Open-source alternatives to BlackHole

This project is a system audio processor and digital signal processing engine designed to enhance system-wide sound volume and clarity. It functions as a high-fidelity sound enhancer and parametric audio equalizer that shapes the sonic profile and timbre of audio across all output devices. The software utilizes a virtual audio device driver to intercept system audio streams at the kernel level, redirecting them through a processing pipeline. This allows for real-time sound processing and low-latency audio filtration to minimize the delay between sound generation and output. The system covers

EarTrumpet is a desktop utility for the Windows operating system that provides centralized control over system-wide audio. It functions as a taskbar-based interface for managing playback devices, monitoring active audio streams, and adjusting volume levels across the desktop environment. The application enables granular control by allowing users to adjust volume levels for individual running processes independently. It also supports multi-device audio routing, which permits the assignment of specific hardware output destinations to individual applications. These capabilities are facilitated t

eqMac is a system-wide audio equalizer and volume mixer for macOS. It utilizes a virtual audio driver to intercept system output, allowing users to adjust frequency response, boost system volume, and control independent volume levels for different running software applications. The project functions as an audio unit plugin host, integrating third-party plugins into the system audio stream for professional effects. It also includes a local web server that enables remote audio control via HTTP, allowing users to modify audio parameters from a mobile device or other external hardware on the same

FFmpeg is a cross-platform multimedia framework designed for the recording, conversion, and streaming of audio and video content. It functions as a comprehensive toolkit that provides both a command-line utility for direct media manipulation and a collection of low-level libraries for integration into custom applications. At its core, the project utilizes a packet-based stream engine and a format-agnostic abstraction layer to handle diverse media standards, containers, and network protocols. The framework distinguishes itself through a modular, graph-based filter execution model that allows f

LMMS is a digital audio workstation and MIDI sequencer designed for composing, arranging, and mixing music. It functions as a comprehensive production environment that integrates a MIDI sequencer, a sample-based synthesizer, and an audio mixing console. The project distinguishes itself through a versatile synthesis engine that includes additive synthesis, wavetable generation, and emulations of vintage hardware such as NES audio and FM chips. It also serves as a VST plugin host, allowing for the integration of third-party virtual instruments and audio effects via a standardized interface. Be

Shotcut is a professional-grade, cross-platform non-linear video editor built on the MLT multimedia framework. It provides a comprehensive suite for post-production, supporting multi-track timeline editing, high-fidelity color processing, and complex visual effects. The application is designed to handle diverse audio and video formats natively, ensuring high-resolution and HDR workflows are managed within a unified environment. The software distinguishes itself through a modular architecture that emphasizes performance and precision. It utilizes a GPU-accelerated rendering pipeline and proxy-

Ardour is a digital audio workstation, multitrack audio mixer, and MIDI sequencer. It functions as a non-linear audio editor and a plugin host for running third-party effects and instruments. The system provides specialized capabilities for post-production audio scoring through video frame synchronization, as well as live performance sequencing for triggering clips and patterns in real-time. It also supports tactile mixing via control surface mapping and hardware controller configuration. The software covers a broad range of audio production needs, including multitrack recording, MIDI sequen

macOS app for Hype Machine

MusicBrainz Picard is a metadata tagger and audio tag editor that identifies and tags audio files using the MusicBrainz community music database. It functions as a plugin-extensible tagging framework and a scriptable file organizer capable of reading and writing tags across various audio formats including MP3, FLAC, and WAV. The project is distinguished by its acoustic fingerprint identifier, which matches unknown music files to known recordings via sonic fingerprints. It features a custom scripting language for automating metadata transformations and organizing files into structured folder h

A minimal, beautifully designed music player for OS X.

This project is a high-performance, terminal-based media player designed for efficient audio and video playback. It utilizes a modular decoding core to handle a wide range of multimedia formats while offloading frame processing to platform-specific hardware-accelerated rendering pipelines to minimize CPU overhead. Beyond its standalone utility, the software functions as an embeddable multimedia engine, providing a native library interface that allows external applications to integrate its advanced decoding and rendering capabilities directly into their own interfaces. The player is distinguis

Spotify & Apple Music in your macOS menu bar

LosslessCut is a desktop application designed for the precise editing of video and audio files without re-encoding the underlying media streams. By performing stream copying and container remuxing, the software allows users to cut, merge, and rearrange media segments while maintaining the original bit-perfect quality of the source content. The application distinguishes itself by utilizing a stream-copying data pipeline that transfers raw media packets directly from source to destination, significantly reducing processing time compared to traditional transcoding workflows. It also functions as

LyricsX is a macOS application that renders synchronized song lyrics over the system UI during music playback. It functions as a desktop display tool, an external lyric aggregator, and a synchronization utility. The application fetches lyrics from multiple remote data sources using current playback metadata and provides a script converter to translate text between Traditional and Simplified Chinese characters. It also includes a lyric file manager for importing and exporting common lyric formats via drag-and-drop interactions. The tool provides capabilities for timing synchronization to matc

LyricGlow for macOS, an always-on-top Electron widget showing real-time, word-by-word synced lyrics with glow effects, plus artist metadata and album art. Works with Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube Music. LRC support, offline cache, and menu bar controls.

