This is a list of software for creating, performing, learning, analyzing, researching, broadcasting and editing music. This article only includes software, not services.
For streaming services such as iHeartRadio, Pandora, Prime Music, and Spotify, see Comparison of on-demand streaming music services.
For storage, uploading, downloading and streaming of music via the cloud, see Comparison of online music lockers.
This list does not include discontinued historic or legacy software, with the exception of trackers that are still supported.
If a program fits several categories, such as a comprehensive digital audio workstation or a foundation programming language (e.g. Pure Data), listing is limited to its top three categories.
Types of music software
CD ripping software
Choir and learn-to-sing software
This section includes both choir software and learn-to-sing software. For music learning software, see music education software.Main articles: Choir and Vocal coach
DJ software
Main article: DJ § Software
Digital audio workstation (DAW) software
Main article: Digital audio workstation
- Ableton Live
- ACID Pro
- Ardour
- Audacity
- Audiotool
- BandLab
- Bitwig Studio
- Cakewalk by BandLab
- Cubase
- Digital Performer
- FL Studio
- GarageBand
- HighC
- LMMS
- Logic Pro
- Magix Music Maker
- Maschine
- MetaSynth
- Mixcraft
- MultitrackStudio
- Nuendo
- Mixbus
- MuLab
- Orion Studio
- Pro Tools
- Pyramix
- Qtractor
- REAPER
- Reason
- Renoise
- Rosegarden
- Samplitude
- SADiE
- Sonic Pi
- Sonoma
- Soundtrap
- Studio One
- Waveform
- Zynewave Podium
Computer music software
Main article: Computer music
See also: List of audio programming languages
- ChucK
- Csound
- Director Musices
- List of Generative music software
- JFugue
- Kyma (sound design language)
- Keykit
- Max/MSP
- Pure Data
- Real-time Cmix
- Suno AI
- SuperCollider
- Udio
- Opusmodus
Internet, RSS, broadcast music software
Main article: Netlabel
See also: Content delivery network
This section only includes software, not services. For services programs like Spotify, Pandora, Prime Music, etc. see Comparison of on-demand streaming music services. Likewise, list includes music RSS apps, widgets and software, but for a list of actual feeds, see Comparison of feed aggregators. For music broadcast software lists in the cloud, see Content delivery network and Comparison of online music lockers.
- Airtime
- Audicom (First radio automation software—see Radio software)
- Campcaster
- Clickradio
- Juice (aggregator)
- Jamulus (Internet jamming software)
- Moodagent (AI based emotion keyed playlist generator and app)
- Ninjam (Internet jamming software)
- OpenBroadcaster
- Panopto
Lyrics and vocals
See also: List of vocoders § Software vocoder models
- Cantor (music software)
- Rhyme Genie (Algorithms and software for rhyming lyrics)
- SingingCoach
- Fast Rhymes (All-in-one tool for lyrics, rhyme search, syllable counter, etc.)
Audio plug-ins
Main article: Audio plug-in
- Blackhole, H3000 Factory, SplitEQ (Eventide, Inc.)
- Stutter Edit, Ozone, RX Audio Editor (iZotope)
- Jamstix (Rayzoon Technologies)
- Liquid Rhythm (WaveDNA)
- PCM Native, MPX Native (Lexicon (company))
- NI Massive, Kontakt (software), B4, Electrik Piano, Guitar Rig 2 (Native Instruments)
- OrangeVocoder (Prosoniq)
- SoundFont (Integrates synthesized/sampled MIDI files with recorded music)
- MachFive, Symphonic Instrument (Mark of the Unicorn)
Music analysis software
Main article: Musical analysis
See also: Spectrum analyzer
- BeatRoot
- BRP-PACU
- ChucK
- Kyma (sound design language)
- Pure Data
- Platinum Blue Music Intelligence (from Music Xray company)
- Sonic Visualiser
- WaveSurfer
Music circuit software
See also: Audio electronics and circuit bending
- Arduinome (software circuit platform)
- CPU Sim
- Electric VLSI Design System
- gLogic
- GNU Circuit Analysis Package
- KTechLab
- Linear Technology (a/d, circuit software, and others.)
