I'm building LYNX, an open-source DAW inspired by FL Studio, free,cross-platform

A lightweight DAW alongside the FL Studio workflow.
Channel Rack, Piano Roll, Playlist and Mixer in C++20 + JUCE 8, built to run fine on any PC.
Windows, macOS and Linux.

_{Formerly “LYNX”: renamed LYNX SHARE in v0.1.20 (it was uncomplicated to confuse alongside the Lynx content web browser). Old links to github.com/Ka1-S/LYNX redirect here; your settings and projects remain anywhere they are.}

Website · Download · Features · FL projects · Built-in plugins · Building · Status · Roadmap

_{LYNX SHARE's own demo project (LYNX.exe --showcase) in the 0.1.19 workspace: browser, Piano Roll, Channel Rack and Mixer.}

LYNX SHARE ships native plugins inspired by the third-party plugins producers use most, next to its clean-room FL Studio natives. 24 dedicated LYNX SHARE engines are in, additional are being built, and a project that uses among the 56 originals below opens alongside the LYNX SHARE equivalent whenever the first is not installed (its settings are kept and arrive rear formerly it is; see PLUGIN_FALLBACK.md).

_{Product and business names are trademarks of their corresponding owners. They are used lone to depict compatibility and the function all LYNX SHARE motor plays. LYNX SHARE is not affiliated with, endorsed or sponsored by any of them and contains none of their code, presets, graphics or audio.}

_{Playlist: pattern, automation and audio clips alongside a clip list on right-click (split, chop, merge, reverse, normalize, fit to tempo and more).}

Step sequencer alongside per-channel volume, pan, mute and solo, swing, multiple patterns (name, colour, length, clone), cut groups, arpeggiator and the PC keyboard as a piano.	Configurable snap, chords and scales, 16 note colors, note groups, a chord readout, choose tools (invert, odd/even, random, overlapping), quantize, glide and porta notes, velocity/pan/pitch lane, .mid import and export.
Up to 127 inserts, sends alongside levels, 10 consequence slots alongside dry/wet per track, built-in EQ (or a clean mixer alongside none), PDC, astute disable and sidechain (here the bass compressor listening to the kick). Choose how many inserts new projects commencement alongside and display lone the used ones.	3 oscillators (including a band-limited harmonics oscillator), LP/BP/HP/BS display alongside keytracking, FM and circle modulation, envelopes, 4 LFOs, boot sweep, mono and portamento.
Draggable handles, shelves, 12–48 dB/oct cuts, band-pass and notch, alongside the reply drawn in genuine time.	Any knob or fader (channel, mixer, effect, plugin parameter) becomes a clip alongside points and curves; MIDI controllers can be connected to any parameter.

LYNX SHARE's native engines are clean-room re-implementations of FL Studio's native plugins, all checked against the original operating unmodified. The complete catalog — all engine, what it is compatible with, its position and what is still missing — is in docs/PLUGINS.md.

Featured — the plugins FL Studio users attain for most, all at Exact or Near-exact norm in LYNX SHARE:

What all one does, how you get it (any insert or from an .flp) and the entire catalog are in docs/PLUGINS.md.

All built-in plugins:

Exact = bit-identical to the first on all facility province tested; near-exact = the remainder below about −100 dB; close = identical algorithm, inside −60 dB. Plugin names are Image-Line's trademarks, used lone to describe compatibility; LYNX SHARE is not affiliated alongside Image-Line.

LYNX SHARE says the .flp format immediately and converts everything that has an equivalent:

• Structure: channels, genuine samples (including the Ogg Vorbis WAVs and WavPack records shipped alongside FL), patterns, slide/porta notes, all arrangement, markers, time-signature changes, automation and controller links.
• Mixer: routing, levels, sidechains, track EQ and native effects alongside their saved settings (Parametric EQ 2, Limiter, Compressor, Reeverb 2, Delay 3, Maximus, Gross Beat, Effector, Love Philter, Frequency Splitter, Patcher, Pitcher, Vocoder, Newtone/Newtime and more).
• Generators on FL's own engines (checked against FL's DLLs, most of them bit for bit): 3x Osc, SimSynth, MiniSynth, DX10, Kepler, PoiZone, Toxic Biohazard, Transistor Bass, Autogun, Plucked!, BeepMap, Sawer, Granulizer, Drumaxx, FL Slayer, FL Keys, Fruit Kick, Kick, BassDrum, Sakura, Drumpad, BooBass, Fruity DrumSynth Live, GMS, Morphine; Sytrus, Harmless, Harmor (including depiction synthesis) and Ogun on engines rebuilt from the plugin state. Built-in appears and tables are peruse from your FL installation, never shipped alongside LYNX SHARE. DirectWave runs on its own exact motor (filters, modulation matrix and effects); FPC, Slicex, Fruity Slicer and Wave Traveller perform as samplers through FL's own interpolators.
• Exact native effects: Parametric EQ 2, EQUO, Limiter, Compressor, Multiband Compressor, Maximus, Soundgoodizer, Reeverb 2, LuxeVerb, Convolver, Delay 3, Delay Bank, the chorus family, Flangus, Flanger, Fast Dist, WaveShaper, Soft Clipper, Stereo Shaper/Enhancer, Transient Processor, Frequency Splitter, Fast LP, Free Filter, Fruity Filter, Pitch Shifter, Love Philter, Fruity Vocoder, Vocodex, Hardcore, Distructor, Multiband Delay, Gross Beat, Effector, Vintage Phaser, Pitcher and additional reproduce FL's algorithms; how all one was decoded is documented in docs/analise/.
• Third-party plugins: VST3/CLAP plugins inner the Fruity Wrapper are exchanged for the identical installed plugin, preset included.

