Comparison of free software for audio
Technologies
Table:
Name

Creator

Linux?

macOS?

Unix?

Windows?

Note

Advanced Linux Sound Architecture (ALSA)

Yes

the sound card driver and management system in the Linux kernel

aRts

Yes

an audio programming API and sound server for general desktop, no longer in development

DSSI

Yes

a plugin architecture for software synthesizers

GStreamer

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

a graph-based multimedia framework

JACK Audio Connection Kit (JACK)

JACK Team, Paul Davis

Yes

Yes (JACK OS X)

Yes (jackdmp)

a sound server for integration of general and low-latency pro audio applications, including timebase transport

Linux Audio Developers Simple Plugin API (LADSPA)

Yes

a plugin architecture for digital signal processing

Open Sound System

Yes

Yes

a sound card management and driver system for Unix operating systems

PulseAudio

Yes

Yes

Yes (Solaris, FreeBSD, NetBSD)

Yes

a sound server for general desktop and multihost LAN applications

sndio

Yes

No

Yes (FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD)

No

sound and MIDI server

Using the table and the context snippets listed below.

Answer the following question: What are the notes of the software that is an audio framework that is no longer under development ? Return your answer as JSON: {"answer": "YOUR ANSWER"}. Avoid adding external knowledge.

Linux ( /ˈlɪnəks/ ( listen ) LIN-əks ) is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel , an operating system kernel first released on September 17 , 1991 , by Linus Torvalds . Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution . Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries , many of which are provided by the GNU Project . Many Linux distributions use the word Linux in their name , but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software , causing some controversy . Popular Linux distributions include Debian , Fedora , and Ubuntu . Commercial distributions include Red Hat Enterprise Linux and SUSE Linux Enterprise Server . Desktop Linux distributions include a windowing system such as X11 or Wayland , and a desktop environment such as GNOME or KDE Plasma . Distributions intended for servers may omit graphics altogether , or include a solution stack such as LAMP . Because Linux is freely redistributable , anyone may create a distribution for any purpose . Linux was originally developed for personal computers based on the Intel x86 architecture , but has since been ported to more platforms than any other operating system . Linux is the leading operating system on servers and other big iron systems such as mainframe computers , and the only OS used on TOP500 supercomputers ( since November 2017 , having gradually eliminated all competitors ) . It is used by around 2.3 percent of desktop computers .
Advanced Linux Sound Architecture ( ALSA ) is a software framework and part of the Linux kernel that provides an application programming interface ( API ) for sound card device drivers . Some of the goals of the ALSA project at its inception were automatic configuration of sound-card hardware and graceful handling of multiple sound devices in a system . ALSA is released under the GNU General Public License ( GPL ) and the GNU Lesser General Public License ( LGPL ) . The sound servers PulseAudio and JACK ( low-latency professional-grade audio editing and mixing ) , the higher-level abstraction APIs OpenAL , SDL audio , etc . work on top of ALSA and implemented sound card device drivers . On Linux systems , ALSA succeeded the older Open Sound System ( OSS ) .
A sound card ( also known as an audio card ) is an internal expansion card that provides input and output of audio signals to and from a computer under control of computer programs . The term sound card is also applied to external audio interfaces used for professional audio applications . Sound functionality can also be integrated onto the motherboard , using components similar to those found on plug-in cards . The integrated sound system is often still referred to as a sound card . Sound processing hardware is also present on modern video cards with HDMI to output sound along with the video using that connector ; previously they used a S/PDIF connection to the motherboard or sound card . Typical uses of sound cards or sound card functionality include providing the audio component for multimedia applications such as music composition , editing video or audio , presentation , education and entertainment ( games ) and video projection . Sound cards are also used for computer-based communication such as voice over IP and teleconferencing .
The Linux kernel is a free and open-source , monolithic , Unix-like operating system kernel . The Linux family of operating systems is based on this kernel and deployed on both traditional computer systems such as personal computers and servers , usually in the form of Linux distributions , and on various embedded devices such as routers , wireless access points , PBXes , set-top boxes , FTA receivers , smart TVs , PVRs , and NAS appliances . While the adoption of the Linux kernel in desktop computer operating system is low , Linux-based operating systems dominate nearly every other segment of computing , from mobile devices to mainframes . Since November 2017 [ update ] , all of the world 's 500 most powerful supercomputers run Linux . The Android operating system for tablet computers , smartphones , and smartwatches also uses the Linux kernel . The Linux kernel was conceived and created in 1991 by Linus Torvalds for his personal computer and with no cross-platform intentions , but has since expanded to support a huge array of computer architectures , many more than other kernels do . Linux rapidly attracted developers and users who adopted it as the kernel for other free software projects , notably the GNU Operating System , which was created as a free , non-proprietary operating system , and based on UNIX as a by-product of the fallout of the Unix wars . The Linux kernel API , the application programming interface ( API ) through which user programs interact with the kernel , is meant to be very stable and to not break userspace programs ( some programs , such as those with GUIs , rely on other APIs as well ) . As part of the kernel 's functionality , device drivers control the hardware ; mainlined ( included in the kernel ) device drivers are also meant to be very stable . However , the interface between the kernel and loadable kernel modules ( LKMs ) , unlike in many other kernels and operating systems , is not meant to be very stable by design . The Linux kernel , developed by contributors worldwide , is a prominent example of free and open source software . Day-to-day development discussions take place on the Linux kernel mailing list ( LKML ) .
