🎧 Awesome Sound Design resources

A curated list of awesome - mostly open source - resources and tools for audio synthesis, audio production, signal processing, sound design and music creation & generation.

Legend: 🆓 free · 💰 paid / freemium · 🖥️ desktop · 🌐 web · 📱 mobile — applied inline to entries where licensing or platform isn't obvious from the description.

🎚️ Digital Audio Workstations (DAWs)

Ardour - Professional multi-track recording and editing suite with advanced MIDI support.
Cakewalk by BandLab - DAW for Windows, offering a comprehensive set of features for multi-track recording, editing, and mixing.
LMMS - Cross-platform music production software with built-in synthesizers and effects.
Mixxx - DJ mixing software with beatmatching, effects, and controller support.
Qtractor - Multi-track audio/MIDI sequencer with plugin support.
Rosegarden - Music composition and editing environment with notation support.
Zrythm - Modern DAW with advanced automation and plugin support.

🎹 Synthesizers

🧩 Modular Synthesizers & Tools

Bespoke - A node-based modular synth and DAW that encourages experimentation.
Cardinal - Cross-platform version of VCV Rack as a plugin.
SynthEdit - Modular audio plugin development environment with GUI editor and MIDI interface for hardware controllers. Can export projects as VST plugins as instruments and effects.
VCV Rack - Virtual modular synthesizer platform with extensive module library.

🔢 Software Synthesizers

Dexed - FM synthesizer closely modeled on the classic Yamaha DX7.
Helm - Polyphonic synthesizer with modern interface and extensive modulation.
Surge XT - Hybrid synthesizer with subtractive, wavetable, and FM synthesis.
Vital - Spectral warping wavetable synthesizer with visual feedback.
Yoshimi - Software synthesizer based on ZynAddSubFX.
ZynAddSubFX - Powerful real-time software synthesizer with multiple synthesis engines.

✂️ Samplers & Sample Manipulation

Giada - Minimal audio tool for live sampling and loop manipulation.
Hydrogen - An advanced drum machine and step sequencer.
LinuxSampler - High-performance audio sampler with gigasampler format support.
PaulXStretch - A tool for extreme time-stretching of audio, perfect for ambient and drone music.
Polyphone - Soundfont editor for creating and editing SF2 instruments.
Sitala - Drum sampler focused on ease of use and workflow.
TX16Wx Software Sampler - A powerful VST/AU sampler with a comprehensive feature set.

🌀 Effects & Processing

🎛️ Multi-Effects Suites

Airwindows - A vast and unique collection of minimalist audio plugins.
Calf Studio Gear - Collection of high-quality audio effects and processors.
Chowdhury DSP - A collection of high-quality audio plugins, including tape and chorus effects.
LSP Plugins - Comprehensive collection of professional audio processing plugins.
MeldaProduction MFreeFXBundle - A comprehensive bundle of essential free audio effects.
x42-plugins - Collection of LV2 plugins for audio processing and analysis.
ZamAudio - Suite of audio processing plugins including dynamics and EQ.

🌪️ Specialized Effects

Dragonfly Reverb - High-quality convolution and algorithmic reverb suite.
Gverb - Versatile reverb algorithm with natural sound.
SWH Plugins - Large collection of LADSPA audio processing plugins.
TAP Plugins - Collection of audio processing plugins including delays and reverbs.
Valhalla Supermassive - A popular plugin for creating massive reverbs and delays.
FreeEQ8 - Open-source 8-band parametric EQ with linear phase, dynamic EQ and match EQ.

🌲 Field Recording & Capture

Audacity - Multi-track audio editor and recorder with extensive format support.
FFmpeg - Comprehensive multimedia framework for recording and conversion.
Kwave - Sound editor designed for the KDE desktop environment.
Ocenaudio - Fast audio editor optimized for large files.
SoX - Sound eXchange - Command-line audio processing toolkit for format conversion and effects.

🔌 Modular & Patching

Cabbage - Framework for developing audio plugins using Csound.
Chuck - Strongly-timed music programming language for real-time synthesis.
Faust - Functional programming language for real-time signal processing.
Pure Data (Pd) - Visual programming language for creating interactive computer music.

📊 Analysis & Visualization

BRP-PACU - Bat call analysis software with machine learning features.
Voxengo SPAN (Free Version) - Real-time "fast Fourier transform" (FFT) audio frequency spectrum analyzer plugin.
jaaa - Real-time audio spectrum analyzer with high resolution.
Praat - Software for speech analysis in phonetics.
Sonic Visualiser - Application for viewing and analyzing audio file contents.
Spek - Acoustic spectrum analyzer for audio analysis.