- List of free electronics circuit simulators
- LTspice
- Micro-Cap
- MIDIbox (software circuit platform)
- Monome (software circuit platform)
- Ngspice
- Oregano (software)
- Quite Universal Circuit Simulator
- SapWin
- SPICE
- Tenori-on (software circuit platform)
Music composing software
See also: Algorithmic composition
- Antescofo
- Director Musices
- Hyperscore
- JFugue
- Keykit
- Kyma (sound design language)
- Max
- Music Mouse (Algorithmic synth and composer)
- Nodal
- Ocarina
- OpenMusic
- PetSynth
- Progression
- Reaktor
- Rubato Composer
Music conversion software
See also: List of audio conversion software
- AIMP
- Audacity
- Brasero
- CDex
- Exact Audio Copy
- FFmpeg
- FL Studio
- foobar2000
- FormatFactory
- Freemake Audio Converter
- Free Studio
- fre:ac
- iTunes
- k3b
- MediaCoder
- MediaHuman Audio Converter
- MediaMonkey
- SoX
- VLC Media Player
- Winamp
- WMA Convert
Music education software
This section is about music learning software. For choir and learn-to-sing software, see § Choir and Learn to Sing Software.
Main article: Comparison of music education software
- Soundtrap
- Meludia
- EarMaster
- GNU Solfege
- Hyperscore
- Reaktor
- Rocksmith
- Synthesia
- WaveSurfer
- Yousician
- MidiStickers
- Chordify
Music gaming software
See also: Video game music and Dynamic music
Music mathematics software
Main article: Music and mathematics
See also: Society for Mathematics and Computation in Music and Mathematical software
Music notation software
Main article: Scorewriter
- Aegis Sonix
- Canorus
- Capella
- Deluxe Music Construction Set
- Denemo
- Dorico
- Encore
- ENT (for typeset mensural notation)
- Finale
- Flat
- Forte
- Frescobaldi
- Gregorio (for Neumes)
- Guitar Pro
- Igor Engraver
- Impro-Visor
- jEdit plugin
- LilyPond
- MagicScore
- Mozart
- Mus2
- MusEdit
- MuseScore
- Music Write
- MusiCAD
- MusicEase
- MusiXTeX
- NoteEdit
- Noteflight
- Notation Composer
- NoteWorthy Composer
- NOTION
- Overture
- Philip's Music Writer (PMW)
- Power Tab Editor
- Progression
- Rosegarden
- SCORE
- ScoreCloud
- Sibelius (Division of Avid Technology since 8/2006. Avid also sells the Pro Tools DAW)
- SmartScore (Focus on Music OCR)
- TuxGuitar
Music player software
Main article: Comparison of audio player software
Music research software
Main article: Sound and music computing
- ScoreCloud (Notation research)
Music technology, synthesis and o/s software
See also: Software synthesizer
- Category:Music software plugin architectures
- Comparison of audio synthesis environments
- DirectMusic
- Moodagent (AI based emotion keyed playlist generator and app)
- Music information retrieval
- Software effect processor
- Sound Recorder (Windows)
- Impromptu (programming environment)
- Keykit
- Max (software)3
- SynthFont (a MIDI to WAV converter-- Virtual Studio Technology instruments can be used instead of source files)
Music visualization software
Main article: Music visualization
- Advanced Visualization Studio (Justin Frankel) (platform: Windows)
- Cthugha (1993, Kevin "Zaph" Burfitt) (platform: DOS)
- Magic Music Visuals (since 2012, Color & Music, LLC) (platforms: Windows, OS X)
- MilkDrop (2001-2012, Ryan Geiss) reimplemented as projectM (platforms: Windows, Linux, Android)
- Neon (2004, Jeff Minter and Ivan Zorzin) (platform: Xbox 360)
- Psychedelia
- Pure Data
- Virtual Light Machine (1990, Jeff Minter) (platform: Atari Jaguar)
- Visual Music Tone Painter (1992–2004)4
Orchestration software
This section is about music orchestration software. For orchestration software as used in information technology, see Orchestration (computing).
