Tools To Make Tools...

Note: See also the MIDI Software section for MIDI-related programming tools.

• Linux audio tools:
  • AAF is the Advanced Authoring Format, a cross-platform multimedia file format for easy exchange of digital media and metadata
  • Advanced Sound Daemon project to supply a drop-in replacement for EsounD
  • Audio File Library an implementation of the SGI libaudiofile from Michael Pruett
  • Audio Formats a great resource from Guido van Rossum, now maintained by Chris Bagwell
  • Audio::DSP "Perl extension for interfacing with digital audio devices under *NIX"
  • AviDemux multiplex and demultiplex audio to/from AVI videos
  • ClearScale Stephan Bernsee's "... open-source GPL-based project to bring high quality time-stretching and pitch-shifting to the Linux platform"
  • Common Sound Layer a portable audio initiative from the aRts project
  • Das_Watchdog monitors realtime processes so they won't hang your machine
  • DIVA Libraries C++ classes for multiplatform multimedia programming on UNIX/Linux systems
  • Dolby AC3 to IEC958 Converter does just what it says...
  • DSSI the Disposable Soft Synth Interface, a plugin API proposal from Steve Harris, Chris Cannam, and Sean Bolton
  • EsounD
    • EsounD the Enlightened Sound Daemon, "can mix several audio streams into one device"
    • EsounD Controller shell script for managing the EsounD server
    • JEsd a Java implementation of EsounD
    • polypaudio a sound server intended as an improved drop-in replacement for the Enlightened Sound Daemon (esd)
  • GIVERTCAP small program to give Linux applications real-time priority
  • GNOME Media Framework "...for recording, processing, and playing back media data in a type-independent manner...designed to be used for professional audio processing and realtime performance"
  • GNU 3DKit frameworks for rendering 3D graphics and sound with GNUstep
  • GtkWaveform excellent audio widget library
  • Hardware Documentation another useful page for developers from Dan Hollis
  • Icon Sound Library a technical write-up from Robert R. Shenk
  • IMD4Linux Eric Masson's project to rework SGI's Indigo Desktop (and apps!) to run on Linux
  • IzSound is "... a C++/STL stream-oriented sound processing library"
  • JGenerator emulates the Macromedia Generator to create Flash content
  • Juce "cross-platform GUI + everything else library", from Julian Storer, developer of Tracktion
  • Khagan interface builder for OSC-based applications, from Loki Davison
  • Lakai Frank Neumann's "tools for data exchange between a Linux PC and AKAI samplers"
  • LinuX Multimedia Project a powerful API designed especially for audio/video playback and editing
  • Linux Sound Hacker's Guide for programming the OSS/Free driver from Hannu Savolainen
  • Linux Sound Programming a tutorial page from Eelke Klein
  • Linux Sound System a page describing soundcard support and some sound-specific features of the 2.2.n and 2.3.n kernels
  • Maudio "...is a simple audio mirroring device (a sort of audio pipe)"
  • MFFM 3D Audio Library a library for driving 3D speaker arrays
  • MFFM Bit Stream a library for streaming bits to/from audio files
  • MFFM Multimedia Time Code C++ headers for managing time code
  • MFFM Time Scale Modification for Audio time-stretches audio without changing pitch
  • MIDAS multichannel sound & music system for multimedia applications
  • MPEG4IP "...an end-to-end system to explore MPEG-4 multimedia"
  • MuCoS an ambitious API for Linux audio, from David Olofson
  • MVIP "...enables shared VRML worlds with audio proximity"
  • Nord Modular G2 Patch Format informative page from Michael Dewberry
  • OCTAL a project to integrate tracker-style composition with unit generator synthesis, from David O'Toole and the GNU project
  • Oggz API for reading and writing OGG files and streams
  • Open Source Audio Library Bruce Forsberg's project for C++ classes to handle audio functions
  • OpenAL
    • OpenAL open-source audio library for games and multimedia applications, sponsored by Creative Labs and Loki Entertainment
    • OpenAL++ is "an object-oriented API for spatial sound" based on OpenAL from Tomas Hämälä
    • ALPY a layer between OpenAL and Python
  • PenguinSound cross-platform audio library with applications suite (includes a sample editor and a MOD tracker)
  • Perl audio processing modules just what it says...
