattern-based drum programming. It uses its own drumkit format and have an integrated editor to modify and create new drum kits.

Link to Hydrogen Wiki

libpd

Pure Data embeddable audio synthesis library.

Link to library and documentation

LMMS

This program is a free cross-platform Digital Audio Workstation. It supports the creation of melodies and beats, the synthesis and mixing of sounds, and arranging of samples.

Link to program

MidiEditor

MidiEditor is a free software providing an interface to edit, record, and play Midi data.

Link to program

Miditzer

A computer program for PC's that lets you recreate a Wurlitzer Style 216 theatre organ.

Link to program

MilkyTracker

Create and listen to mod and xm files.

Link to MilkyTracker web page

MusE Sequencer

MusE is a full featured MIDI and audio sequencer with recording and editing functionality. Complete with plugin support and automation.

Link to program

MuseScore

The world's most popular notation app.

Link to app

Mixx

Integrates the tools DJs need to perform creative live mixes with digital music files.

Link to Mixx web page

PaulStretch

Paul's Extreme Sound Stretch. Stretches audio files. FLTK GUI.

Link to program

Polyphone - SoundFont editor

Software for creating and editing a musical instrument based on samples, using the sf2 format. It has been designed to efficiently deal with big sets of instruments involving a large amount of data.

Link to Polyphone web page

Pure Data - or just "Pd"

Is an open source visual programming language for multimedia. Pure Data is developed by Miller Puckette since 1996 and you can find it on his official website along with the official documentation and other related resources. This is the official "Pd" or "main distribution" and it is also known as "Pd Vanilla", but there are other forks or "flavours".

Link to Pure Data web page

Qtractor

an Audio/MIDI multi-track sequencer application written in C++ with the Qt framework. Target platform is Linux, where the Jack Audio Connection Kit (JACK) for audio, and the Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA) for MIDI, are the main infrastructures to evolve as a fairly-featured Linux desktop audio workstation GUI, specially dedicated to the personal home-studio.

Link to Qtractor web page

SDL Widgets examples

Various audio programs including BigBand for music composition, SDL Widgets examples to make and edit waveforms and a synthesizer for Android devices.

Link to SDL Widgets based programs

sox - SOund eXchange

Swiss army knife of sound processing programs. Audio conversion utilities.

Link to sox web page

Swami - SoundFont editor

Software for editing, managing and playing musical instruments for MIDI music composition. The editor is currently focused on the sf2 format. Uses FluidSynth as its playing engine.

Link to Swami web page

TiMidity++

Midi player. Can convert midi to wave files. Can play midi files over network. Play midi files in archives. Can use GUS patches and soundfonts for voice data. Can play mod files and extract midi from mod files. Can display sound spectrogram. Can run as a service.

Link to TiMidity++ web page

WaoN

This program is Wave-to-Notes transcriber.

Link to source