LinuxSampler is music sampler software under active development , aiming to provide a pure software audio sampler with professional grade features comparable to both hardware and commercial software samplers, as well as to introduce new features not yet available by other samplers. Much of LinuxSampler is

free software Free software or libre software is computer software distributed under terms that allow users to run the software for any purpose as well as to study, change, and distribute it and any adapted versions. Free software is a matter of liberty, no ...

, but commercial reuse of some, such as the back-end, is restricted.

Concept

LinuxSampler was designed as a sampler back-end, decoupled from any user interface. It provides a native C++

API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software Interface (computing), interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standa ...

as well as a network interface using an

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based protocol called LSCP for controlling the sampler and managing sampler sessions. Also, there are already two convenient frontends for LinuxSampler, QSampler and JSampler. Due to the decoupled design the sampler can be controlled with the GUI frontend(s) even from another computer, probably even running another OS like Windows or OS X. SMP and cluster support is planned for future releases. There is a graphical instrument editor called gigedit, based on the GUI library

GTK+ GTK (formerly GIMP ToolKit and GTK+) is a free and open-source cross-platform widget toolkit for creating graphical user interfaces (GUIs). It is licensed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License, allowing both free and proprie ...

, which can be used to edit and create Gigasampler format instruments and can either be used as a stand-alone application or in conjunction with LinuxSampler. The latter case allows to play and edit instruments at the same time, making all modifications with gigedit immediately audible, without having to reload the instruments into the sampler.

Platforms

LinuxSampler, as the name indicates, was originally conceived to run on

Linux Linux ( or ) 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 as a Linux distribution, which ...

, but thanks to the abstraction of audio and MIDI drivers and platform dependent functions, the sampler was successfully ported to

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

OS X macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

and

FreeBSD FreeBSD is a free and open-source Unix-like operating system descended from the Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD), which was based on Research Unix. The first version of FreeBSD was released in 1993. In 2005, FreeBSD was the most popular ...

. The Windows version of LinuxSampler can work in standalone mode providing ASIO audio output and MME MIDI input, and as a VSTi plugin providing full integration with VST sequencers. The OS X version supports jackd audio output and CoreMIDI input. The Audio Unit interface (AU plugin) is in beta.

Goals

It is planned to support all common sampler formats in LinuxSampler, but at the moment the work is concentrated on the Gigasampler format. Beside that, the goal is to design a new, sophisticated sampler format, more powerful and more flexible compared to any sampler format currently available in the world. There is a feature list with more information about the current development plans available.

Licensing

Most components are distributed as

, under either the

GNU General Public License The GNU General Public License (GNU GPL or simply GPL) is a series of widely used free software licenses that guarantee end users the Four Freedoms (Free software), four freedoms to run, study, share, and modify the software. The license was th ...

or the GNU Lesser General Public License. However, the

software license A software license is a legal instrument (usually by way of contract law, with or without printed material) governing the use or redistribution of software. Under United States copyright law, all software is copyright protected, in both source ...

of the sampler backend prohibits commercial use. For commercial use, permission and terms must be sought from the developers. The backend is thus not free software. The ban on commercial use does not prohibit the use of LinuxSampler for commercial music production, which is explicitly allowed.

References

External links

* {{Official website, www.linuxsampler.org
Article about LinuxSampler
on

Linux Journal ''Linux Journal'' (''LJ'') is an American monthly technology magazine originally published by Specialized System Consultants, Inc. (SSC) in Seattle, Washington since 1994. In December 2006 the publisher changed to Belltown Media, Inc. in Houston ...