This is a list of software for creating, performing, learning, analyzing, researching, broadcasting and editing music. This article only includes software, not services.
For streaming services such as iHeartRadio, Pandora, Prime Music, and Spotify, see Comparison of on-demand streaming music services.
For storage, uploading, downloading and streaming of music via the cloud, see Comparison of online music lockers.
This list does not include discontinued historic or legacy software, with the exception of trackers that are still supported.[1][2]
For example, the company Ars Nova produces music education software, and its software program Practica Musica has remnants of the historic Palestrina software. Practica will be listed here, but not Palestrina.[3]
If a program fits several categories, such as a comprehensive digital audio workstation or a foundation programming language (e.g. Pure Data), listing is limited to its top three categories.
Types of music software edit
CD ripping software edit
Choir and learn-to-sing software edit
- This section includes both choir software and learn-to-sing software. For music learning software, see music education software.
DJ software edit
Digital audio workstation (DAW) software edit
- Ableton Live
- ACID Pro
- Amped Studio[4]
- Ardour
- Audacity
- Audiotool
- Bitwig Studio
- Cakewalk by BandLab
- Cubase
- Digital Performer
- FL Studio
- GarageBand
- HighC
- LMMS
- Logic Pro
- Maschine
- MetaSynth
- Mixcraft
- Nuendo
- Mixbus
- MuLab
- Orion Studio
- Pro Tools
- Qtractor
- REAPER
- Renoise
- Rosegarden
- Samplitude
- Sonic Pi
- Soundtrap
- Studio One
- Waveform
- Zynewave Podium
- Zrythm,[5] in C, plugins: Scheme, ECMAScript[6]
Computer music software edit
* ChucK
Internet, RSS, broadcast music software edit
This section only includes software, not services. For services programs like Spotify, Pandora, Prime Music, etc. see Comparison of on-demand streaming music services. Likewise, list includes music RSS apps, widgets and software, but for a list of actual feeds, see Comparison of feed aggregators. For music broadcast software lists in the cloud, see Content delivery network and Comparison of online music lockers.
- Airtime
- Audicom (First radio automation software—see Radio software)
- Campcaster
- Clickradio
- Juice (aggregator)
- Jamulus (Internet jamming software)
- Moodagent (AI based emotion keyed playlist generator and app)
- Ninjam (Internet jamming software)
- OpenBroadcaster
- Panopto
- RapidFeeds
Lyrics and vocals edit
- Cantor (music software)
- Rhyme Genie (Algorithms and software for rhyming lyrics)
- SingingCoach
Audio plug-ins edit
- Blackhole, H3000 Factory, SplitEQ (Eventide, Inc.)
- Stutter Edit, Ozone, RX Audio Editor (iZotope)
- Jamstix (Rayzoon Technologies)
- Liquid Rhythm (WaveDNA)
- PCM Native, MPX Native (Lexicon (company))
- Endless Smile, Sausage Fattener (Dada Life)
- NI Massive, Kontakt (software), B4, Electrik Piano, Guitar Rig 2 (Native Instruments)
- OrangeVocoder (Prosoniq)
- SoundFont (Integrates synthesized/sampled MIDI files with recorded music)
- MachFive, Symphonic Instrument (Mark of the Unicorn)
Music analysis software edit
- BeatRoot
- BRP-PACU
- ChucK
- Kyma (sound design language)
- Pure Data (This software also is used in embedded form for real time algorithmic music generation in Spore (2008 video game))
- Platinum Blue Music Intelligence (from Music Xray company)
- Sonic Visualiser
- WaveSurfer
Music circuit software edit
- Arduinome (software circuit platform)
- CPU Sim
- Electric VLSI Design System
- gLogic
- GNU Circuit Analysis Package
- KTechLab
- Linear Technology (a/d, circuit software, and others.)