  • PHAT "a collection of GTK+ widgets geared toward pro-audio apps", from Pete Bessman and friends
  • PHPAudioFile "...a class that is designed to recognize attributes of audio files"
  • PKAudio Patrick Stinson's "...sound library that uses a TCP socket to communicate with its daemon process"
  • PLib a suite of game libraries with OpenGL and C++ interfaces, from Steve Baker
  • Programmer's Guide To OSS excellent resource for Linux sound & MIDI device programming, from 4Front
  • PyXAudio Python wrapper for the XAudio MP3 library
  • Q-Audio/Q-MIDI useful extensions to the Q programming language
  • Radio Hard Disk unique application from the MidiShare team
  • Realtime Linux Security Module (LSM) "... an installable kernel module that enables realtime capabilities for any 2.6.x kernel without needing to directly patch the kernel", from Jack O'Quin and Torben Hohn
  • Revolution-12 a package that implements a network-transparent control framework for the Revolution 12 Digital Audio Engine
  • RPC Code Generator useful code from dyne:org developer Jaromil
  • RTS Tools tools for setting and getting realtime priority
  • Ruby/Audio Hans Fugal's "library that makes dealing with audio data a little easier...in Ruby"
  • SBEmu brief description of SoundBlaster emulation in DOSemu
  • SDL Simple DirectMedia Layer, an excellent multimedia library development project
  • SDL_sound a library to handle decoding of soundfile formats such as WAV and MP3
  • Secret Rabbit Code a sample rate conversion library from Erik de Castro Lopo
  • SL Sound Library library for playing, mixing, and modifying sound samples in realtime, designed especially for games and simulations
  • Snack a module to add sound I/O and visualization commands to Tcl/Tk
  • Snd utils soundfile utilities from the CARL cmusic distribution, revived by Charlie Baker
  • SndObj/pySndObj "a set of object-oriented cross-platform audio development tools and sample programs...for the quick design of sound processing applications"
  • SoundMan a Tcl/Tk soundfile utility, provides GUI for simple file management
  • SoundTouch a library for high-quality time-stretching and pitch-shifting
  • SQ80 Toolkit utility to read/write Ensoniq SQ80 disks under Linux
  • SSSD the Simple Sound for Small Devices library, "... a portable, cross-platform API for sound playback on small and embedded devices"
  • Tritonus an implementation of the JavaSound API, from Matthias Pfisterer, Florian Bomers, and others
  • UTIME micro-second resolution timing for Linux
  • Vsound creates a virtual audio loopback cable
  • WAV-PRG and Audiotap utilities for working with Commodore C64 tapes and TAP files
  • XAP "an audio plugin API for instruments and effects... currently in the process of being designed by members of the Linux Audio Developers mailing list"
  • XVolume "...a simple Xlib volume control..."
  • ameter audio level meter (requires ALSA) from Laurent Georget
  • aubio a library for audio labelling, from Paul Brossier
  • audiofs emulates a file system for audio CDs
  • ccAudio "a portable general purpose C++ class library for manipulating audio files and audio data"
  • ccAudio2 an improved version of the former ccAudio, from the Bayonne GNU/Linux telephony project
  • cdrom_speed lets the user decrease CD-ROM drive speed, "...especially suitable for playing MP3's from your CD-ROM..."
  • dmSDK the digital media SDK from SGI, now for Linux
  • gtkVUmeter software from the Wet Toad
  • hdrbench measures high-performance audio multitrack recording/playback
  • latency test analyzes scheduling latencies of programs running in realtime under high system loads
  • libaio a platform abstraction layer for digital audio I/O
  • libakai library useful for extracting samples from Akai sound discs
  • libaudiooss transparent OSS/Free emulation on top of NAS
  • libfilth digital/analog filter design library from Anders Johansson
  • libfishsound "... a simple programming interface for decoding and encoding audio data using the Xiph.Org codecs Vorbis and Speex", from Conrad Parker
  • libgdither Steve Harris's "...library for performing audio dithering on PCM samples"
  • libgig is "... a C++ cross-platform loader library for Gigasampler and DLS files"
  • liblo Steve Harris's "easy to use OSC (Open Sound Control) implementation written in C"
  • liboggz "... provides a simple programming interface for reading and writing Ogg files and streams", from Conrad Parker & Friends
  • libsndfile library for reading and writing many different soundfile formats, from Erik de Castro Lopo
  • media_api a forum for discussing portable sound and MIDI programming interfaces
  • paulstretch high-quality time-stretching software from the industrious Paul Nasca
  • rt-script finds and reorders audio process IRQs and IDs to increase priority, from Emanuel Rumpf
  • rt_watchdog Florian Schmidt's "watchdog daemon that kills runaway SCHED_FIFO tasks"
  • set_rlimits Jonathan Woithe's software that "gives unpriviledged users access to realtime scheduling via the new rlimits added to kernel 2.6.12"
  • sndlib is Bill Schottstaedt's library for the Snd soundfile editor
  • soundd simple sound system for adding background sound to applications
  • tichstuff is a collection of headers and libraries needed to port SGI sound apps to Linux
  • tkSound is Dan Ellis's Tcl/Tk toolkit for waveform display and manipulation
  • tranzport Arthur Choung's documentation and code for programming Frontier Design's Tranzport wireless USB device
  • wdat Wayne Hoxie's utility that "reads and writes to an audio capable SCSI DDS DAT drive"