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. Please consider supporting this project on Patreon or ko-fi.

We are committed to transparency and community-driven development.

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

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

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!

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

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

• Vaporisateur (subtractive synth with classical waveforms)
• Playfield (sample drum computer with individual effect chains)
• Nano (nano sampler for a single audio file)
• Tape (playback device for audio regions and clips)
• Soundfont (soundfont player)
• MIDI Output (sends MIDI messages to other devices)
• Stereo Tool (volume, panning and invert the stereo signal)
• Delay (stereo delay with cross and filter options)
• Crusher (degenerates audio signal)
• Cheap Reverb (FreeVerb variation)
• Revamp (graphical equalizer with spectrum analyser)
• Arpeggio (plays the notes of a chord one after another)
• Pitch (offsets midi note pitches)
• Zeitgeist (transforms time)
• Velocity (manipulates velocities of incoming notes)
• Fold (waveform folding algorithm with oversampling)
• Tidal (shapes rhythm and space through volume and pan)
• Dattorro Reverb (dense algorithmic reverb based on Dattorro's design)

• Compressor (CTAG Dynamic Range Compressor)

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

This roadmap represents an estimation of the upcoming development steps. Timelines and priorities may shift as openDAW evolves.

• Preset API
• Full implementation of connecting several cloud services to store samples, projects, and presets
• Implement audio playback algorithms (pitch, stretch, absolute) including interpolation
• Sample editor
• Pushing event flow and painting routines into SDK

• Fade-in and out on audio-regions
• Signature automation track
• Tempo automation track
• Fine-tune recording including loops (takes)

• Fine-tune timeline clips (recording, switch times)
• Fine-tune MIDI effects
• Implement missing region actions like flatten
• Polish UI

• Testing & QA
• Launch 1.0

• Start Modular System
• Add more synthesizers
• Add more effect devices

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.

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

• 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)

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

We welcome contributions from developers, musicians, educators, and enthusiasts. To learn more about how you can participate, visit our Contribute page.

1. Offline desktop build (e.g., via Tauri) or a standalone installable PWA — offer offline capability.
2. Cloud-agnostic project storage — a facade layer that lets users plug in different cloud services (e.g., Drive, S3, Dropbox) for projects and sample libraries.
3. Live remote collaboration — real-time session sharing and sync so multiple users can edit the same project concurrently.
4. AI manual assistant — an embedded agent that answers context-aware questions and guides users through features as they work.
5. AI-powered stem splitting — integrated source-separation to extract vocals, drums, and other stems directly inside the DAW.
6. Import and Export - Contribute every possible file format IO

• opendaw.studio (prototype)
• opendaw.org (website)
• openDAW on Discord
• openDAW SDK
• openDAW on Patreon
• openDAW on ko-fi
• LinkedIn
• Instagram

• "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

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.

AGPL v3 (or later) © 2025 André Michelle