FOSSPicks
FOSSPicks
After building a 3D printer last month, Graham's home is now filled with cup holders, phone holders, cable holders, and tiny PLA boats. This month, Graham explores Zrythm, Mumble 1.3, NoteKit, Kirogi, monolith, pastel, Nu Shell, PacVim, Stunt Car Racer Remake, and more!
Digital audio workstation
Zrythm
New audio applications on Linux are few and far between, because creating one is an arduous task that often takes years with little prospect of reward. We've been lucky over recent years with the release of the excellent (and proprietary) Bitwig, Reaper, and Tracktion 7, but there's been very little in the open source space. Which is why Zrythm is such a pleasant surprise, arriving seemingly out of nowhere as an already comprehensive audio recording, mastering, and MIDI sequencing application. It is considered an alpha release by its developer, so this is early days for development. The app does sometimes crash, and it's a little picky when you're not using JACK, but Zrythm is already capable of taking you from composition to completion in an application that feels very much like its commercial counterparts.
The first thing you notice in Zrythm (other than that the word "rhythm" is obviously a tricky word to spell) is that it has a beautifully modern and dynamic GTK+3 user interface. The application operates like a DAW, such as Cubase, but its fantastic UI design makes it feel more like Bitwig Studio, Ableton, or Renoise. This is because it's split into regions that share similar functionality. The raw track list on the left is where you can add audio and MIDI tracks, as well as groups and a special "chord" track. On the right is the media viewer, which can list LV2 plugins, instruments, and audio files. The plugins themselves are distinguished between audio processors and instruments by their color, and you add plugins to your project by simply dragging them onto the track or into a blank area to create a new track. At the bottom is the clip or section editor, which can be tabbed to show the same kind of vertical mixer you get in Ableton or Bitwig. This then allows you to drag and drop effects or dynamically control the volume of a track across the mix.
Zrythm promises unlimited automation, which means you can adjust the value of almost every parameter over time. Automation data is beautifully drawn in the audio track timeline, as is the audio and MIDI data. These can be edited in the clip view, which is fast and responsive, and feels better integrated than the MIDI editor in something like Ardour, for example. There are also plans for lots of modulation options that will change internal parameters with something like an envelope or an LFO. This could be much like the latest developments in Bitwig, where you connect control signals between different sections of the audio engine. But even without these advanced features, and with the obvious caveat that it's currently too unstable and lacking in certain important features for production work, Zrythm already comes together as a slick package, and it is one of the best ways of composing music and exporting the audio files on Linux.
Project Website
Voice chat software
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
NVIDIA Released Driver for Upcoming NVIDIA 560 GPU for Linux
Not only has NVIDIA released the driver for its upcoming CPU series, it's the first release that defaults to using open-source GPU kernel modules.
-
OpenMandriva Lx 24.07 Released
If you’re into rolling release Linux distributions, OpenMandriva ROME has a new snapshot with a new kernel.
-
Kernel 6.10 Available for General Usage
Linus Torvalds has released the 6.10 kernel and it includes significant performance increases for Intel Core hybrid systems and more.
-
TUXEDO Computers Releases InfinityBook Pro 14 Gen9 Laptop
Sporting either AMD or Intel CPUs, the TUXEDO InfinityBook Pro 14 is an extremely compact, lightweight, sturdy powerhouse.
-
Google Extends Support for Linux Kernels Used for Android
Because the LTS Linux kernel releases are so important to Android, Google has decided to extend the support period beyond that offered by the kernel development team.
-
Linux Mint 22 Stable Delayed
If you're anxious about getting your hands on the stable release of Linux Mint 22, it looks as if you're going to have to wait a bit longer.
-
Nitrux 3.5.1 Available for Install
The latest version of the immutable, systemd-free distribution includes an updated kernel and NVIDIA driver.
-
Debian 12.6 Released with Plenty of Bug Fixes and Updates
The sixth update to Debian "Bookworm" is all about security mitigations and making adjustments for some "serious problems."
-
Canonical Offers 12-Year LTS for Open Source Docker Images
Canonical is expanding its LTS offering to reach beyond the DEB packages with a new distro-less Docker image.
-
Plasma Desktop 6.1 Released with Several Enhancements
If you're a fan of Plasma Desktop, you should be excited about this new point release.