Music

One of my pursuits of yore and for ever more (in the sense that I stopped short of joining the Conservatorium when I was a kid and still maintain a somewhat active - if diffuse - interest in it).

Resources

Category Date Link Notes
Books 2020 Fundamentals of Piano Practice

Lots of pracice tips (and tuning of physical pianos)

DAWs Non

a lightweight DAW for Linux

2020-01 Waveform Free

free DAW that runs on Linux (including the Raspberry Pi)

2022 Ardour

A cross-platform Open Source DAW that runs on ARM64

Qtractor

A Linux DAW based on Qt

Reaper

A cross-platform Open Source DAW that runs on ARM64

2023 DawDreamer

a Python environment that allows you to host and run VSTs

zrythm

a cross-platform DAW

DIY picoTracker

An RP2040 hardware tracker (PCB)

Editors 2021 MuseScore

likely the best open source music score editor out there

Environments 2022 Glicol

an interesting music language with a Rust audio engine as back-end

Hardware 2023 PicoADK-Hardware

a RP2040 based Audio Development Kit with 32 Bit Audio Output.

Instruments 2019-12 Layers

free orchestral music VST

2020 minibit

a VST for chiptune instruments

SunVox

a cross-platform modular synth that includes a tracker

2020-05 Zebralette

free VST

PianoBook

Free downloadable EXS24 and Kontakt sampled instruments (mostly pianos)

2021 Surge

a pretty popular free VST for Mac, Windows and Linux

2022 sfzinstruments

Various public domain instruments in SFZ format

2023 GrandOrgue

a sample-based church organ simulator

vmpc-juce

an MPC emulator front-end writte in JUCE

visualtracker

an open source modular sequencer with graphical user interface based on Pure Data

Triple Cheese

a free VST synth

Pendulate
Libraries popsicle

a Python library that tries to wrap JUCE

pedalboard

a Python library for working with audio, also with VST support

webaudiofont

A browser-based GM set of musical instruments

Patches 2021 MobileMusic Pro Free Packs

covers multiple iOS apps

PatchStorage

Patches and samples for a number of iOS apps, including Moog synths.

Northern Film Orchestra Orchestral Swells

a set of orchestral samples for Kontakt and DecentSampler

Samples 2020 BBC sound effects

copyrighted but free for personal/educational use

2021 FreeSound

Creative Commons licensed samples and loops

2023 sampled

A collection of sampled instruments, loops and impulse responses with open licenses

Scores 2019-06 El Atril

free sheet music

Mutopia

Free classical and contemporary sheet music

2020 IMSLP

The Petrucci Public Domain Music Library

The Mayron Cole Piano Method

has a number of simple piano scores for kids

Sequencers 2022 Ossia Score

a sequencer for audio-visual artists, designed to create interactive shows leveraging DMX, OSC, MIDI, etc.

2023 Midinous

a node-based MIDI sequencer for generative music

Synths 2020 Vital

MPE support

2021 Ensembles

a FluidSynth-based arrangement workstation for Linux

MT-32 Pi

a baremetal MIDI synthesizer for the Raspberry Pi 3 or above, based on Munt, FluidSynth and Circle.

Bespoke Synth

a cross-platform software modular synthesizer with a node-based UI

2022 MicroDexed

Dexed for the Teensy 3.x/4.x microcontroller

MicroDexed-touch

Dexed for the Teensy 4.x microcontroller, with a touchscreen UI, a sequencer and a tracker

MiniDexed

Dexed running on baremetal Raspberry Pi

teensy-juno

a Teensy 3.x/4.x-based polyphonic synthesiser, modeled after the Juno 106

sfizz

A sample based VST instrument that takes SFZ files

Helm

a free cross-platform software synth that can be used as a VST

Tools 2019-06 Musical Chord Progression Arpeggiator
2020 NeuralDX7

a neural network that generates DX7 sysex patches

ADLplug

a VST that provides a number of FM synth plugins to emulate YMF26XX chips

RNNoise VST

no builds for macOS

stochas

a plugin/VST for stochastic pattern generation

Virtual MIDI Piano Keyboard

useful for monitoring device or as a source image for video overlays

Blue Cat Freeware Plugins

a set of free VST/AUs for both Mac and Windows, including a frequency analyzer

2021 alda

a text-based programming language for music composition

Elk Audio OS

A Linux distro with a low-latency kernel and Raspberry Pi support for audio HATs

nanostudio-2-sample

SFZ to Obsidian patch converter

pianoplayer

a fingering generator for sheet music

2022 JJazzLab-X

Automatic backing track generator

2024 Patchbox OS

a Raspberry Pi OS for audio projects

Trackers 2022 deflemask

another tracker, also available for iOS and Android. Has very little MIDI capability and no Audio Unit support.

schismtracker

a reimplementation of Impulse Tracker

furnace

another modern tracker for macOS, Linux and Windows

2023 nitrotracker

A Fasttracker II style tracker for the Nintendo DS

bintracker

a cross-platform chiptune music tracker written in Chicken Scheme

PLEBTracker

a terminal-based tracker

furnace

a multi-system chiptune tracker

2024 LittleGPTracker

a fork of the original LGPT

Tutorial 2021 Learning Music

One of Ableton’s great online tutorials on the basics of electronic music

Learning Synths

Another Ableton online tutorials on the basics of electronic music

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