Name

Creator

Linux?

macOS?

Unix?

Windows?

Note

License

Praat

Paul Boersma and David Weenink of the University of Amsterdam

A program for the analysis of speech in phonetics.

GPL-2.0-or-later

Sonic Visualiser

Centre for Digital Music at Queen Mary, University of London

GPL-2.0-or-later

Partiels

Pierre Guillot at IRCAM, Paris

A software suite for analysing and exploring the content and characteristics of sounds.

GPL-3.0-or-later

WaveSurfer

BSD-like

Name

Creator

Linux?

macOS?

Unix?

Windows?

Note

License

FFmpeg

Fabrice Bellard

Audio & video.

LGPL-2.1-or-later, GPL-2.0-or-later

fre:ac

Robert Kausch

Formerly BonkEnc.

GPL-2.0-or-later

Libav

Libav team

Audio & video.

LGPL-2.1-or-later, GPL-2.0-or-later

MPlayer

Audio & video.

GPL-2.0-or-later

Name

Creator

Linux?

macOS?

Unix?

Windows?

Note

License

Mixxx

Mixxx Development Team

GPL-2.0-or-later

Xwax

Mark Hills

GPL-2.0-only

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 (in RPM format)

Ubuntu Studio

Linux distribution

various

Name

Creator

Linux?

macOS?

Unix?

Windows?

Note

License

Integra Live

Birmingham Conservatoire

GPL-2.0-or-later

Name

Creator

Linux?

macOS?

Unix?

Windows?

Note

License

LilyPond

Han-Wen Nienhuys and Jan Nieuwenhuizen

A music engraving program.

GPL-3.0-or-later

MuseScore

Werner Schweer

Various BSDs

A WYSIWYG scorewriter with midi playback and audio export.

v4: GPL-3.0-onlyv0-3: GPL-2.0-onlywith font exception, Proprietary (mobile app and online service)

Impro-Visor

Bob Keller

Lead sheet notation, jazz improvisation, auto-accompaniment.

GPL-2.0-or-later

MusiXTeX

Andreas Egler

Music typesetting, TeX-based notation, high-quality scores.

GPL-2.0-or-later

Name

GUI

Programming language

Database

Linux?

macOS?

Unix?

Windows?

Notes

License

Amarok

Qt

C++

MySQL

GPL-2.0-or-later

Audacious

GTK / Qt

C

BSD 2-Clause

Banshee

GTK+

C#

SQLite

Inactive since 2014

MIT

Clementine

Qt

C++

SQLite3

GPL-3.0-or-later

DeaDBeeF

GTK+

C, C++, Objective-C, Assembly

GPLv2, zlib

Exaile

GTK

Python

Pickle

GPL-2.0-or-later

Guayadeque

wxWidgets

C++, C

SQLite3

GPL-3.0-or-later

JuK

Qt

C++

Linux (KDE)

GPL-2.0-or-later

Miro

WebKit in GTK/Cocoa

Python

Discontinued in 2013

GPL-2.0-or-later

Muine

GTK#

C#

Can use GStreamer and xine

GPL-2.0-or-later

Nightingale

XULRunner

C++

SQLite?

Fork of Songbird; inactive since 2014

GPL v2, MPL, BSD

Quod Libet

GTK

Python

Pickle

GPL-2.0-or-later

qmmp

Qt

C++

GPL-2.0-or-later

Rhythmbox

GTK

C

Not GNU Data Access

GPL-2.0-or-later

Sayonara Player

Qt

C++

GPL-3.0-or-later

Songbird

XULRunner

C++

SQLite?

Abandoned, final release on

GPL v2 with exceptions, Android client closed source

Tomahawk

Qt

C++

SQLite

Abandoned, final release on

GPL-3.0-or-later

XMMS

GTK+

C++

Discontinued in 2007

GPL-2.0-or-later

Name

Creator

Linux?

macOS?

Unix?

Windows?

Note

License

Csound

Csound community, Barry Vercoe

?

LGPL-2.1-or-later

ChucK

Ge Wang, Perry Cook

?

GPL-2.0-or-later (Mac, Linux, Windows versions)

Proprietary (iOS version)

Nyquist

Computer Music Project at Carnegie Mellon University, Roger B. Dannenberg

Pure Data

Pd Community, Miller Puckette

BSD-3-Clause

Sonic Pi

Sam Aaron

MIIT

SuperCollider

SuperCollider community, James McCartney

?

GPL-3.0-or-later

TidalCycles

Alex McLean et al

GPL-3.0-or-later

Name

Creator

Linux?

macOS?

Unix?

Windows?

Note

License

Airtime (software)

Sourcefabric

Successor to Campcaster

From 2.5.2: AGPL-3.0-only1.6 to 2.5.1: GPL-3.0-only

Campcaster

Sourcefabric

GPL-2.0-or-later

OpenBroadcaster

OpenBroadcaster

AGPL-3.0-or-later

Name

Creator

Linux?

macOS?

Unix?

Windows?