- List of free electronics circuit simulators
- LTspice
- Micro-Cap
- MIDIbox (software circuit platform)
- Monome (software circuit platform)
- Ngspice
- Oregano (software)
- Quite Universal Circuit Simulator
- SapWin
- SPICE
- Tenori-on (software circuit platform)
Music composing software edit
- Antescofo
- Director Musices
- Hyperscore
- JFugue
- Keykit
- Kyma (sound design language)
- Magix Music Maker
- Max
- Music Mouse (Algorithmic synth and composer)
- Nodal
- Ocarina
- OpenMusic
- PetSynth
- Progression
- Reaktor (Software creation of nearly every instrument; reverse engineering encouraged)
- Rubato Composer (First composition software based on Category theory)
Music conversion software edit
Music education software edit
- Soundtrap
- Meludia (ear-training practice exercises)
- EarMaster
- GNU Solfege (ear-training practice exercises)
- Reaktor (software creation of nearly every instrument; reverse engineering encouraged)
- Rocksmith (video game with emphasis on instructional aspects; unique in that controller can be any electric guitar w/ 1/4" jack)
- Synthesia (video game with piano instruction aspects)
- WaveSurfer (studies of acoustic phonetics)
- Yousician (educational game to learn to play guitar and piano)
Music gaming software edit
- Beat Saber
- Crypt of the NecroDancer
- osu!
- Music Tech
- Rocksmith (Video game with some instructional aspects; unique in that controller can be almost any electric guitar)
Music mathematics software edit
- JFugue, an API for music programming that is designed to support generative and algorithmic music
- Julia (programming language) (MIT freeware, new, high-level dynamic programming language competing with R (programming language), MATLAB and GNU Octave.)
- Scala, a program for creating and analysing musical scales
- Wolfram Language provides built-in functionality for audio generation, as well signal processing, audio signal processing and MIDI.[7]
Music notation software edit
- Aegis Sonix
- Canorus
- Capella
- Deluxe Music Construction Set
- Denemo
- Dorico
- Encore
- ENT (for typeset mensural notation)
- Finale
- Forte
- Frescobaldi
- Gregorio (for Neumes)
- Guitar Pro
- Igor Engraver
- Impro-Visor
- jEdit plugin
- LilyPond
- MagicScore
- Mozart
- Mus2
- MusEdit
- MuseScore
- Music Write
- MusiCAD
- MusicEase
- Musink
- MusiXTeX
- NoteEdit
- Noteflight
- Notation Composer
- NoteWorthy Composer
- NOTION
- Overture (Includes VST hosting as well as being a scorewriter)
- Philip's Music Writer (PMW)
- Power Tab Editor
- Progression
- Rosegarden
- SCORE
- ScoreCloud
- Sibelius (Division of Avid Technology since 8/2006. Avid also sells the Pro Tools DAW)
- SmartScore (Focus on Music OCR)
- TuxGuitar
Music player software edit
Music research software edit
- ScoreCloud (Notation research)
Music technology, synthesis and o/s software edit
- Category:Music software plugin architectures
- Comparison of audio synthesis environments
- DirectMusic
- Moodagent (AI based emotion keyed playlist generator and app)
- Music information retrieval
- Software effect processor
- Sound Recorder (Windows)
- Impromptu (programming environment)
- Keykit
- Max (software)[8]
- SynthFont (a MIDI to WAV converter-- Virtual Studio Technology instruments can be used instead of source files)
Music visualization software edit
- Advanced Visualization Studio (Justin Frankel) (platform: Windows)
- Cthugha (1993, Kevin "Zaph" Burfitt) (platform: DOS)
- Magic Music Visuals (since 2012, Color & Music, LLC) (platforms: Windows, OS X)
- MilkDrop (2001-2012, Ryan Geiss) reimplemented as projectM (platforms: Windows, Linux, Android)
- Neon (2004, Jeff Minter and Ivan Zorzin) (platform: Xbox 360)
- Psychedelia, (1984, Jeff Minter), an early "light synthesizer", did not use audio input but was designed to create visualizations in accompaniment to music.
- Pure Data (e.g. visualization of incoming music signals)
- Virtual Light Machine (1990, Jeff Minter) (platform: Atari Jaguar)
- Visual Music Tone Painter (1992–2004)[9]
Orchestration software edit
Drums and percussion edit
Guitar edit
Piano edit
Pipe organ edit
- Hauptwerk produces audio in response to MIDI signal from attached keyboard or from a MIDI sequencer[10]
Automatic composition software edit
Samplers and sequencers edit
- Electribe
- Music sequencer (Article includes extensive list)
- Propellerhead
- SoundFont (Integrates synthesized/sampled MIDI files with recorded music)
Soundtrack creation software edit
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Soundtrack creation software.
