Open Source music-editing programs on Linux like Apple's GarageBand?

Ask Fedora
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Hi all, does anyone have suggestions or tips on Open Source applications for creating and editing music?

The example I have to point to is something like Apple’s GarageBand that they bundle with iLife (if they still call it that). It has a fairly straightforward interface for layering multiple tracks together into a single recording:

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I was curious if there was anything quite like this for Fedora. I am familiar with things like Mixxx in RPM Fusion, but this is more for DJing than it is for mixing and recording new music.

I would appreciate any recommendations or pointers on what to try out! I had a difficult time scraping the Internet for up-to-date recommendations on this.

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Try audacity
Not quite that graphical but great for editing and recording

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Thanks. Funny, I’ve always known about Audacity but I didn’t think of it here. I’ll give it a spin in the mean time and see if I can get comfy with it.

But if anyone else knows of options out there, I’m happy to hear them too. :slightly_smiling_face:

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You may want to try LMMS.
It’s more similar to FLStudio, but it has a lot of features.

Audacity can’t do the sequencing or automation, and LMMS isn’t great at track editing, but together, they make a fairly complete software set.

You may also want to consider setting up Jack audio alongside, or in place of PulseAudio, to improve audio latency.

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I was taking a quick look at what Ubuntu Studio is including in their distribution, and I think what’s worth mentioning is:

  • Ardour (full-featured DAW, see http://ardour.org/)
  • Qtractor – midi capable DAW
  • Hydrogen – Drum machine / Sequencer
  • Yoshimi – Software Synthesize

See
https://ubuntustudio.org/tour/audio/

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What about the packages included in the Fedora Jam spin?

https://labs.fedoraproject.org/en/jam/

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I will think PipeWire makes this much simpler now. Starting to poke around with LMMS again and it seems promising.

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