I’m not as much underway in digital media production as I might like to – the day only has 24 hours as they say here in Germany – but I have always been following this industry at large ever since I got my qualification as a Multi-Media Designer 25 years ago and was fortunate to get training in all forms of digital media work with text, imaging, print, video and audio and get a glimpse into the endless possibilities of this creative industry.
The amount of innovation that has happened in the last 25 years in the world of media production, especially in my beloved world of free open source software, is nothing but staggering. Tools that would cost as much as a small car are now orders of magnitude more performant than they used to be and are available for free as open source software, only a click & download or a simple install command away.
Here is a list of digital audio workstation software (DAW), software synths, audio production tools and similar programms that are either FOSS or dirt cheap and offer features and quality that cover any media production needs imaginable, be it professional or hobby. Enjoy.
Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs)
- MusE – a full-featured high-power professional DAW
- Zrythm – a full-featured high-power professional DAW
- LMMS – a full-featured high-p … you get the drill
- Ardour – see above
- Radium – dito (don’t be put off by the projects website)
- Rosegarden – Midi Sequencer & DAW
- Bespoke – a professional-grade modular synth & DAW
- Surge XT – a full-featured hybrid synth
- Qtractor – a midi and audio sequencer
- Helio – a modern sequencer that also runs on mobile platforms
- Seq66 – a midi sequencer
- tek – a full-featured DAW that runs on terminal consoles
- amsynth – an analog modelling synth
- FluidSynth – a synth following the SoundFont standard
- ZynAddSubFX – a synth
- Supercollider – a professional-grade synth & algorithmic composition platform and language
- Tidal Cycles – algorithmic synth & pattern sequencer
- Strudel – a web-based implementation of and interface for Tidal Cycles