Free
ressources and tools for musicians !
Drum Machines / Waves
Editors / Midi / Mixing Multitracking /
Mp3 / Plugins
/ Synthétisers / Utilities
Drum Machines
X-Razor
X-Razor is not exactly an audio editor as it only edits drum
loops and is extremely good at it. You can add up to two VST 1.0
plug-ins in real-time, and Direct-X plug-ins in non-real-time.
You won't find anything even nearly as good as this anywhere
else. Definitely worth a download.
RM F
The ultimate freeware rhythm modul for PC whether you are in
dance music or any other style. Play your samples and enjoy the
unique RM-Series quality.
HammerHead
Rhythm Station
HammerHead is a simple TR-909-like drum computer program aiming
at the dance-scene. You can use it to create perfect Techno
loops, Jungle patterns or House beats, but it's also suitable for
Hip Hop, Triphop, Rap, Industrial and almost any other music you
can think of.
DrumFlow
The DrumFlow is powerful drum sequencer. You can use the DrumFlow
to edit Drum Setup (for GS or XG MIDI) parameters by NRPN
controllers. The DrumFlow allows you to create custom percussion
parts with adjustable drums and then to export these parts to
your MIDI editor through the clipboard or MIDI file.
Waves
Editors
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Tiny Wave Editor
Tiny Wave Editor, which is designed by Yamaha is one of the
quickest and easiest audio editors that I've ever used, including
commercial programs. It doesn't have many effects, but if you
just want to top and tail your samples then this is the program
for you.
Audacity
Audacity is a program that lets you manipulate digital audio
waveforms. In addition to letting you record sounds directly from
within the program, it imports many sound file formats, including
WAV, AIFF, AU, IRCAM, MP3, and Ogg Vorbis. It supports all common
editing operations such as Cut, Copy, and Paste, plus it will mix
tracks and let you apply plug-in effects to any part of a sound.
It also has a built-in amplitude envelope editor, a customizable
spectrogram mode and a frequency analysis window for audio
analysis applications.
Encounter2000
Encounter2000 is the first and only fully multithreaded sound
editor in the windows world today. Load files and work on files
while other filters are still running in the background.
Encounter2000 also features the EncounterExtension plug-in
architecture, which works similarly to plug-in architectures that
are know in the graphic world for years. Third party providers or
just every single programmer can add its/his own filters to
Encounter.
Wave
Splitter
Wave Splitter from Claudiosoft is a freeware utility that allows
you to extract a sample from a .wav file without loading it into
memory. No matter how big your source wave file is (it may be
hundreds of megabytes!), if you want to sample a part of it, you
can do it very quickly, without wasting RAM.
WaveFlow
Wave Flow is a very complete audio editor that can play, record,
filter and modify a wave form, using lots of different functions,
following the WAV standard. Besides, as it has been designed for
a Windows 95 environment, it is done visually, easily and
intuitively. The freeware versions are at the bottom of the
download page.
MIDI [ Go to the top ! ]
MIDIoz
Arp
MIDIoz Arp uses the MIDI system to turn any sound card or
synthesizer into a configurable music generator. Its results vary
from nice and musically rich arpeggios to any kind of random
ambiental texture.
MIDI Thruway
MIDI Thruway 2.0 is a system-wide replacement for all of the
competing "thru" connections in the many MIDI programs
running on your system. MIDI Thruway allows any MIDI input to be
connected to any MIDI output, in any combination. This allows
multiple instruments to be controlled from the same external
keyboard, or a single sound card or MIDI module to be controlled
from multiple controllers simultaneously, as well as many more
elaborate connections.
Analog X - MIDI Mouse Mod
MIDI Mouse Mod is another in my series of alternative input
devices for MIDI information... This one allows you to move the
mouse on a grid and modify up to 4 continuous MIDI controllers in
realtime!
Massiva
MIDI/Audio Sequencer. 32 MIDI/Audio tracks with unlimited number
of parts .. alot of other cool stuff, like plugins, filters and
the like.
Hubi's
MIDI LoopBack device
A MIDI driver that gives you up to four virtual MIDI ports. Each
virtual port can act as both an input and output MIDI device. All
MIDI data sent to the output is automatically channeled to all
connected programs at the input side.