aRts ( which stands for analog real time synthesizer ) is an audio framework that is no longer under development . It was best known for previously being used in K Desktop Environment 2 and 3 to simulate an analog synthesizer . A key component of aRts was the sound server which mixes several sound streams in realtime . The sound server , called artsd ( d for daemon ) , was also utilized as the standard sound server for K Desktop Environment 2-3 . However , the sound server was not dependent on K Desktop Environment and can be used in other projects . It was a direct competitor to PulseAudio , another sound server , and an indirect competitor to the Enlightened Sound Daemon ( ESD ) . It is now common to use PulseAudio instead of artsd . The aRts platform also includes aRts Builder - an application for building custom layouts and configurations for audio mixers , sequencers , synthesizers and other audio schema via a user-friendly graphical user interface . aRts is free software , distributed under the terms of the GNU General Public License .
A sound server is software that manages the use of and access to audio devices ( usually a sound card ) . It commonly runs as a background process .
Disposable Soft Synth Interface ( DSSI ) is a virtual instrument ( software synthesizer ) plugin architecture for use by music sequencer applications . It was designed for applications running under Linux , although there is nothing specific to Linux in the interface itself . It is distributed under the terms of a combination of GNU Lesser General Public License and some BSD licenses , all of which are free software licences .
A software synthesizer , also known as a softsynth or software instrument , is a computer program or plug-in that generates digital audio , usually for music . Computer software that can create sounds or music is not new , but advances in processing speed now allow softsynths to accomplish the same tasks that previously required the dedicated hardware of a conventional synthesizer . Softsynths are usually cheaper and more portable than dedicated hardware , and easier to interface with other music software such as music sequencers .
GStreamer is a pipeline-based multimedia framework that links together a wide variety of media processing systems to complete complex workflows . For instance , GStreamer can be used to build a system that reads files in one format , processes them , and exports them in another . The formats and processes can be changed in a plug and play fashion . GStreamer supports a wide variety of media-handling components , including simple audio playback , audio and video playback , recording , streaming and editing . The pipeline design serves as a base to create many types of multimedia applications such as video editors , transcoders , streaming media broadcasters and media players . It is designed to work on a variety of operating systems , e.g . Linux kernel-based operating systems , the BSDs , OpenSolaris , Android , macOS , iOS , Windows , OS/400 . GStreamer is free and open-source software subject to the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License ( LGPL ) and is being hosted at freedesktop.org .
JACK Audio Connection Kit ( or JACK ; a recursive acronym ) is a professional sound server daemon that provides real-time , low-latency connections for both audio and MIDI data between applications that use its API . JACK has been developed by a community of open-source developers led by Paul Davis ( who won an Open Source Award in 2004 for this work ) and has been a key piece of infrastructure and the de facto standard for professional audio software on Linux since its inception in 2002 . The server is free software , licensed under the GNU GPL , while the library is licensed under the more permissive GNU LGPL .
A time base generators , or timebase , is a special type of function generator , an electronic circuit that generates a varying voltage to produce a particular waveform . Time base generators produce very high frequency sawtooth waves specifically designed to deflect the beam in cathode ray tube ( CRT ) smoothly across the face of the tube and then return it to its starting position . Time bases are used by radar systems to determine range to a target , by comparing the current location along the time base to the time of arrival of radio echoes . Analog television systems using CRTs had two time bases , one for deflecting the beam horizontally in a rapid movement , and another pulling it down the screen 60 times per second . Oscilloscopes often have several time bases , but these may be more flexible function generators able to produce many waveforms as well as a simple time base .
LADSPA is an acronym for Linux Audio Developer 's Simple Plugin API . It is an application programming interface ( API ) standard for handling audio filters and audio signal processing effects , licensed under the GNU Lesser General Public License ( LGPL ) . It was originally designed for Linux through consensus on the Linux Audio Developers Mailing List , but works on a variety of other platforms . It is used in many free audio software projects and there is a wide range of LADSPA plug-ins available . LADSPA exists primarily as a header file written in the programming language C. There are many audio plugin standards and most major modern software synthesizers and sound editors support a variety . The best known standard is probably Steinberg Cubase 's Virtual Studio Technology . LADSPA is unusual in that it attempts to provide only the Greatest Common Divisor of other standards . This means that its scope is limited , but it is simple and plugins written using it are easy to embed in many other programs . The standard has changed little with time , so compatibility problems are rare . DSSI extends LADSPA to cover instrument plugins . LV2 is a successor , based on LADSPA and DSSI , but permitting easy extensibility , allowing custom user interfaces , MIDI messages , and custom extensions .
