5 ms·

What other free-as-in-beer software do you use to produce music?

tomc1985 9y ago
Not OP, but there's Ardour, Rosegarden, or Audacity
anonova 9y ago
Ardour (https://ardour.org/ https://ardour.org/) and LMMS (https://lmms.io/ https://lmms.io/) are probably the two most popular open-source DAWs. I also really like MuseScore (https://musescore.org/ https://musescore.org/) for composition.
- bfuller 9y ago
  also hydrogen is ok
- thomastjeffery 9y ago
  All three of these are Free (as in freedom).
- dec0dedab0de 9y ago
  technically Ardour is free as in free speech, but not as in free beer. They do not have official binary downloads for free. If I remember correcyly its more involved than ./configure && make && make install Though Ubuntu Studio has a version ready to go.
  - Joeboy 9y ago
    Lots of software that's considered free-as-in-speech-and-beer doesn't have official binary downloads at all. Ardour additionally provides the option of paying to download an official binary. Building from source is pretty much the same as anything else, although there are quite a lot of dependencies. If you're used to installing from source there's no reason Ardour should give you any great difficulty (unless you're unlucky and your distro doesn't supply the required dependencies or something).
  - jononor 9y ago
    It is waf configure/build/install. Ardour is also available as binary packages on every Linux distribution.
- oddlyaromatic 9y ago
  MuseScore is great, I have used it to produce lead sheets professionally on several occasions and it does not disappoint. I grew up on Sibelius but prefer MuseScore for simpler tasks. They have done a great job.
- miclill 9y ago
  Hey, I have a score for a choir in musescore and want to create practicing files. For example in the soprano file the soprano voice should be louder than the others. Do you know of an automated way to achieve this? Maybe via midi then ardour? I looked at some other tools like timidity but none seem to have the required api. Thanks :-)
  - anonova 9y ago
    Though there's no built-in functionality in MuseScore to do this, you can write a plugin that controls the mix for each voice. See this forum topic, which is quite similar to what you're trying to do: https://musescore.org/en/node/56916 https://musescore.org/en/node/56916
tangental 9y ago
Not for producing as such but there's also Mixxx DJ software where you can write your own controls and effects in Javascript.
- chiefalchemist 9y ago
  Have you used it? How does it compare to commercial DJ software? Iyho
  - tangental 9y ago
    Yes I use it regularly. It has more or less the same features as the commercial software. Where it falls down is with the quality of the audio effects which are nowhere near as good as the ones you find on Serato or Traktor, but they're getting better all the time. On the other hand, you can customize almost every aspect of Mixxx. I have an unconventional controller setup so created my own skin (XML and CSS) and MIDI controls (Javascript) and that has really helped my 'creativity'.
  - tomc1985 9y ago
    Compared to digital vinyl with Serato, I found Mixx to be laggy (and more importantly, lacking of a dedicated next/previous track keys) with a low-end Pioneer DDJ SB. Track controls are replaced with a "hot cue" function, which makes beatmatching without cuepoints unnecessarily cumbersome. Don't recall if the UI had a dedicated next/prev track button but remapping the control scheme meant diving into some javascript datastructure that I wasn't in the right mindset to do at the time. Really wanted to like Mixxx but I could not see how I could perform with it
    - marssaxman 9y ago
      I've been using Mixxx for years, but I've never tried Serato. I'm curious, since I can't imagine what the point of "next/previous" keys would be - what do you do with them? Next/previous relative to what, exactly?
      - 9y ago

tomc1985 9y ago

Not OP, but there's Ardour, Rosegarden, or Audacity

Ardour (https://ardour.org/ https://ardour.org/) and LMMS (https://lmms.io/ https://lmms.io/) are probably the two most popular open-source DAWs. I also really like MuseScore (https://musescore.org/ https://musescore.org/) for composition.

bfuller 9y ago
also hydrogen is ok
thomastjeffery 9y ago
All three of these are Free (as in freedom).
dec0dedab0de 9y ago
technically Ardour is free as in free speech, but not as in free beer. They do not have official binary downloads for free. If I remember correcyly its more involved than ./configure && make && make install Though Ubuntu Studio has a version ready to go.
- Joeboy 9y ago
  Lots of software that's considered free-as-in-speech-and-beer doesn't have official binary downloads at all. Ardour additionally provides the option of paying to download an official binary. Building from source is pretty much the same as anything else, although there are quite a lot of dependencies. If you're used to installing from source there's no reason Ardour should give you any great difficulty (unless you're unlucky and your distro doesn't supply the required dependencies or something).
- jononor 9y ago
  It is waf configure/build/install. Ardour is also available as binary packages on every Linux distribution.
oddlyaromatic 9y ago
MuseScore is great, I have used it to produce lead sheets professionally on several occasions and it does not disappoint. I grew up on Sibelius but prefer MuseScore for simpler tasks. They have done a great job.
miclill 9y ago
Hey, I have a score for a choir in musescore and want to create practicing files. For example in the soprano file the soprano voice should be louder than the others. Do you know of an automated way to achieve this? Maybe via midi then ardour? I looked at some other tools like timidity but none seem to have the required api. Thanks :-)
- anonova 9y ago
  Though there's no built-in functionality in MuseScore to do this, you can write a plugin that controls the mix for each voice. See this forum topic, which is quite similar to what you're trying to do: https://musescore.org/en/node/56916 https://musescore.org/en/node/56916

tangental 9y ago

Not for producing as such but there's also Mixxx DJ software where you can write your own controls and effects in Javascript.

chiefalchemist 9y ago
Have you used it? How does it compare to commercial DJ software? Iyho
- tangental 9y ago
  Yes I use it regularly. It has more or less the same features as the commercial software. Where it falls down is with the quality of the audio effects which are nowhere near as good as the ones you find on Serato or Traktor, but they're getting better all the time. On the other hand, you can customize almost every aspect of Mixxx. I have an unconventional controller setup so created my own skin (XML and CSS) and MIDI controls (Javascript) and that has really helped my 'creativity'.
- tomc1985 9y ago
  Compared to digital vinyl with Serato, I found Mixx to be laggy (and more importantly, lacking of a dedicated next/previous track keys) with a low-end Pioneer DDJ SB. Track controls are replaced with a "hot cue" function, which makes beatmatching without cuepoints unnecessarily cumbersome. Don't recall if the UI had a dedicated next/prev track button but remapping the control scheme meant diving into some javascript datastructure that I wasn't in the right mindset to do at the time. Really wanted to like Mixxx but I could not see how I could perform with it
  - marssaxman 9y ago
    I've been using Mixxx for years, but I've never tried Serato. I'm curious, since I can't imagine what the point of "next/previous" keys would be - what do you do with them? Next/previous relative to what, exactly?
    - 9y ago