Category Archives: Unix

UNIX audio applications, tools or utilities

FreqTweak ~ Spectral Manipulation & Display

Posted by tom2tec on

FreqTweak is a tool for FFT-based realtime audio spectral manipulation and display. It provides several algorithms for processing audio data in the frequency domain and a highly interactive GUI to manipulate the associated filters for each. It also provides high-resolution spectral displays in the form of scrolling-raster spectrograms and energy vs frequency plots displaying both pre- and post-processed spectra.

It is an extremely addictive audio toy, but I hope it has value for serious audio work too (sound design, etc). The spectrum analysis is pretty useful in its own right.

freqtweak.sourceforge.io

wtfplay ~ Linux High Quality Sound

Posted by tom2tec on

Wtfplay project is an initiative to create a quality music player for Linux. Ultimately the project has just one objective – deliver the best sound quality possible – with no compromises.

Initially the player has been created: wtfplay. Soon the project evolved and wtfplay-live Linux distribution was born.

wtfplay-live is a minimalist Linux distribution purely dedicated to audio playback. It does not have many features, but offers exceptional sound quality as a reward. Simply put: it is created to play music and it plays music well.

The main features of wtfplay-live are:

  • Memory based, bit perfect playback of WAV and FLAC files with PCM data (16 and 24 bit, up to 384kHz), and DSF files with DSD data.
  • Fully command line driven. No graphical mode. No network either. The whole system is optimised for sound playback from local disks.
  • A small text mode user interface: wtfcui – for more convenient usage.
  • Precisely tailored Linux kernel for best sound performance.
  • Distributed as Live CD: does not require installation on a hard disk, does not make any changes to your computer configuration.
  • Very small system size: the distribution ISO image is less than 50MB.
  • Good documentation – to give you all information that you need to comfortably listen to music.

The philosophy of wtfplay project is simple: provide the minimum set of features for easy use and focus 100% efforts on sound quality.

wtfplay-project.org

terminatorX ~ Realtime Audio Synthesizer

Posted by tom2tec on

 This software allows “scratching” on digitally sampled audio data (*.wav, *.au, *.ogg, *.mp3, etc.) the way hip hop DJs scratch on vinyl records. It features multiple turntables, realtime effects (built-in as well as LADSPA plugin effects), a sequencer and MIDI interface – all accessible through an easy-to-use gtk+ GUI. This software is designed to run under Linux, FreeBSD and the like.

terminatorx.org

Sunvox ~ Create Music & Add Synth Tracks

Posted by tom2tec on

SunVox is a small, fast and powerful music sequencer with modular synthesizers. This application is addressed at all those who want to compose music everywhere they go.

Built-in synthesizers: FM; Generator; Sampler (supported formats: WAV, XI); SpectraVoice (FFT-based synth for analog-like pads); Kicker; Stereo Delay; Distortion; Echo; Filter; Vocal Filter; Flanger; LFO; Loop; Reverb.

Features and highlights:
  • Modular interface
  • Highly optimized synth algorithms
  • Flexible architecture: SunVox can working on various devices
  • Built-in synthesizers & effects
  • Analog Generator
  • DrumSynth with 120 unique synthetic drum sounds
  • FM synthesizer
  • MetaModule (use it to build your own synths/effects)

Windows download available sunvox.en.lo4d.com/windows
www.apksum.com/app/sunvox/nightradio.sunvox
play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nightradio.sunvox
apps.apple.com/ca/app/sunvox/id324462544

CMT ~ Linux Computer Music Toolkit

Posted by tom2tec on

The Computer Music Toolkit (CMT) is a collection of sixty five LADSPA plugins for use with software synthesis and recording packages on Linux.

www.ladspa.org/cmt

Calf Studio Gear ~ Free Your Sound!

Posted by tom2tec on

You have the need for professional and state-of-the-art audio plug-ins – but don’t have thousands of bucks to spend on it? Then we believe you will love Calf Studio Gear! Focused on high-quality sound processing and a highly usable interface Calf Studio Gear is designed to give you a professional production environment for your open source operating system. Play your SF2 sample banks, create filthy organs, fatten your sounds with phasers, delays, reverbs and other FX, process your recordings with gates, compressors, deesser and finally master your stuff with multiband dynamics – for free! Calf Studio Gear is available exclusively for LINUX-based operating systems and runs as a stand-alone effect rack connectable through Jack sound server or as plug-ins in every audio host that is able to fire up LV2 compliant devices, e.g. the highly recommended Ardour Audio Workstation

calf-studio-gear.org
github.com/calf-studio-gear
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calf_Studio_Gear

TAL Reverb ~ Cross Platform Reverberation VSTs

Posted by tom2tec on

TAL Reverb-II is a super diffuse and lush reverb effect with a fast build up time. Ideal for ambient reverb sounds.

TAL-Reverb-III is an easy to use stereo reverb plugin. It’s popular because it’s very very diffuse sound 😉 It has an additional signal feedback path.

tal-software.com/products/tal-reverb

Transport ~ Transport Info Display

Posted by tom2tec on

A handy little tool which provides all the information about measure, time, sample count etc that most hosts usually hide somewhere in a tiny little part of the screen. Transport is resizable and you can pick your own colours. Ideally, you’d drag it onto an external monitor in your 1000 square feet wooden studio and make it fullscreen so that your recording artists always stay oriented, but it works in smaller settings as well ;-). Made upon request by a DDMF user, we thought this gem is too good to not make it available for everybody. Transport is available as a 32 and 64 bit plugin in VST, RTAS, AAX (Win + Mac) and AU (Mac) format. MacOSX 10.6 is required.

ddmf.eu/freeware

OSD Lyrics ~ Linux On Screen Lyrics

Posted by tom2tec on

Show synced lyrics with your favorite media player on Linux. OSD Lyrics is a desktop application to view lyrics compatible with various media players. It is not a plugin but a standalone program. OSD Lyrics shows lyrics on your desktop, in the style similar to KaraOK. It also provides another displaying style, in which lyrics scroll from bottom to top. OSD Lyrics can download lyrics from the network automatically.

github.com/osdlyrics

genius-spicetify ~ Spotify Lyrics

Posted by tom2tec on

Fetch lyrics from Genius and Musixmatch right in Spotify’s desktop client.

github.com/khanhas/genius-spicetify

CP-GFX ~ Guitar Effect Processor

Posted by tom2tec on

CP-GFX is simply a Cross Platform Guitar Effect Processor. The aim of the project is to create an extensible and easy to use program which is easy to port to different platforms and operating systems. Currently in development are both Linux x86 and Win32 builds.

For the Linux build the primary audio API in use is JACK, which allows CP-GFX to work along side and with other programs, such as Ardour, or any other software using JACK without any fuss or problems.

image of the CP-GFX user interface

cp-gfx.sourceforge.net
sourceforge.net/projects/cp-gfx

Bosca Ceoil ~ Multiplatform & Online Music Composition App

Posted by tom2tec on

Easy to Use ~ A free and easy tool for creating music. Bosca is designed for beginners and takes less than five minutes to learn, and comes with a quick built in tutorial to walk you through everything, step by step.

Scales and Chords ~ Bosca supports lots of different scales and chords, so even if you’ve never composed music before, it’s really easy to get something that sounds good straight away.

Instruments ~ No messing around getting instruments to work! Bosca comes with over a hundred presets, including MIDI and Chiptune instruments.

It’s Free ~ Bosca Ceoil is completely free, and open sourced! Ready to make music? Try it right now in your browser: Online version

boscaceoil.net
github.com/TerryCavanagh/boscaceoil