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OpenDaw

A free, open-source Digital Audio Workstation for Windows, macOS, and Linux

Built with Qt 6 for the UI and Tracktion Engine (JUCE) for the audio backend. Audio and MIDI tracks, a built-in piano roll, sheet music notation, a destructive audio clip editor, VST3 instrument support, bus routing, track automation, audio export, 8 built-in effects, an AI assistant powered by Claude — all free and open source.

<br> <img src="resources/splash.png" alt="OpenDaw splash screen" width="600"> </div> <br> <div align="center"> <img src="resources/routing-view.png" alt="OpenDaw routing view showing input channels, audio tracks, a bus with effects, master output, and color-coded signal cables" width="800"> <br> <em>Signal routing view — drag cables between inputs, tracks, buses, and outputs</em> </div>

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Download

Grab the latest release from the Releases page:

| Download | Platform | Description | |----------|----------|-------------| | OpenDaw-vx.x.x-setup.exe | Windows | Installer with Start Menu shortcut and uninstaller | | OpenDaw-vx.x.x-portable.zip | Windows | Portable build — unzip and run, no installation needed | | OpenDaw-vx.x.x-mac.dmg | macOS | Disk image — open and drag to Applications | | OpenDaw-vx.x.x-linux-x86_64.AppImage | Linux | AppImage — chmod +x and run, no installation needed |

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Features

Timeline / Arrangement

• Starts with 4 audio tracks by default
• Multi-track audio and MIDI arrangement with horizontal scrolling
• Drag-and-drop audio files (.wav, .mp3, .flac, .ogg, .aiff) and MIDI files (.mid, .midi) from the built-in file browser onto any track
• Waveform display on audio clips; note preview on MIDI clips
• Move clips by dragging -- snaps to the grid horizontally and locks to track lanes vertically
• Move clips between tracks by dragging up/down
• Split clips at the playhead (S key or toolbar button)
• Delete selected clips (Delete / Backspace)
• Non-destructive clip fades — drag fade-in and fade-out handles at the top corners of any audio clip
• Clip copy/paste — Ctrl+C / Ctrl+X / Ctrl+V to copy, cut, and paste clips at the playhead position
• User-assignable clip colors — right-click any clip > Set Color to pick a custom color
• Clip context menu: Edit in Piano Roll, Quantize, Duplicate, Set Color, Delete
• Timeline context menu: Add Audio Track, Add MIDI Track, Create Empty MIDI Clip, Remove Track
• Grid snapping with 5 modes: Off, 1/4 Beat, 1/2 Beat, Beat, Bar
• Horizontal and vertical zoom (Ctrl+= / Ctrl+-)
• Drag the right edge of a clip to loop it (non-destructive clip looping)
• Freeze tracks to reduce CPU load; bounce MIDI tracks to audio via the track context menu
• Animated playhead cursor that tracks playback in real time

Track Automation

• Toggle automation lanes per track from the track header
• Automate any parameter: volume, pan, and all effect parameters
• Add breakpoints by double-clicking the automation lane
• Freehand drawing tool for painting automation curves
• Drag individual points or rubber-band select and move groups of points
• Drag curve segments between points to reshape them
• Automation lanes resize vertically by dragging the lane border
• Bypass automation per parameter via the lane header
• Parameter selector dropdown to switch which parameter the lane displays

MIDI & Piano Roll

• Add MIDI tracks via Edit > Add MIDI Track (Ctrl+Shift+T)
• Create empty MIDI clips or import .mid / .midi files by dragging them onto a track
• Multi-track MIDI file import with automatic merge
• Full Piano Roll editor (docked as a tab alongside the Mixer):
  • Add notes with Ctrl+click or double-click
  • Move and resize notes by dragging
  • Delete notes with Delete / Backspace
  • Select all notes (Ctrl+A)
  • Quantize notes to grid
  • Velocity lane for per-note velocity editing
  • CC lane for MIDI continuous controller editing (modulation, expression, sustain, etc.) with freehand and line draw tools
  • Snap modes: Off, 1/4 Beat, 1/2 Beat, Beat, Bar
  • Zoom in / out
  • Right-click context menu: Select All, Delete Selected, Quantize, Add Note Here

