openDAW

openDAW is a next-generation web-based Digital Audio Workstation (DAW) designed to democratize music production and to resurface the process of making music by making high-quality creation tools accessible to everyone, with a strong focus on education and data-privacy.

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How do we use AI, and why will openDAW never generate your music? opendaw.studio/manuals/ai gives the honest answer.

New to the codebase? introduction.md maps every component of this repository and how they depend on each other.

Open-Source

We are committed to transparency and community-driven development.

The source code for openDAW is available under AGPL v3 (or later)

Built on Trust and Transparency

openDAW stands for radical simplicity and respect.

• No SignUp
• No Tracking
• No Cookie Banners
• No User Profiling
• No Terms & Conditions
• No Ads
• No Paywalls
• No Data Mining

Looking for Contributors

We welcome contributions that follow the existing style and conventions of the project. AI-assisted code is fine, but every contributor must understand every line of code they submit. If you use AI tools, please document your process in /plans. Keep pull requests small and focused. Large PRs will not be reviewed. Split big contributions into smaller commits that add requirements gradually and maintain operations of the app.

If you are interested in helping, here are areas where we need support:

1. Offline App — e.g. wrapping openDAW with Tauri for a native desktop experience
2. PWA — turning openDAW into a fully installable Progressive Web App with offline support
3. Timeline Track Management — design and UX help for track layout, ordering, grouping, and interaction

We always appreciate help on open issues: https://github.com/andremichelle/openDAW/issues

To discuss contributions, book a call: https://calendly.com/andremichelle/opendaw-on-tour

Huge Shoutout To The Incredible openDAW Community!

To everyone who has contributed feedback, reported bugs, suggested improvements, or helped spread the word — thank you! Your support is shaping openDAW into something truly powerful!

Thank you @ccswdavidson, @Chaosmeister, @jeffreylouden, @solsos, @TheRealSyler, @Trinitou, and @xnstad for testing the repositories and identifying issues during the installation of openDAW!

Special shout-out to the biggest bug hunters: kanaris, @Chaosmeister and BeatMax Prediction. Your relentless attention to detail made a huge difference!

Huge thanks to our ambassadors, whose dedication and outreach amplify our mission!

And big hugs to all our supporters!

openDAW Visionary — $25.00

Stephen Tai, Pathfinder, One Sound Every Day (santino), kanaris, Oli Larkin, @Robert Anthony

openDAW Supporter — $5.00

Cal Lycus, Jetdarc, Truls Enstad, Polarity, Ynot Etluhcs, Mats Gisselson, Ola, SKYENCE, BeatMax_Prediction, Kim T, Nyenoidz, Steve Meiers, 4ohm, Yito, Shawn Lukas, Tommes, David Thompson, Harry Gillich, OxVolt, Wojciech Miłkowski, skyboundzoo, JHINZ, Mark Dammer, fork-kun, Martin Eigel

openDAW Devices

Stock Plugins

• Apparat (programmable instrument scripted in JavaScript)
• Arpeggio (plays the notes of a chord one after another)
• Autotune (real-time monophonic pitch correction)
• Composite (layers several instruments under one set of notes, each with its own effect chains and strip)
• Convolver (zero-latency partitioned convolution with impulse-response samples)
• Crusher (degenerates audio signal)
• Cubed (monophonic acid bass synthesizer driven by its own step sequencer)
• Dattorro Reverb (dense algorithmic reverb based on Dattorro's design)
• Delay (stereo delay with cross and filter options)
• Fold (waveform folding algorithm with oversampling)
• Free Reverb (FreeVerb variation)
• Frequency Split (splits the signal into frequency bands, each with its own effect chain)
• FX Composite (runs several effect chains in parallel and mixes them with dry/wet)
• Gate (noise gate with sidechain support)
• Maximizer (brickwall limiter with automatic makeup gain)
• MIDI Output (sends MIDI messages to other devices)
• Nano (nano sampler for a single audio file)
• Neon (phase-distortion synthesizer)
• Pitch (offsets midi note pitches)
• Playfield (sample drum computer with individual effect chains)
• Revamp (graphical equalizer with spectrum analyser)
• Soundfont (soundfont player)
• Spielwerk (programmable MIDI effect scripted in JavaScript)
• Stereo Split (processes the left and right channels through separate effect chains)
• Stereo Tool (volume, panning and invert the stereo signal)
• Tape (playback device for audio regions and clips)
• Tidal (shapes rhythm and space through volume and pan)
• Tone3000 (amplifier and effects modeling via Neural Amp Modeler)
• Vaporisateur (subtractive synth with classical waveforms)
• Velocity (manipulates velocities of incoming notes)
• Vocoder (analysis/synthesis vocoder)
• Waveshaper (nonlinear waveshaping distortion)
• Werkstatt (programmable audio effect scripted in JavaScript)
• Zeitgeist (transforms time)

