Audacity
License: GPL General Public License
Description: Audacity is a free digital audio editor application. Audacity is cross-platform, using the wxWidgets software library to provide a similar graphical user interface on several different operating systems. It is currently used in the OCR National Level 2 ICT course for the sound creation unit. Some of Audacity’s main features include the following: Importing and exporting WAV, AIFF, MP3 (via the LAME encoder, downloaded separately), Ogg Vorbis, and other file formats Recording and playing sounds, editing via Cut, Copy, Paste (with unlimited Undo), multi-track mixing A large array of digital effects and plug-ins. Additional effects can be written with Nyquist Amplitude envelope editing & noise removal Support for multi-channel modes with sampling rates up to 100 kHz with 24 bits per sample The ability to make precise adjustments to the audio’s speed, while maintaining pitch, in order to synchronize it with video, run for the right length of time, etc. Converting cassette tapes or records into digital tracks by automatically splitting one wav (or the other supported types) track into multiple tracks based on silences in the track and the export multiple option. Multi-platform: works on Windows, Mac OS X, and Unix-like systems (including GNU/Linux and BSD) amongst others.
Platforms Supported: Windows, Mac, Linux
Website: https://sourceforge.net/projects/audacity/
Traverso DAW
License: GNU General Public License v2
Description: Traverso is a cross platform multitrack audio recording and editing suite, with an innovative User Interface. Its a complete solution from recording to CD mastering. Traverso is a complete solution from recording to CD Mastering. By supplying many common tools in one package, you don’t have to learn how to use lots of applications with different user interfaces. This considerably lowers the learning curve, letting you get your audio processing work done faster. A unique approach to non-linear audio processing was developed for Traverso to provide extremely solid and robust audio processing and editing. Adding and removal of effects plugins, moving Audio Clips and creating new Tracks during playback are all perfectly safe, giving you instant feedback on your work!
Platforms Supported: Windows, Mac, Linux
Website: https://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/traverso/
Ardour
License: GNU General Public License v2
Description: Ardour is a digital audio workstation that you can use to record, edit and mix multi-track audio. It also allows you to produce CDs and mix video soundtracks, and it’s great for testing out new ideas about music and sound.
Platforms Supported: Windows, Mac
Website: http://ardour.org/
Rosegarden
License: GNU General Public License
Description: Rosegarden is a professional audio and MIDI sequencer, score editor, and general-purpose music composition and editing environment. This is a strong contender when it comes to working with Midi.
Platforms Supported: Linux
Website: https://www.rosegardenmusic.com/
Hydrogen
License: GNU General Public License
Description: Hydrogen is an advanced drum machine for GNU/Linux. It’s main goal is to bring professional yet simple and intuitive pattern-based drum programming.
Platforms Supported: Windows, Mac, Linux
Website: http://hydrogen-music.org/