Ecasound – multitrack audio processing

Ecasound is a software package designed for multitrack audio processing.

It can be used for simple tasks like audio playback, recording and format conversions, as well as for multitrack effect processing, mixing, recording, signal recycling, and automating audio processing tasks.

Ecasound supports a wide range of audio inputs, outputs and effect algorithms. Effects and audio objects can be combined in various ways, and their parameters can be controlled by operator objects like oscillators and MIDI-CCs. As most functionality is located in shared libraries, creating alternative user-interfaces is easy.

A versatile console mode interface is included in the package.

Key Features

• Perform most common tasks directly from the terminal console: passive and interactive textmodes.
• Highly optimized real-time engine with real-time reliability.
• Ability to adapt to runtime environment. Automatically adjusts buffering parameters and other performance related options based on analysis of runtime environment and the requested task.
• Support for JACK audio server, LADSPA effect plugins and ALSA kernel sound subsystem.
• Portability and minimal external dependencies.
• Wide rang of audio formats supported including WAV, MP3 MIDI, AAC, FLAC, Module formats.
• Ecatools command-line utils:
  • ecaconvert (convert from one file format to another, supports batch processing).
• • ecafixdc (fix DC-offset, supports batch processing).
• • ecalength (prints audio file information).
• • ecanormalize (normalize volume level, supports batch processing).
• • ecaplay (play files using the default output, supports batch processing).
• • ecasignalview (monitor signal volume in realtime).
• Sound processing components:
  • amplify, panning, DC-fix, volume normalization.
• • channel mixing and routing.
• • dynamics: noise gate, various compressors, limiter.
• • filters: lowpass, highpass, bandpass, bandreject, resonant lowpass, resonant bandpass, resonator, comb, inverse comb, allpass.
• • envelope modulation: pulse gate, tremolo.
• • time modulation: chorus, flanger, phaser, pitch shift, fake-stereo.
• • delays: multitap delays, reverbs.
• • LADSPA effect plugins – hundreds of sound processing plugins available.
• Controllers (for modifying effect parameters during processing):
  • sine oscillator.
• • generic oscillator (either using an envelope table with static points or with linear interpolation).
• • linear envelopes (fade-in, fade-out, custom/generic envelopes).
• • MIDI continuous controllers (CC).

Website: ecasound.seul.org/ecasound
Support: Documentation
Developer: Kai Vehmanen and contributors
License: GNU General Public License v2.0

Ecasound is written in C++. Learn C++ with our recommended free books and free tutorials.

Related Software

Read our verdict in the software roundup.

Explore our comprehensive directory of recommended free and open source software. Our carefully curated collection spans every major software category. This directory is part of our ongoing series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. It features hundreds of detailed reviews, along with open source alternatives to proprietary solutions from major corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. You’ll also find interesting projects to try, hardware coverage, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Discovered a useful open source Linux program that we haven’t covered yet? Let us know by completing this form.