<div align="center"> <img src="resources/piano-roll.png" alt="OpenDaw piano roll editor showing MIDI notes, velocity lane, and channel selector" width="800"> <br> <em>Piano Roll — edit MIDI notes, velocity, and timing with snap-to-grid precision</em> </div>

Sheet Music View

• Renders MIDI clips as standard music notation in a dedicated Sheet Music tab (alongside the Mixer, Piano Roll, and other bottom panels)
• Grand staff display with treble and bass clefs, proper beam grouping, and ledger lines
• Automatic note spelling with key signature support — choose from all 15 major/minor key signatures via a toolbar dropdown
• Correctly quantizes MIDI note durations to whole, half, quarter, eighth, and sixteenth notes (with dotted variants)
• Rests are automatically inserted to fill gaps in each measure
• Measure numbers and bar lines for easy orientation
• Zoom slider to adjust the horizontal scale
• Scrollable score area with click-and-drag panning for navigating longer pieces
• Opens automatically when you double-click a MIDI clip (alongside the Piano Roll)

<div align="center"> <img src="resources/sheet-music-view.png" alt="OpenDaw sheet music view showing standard notation with treble and bass clefs, key signature, and measure numbers" width="800"> <br> <em>Sheet Music View — see your MIDI clips rendered as standard notation with key signatures and proper engraving</em> </div>

Audio Clip Editor

• Dedicated waveform editor for audio clips — double-click any audio clip to open the Audio Clip tab at the bottom
• Destructive editing with full undo/redo — edits modify the source audio file directly, with a warning banner and confirmation prompt
• Waveform display with time-based selection (click and drag to select regions)
• Snap modes: Off, Beat, Bar
• Mini transport controls: play from start, play/pause, stop, with real-time position display
• Non-destructive gain slider with normalize and bake-gain buttons
• Loop toggle, reverse toggle, and auto-tempo detection
• Selection-based editing operations:
  • Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete selection
  • Silence selection
  • Fade in / Fade out
  • Normalize selection
  • Reverse selection
  • Adjust volume
  • Insert silence
  • DC offset removal
  • Swap channels / Mix to mono
  • Crossfade
• Bake clip fades into the audio file
• Info bar showing BPM, beat count, duration, format (sample rate / bit depth), and file path

<div align="center"> <img src="resources/audio-clip-editor.png" alt="OpenDaw audio clip editor showing waveform display, editing toolbar, and file browser" width="800"> <br> <em>Audio Clip Editor — destructive waveform editing with cut, fade, normalize, reverse, and more</em> </div>

VST3 Plugin Support

• Scan for installed VST3 plugins (Edit > Scan VST Plugins)
• Plugin list cached to %AppData%/OpenDaw/plugin-cache.xml
• VST3 instruments — assign to MIDI tracks via a searchable selector dialog
• VST3 effects — add scanned VST3 effect plugins to any track's effect chain alongside built-in effects
• Open native plugin editor windows for full parameter control
• Instrument button on MIDI track headers and mixer channel strips (click to open editor, right-click to change instrument)
• VST3 plugin parameters are automatable via the automation lane system

Transport

• Play, Stop, Record, and Loop buttons
• Click the time ruler to jump the playhead (snaps to grid)
• Click and drag the ruler to scrub smoothly without snapping
• BPM control (20-300 BPM)
• Time signature control (numerator / denominator)
• Dual position display: elapsed time (mm:ss.ms) and bars.beats.ticks
• MIDI Panic (Ctrl+Shift+P) — sends all-notes-off on every channel to silence stuck notes

Export Audio

• File > Export Audio (Ctrl+Shift+E) opens the export dialog
• Three export formats: WAV (uncompressed), FLAC (lossless), OGG Vorbis (lossy)
• WAV: configurable bit depth (16 / 24 / 32-bit float)
• FLAC: configurable bit depth (16 / 24)
• OGG: configurable quality (0-10)
• Sample rate: 44.1 / 48 / 88.2 / 96 kHz
• Optional normalize on export
• Progress bar with cancel support during rendering
• Remembers format, quality, and export directory between sessions

Audio Settings

• Edit > Audio Settings opens the device configuration dialog
• Select audio driver type (WASAPI, ASIO, DirectSound)
• Choose output device, sample rate, and buffer size
• Shows calculated latency in milliseconds
• Settings persist across sessions

Autosave & Recovery

• Op