Drums and percussion
Guitar
- Guitar Rig
- Progression
- Line 6
- Rocksmith
- Guitar Pro
- TuxGuitar
- GarageBand
- Logic Pro
- Ableton Live
- Audacity
Piano
Pipe organ
- Hauptwerk produces audio in response to MIDI signal from attached keyboard or from a MIDI sequencer6
Automatic composition software
Main article: Music and artificial intelligence
See also: Robotic art
Samplers and sequencers
See also: Comparison of MIDI editors and sequencers
Soundtrack creation software
Main article: Soundtrack
See also: Multitrack recording and Sound recording and reproduction
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Soundtrack creation software.- Anvil Studio
- Ensoniq PARIS
- FL Studio
- FL Studio Mobile
- Mixcraft
- Pro Tools
- Sound Forge
- Soundtrap
- SpectraLayers
- WaveLab
Trackers
Main article: Music tracker
Historical tracker software:
- SoundMonitor (C64, 1986)
- Ultimate Soundtracker (Amiga, 1987)
- NoiseTracker (Amiga, 1989)
- OctaMED (Amiga, 1989)
- Protracker (Amiga, 1990)
- ScreamTracker (PC, 1994)
- FastTracker 2 (PC, 1994)
- Impulse Tracker (PC, 1995)
| Name | Latest update | License | OS versions | File format support | VSTsupport | ASIOoutput | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Windows | OS X | Linux | MID | MOD | XM | IT | S3M | |||||
| Renoise | 7 May 2024 (2024-05-07) | Proprietary | Yes | Yes | Yes | Load | Load | Load | Load | No | Yes | Yes |
| OpenMPT | 22 September 2024 | BSD | Yes | Yes-Wine | Yes-Wine | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SoundTracker | 1 October 2023 (2023-10-01) | GPL | No | No | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No |
| MilkyTracker | 25 November 2024 (2024-11-25) | GPL | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Load | Load | No | Yes |
| Buzztrax | 30 December 2015 | LGPL | Yes | Yes | Yes | Load | Load | Load | Load | No | Yes | Yes |
Virtual Studio Technology hosting software
- Ableton Live
- ACID Pro
- Adobe Audition
- Adobe Premiere Elements
- Adobe Premiere Pro
- Acoustica Mixcraft
- Ardour (open source)
- Audacity (open source, Windows, Linux and Mac platforms only7)
- AudioMulch
- Band-in-a-Box
- Cakewalk by BandLab
- Deckadance
- Digital Performer (version 8 or higher)
- FL Studio
- GoldWave
- Jeskola Buzz
- LMMS (open source)
- Logic Pro
- Magix Music Maker
- Max MSP
- ModPlug Tracker
- MultitrackStudio
- n-Track Studio
- NOTION
- REAPER
- Reason
- Renoise
- Samplitude
- Sony Acid Pro
- Sony Sound Forge
- Sony Vegas
- Soundtrap
- Steinberg Cubase
- Steinberg Nuendo
- Studio One
- Steinberg Wavelab
- Traktor
- Vocaloid
- WavePad Audio Editor
- Podium
Virtual synthesizer and studio software
See also: Virtual Studio Technology
Main category: Software synthesizers
- Amsynth
- Minimoog
- Reaktor (software creation of instrument)
- Reason (DAW and virtual recording studio, integrated with Record)
- Spire
- VCV Rack
- ZynAddSubFX
Wave editors
See also
Main articles: Outline of music and Index of music articles
- Music portal
- Internet portal
- Audio editing software
- Comparison of audio synthesis environments
- Comparison of digital audio editors
- Comparison of free software for audio
- Comparison of MIDI editors and sequencers
- Comparison of scorewriters
- List of audio conversion software
- List of audio programming languages
- List of guitar tablature software
- List of Linux audio software
- List of scorewriters
- Music technology
References
"Short History of Computer Music". UCSC.edu. Retrieved 11 June 2015. http://artsites.ucsc.edu/ems/music/equipment/computers/history/history.html ↩
Twells, John. "The 14 pieces of software that shaped modern music". Fact Mag. Archived from the original on Apr 23, 2014. Retrieved 11 June 2015. https://www.factmag.com/2016/10/01/the-14-pieces-of-software-that-shaped-modern-music/ ↩
"Music & Math". Retrieved 5 January 2017. http://www.musicwords.net/musictech/numbers.htm ↩
Intelligence, new visions of artificial intelligence in practice. Vol. 11. Association for Computing Machinery. 2000. https://books.google.com/books?id=-WZVAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Visual+Music+Tone+Painter%22 ↩
Peter, Alex. "Music Booking Agent". Retrieved 22 February 2023. https://booking-agent.io/ ↩
Thomas Wichmann, The Hauptwerk Computer Program, Review in The American Organist, July 2004 /wiki/The_American_Organist ↩
"VST plug-ins". Audacity Wiki. http://wiki.audacityteam.org/wiki/VST_Plug-ins ↩