Ported Plugins (Excluded in commercial license)

• Compressor (CTAG Dynamic Range Compressor)

WebCLAP

openDAW hosts WebCLAP plugins, CLAP plugins compiled to WebAssembly, as instruments and audio effects. Their original interfaces open in floating windows, all parameters can be automated, and the plugins travel with the project into bundles, cloud backups and Live Rooms. Pick a plugin from the openDAW cloud or import your own .wclap bundle.

Available in the openDAW cloud

• [Basics] Analyser, Chorus, Crunch, Frequency Shifter, Limiter, Reverb (Signalsmith Audio)
• MNO (Charlie Culbert)
• OB-Xf (Surge Synth Team)
• Pro54 (Cmajor)
• RipplerX (Tilr)
• Six Sines (BaconPaul)
• Slide (Charlie Culbert)
• Tapa (Charlie Culbert)

Repositories

• openDAW
• openDAW-headless (SDK)
• openDAW-headless @naomiaro (openDAW-headless fork with more docs and examples)

Prepare, Clone, Installation, and Run

openDAW tries to avoid external libraries and frameworks. The following is a list of the external libraries we currently use in the web studio:

• jszip (for openDAW project bundle file)
• markdown-it + markdown-it-table ( for help pages)
• d3-force (for graph debugging)
• soundfont2 (for soundfont loading)
• zod (schema validation)
• ffmpeg (decoding/encoding)

Before starting, ensure you have the following installed on your system:

• Git is required for cloning the repository and managing submodules.
• mkcert is required to create a certificate for developing with https protocol.
• Node.js version >= 23. This is necessary for running the development server and installing dependencies.
• Sass While Sass is handled internally during the development process, you will need to ensure you have the binaries available in your environment if used outside the build system.
• TypeScript
• OpenSSL For generating local development certificates (), OpenSSL needs to be installed on your system. Most Linux/macOS systems have OpenSSL pre-installed.
• Rust (via rustup, >= 1.82) is required to build the WASM audio engine (@opendaw/studio-core-wasm). Without it, npm run build / npm run dev:studio fails to resolve that package (a Vite pre-transform error), because packages/studio/core-wasm/dist never gets built. You need:
  • the wasm32-unknown-unknown target — rustup target add wasm32-unknown-unknown
  • a nightly toolchain with the rust-src component (the device crates build with -Zbuild-std=core) — rustup toolchain install nightly && rustup component add rust-src --toolchain nightly
• binaryen (optional) provides wasm-opt, used to size-optimise the WASM modules (brew install binaryen, or apt install binaryen). If it is missing, the build still succeeds and ships unoptimised modules.

Clone

git clone https://github.com/andremichelle/opendaw.git && cd opendaw

Installation

• npm run cert (only for the very first time)
• npm run clean (to revert to clean slate, removes all node_modules and dist folders)
• npm install (for the first time and after npm run clean)
• npm run build (for the first time and after npm run clean)
• npm run dev:studio | npm run dev:headless (start dev server)
• Navigate to https://localhost:8080 (port is important > cors sample api)

[Custom Caption: Watch the Demo]

Watch Polarity's Video "there's a new FREE DAW in town"

Links

• opendaw.studio (prototype)
• opendaw.org (website)
• openDAW on Discord
• openDAW SDK
• LinkedIn
• Instagram

Contributions

Icons

• "Wave" by Gregor Cresnar from Noun Project (CC BY 3.0)
• "Compress" by Gregor Cresnar from Noun Project (CC BY 3.0)
• "Waveforms" by Austin Andrews
• "futurism" by Martin Königsmann from Noun Project
• "tape reel" by Evgeny Filatov from thenounproject

Dual-Licensing Model

openDAW is available under two alternative license terms:

How to obtain the Commercial License
Email andre.michelle@opendaw.org with your company name, product description, and expected distribution volume.

If you redistribute or run modified versions of openDAW for public use without a commercial license, the AGPL v3 terms apply automatically.

License

AGPL v3 (or later) © 2025 André Michelle