Atomik Rack: a free, open-source DAW

Everything you need to make a track

Instruments, effects, a mixer and an arrangement, in one rack you can rewire while the music plays.

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  A rack of devices, patched with cables

  Put devices in a rack, flip to the back and patch audio, CV and note cables. Cables are checked as you connect, and you can add, remove and rewire while the audio plays, with undo and redo.

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  A real console and master section

  Every instrument gets a channel strip with filters, dynamics, EQ, an insert chain and 8 sends. A locked master adds send buses, FX returns, a sidechain bus compressor and automatic delay compensation.

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  Sampler, drum machine and loop slicer

  A multi-zone sampler with loops and crossfades, a 16-pad drum machine with choke groups and velocity layers, and a loop slicer with transient detection that turns slices into a track.

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  FM, wavetable and grain synths

  A four-operator FM synth with twelve routings, a wavetable synth with twelve band-limited tables and unison, and a grain sampler that turns one sample into a cloud of grains.

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  Effects and a mastering suite

  Reverb, compressor, 6-band EQ, distortion, a guitar amp, modulation effects and spectrum analysers, plus mastering tools: multiband dynamics, stereo width, a true-peak limiter and a BS.1770 loudness meter.

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  Arrangement and audio recording

  Note, automation and audio clips with a piano roll and step, slice and sample editors. Import WAV, AIFF, FLAC, MP3 and OGG, and record audio with latency compensation.

And a lot more

• Sequencers and note tools

  A step sequencer, an arpeggiator, a Key & Chord device that locks notes to a scale, a note repeater and a note delay. Players stack above an instrument and send notes and CV to any device.

• Containers and macros

  A container holds a whole rack of its own with 8 macro knobs and key or velocity note splits. Build a patch once, fold it into one device and reuse it.

• CLAP and VST3 plugin hosting

  Load CLAP and VST3 instruments and effects as rack devices. Each plugin runs in its own process, so a crashing plugin cannot take the app down. VST2 is not supported.

• File browser and library

  A docked browser (F9) to search by name or tag, preview audio with one click and drag it onto the arrangement or a sampler. Save devices, containers and clips to your own library.

• Export and offline rendering

  Export the song, the loop or a selection to WAV, AIFF or FLAC with dither and a loudness report, or to MP3, AAC and Opus with FFmpeg. A command-line renderer bounces projects bit-identically.

• Private by design

  Atomik Rack sends nothing about you or your computer. The only network use is an optional daily check for a newer version, which asks first and downloads nothing.

• Rack, browser and arrangement (opens the full image)
• Console and mixer (opens the full image)
• Back panel and cables (opens the full image)
• Piano roll (opens the full image)
• Sampler (opens the full image)
• FM synth (opens the full image)
• Reference and decision zone (opens the full image)
• Dynamic EQ (opens the full image)
• Character effect (opens the full image)

• Play, Loop and Set the Tempo Control playback in Atomik Rack: play and stop, set a loop with the L…
• Make Your First Sound Add a Poly Synth, make a one-bar clip, write four notes in the piano…
• A Tour of the Window A guided tour of the Atomik Rack window: the rack of devices, the transport…

Inside the program, Help > Guided Tour walks you through your first song, and Help Mode (Shift+F1) explains any control under your pointer.

Questions, answered