A digital signal processor ( DSP ) is a specialized microprocessor ( or a SIP block ) chip , with its architecture optimized for the operational needs of digital signal processing . DSPs are fabricated on MOS integrated circuit chips . They are widely used in audio signal processing , telecommunications , digital image processing , radar , sonar and speech recognition systems , and in common consumer electronic devices such as mobile phones , disk drives and high-definition television ( HDTV ) products . The goal of a DSP is usually to measure , filter or compress continuous real-world analog signals . Most general-purpose microprocessors can also execute digital signal processing algorithms successfully , but may not be able to keep up with such processing continuously in real-time . Also , dedicated DSPs usually have better power efficiency , thus they are more suitable in portable devices such as mobile phones because of power consumption constraints . DSPs often use special memory architectures that are able to fetch multiple data or instructions at the same time . DSPs often also implement data compression technology , with the discrete cosine transform ( DCT ) in particular being a widely used compression technology in DSPs .
The Open Sound System ( OSS ) is an interface for making and capturing sound in Unix and Unix-like operating systems . It is based on standard Unix devices system calls ( i.e . POSIX read , write , ioctl , etc. ) . The term also sometimes refers to the software in a Unix kernel that provides the OSS interface ; it can be thought of as a device driver ( or a collection of device drivers ) for sound controller hardware . The goal of OSS is to allow the writing of sound-based applications that are agnostic of the underlying sound hardware . OSS was created by Hannu Savolainen and is distributed under four license options , three of which are free software licences , thus making OSS free software .
Unix ( /ˈjuːnɪks/ ; trademarked as UNIX ) is a family of multitasking , multiuser computer operating systems that derive from the original AT & T Unix , development starting in the 1970s at the Bell Labs research center by Ken Thompson , Dennis Ritchie , and others . Initially intended for use inside the Bell System , AT & T licensed Unix to outside parties in the late 1970s , leading to a variety of both academic and commercial Unix variants from vendors including University of California , Berkeley ( BSD ) , Microsoft ( Xenix ) , IBM ( AIX ) , and Sun Microsystems ( Solaris ) . In the early 1990s , AT & T sold its rights in Unix to Novell , which then sold its Unix business to the Santa Cruz Operation ( SCO ) in 1995 . The UNIX trademark passed to The Open Group , a neutral industry consortium , which allows the use of the mark for certified operating systems that comply with the Single UNIX Specification ( SUS ) . Unix systems are characterized by a modular design that is sometimes called the Unix philosophy : the operating system provides a set of simple tools that each performs a limited , well-defined function , with a unified filesystem ( the Unix filesystem ) as the main means of communication , and a shell scripting and command language ( the Unix shell ) to combine the tools to perform complex workflows . Unix distinguishes itself from its predecessors as the first portable operating system : almost the entire operating system is written in the C programming language , thus allowing Unix to reach numerous platforms .
An operating system ( OS ) is system software that manages computer hardware , software resources , and provides common services for computer programs . Time-sharing operating systems schedule tasks for efficient use of the system and may also include accounting software for cost allocation of processor time , mass storage , printing , and other resources . For hardware functions such as input and output and memory allocation , the operating system acts as an intermediary between programs and the computer hardware , although the application code is usually executed directly by the hardware and frequently makes system calls to an OS function or is interrupted by it . Operating systems are found on many devices that contain a computer - from cellular phones and video game consoles to web servers and supercomputers . The dominant desktop operating system is Microsoft Windows with a market share of around 82.74% . macOS by Apple Inc. is in second place ( 13.23% ) , and the varieties of Linux are collectively in third place ( 1.57% ) . In the mobile ( including smartphones and tablets ) sector , Google Android 's share is up to 70% in the year 2017 . According to third quarter 2016 data , Android 's share on smartphones is dominant with 87.5 percent with also a growth rate of 10.3 percent per year , followed by Apple 's iOS with 12.1 percent with per year decrease in market share of 5.2 percent , while other operating systems amount to just 0.3 percent . Linux distributions are dominant in the server and supercomputing sectors . Other specialized classes of operating systems , such as embedded and real-time systems , exist for many applications .
PulseAudio is a network-capable sound server program distributed via the freedesktop.org project . It runs mainly on Linux , various BSD distributions such as FreeBSD and OpenBSD , macOS , as well as Illumos distributions and the Solaris operating system . Microsoft Windows was previously supported via the MinGW toolchain ( implementation of the GNU toolchain , which includes various tools such as GCC and binutils ) . The Windows port has not been updated since 2011 , however . PulseAudio is free and open-source software , and is licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1 . It was created in 2004 under the name Polypaudio but was renamed in 2006 to PulseAudio .
sndio is the software layer of the OpenBSD operating system that manages sound cards and MIDI ports . It provides an optional sound server and a documented application programming interface to access either the server or the audio and MIDI hardware in a uniform way . sndio is designed to work for desktop applications , but pays special attention to synchronization mechanisms and reliability required by music applications .
MIDI ( /ˈmɪdi/ ; an acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface ) is a technical standard that describes a communications protocol , digital interface , and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments , computers , and related audio devices for playing , editing and recording music . The specification originates in a paper published by Dave Smith and Chet Wood then of Sequential Circuits at the October 1981 Audio Engineering Society conference in New York City then titled Universal Synthesizer Interface .