FractMus 2000
FractMus is a FREEWARE algorithmic-music generator, that is, it
creates melodies using mathematical formulas.
Mixing
/ Multitracking
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MultitrackStudio
MultitrackStudio is an audio/midi recording and mixing
environment for Windows targeted at home recording musicians.
With this program you can record your own songs, recording tracks
while playing along with previously recorded ones. It contains a
multitrack recorder, a mixer and lots of effects: everything you
need to record your own CD.
diPlayer
diPlayer is an audio player made for playing back so-called
digitally improvized music (diMusic). Digital Improvization is a
technology of Digimpro Ltd. (Digimpro) that is implemented as
diTechnology. The diTechnology enables musicians to create
multimedia material based on the very heart of Digital
Improvization: if you play back the same material again and
again, you will get different results. In case of songs, this
means that a song made by the help of diTechnology will sound
different time to time as you listen to it.
Anvil Studio
With the free version, you can create an unlimited number of MIDI
tracks, and a one-minute audio track. With the $19 optional
Multi-Audio accessory, you can record and real-time mix up to 8
sixty-minute audio tracks.
Crystal
Audio Engine
Crystal Audio Engine is a multichannel audio engine with Open
System Design for Digital Signalprocessing in realtime. The
current release supports 4 audio channels at 44.1kHz/16bit, 2
different Audio Inputs and 4 Realtime Effects. The Full System
package includes a lot of basic plugins for playback, recording
and manipulating audio.
Moonfish
Moonfish is a tracker/groovebox, and has a very simple and usable
interface interface. Moonfish was designed to let anyone make
music for free without having to spend hours perfecting their
song in their sequencer. However, these limitations can become a
bit of a problem, with there only being 3 mono channels per
track.
Tuareg
Tuareg a sequencer/loop-composer/remixer that creates tracks out
of the loops, samples and short sounds you feed it. It is simple
to use, and has a very user friendly interface, the version
offered here, but the is a 'FAT' version available for $35 from
the Homepage with added features. It includes a drum machine and
a bassline sequencer, and supports 6 channels of mono, with the
ability to render to WAV, for use in other applications.
Locator
A 256-track shareware MIDI/Audio sequencer and editor. The
program allows unlimited ticks per quarter-note bandwidth for
standard MIDI files.
Quartz Audio Master (freeware version)
The freeware version of Quartz AudioMaster Pro features 4 stereo
audio tracks, 16 Midi tracks, effect plug-ins, per-track EQ, Aux
buses, Video sync, Score, GM / GS / XG and "Piano roll"
editors and all the functionalities required to easily share
musical projects across the internet up to its multi-track
compressed file format.
ProTools
Get Pro Tools FREE and experience the power and flexibility of
Pro Tools. Using your computer's built-in sound capability, Pro
Tools FREE offers up to 8 tracks of audio and 48 tracks of MIDI,
real-time plug-ins, and many of the same editing and mixing
features the pros use.
Fat Rock
Studio
Fat Rock Studio is a multitrack, digital audio recorder (harddisk
recording-studio) for Windows95/98/NT4 and later. It has 16
stereo/mono channels and is designed to work just like a real
world recorder.
DDCLIP 2.23 Free
DDClip is a multi-track audio sequencer that can record and play
up to four tracks of digital audio (and one video track)
simultaneously. Each of the four tracks can have an unlimited
number of clips. It appears that the free one will not be
continued to be developed, but you can still download free
version 2.23.
Beat
It
A real-time sample mixing/composition util. Includes stuff like
built in keyboard and cross fader.
MP3 [ Go to the top ! ]
JukeBox
Decoder
Play, Open, Tag and Decode (MP3 to Wave) in Windows. CDDB Enabled
(CDDB2) for Auto CD info lookup for MP3 Tagging. Play CD's and
other formats (in next upgrade which is v2 JukeBox). Batch Decode
MP3's to Wave files and Auto run CD burner all in one go. Batch
Re-Namer / Tagger with optional Letter Case (lower, UPPER, Norm).
And much more...