Virtual-Display-Driver is a kernel-level driver for Windows that emulates physical monitors and audio devices. It serves as a virtual monitor emulator, headless server display emulator, and virtual audio device driver to enable extended desktop space and sound routing on systems without physical hardware connections. The project enables the simulation of monitors with custom resolutions, refresh rates, and identification profiles, including support for High Dynamic Range output. It also provides software-defined audio interfaces to simulate virtual microphones and speakers. The software cove

NoiseTorch is a cross-platform audio processor and real-time noise filter designed to suppress ambient sound from audio streams. It functions as a virtual microphone noise suppressor and routing tool, capturing system audio sources and directing filtered signals into virtual input or output devices. The application uses a recurrent neural network to distinguish between human speech and ambient noise. It provides a virtual denoising microphone that removes background noise from a selected input, alongside tools for filtering audio output streams. The system includes capabilities for audio dev

DeepFilterNet is a deep learning noise suppression framework and real-time audio filter designed to isolate speech and remove background noise from audio signals. It functions as a speech enhancement tool and audio processing middleware that cleans microphone input and speaker output for communication applications. The system operates as an audio server interceptor, delivering noise-suppressed streams between hardware devices and software applications. It provides capabilities for microphone signal cleaning and audio output filtering, including the creation of virtual noise-suppressed microph

VDO.Ninja is a low-latency peer-to-peer media routing service and video streaming platform designed to integrate remote audio and video feeds into professional production workflows. It functions as a WebRTC broadcast integration tool and studio controller, allowing for the direct transmission of high-definition media between publishers and viewers with minimal delay. The platform distinguishes itself through extensive protocol bridging, converting between WebRTC, WHIP, WHEP, SRT, and RTMP to ensure compatibility across diverse network environments and professional studio software. It includes

Shairport-sync is an AirPlay audio streaming receiver that enables the reception of wireless audio streams from Apple devices and routes them to system sound servers or hardware devices. Its primary purpose is to facilitate multi-room audio synchronization, aligning output across multiple playback devices to ensure content plays in unison. The project distinguishes itself through advanced digital signal processing, including impulse-response convolution filtering to correct frequency response. It provides precise audio timing adjustments to compensate for amplifier latency and offers extended

VLC is a cross-platform multimedia player and framework designed to decode and render virtually any audio or video format, network stream, or physical disc without requiring external codecs. It functions as both a standalone application and a portable library, providing a modular architecture that allows developers to integrate playback, filtering, and streaming capabilities into third-party software. The project distinguishes itself through a highly modular plugin-based engine that supports real-time media processing, including format transcoding and the application of audio and video filter

This project is a community-curated directory of open-source software designed for deployment in private server environments and home labs. It serves as a comprehensive resource for discovering independent, self-hosted alternatives to mainstream cloud services, enabling users to maintain full data ownership and control over their digital infrastructure. The directory is structured through a hierarchical taxonomy that organizes a vast collection of applications into logical categories, ranging from media management and data analytics to private communication and team productivity tools. It dis

MonitorControl is a macOS display control utility and external monitor manager. It functions as a DDC/CI display controller that allows users to adjust the brightness and volume of third-party monitors using native Apple keyboard keys. The software mimics native macOS hardware feedback by implementing a system overlay tool that renders on-screen display indicators during adjustments. It further provides the ability to synchronize brightness levels across multiple screens or replicate ambient light sensor changes to external displays. The utility includes capabilities for mapping custom keybo

This application is a high-performance media player designed for desktop environments, providing a unified interface for managing audio and video playback across local files and remote network streams. It supports a wide range of file formats and streaming protocols, utilizing native system frameworks and hardware-accelerated decoding to ensure synchronized, low-latency output. The player distinguishes itself through an extensible plugin architecture that allows for deep customization of the playback experience. Developers can build modular components to automate workflows, register custom co

Carol is a minimal and beautiful lyrics app for macOS built with SwiftUI

FreeTube is a privacy-focused desktop application for watching YouTube videos without ads, tracking cookies, or the requirement of a Google account. It functions as a local-first subscription manager that tracks channels and playlists in local files instead of a centralized cloud account. The application avoids tracking-heavy official APIs by using a content extractor that parses web pages directly. To further protect user identity, it can route network traffic through proxies or Tor to mask the hardware IP address. The software provides tools for distraction-free viewing, including the abil