🛠️ Utilities & Helpers

aubio - Library and command-line tool for real-time audio analysis (attack, pitch, beat detection, and MIDI stream generation),
Carla - Audio plugin host with support for multiple plugin formats.
Catia - JACK patchbay with advanced connection management.
Claudia - LADISH session management tool for audio applications.
JACK Audio Connection Kit - Professional sound server for low-latency audio applications.
PulseAudio - Sound server for POSIX and Win32 systems.
QjackCtl - Simple Qt application to control JACK sound server.
Scala - Software for experimenting with musical tunings, temperaments and microtonality. While not a synthesizer itself, which can be then implemented in other synthesis environments (like SuperCollider or Pd).

📦 Programming Languages & Frameworks

Csound - Sound and music computing system with extensive library.
FoxDot - Live coding environment for music with Python.
OpenMusic - Visual programming environment for computer-aided composition (Lisp-based), supporting algorithmic and formal composition techniques adaptable for stochastic or indeterminate processes.
SuperCollider - Platform for audio synthesis and algorithmic composition.
TidalCycles - Live coding environment for algorithmic patterns (based on Haskell).

🦫 Libraries for Go

audiogen - Audio waveform generator for basic tones: sine, square, triangle.
beep - High-level audio playback and composition. Supports mixing, streaming, and resampling.
dsp - Experimental DSP algorithms such as FIR/IIR filters, FFT, etc.
go-astimp3 - Go bindings for libmpg123, used for decoding MP3 audio.
go-audio - Core audio manipulation: PCM buffers, WAV file decoding, etc.
go-dsp - Signal processing algorithms in Go: FFT, filters, windowing, etc.
mellotron - Command-line tool for building and playing simple sample-based instruments.
music-theory - Music theory library for Go: chords, intervals, MIDI pitch mapping.
oto - Low-level cross-platform audio output library. Lightweight and used in games.
portaudio - Go bindings for the PortAudio library — real-time audio I/O.
sonic - Lightweight library to explore and visualize sonic characteristics (experimental).

🐍 Libraries for Python

audiocraft - Facebook's audio generation and compression framework (includes MusicGen).
audioread - Cross-library audio decoding for playback and analysis.
crepe - Deep learning-based pitch tracking for monophonic audio.
essentia - C++ library with Python bindings for audio analysis and feature extraction (project site: essentia.upf.edu; also listed under AI & Machine Learning for its MIR research use).
kapre - Keras layers for audio preprocessing (Melspectrograms, MFCC).
librosa - Powerful library for analyzing and manipulating audio signals.
madmom - Python audio and music signal processing library focused on MIR tasks.
mingus - Advanced music theory and MIDI composition library.
noisereduce - Noise reduction algorithm for audio signals based on spectral gating.
Pypercept - Package for developing and running psychoacoustical experiments, offering frameworks for stimulus presentation and response analysis.
pydub-effects - Extension for PyDub with built-in effects (reverb, chorus, etc).
pyDub - High-level audio manipulation library (cutting, converting, effects).
pyo - Python DSP library for real-time audio synthesis and processing.
PySynth - Simple music synthesizer that outputs WAV files from note strings.
scikits.audiolab - Audio file input/output and signal processing using NumPy.
sounddevice - Provides bindings for the PortAudio library for real-time playback/recording.
torchaudio - PyTorch-native audio processing and augmentation.
Wave - Standard Python library for working with .wav files.

👺 Other Languages

Common Lisp Music (CLM) - Music synthesis and signal processing package in the MUSIC-N family, allowing for highly programmatic and algorithmic approaches to sound design and composition.
Orca / Orca-c - Two-dimensional esoteric programming language in which every letter of the alphabet is an operator; Orca-c is the actively maintained C port.

🔌 Hardware Interfacing

ALSA - Advanced Linux Sound Architecture for hardware interface.
libsndfile - Library for reading and writing audio files.
PortAudio - Cross-platform audio I/O library for real-time applications.
RtAudio - Cross-platform audio I/O library.

📱 Mobile Apps

🤖 Android

Audio Evolution Mobile - Multi-track audio recorder and editor.
Caustic 3 - Music creation tool with rack-based interface.
G-Stomper Studio - Mobile music production with sampling and sequencing.
Hexen - Virtual modular Eurorack synthesizer with over 50 modules.
ModSynth Modular Synthesizer - Modular synthesizer that connects various modules with supports external MIDI controllers.
Stagelight - Loop-based music creation and live performance.