Dee
Dee is a Digital Sound Processing plug-in for Winamp. It improves
the sound by adding deeper bass, treble and richer 3d effect
without distortion.
quickSkin
quickSkin aims to be the quickest and easiest Winamp skin maker
ever. You can select pictures (bitmaps) of anything you choose
and make them into a winamp skin in seconds. Optionally you can
customise your skin by changing the color of the windows, text,
equalizer etc.
Amp2000
Amp2000 is a simple yet powerful mp3 player, which supports skins
and colorful displays. The player has a really neat feature that
let's you search complete drives, cd's for mp3's.
Winamp
The best and original MP3 player, can also output to wav files.
Winamp supports MP3, MP2, MOD, S3M, MTM, ULT, XM, IT, 669,
CD-Audio, Line-In, WAV, VOC, and other audio formats, custom
interfaces called skins, and audio visualization and audio effect
plug-ins.
Power MP3 Studio
This is not just another Mp3 Player, but a complete studio that
allows you to Play Mp3, Create Mp3 CDs, Decode, Studio Mix with
24 Band Equalizer, Playlist Creator, ID3 Tag Editor, Skin Support
and much more.
dBpowerAMP
dBpowerAMP Music Converter (dMC), is one of those must have
utilities, indispensable for converting audio files from one
format to another. Part of dMC's formidable arsenal, is it's
ability to rip music straight from Audio CDs! , or LPs. Formally
known as Shuffler Music Converter, dMC continues where Shuffler
left off. Straight out of the box dMC can convert Wave and Mp3
files. Download options bring Windows Media Audio (WMA V7), CD
Audio (CDA), Ogg Vorbis and many more file types to the table.
Volume Normalization, ID Tag preservation, scriptable and the
simplest way of converting (right click on a file and select
Convert To), round of a perfect package.
AudioCrusher
AudioCrusher is a freeware CD-Ripper with CDDB support and a wide
range of output formats. AudioCrusher includes automatic play
list creation and is able to create a checksum report for each
created file. It allows full customization of ID3 tags and
filenames.
CD'n'Go!
CD'n'Go! is a Mp3 Suite, formed by a Digital Audio Extractor, an
Audio Compressor and a File Tagger, you can extract digital audio
data from your standard audio CDs using your CDROM. CD'n'Go!
support a wide variety of SCSI CDROM readers, including ATAPI
drives. The CDDB button let you get the song titles from a CDDB
server and then store them in a standard Windows CDPlayer.INI
file. It can automagically set the ID3 TAGs to make MP3 files or
other compressed audio files. Of course the best way to determine
the real capabilities of this program is using it, you can tag a
file with standard 1.00, 1.01 and Lyrics 2.00 fields and almost
all WinAMP styles.
Plugins [ Go to the top ! ]
IZotope Vinyl
The ultimate lo-fi weapon, it uses 64 bit processing and advanced
filtering, modeling and resampling to create authentic
"vinyl" simulation, as if the audio was a record being
played on a record player
DSP/FX 8
Tap Delay
Get a free 8 Tap Delay with a demo download of their plugins
including pitch shifter, delays, reverbs, a flanger and more!
DSound Stompin' FX
DSound manufactures many different DirectX plugins, all with the
classic stomp box look, very retro! They always have a couple for
free, I saw their EQ free at one time, at the time of this
writing it was their distortion "box". Check 'em out
and see what they are givin away today!
Anwidasoft
DX Reverb Light
The DX Reverb Light is the ULTIMATE FREE REVERB and, believe it
or not, it’s an heavily reduced version of the DX Reverb.
Even if the DX Reverb light offers less than 1/11* of the power
of the DX
Reverb, it provides astonishing quality and extreme
flexibility, allowing you to simulate from small rooms with
sudden attacks and coloration characteristic of small spaces to
large natural-sounding spaces with spread attack and build of a
concert hall.
AnalogX Gate
AnalogX Gate is the DirectX version of probably one of the oldest
and most commonly used audio effects out there - the gate. A gate
simply ensures that until the volume of an input passes a certain
threshold, no signal is sent through; then once a signal comes
through the gate remains open until the signal drops below
another threshold.
AnalogX Vocal Remover
AnalogX Vocal Remover works on the same principles that the
hardware removers do - that in most instances vocals are equally
mixed in both channels, and can identified and therefore removed
by simply changing the phase on one channel by 180 degrees. While
this won't remove vocals in all instances, it does work in many
cases, and can sometimes be used to remove bass or breakbeat
sections as well, which I find to be GREAT for sampling!
