The Software
"Software is like sex: it's better when it's free."
- Linus Torvalds
AV Linux
AV Linux is a versatile, Debian-based distribution featuring a large collection of audio and video production software. Additionally, it also includes a custom kernel with IRQ threading enabled for low-latency audio performance. AV Linux can be run directly from a live DVD or a live USB storage device, though it can also be installed on a hard disk and used as a general-purpose operating system for everyday tasks.
AV Linux is essentially a collected and combined showcase of the phenomenal work of Open-Source and Commercial Audio developers from all over the planet and celebrates and presents their work organized in an easy-to-use fashion. In addition to a hardware-friendly efficient XFCE4 Desktop a low-latency Audio environment is provided with a custom "RT" kernel and JACK Audio Connection Kit.
Ardour
Ardour is a hard disk recorder and digital audio workstation application..
Recording
Ardour's recording abilities are limited by only the hardware it is run on; there are no built in limits in the software. When recording on top of existing material, Ardour can do latency compensation, positioning the recorded material where it was intended to be when recording it. Monitoring options include monitoring with external hardware (a feature dependent on sound card support), monitoring with Ardour itself, and monitoring with JACK Audio Connection Kit (JACK). Monitoring with Ardour makes it possible to apply plug-in effects to the signal while it is recorded in real-time, although with some unavoidable, yet ideally unnoticeable, amount of latency.
Using the audio server JACK, Ardour can record both from the audio card and JACK-compatible software concurrently.
Mixing
Ardour supports an arbitrary number of tracks and buses through an "anything to anywhere" routing system. All gain, panning and plug-in parameters can be automated. All sample data is mixed and maintained internally in 32-bit floating point format.
Editing
Ardour supports dragging, trimming, splitting and timestretching recorded regions with sample-level resolution and has a possibility to layer regions. It includes a crossfade editor and beat detection. Ardour has unlimited undo/redo and a snapshot feature for storing the current state of a session to a file for future reference.
Mastering
Ardour can be used as an audio mastering environment. Its integration with JACK makes it possible to use mastering tools such as JAMin to process the audio data. The output of Ardour's mixer can be sent to JAMin and/or any other JACK-aware audio-processing software, and the output processed by these programmes can be recorded using recording software, Ardour included. Ardour can also export TOC and CUE files, which allows for the creation of audio CDs.
Calf Studio Gear
Calf Studio Gear is available exclusively for LINUX-based operating systems and runs as a stand-alone effect rack connectable through Jack sound server or as plug-ins in every audio host that is able to fire up LV2 compilant devices.
Focused on high-quality sound processing and a highly usable interface Calf studio gear is designed to give you a professional production environment for your open source operating system.
Guitarix
Guitarix is a free software for Linux that mimics the behavior and capabilities of a guitar amp . In addition to amplifier emulation, Guitarix offers a variety of effects, including a subparametric graphic equalizer , compressor , distortion , overdrive , echo , chorus , phaser , flanger , reverb and wah-wah . In the amplifier module different tube and loudspeaker emulations can be selected.
Mixxx
Mixxx is a DJ Automation and digital DJ performance application and includes many features common to digital DJ solutions as well as some unique ones: It natively supports advanced MIDI and HID DJ controllers.
Mixxx can read most popular audio formats, including MP3, Ogg Vorbis, Opus, WAVE, AIFF and FLAC. v1.8 introduces a plug-in system to be able to read other formats, including patent-encumbered ones whose decoders cannot legally be distributed in binary form with Mixxx such as M4A/AAC/MP4.
Turntables and CDJ media players can control Mixxx with the timecode control sub-system which is built on xwax. Like xwax, Mixxx supports timecode vinyl made by several manufacturers.
TouchDAW
TouchDAW is a full-featured DAW control and general purpose MIDI control app for Android tablets and phones. It allows you to remote control popular digital audio workstation software as known from standard hardware control surfaces.
Besides control surface emulation, the app brings a number of general purpose MIDI controllers, such as a multitouch keyboard, multitouch launchpads, a MIDI mixer, configureable xy-controller pads and the possibility to link a phone's sensors to MIDI controllers.