🔄 Cross-Platform Mobile

KORG Gadget - Collection of synthesizers and drum machines.
Koala Sampler - Sampler for quick beat making, sound manipulation, and live performance.
SunVox - Modular synthesizer and pattern-based sequencer.
Volca FM - Mobile FM synthesizer app.

🍏 iOS

AudioKit - Audio synthesis, processing, and analysis platform.
miRack - Eurorack-style modular synthesizer that is a mobile-optimized fork of VCV Rack with an extensive module library.
zMors - Modular synthesizer (iPad) designed for integration with hardware (up to 8 USB in/outputs for audio and CV).

🌐 Web-Based Tools

🛜 Browser DAWs & Sequencers

AudioMass - Web-based audio editor for quick editing tasks.
Audiotool - A collaborative, browser-based music production studio with modular routing.
BandLab - Free online DAW with collaboration features.
Chrome Music Lab - Collection of web-based music experiments and tools.
Soundtrap - Collaborative online music studio (freemium with open source components).
TwistedWave Online - Browser-based audio editor with professional features.

📈 Online Analysis & Utilities

Audio Joiner - Simple online tool for joining audio files.
AudioSet - Large-scale audio event dataset and analysis tools.
Freesound - Collaborative database of audio snippets with analysis tools.
Online Tone Generator - Web-based tone and noise generator.
Wavacity - An online audio editor based on the Audacity codebase that runs in a web browser.

📶 Web Synthesizers & Instruments

BFXR - Sound effect generator (kind a fork of SFXR), interface to create a wide range of procedural sound effects.
Gibber - Live coding environment for audio and graphics in the browser.
p5.sound - Audio library for creative coding in the browser.
Tone.js - Web Audio framework for creating interactive music in the browser.
Web Audio Modules - Plugin standard for web-based audio applications.
WebAudio Synth - Browser-based synthesizer using Web Audio API.
WebPd - Pure Data patches running in web browsers.

💎 Niche & Specialized Tools

🔬 Bioacoustics & Scientific Audio

Avisoft-SASLab - Sound analysis software for animal vocalizations.
DeepSqueak - Deep learning-based analysis of ultrasonic vocalizations.
Raven - Software for acoustic analysis of animal sounds.
Syrinx - Sound analysis software for bioacoustics research.

🎮 Game Audio, Interactive Sound & Trackers

FMOD Studio - Audio middleware and sound effects engine with solid workflow, real-time editing, adaptive audio, and seamless integration with major game engines (free for indie developers).
Godot Engine - Full-fledged game engine with robust and entirely open-source audio capabilities.
JUCE - Framework for developing audio applications and plugins.
LabChirp - Versatile tool for creating a wide variety of sound effects for games.
OpenAL Soft - Cross-platform 3D audio library.
OpenMPT (Open ModPlug Tracker) - Powerful and easy-to-use audio module tracker for Windows.
SFXR - Simple and fun tool for generating 8-bit style sound effects.
Wwise - Audio engine for interactive media (free for educational / non-commercial use).

🌾 Granular Synthesis

CataRT - Real-time corpus-based concatenative synthesis system.
Grain - Granular synthesis and manipulation tool.
gRainbow - Free and open-source cross-platform granular synthesizer plugin with pitch-aware sample detection.
GrainProc - Granular processing plugin.
Granulera (caiojmini) - 3-Oscillator synthesizer plugin that emphasizes randomization and LFOs to create and unpredictable textures.
Hadron Particle Synthesizer - Modular synthesis tool with support for granular synthesis, available as plugin and standalone.
SpaceCraft Granular Synth - Create textures, soundscapes and arpeggiated rhythms from any voice, ambient noise or the high quality built-in audio samples.

⚙️ Physical Modeling

Modalys - Physical modeling synthesis environment.
Myriad - Physical modeling synthesizer with string and wind instruments.
STK (Synthesis ToolKit) - Audio synthesis and processing C++ classes.

🔊 Spatial Audio & 3D Sound

ambix - Ambisonic plugins for spatial audio production.
IEM Plug-in Suite - Tools for immersive audio production and Ambisonics.
SPARTA - Spatial audio real-time applications collection.
VISR - Framework for audio processing with emphasis on spatial audio.

🗣️ Voice & Speech Processing

eSpeak NG - Text-to-speech synthesizer with multiple language support.
Festival - General multi-lingual speech synthesis system.
Kaldi - Toolkit for speech recognition research.
OpenSMILE - Feature extraction toolkit for audio signal analysis.