AnalogX Vocoder
Simply supply a wave file with some speech (or singing), supply
another wave file with an instrument playing, and voila! Your
instrument will now be modulated by the speech wave and it will
sound as if it's talking. You can vary the effect from very
slight to almost unrecognizable, from smooth and flowing to hard
and rhythmic.
Nolv
Nolv makes a couple of pretty neat freeware DirectX plugins,
check 'em out if you need distortion or a lowpass filter in your
plugin arsenal...
FreeVerb
A professional, studio quality digital reverberator unit which
generates incredible sounding, musical reverb with exceptionally
smooth tails.
db-audioware
db-audioware makes some awesome VST compatible plugins, some for
money and some for free. Either way, they are great plugins and
worth a try.
Synthesizers [ Go to the top ! ]
Visual Orangator
Visual Orangator is continuation of Orangator - a great virtual
synthesizer, but the main difference is that it's modular.
Orangator
Orangator is a sound generator - program that lets you create
sounds without sampling. It is very useful for people who want to
make their own samples, but don't have an analogue synthesizer or
a professional sampler. With Orangator you can make all types of
techno 303-like sounds, synth-strings, sweeps, 808-like drums,
loops and even some acoustic-like bells and organs.
STOMPER
STOMPER Hyperion is a Microsoft Windows software synthesis
program for drum-like sounds. STOMPER Hyperion uses a very simple
synthesis method, mixing pitch-shifting narrow-band noise sources
or pure sine waves (zero bandwidth noise, really) together to one
sound.
GakStoar
alpha
GakStoar Alpha an up to 24 note polyphonic VST2.0 plugin software
synthesizer. With fully recognized velocity and aftertouch (mono
and poly) and several controllers. Very cool, and FREE!
DrumSynth
DrumSynth is a synthesizer for producing drum sounds. It can
reproduce sounds from classic analogue drum machines with new
clarity and programmability as it uses the same building blocks
(oscillators, noise generators and filters), but also make
entirely new drums, pitched sounds and sound effects!
Utilities [ Go to the top ! ]
AJ Sealed Designer
AJ Sealed Designer is a sub-woofer design program for solving the
required calculations for sealed speaker box designs.AJ Sealed
Designer provides accurate theoretical calculations for speaker
and box enclosure parameters with an easy-to-use interface. It
also includes a box calculator to determine the dimensions of a
box-shaped enclosure. Features of the program include information
on the frequency response plots, the volume of the box, the
resonance frequency of the box, half and low roll-off
frequencies, a frequency response plot, and a power response
plot.
Sound Library
Sound Library allows you to easy create and manage multiple
collections of WAV files. Sound Library has the ability to play
and record WAV files, copy, move, rename and delete files. Also,
Sound Library helps you to assign sounds to Windows events
without Microsoft Plus! installed, create sound schemes as
Microsoft Plus! themes or Windows registry script files.
Guitar Sidekick
Guitar Sidekick is a program put together by GuitarsRule.com in
order to accomodate your offline needs. It contains a chords and
scales database, metronome, and more in order for you to enjoy
GuitarsRule.com's tools while you're not online. This program is
very useful to users in countries which charge a 'net tax, or
simply when you can't find a way to make it to this site. Guitar
Sidekick is available for Macs and Windows.
Download MODPlug Tracker
The MODPlug Tracker is a freeware program that allows you to
create any type of music you want. You can use preformatted
samples, or make your own, and mix them together to make your
tunes. Unlike the packaged commercial products that limit your
creativity, the MODPlug Tracker offers you an infinite array of
possibilities by letting you mix up to 64 sounds at once, and add
effects like vibrato, portamento and reverb.
AnalogX DXPad
AnalogX DXPad is a very simple notepad, written inside of a
DirectX Audio plugin. What this gives you the ability to do is
store little notes in the actual data file of the application you
normally use, and that's not all... Since DXPad is a DirectX
plugin, you can have as many different notepads as you need! Best
of all, DXPad has VERY low overhead, one of the testers actually
had 64 DXPad's open and running with a less than 6% CPU
utilization!