Trackers edit
Historical tracker software:
- Ultimate Soundtracker (Amiga, 1987)
- NoiseTracker (Amiga, 1989)
- OctaMED (Amiga, 1989)
- ScreamTracker (PC, 1994)
- FastTracker 2 (PC, 1994)
- Impulse Tracker (PC, 1995)
| Name | Latest update | License | OS versions | File format support | VST support |
ASIO output | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows | OS X | Linux | MID | MOD | XM | IT | S3M | |||||
| Renoise | 3 January 2021 | Proprietary | Yes | Yes | Yes | Load | Load | Load | Load | No | Yes | Yes |
| OpenMPT | 27 August 2023 | BSD | Yes | Yes-Wine | Yes-Wine | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SoundTracker | 29 July 2020 | GPL | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| MilkyTracker | 12 December 2020 | GPL | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Load | Load | No | Yes |
| Buzztrax | 3 September 2015 | LGPL | Yes | Yes | Yes | Load | Load | Load | Load | No | Yes | Yes |
| Psycle | March 2017 | GPL | Yes | No | No | No | Load | Yes | Load | Load | Yes | Yes |
Virtual Studio Technology hosting software edit
- Ableton Live
- ACID Pro
- Adobe Audition
- Adobe Premiere Elements
- Adobe Premiere Pro
- Acoustica Mixcraft
- Ardour (open source)
- Audacity (open source, Windows, Linux and Mac platforms only[11])
- AudioMulch
- Band-in-a-Box
- Bidule
- Cakewalk by BandLab
- Deckadance
- Digital Performer (version 8 or higher)
- FL Studio
- GoldWave
- Jeskola Buzz
- LMMS (open source)
- Logic Pro
- Max MSP
- ModPlug Tracker
- MultitrackStudio
- n-Track Studio
- NOTION
- REAPER
- Reason
- Renoise
- Samplitude
- Sony Acid Pro
- Sony Sound Forge
- Sony Vegas
- Soundtrap
- Steinberg Cubase
- Steinberg Nuendo
- Studio One
- Steinberg Wavelab
- Traktor
- Vocaloid
- WavePad Audio Editor
- Podium
- Zrythm (copy left, open source)
Virtual synthesizer and studio software edit
- Amsynth
- Minimoog
- Reaktor (software creation of instrument)
- Reason (DAW and virtual recording studio, integrated with Record)
- ZynAddSubFX
Wave editors edit
See also edit
- Audio editing software
- Comparison of audio synthesis environments
- Comparison of digital audio editors
- Comparison of free software for audio
- Comparison of MIDI editors and sequencers
- Comparison of scorewriters
- List of audio conversion software
- List of audio programming languages
- List of guitar tablature software
- List of Linux audio software
- List of scorewriters
- Music technology
References edit
- ^ "Short History of Computer Music". UCSC.edu. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
- ^ Twells, John. "The 14 pieces of software that shaped modern music". Fact Mag. Archived from the original on Apr 23, 2014. Retrieved 11 June 2015.
- ^ Walter B. Hewlett, Computing in Musicology, 1990, p. 112, Stanford Music Lab, Menlo Park, CA. Ars Nova (educational music software company, not music style) is at Ars Nova Software
- ^ Amped Studio
- ^ "Zrythm". Libre Audio Visual. Archived from the original on 16 May 2022. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
- ^ zrythm (6 June 2023). "Zrythm". github. Retrieved 7 June 2023.
- ^ "Sound and Sonification—Wolfram Language Documentation". Retrieved 5 January 2017.
- ^ "Music & Math". Retrieved 5 January 2017.
- ^ Intelligence, new visions of artificial intelligence in practice. Vol. 11. Association for Computing Machinery. 2000.
- ^ Thomas Wichmann, The Hauptwerk Computer Program, Review in The American Organist, July 2004
- ^ "VST plug-ins". Audacity Wiki.