🧬 Experimental & Research

🧠 AI & Machine Learning

DDSP - Differentiable Digital Signal Processing library.
Essentia - Library for audio analysis and audio-based music information retrieval (see also Libraries for Python for the GitHub source).
FluCoMa - Fluid Corpus Manipulation toolkit for creative AI.
Librosa - Python library for music and audio analysis.
Magenta - Research project exploring AI in music and art creation.
MIR Toolbox - MATLAB/Octave toolbox for music information retrieval.
MusicHero.ai - AI song generator, "Chance Music Tag" aims to create music with elements left to chance or performer's discretion, aligning with principles of aleatoric music.

🎼 Algorithmic Composition

AC Toolbox - Algorithmic composition tools for Max/MSP and Pure Data.
AthenaCL - Modular, polyphonic, poly-paradigm algorithmic music composition.
Common Music - Music composition environment in Lisp and Scheme, supporting algorithmic composition across multiple computer music languages.
Music21 - Python toolkit for analyzing and generating music.

🎶 Live Coding & Network Music

Fluxus - Rapid prototyping and playing for 3D audio-visual content.
FontanaMixer (Karlheinz Essl) - Generative sound environment based on John Cage's conceptual piece "Fontana Mix" (1958). It uses computerized chance algorithms and granular synthesis to create unique, unpredictable sonic realizations from user-provided or built-in sound sources.
HighC - Modern version of Xenakis's UPIC, allowing users to draw musical gestures and synthesize them in real-time, for creating and manipulating sound.
IanniX - Sequencer based on Iannis Xenakis's works, especially the UPIC, for creating complex and generative scores through visual elements and JavaScript programming, syncing via OSC to real-time environments.
ixi lang - Experimental programming language for live coding.
JackTrip - High-quality audio network performance over the internet.
Quintet.net - Collaborative composition and performance environment.
Republic - Network music performance software.
Sonic Pi - Music synthesis environment, designed for beginners and experienced programmers (based on Ruby).
UPISketch - Sound composition tool developed by Centre Iannis Xenakis, based on drawing melodic contours and defining sound gestures visually.
Xenos - Plugin that utilizes a novel dynamic stochastic synthesis (DSS) algorithm (extending concepts from Iannis Xenakis).

🔮 Psychoacoustics & Perception

Audemo (Hearing Loss Simulator) - Web-based application (with source code) that simulates auditory perception in individuals with impaired hearing.
Development System for Auditory Modelling (DSAM) - Computational library and system for auditory modeling, primarily in C-code, for simulating various stages of the auditory system.
Loudness Toolbox - Perceptual loudness measurement tools.
PsyAcoustX - A flexible, free, and open-source MATLAB® package for psychoacoustics research, facilitating stimulus generation and experimental design.
PsySound - Psychoacoustic software for analysis of sound recordings using physical and psychoacoustical algorithms, calculating measures like loudness, sharpness, and roughness.
Room EQ Wizard (REW)) - Room acoustic and loudspeaker measurement, providing analyses (e.g., frequency response, reverberation) for influencing sound perception.
THD+N Analyzer - Total harmonic distortion and noise analysis.
The Auditory Modeling Toolbox (AMT) - MATLAB®/Octave toolbox for reproducible research in hearing sciences, featuring a collection of auditory models and experimental data.

🧪 Research & Academic Tools

AudioLazy - Real-time audio processing Python library with focus on laziness.
CLAM - Framework for research and application development in audio and music.
CNMAT Externals - Max/MSP externals from UC Berkeley's Center for New Music and Audio Technologies.
Jamoma - Modular framework for interactive media and signal processing.
Marsyas - Software framework for audio processing with emphasis on machine learning.
SPEAR - An application for sinusoidal audio analysis, editing, and synthesis.

🕹️ Unconventional Interfaces

CSound for Android - Mobile implementation of Csound with sensors integration.
OSCeleton - Kinect skeleton tracking with OSC output for gestural control.
Reactable - Tangible user interface for musical expression.
reacTIVision - Framework for table-based tangible user interfaces.

🔗 Related Lists

Awesome Eurorack Modular resources - Curated list of Eurorack modules, producers, and resources for modular synthesis hardware.

🤝 Contributing

See CONTRIBUTING.md for how to suggest a resource, and CHANGELOG.md for what's been added recently.

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
.github		.github
.gitignore		.gitignore
.markdown-link-check.json		.markdown-link-check.json
.markdownlint.json		.markdownlint.json
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md		CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
CONTRIBUTING.md		CONTRIBUTING.md
LICENSE.md		LICENSE.md
README.md		README.md
package-lock.json		package-lock.json
package.json		package.json

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