GUI toolkit

Note

License

Ardour

Paul Davis

GTK+

multi-track audio recorder and editor

GPL-2.0-or-later

Audacity

Dominic Mazzoni

wxWidgets

multi-track audio recorder and editor

GPL-2.0-or-later, CC BY 3.0 (documentation)

Ecasound

limited support through Cygwin

command line

audio recorder

GPL-2.0-or-later

Gnome Wave Cleaner

Jeff Welty

GTK+

audio editor

GPL-2.0-or-later

Jokosher

Jokosher community

GTK+

GPL-2.0-only with exception

LMMS

Tobias Doerffel

as of 0.4.0 with Qt4

Qt

multi-track audio editor intended as a replacement for Cubase-like software (DAW)

GPL-2.0-or-later

MusE

Qt

MIDI sequencer

GPL-2.0-or-later

Qtractor

Qt

A non-destructive multi-track audio and MIDI Workstation (DAW)

GPL-2.0-or-later

Rosegarden

Chris Cannam

Qt

MIDI sequencer and multi-track recorder

GPL-2.0-or-later

SoX

command-line

multi-track audio editor/processor

LGPL-2.1-or-later,

GPL-2.0-or-later

Sweep

Conrad Parker

GPL-2.0-or-later

Traverso DAW

Remon Sijrier

multi-track audio recorder and editor

GPL

WaveSurfer

Centre for Speech Technology at KTH

Tk

BSD-like

Name

Creator

Linux?

macOS?

Unix?

Windows?

Note

License

FluidSynth

SoundFont player/renderer

LGPL-2.1-or-later

TiMidity++

GPL-2.0-or-later

Yoshimi

Alan Calvert

Various BSDs

Forked from ZynAddSubFX in 2009

GPL-2.0-or-later

ZynAddSubFX

Paul Nasca

GPL-2.0-or-later

WildMIDI

?

?

?

Some alternative to TiMidity

Player: GPL-3.0-or-laterLibrary: LGPL-3.0-or-later

VCV Rack

Andrew Belt

GPL-3.0-or-later

Name

Creator

Linux?

macOS?

Unix?

Windows?

Note

License

Firefly Media Server

streams music to DAAP clients like iTunes and Rhythmbox

GPL-2.0-or-later

Icecast

a broadcast server, serves audio signals to clients over the HTTP protocol

GPL-2.0-only

VLC media player

media and server programs for video and audio streaming

VLC: GPL-2.0-or-laterlibVLC: LGPL-2.1-or-later

Name

Creator

Linux?

macOS?

Unix?

Windows?

Note

License

Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA)

the sound card driver and management system in the Linux kernel

GPL-2.0-or-laterLGPL-2.1-or-later

aRts

an audio programming API and sound server for general desktop, no longer in development

GPL

DSSI

a plugin architecture for software synthesizers

LGPL-2.1-or-later

GStreamer

a graph-based multimedia framework

LGPL-2.1-or-later

JACK Audio Connection Kit (JACK)

JACK Team, Paul Davis

(JACK OS X)

(jackdmp)

a sound server for integration of general and low-latency pro audio applications, including timebase transport

GPL-2.0-or-laterLGPL-2.1-or-later

Linux Audio Developers Simple Plugin API (LADSPA)

a plugin architecture for digital signal processing

LGPL-2.1-or-later

Open Sound System

a sound card management and driver system for Unix operating systems

BSD-2-ClauseCDDL-1.0GPL-2.0-onlyProprietary (formerly)

PipeWire

Wim Taymans

(FreeBSD)

a media daemon, unifying JACK Audio Connection Kit, PulseAudio, and GStreamer

MIT License

PortAudio & PortMidi

Ross Bencina

a cross-platform, open-source C language library for real-time audio & midi I/O

MIT License

PulseAudio

(Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD)

a sound server for general desktop and multihost LAN applications

LGPL-2.1-or-later

sndio

(FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD)

sound and MIDI server

ISC

Name

Creator

Linux?

macOS?

Unix?

Windows?

Note

License

MilkyTracker

Also runs on various other platforms including Windows Mobile, PlayStation and AmigaOS 4.

GPL-3.0-or-laterMilkyPlay: BSD-3-Clause

OpenMPT

Olivier Lapicque

Released as free software in 2004

BSD-3-Clause (since OpenMPT 1.17.02.53) / GPL-2.0-or-later, partly public domain

SoundTracker

Fast Tracker clone

GPL-2.0-or-later

SunVox

Alexander Zolotov

Also runs on Windows CE.

Proprietary (Music Creation Studio)BSD-3-Clause (Engine)

Name

Creator

Linux?

macOS?

Unix?

Windows?

Note

License

Gnaural

Binaural beat and pink noise generator

GPL-2.0-or-later

Hydrogen

an advanced drum machine

GPL-2.0-or-later

libsndfile

library for reading and writing many sound formats

LGPL-2.1-or-later

EasyEffects

Wellington Wallace

Effects processing for applications using PipeWire sound server

GPL-3.0-or-later