The best free programs for musicians

Many Ubuntu or GNU / Linux users in general who are themselves musicians, have ever wondered if there are real alternatives for proprietary programs such as Garageband, Guitar Rig or Guitar Pro. In this post we will see some of the best alternatives for musicians that use GNU / Linux.

With the programs that we will analyze you will be able to record your instruments live or virtually, read sheet music, tune your guitar, and more things that maybe you didn't think you could also do on GNU / Linux.

Before we get down to the programs, we'll see how we can connect our guitar, bass or any electric string instrument to our PC with GNU / Linux (to be able to record it), a fact that is essential to be able to use any of the programs that we will analyze below.

You can usually record your guitar by connecting a microphone on the dedicated PC input, but good mics are very expensive. That is why I will explain a cheaper way to connect the guitar, bass or string instrument you want to the PC without spending more than € 5.

For this we will need a dual stereo audio cable, which we can find on ebay from € 1 and a 3mm Jack to 5mm Jack adapter (also on ebay from € 1), which will be used to connect the double audio cable to the output of the amplifier or directly to the input of the guitar. The main idea is to have a cable that we can connect to the PC (at the Line-In input) at one end, and to our guitar at the other, using the adapter.

Once we have connected our instrument to the PC, it would be very useful to be able to listen to the instrument through speakers or headphones live as we play it. To do this we execute the following command in the terminal:

pacat -r –latency-msec = 1 -d alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo | pacat -p –latency-msec = 1 -d alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo

If we want to stop the execution of the process started by this last command, we only have to press Ctrl + C. Also, if we want that the main process of the terminal does not go to the blocked state, that is, if we want to continue using the same terminal and that at the same time the previous process continues with its execution in the background, we only have to execute the same command but with an "&" at the end. In the following way:

pacat -r –latency-msec = 1 -d alsa_input.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo | pacat -p –latency-msec = 1 -d alsa_output.pci-0000_00_1b.0.analog-stereo &

NOTE: Both lines are part of the same command.

Once we have configured our PC as if it were an amplifier, we will be able to use the programs that we see below.

gtkGuiTune

As its name suggests, GTKGUITUNE is a virtual guitar tuner, although it also works for him with. CFor to install GTKGUITUNE we can do it by executing the following command in the terminal:

sudo apt-get install gtkguitune

Guitar Pro

Guitar Pro is a score editor guitar. With Guitar Pro we can learn to play the guitar dynamically and quickly, since we can see the score of the song we want while we listen to said song, in addition to a series of diagrams on how to perform chords.

Despite that not freeThanks to the demand of GNU / Linux users, especially Ubuntu, Guitar Pro now has a trial version for GNU / Linux what can we download here (also a paid version that we can purchase after downloading the trial version). Although the positive part is that as they say on their website, the trial version is not limited in time but in functionality.

To install it, we must enter the link that I have provided previously and after entering our email, click on the download button. Then we will receive an email with a link that will take us to the page where we can download the program. As we can see, we will download a .deb package that, once downloaded, we can install it with the command:

sudo dpkg -i package_name.deb

tux-guitar

Tux Guitar is the free alternative to Guitar Pro. With Tux Guitar you can learn to play the guitar or learn to play new songs through its system of scores and tablatures that you can see in real time, while listening to the song. Come on, the same as in Guitar Pro.

In addition, Tux Guitar supports the file formats of power tab, Guitar Pro, and tux-guitar. It is capable of importing MIDI files and exporting in MIDI, PDF, and ASCII.

Like GTKGUITUNE, Tux Guitar is available in the Ubuntu repositories, so we can to install with the command:

sudo apt-get install tuxguitar

Audacity

Audacity is one of the master programs for multitrack recording, GPL licensed. With Audacity you will be able to record the audio input and join several tracks to create your own song, as well as being able to import audio files (.mp3, .midi and .raw). You can also add effects to the tracks that we have recorded or imported.

To install Audacity you can also do it with the command:

sudo apt-get install audacity

Hydrogen

With this program you will be able to compose your own virtual drum lines. Hydrogen has several types of drums of all musical styles that you can download and import from the same application.

In Hydrogen you will find two modes of operation. The mode pattern (pattern), or mode song (song). With the first you can edit and play your drum patterns that you can add to the timeline of the song. On the other hand, with the song mode (song) you will be able to play in a linear way all the patterns that you have added to said timeline, that is, to play the song that you have been creating based on patterns.

We can install it with:

sudo apt-get install hydrogen

Muse

Muse is a audio sequencer 100% Free Software that also allows us record and edit audio on multiple tracks. It is a great alternative to DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) type programs such as Cubase, FL Studio or ProTools.

Some of its most important features are:

• Audio and MIDI support
• Complete automation system for audio and MIDI
• Support for MIDI instrument definition files (.idf)
• Custom keyboard shortcuts
• Support for "Drag and Drop" events
• Dedicated MIDI editors
• Real-time editing
• Unlimited number of editors and undo / redo records
• LASH enabled
• XML-based project and configuration files

You can install Muse like the rest of the programs with:

sudo apt-get install

As we have seen in this post, GNU / Linux is also a very complete system in terms of music editing and recording. Although in reality there are many more programs dedicated to audio editing, recording and sequencing. We hope that if you are a musician and you use GNU / Linux, this post has helped you.