AnalogX AutoTune
AutoTune analyses sampled sounds in frequency space to allow you
to tune all of your sounds to the same frequency! Just simply
enter the note you want to use as the base for all of your
sounds, such as C3, and then simply drag your samples onto the
application, and voila! Let AutoTune do the rest! AutoTune can
also be used to convert directories, instead of individual files,
by simply dragging the directory onto the app.
AnalogX Frequency Convertor
One of the most common problems when you're working with an EQ is
identifying exactly what it is you want to tweak. Freq takes some
of the guesswork out of the process, by allowing you to easily
convert between frequencies and notes, which can then be used to
help target specific areas in the mix. Freq also outputs 'cents'
based from A0 (27.5hz), for eq's that do not use named
frequencies, and supports fractional notes +/- 50 cents. This
utility is only available in a GUI form, for Window 95/98/NT.
AnalogX TapTempo
Have you ever wanted to know exactly what BPM (Tempo) a song was
at? Well, there's a better way then guessing, and TapTempo is the
tool to do it. Simply run TapTempo, play the song, and press the
spacebar on every beat; after a few seconds, you'll see the tempo
(along with other info) displayed!
AnalogX TagMaster
TagM lets you edit the ID3 tag in MP3 files, which contains
information like the name of the artist, song, album, etc - but
it doesn't just stop there. TagM also can rename files using any
of the information inside the files (including bps and sample
rate) making it much easier to find the song you're after. Best
of all, it can perform any of these operations on single files,
or every file in your MP3 directory.
RecordIt
RecordIt is a simple little recording tool from Iomega. It has no
editing capabilities, but it does record well, and it is a small
app. If you have the newest Iomega drivers, RecordIt is not
comptible with them, but if you don't use Iomega's zip drivers
and such, give it a try.
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Freewares
HammerHead Rhythm Station
Hammerhead
The MoonFish
Moonfish
The Tuareg (Free version)
Tuareg
ModPlug Tracker
ModPlug Tracker
Voice Tracker
Voice Tracker
CDex
CDex
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Audacity
Audacity lets you edit, mix and manipulate sound
files.
Audacity features include ...
Record sounds from within the program, Import many sound file
formats ( including WAV, AIFF, AU, IRCAM, MP3, Ogg Vorbis ),
Export to WAV or MP3, Supports all common editing operations (
Cut, Copy, Paste ), Mix tracks, Unlimited undo, Unlimited number
of tracks, apply Plug-in effects to any part of a sound, built-in
Amplitude envelope editor, customizable spectrogram mode,
frequency analysis window.
CDex
CDex records CD music tracks directly to .mp3 .wav
and other formats.
CDex features include ...
Record direct to mp3, Recording of multiple CD music tracks,
download track information from local/remote CDDB or
cdplayer.ini, Includes the LAME MP3 encoder and configurable
support for multiple external encoders, Normalization of audio
signal, Indicator for track progress and jitter control. Supports
multiple CD drives. Support for M3U and PLS playlist files.
Deejaysystem Mk-I
Deejaysystem Mk-I lets you mix music like a DJ.
Deejaysystem gives you control over volume, pitch and balance
plus a 'cue' button and all the usual controls. Open as many
Deejaysystem windows as you want (within reason) and mix
different tracks for output to any sound card. Deejaysystem can
play .mp3 .wav and music CDs. Optionally control music output
using the keyboard. Supports command line configuration.
Deejaysystem requires that DirectX
is installed. Deejaysystem is based on the Denon DN2000F and uses
the Xaudio engine for playback.
Juke
Juke lets you create, save and playback playlists or albums of
audio and video files and CD tracks.
Juke features include ...
Play most kinds of audio and video with Microsoft Media Player installed. External
programs may be used for additional media types. Play zipped MOD
files with the built-in Modplug support. Play music CDs ( Juke
can use the CD database of the Windows CD-Player). If you add
Juke to the 'Startup' program group Juke will automatically
restart the playlist where it left off when it was shut down.
Very flexible inteface including ... Multiple Undo/Redo for
playlist operations, Master volume control, Optional automatic
MIDI-Reset, Random play, Configurable Intro-Scan, Repeat and
Shuffle mode, Fault toleran