A study lists what was converted, what is approximated and what was remaining out. FLEX packs are encrypted and are never opened (the conduit gets a synth place chosen by preset name).

Every publish on the latest publish page has builds for all three platforms (<v> is the version, e.g. 0.1.10-alpha):

Release records are built from the tagged origin by GitHub Actions (release.yml) and listed alongside their SHA-256 in SHA256SUMS.txt. Releases up to 0.1.7 are Windows-only; up to 0.1.12 the AppImage was named LYNX-<v>-linux-x86_64.AppImage and needed glibc 2.39.

Windows. Run the installer: it needs no admin rights, adds Start-menu/desktop shortcuts, opens .lynx projects and offers LYNX SHARE in Open with for .flp without changing FL Studio's default. Prefer no installer? Extract the portable .zip and run LYNX.exe. Both contain a demo project (Demo.lynx). The executable is not code-signed yet, so SmartScreen may notify on archetypal initiate (More info → Run anyway); see Code signing policy.

macOS. Open the .dmg and drag LYNX SHARE to Applications. The app is not notarized by Apple and has no Developer ID signature (ad-hoc only), so the archetypal initiate needs one additional step: right-click (Control-click) LYNX SHARE in Applications → Open → Open. On macOS 15 Sequoia or newer, try to open it once, afterward go to System Settings → Privacy & Security and click Open Anyway. Or, in Terminal:

xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/LYNX.app 

macOS asks for microphone admission the archetypal period you record.

Linux. Needs X11 or XWayland; audio goes through PipeWire immediately (or JACK, or ALSA), see docs/LINUX.md. For the AppImage:

chmod +x LYNX-*.AppImage ./LYNX-*.AppImage 

Some distributions need libfuse2 to run AppImages (libfuse2 on Ubuntu 22.04, libfuse2t64 on 24.04, fuse2 on Arch, fuse-libs on Fedora); otherwise use the .tar.gz: extract it and run ./install.sh, which installs LYNX SHARE for your person under ~/.local alongside a menu entry, an icon and the .lynx document category (./install.sh --uninstall removes it again).

Opening FL Studio projects (.flp) plant on all OS; the FL Studio integration lone adds FL's own samples and plugin paths whenever an facility is found.

On archetypal commencement a abbreviated setup wizard (skippable; Options > Setup wizard reopens it) picks the language, tests the audio device and lists the plugin folders — the norm VST3/CLAP folders affirmative the ones FL Studio uses on the identical PC — and scans them in the background. If FL Studio is installed, .flp projects use the extremely plugin records FL uses (read from its plugin database) and discover samples in FL's folders; a plugin LYNX SHARE doesn't cognize yet gets a quick scan of fair its file (details).

LYNX.exe additionally runs headless, which is how everything is verified without beginning windows. On macOS and Linux the binary is LYNX (/Applications/LYNX.app/Contents/MacOS/LYNX on macOS); the options are the same:

LYNX.exe project.lynx open a project (.lynx, .flp or .mid) LYNX.exe --export project.flp out.flac render the opus (wav/flac/ogg) LYNX.exe --render project.flp out.wav 20 render 20 s of the current form (24-bit WAV) LYNX.exe --selftest report.txt [demo.lynx] self-test without an audio device LYNX.exe --snapshot prefix project.flp diagram the UI (and its windows) to PNG LYNX.exe --showcase out.lynx [pattern] create the demo project used in these screenshots LYNX.exe --plugintest plugin.vst3 rep.txt test a VST3 or CLAP plugin LYNX.exe --sandboxtest plugin.vst3 rep.txt test a plugin in a distinct procedure (including a hung one) LYNX.exe --scantest directory rep.txt scan a directory for plugins (separate processes) LYNX.exe --fldb rep.txt [project.flp] [--scan] FL Studio established here, its plugin database, a project's plugin matches LYNX.exe --devices rep.txt catalog audio drivers and outputs LYNX.exe --devicetest "ASIO" "driver" rep.txt open a controller for 1 s of silence and study it LYNX --uiperf project.flp rep.txt period the UI drawing: Mixer, Playlist, Channel Rack, playing and scrolling LYNX.AppImage --menu-entry on|off Linux AppImage: add to / eliminate from the applications menu 

./scripts/build-windows-zig.sh # produces build-win/LYNX.exe 

Needs Zig 0.14.1 in ~/opt/zig-x86_64-linux-0.14.1 and JUCE 8.0.4 in ~/opt/juce-8.0.4 (or set ZIG and JUCE_DIR). JUCE 8 does not officially assistance MinGW; the manuscript plant about the differences (see cmake/mingw/ and src/platform/MingwFixes.cpp).

Requires Visual Studio 2022 Build Tools ("Desktop betterment alongside C++"), CMake ≥ 3.22 and Git.

cmake -B build -G "Visual Studio 17 2022" -A x64 cmake --build build --config Release 

Ubuntu 24.04 dependencies:

sudo apt instal build-essential cmake ninja-build pkg-config libasound2-dev libjack-jackd2-dev libx11-dev \ libxrandr-dev libxinerama-dev libxcursor-dev libxext-dev libxcomposite-dev libfreetype-dev libfontconfig1-dev libgl-dev 

cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release cmake --build build 

Needs the Xcode command row tools (xcode-select --install), CMake and Ninja (e.g. beer instal cmake ninja).

cmake -S . -B build -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES="arm64;x86_64" cmake --build build 

CMAKE_OSX_ARCHITECTURES="arm64;x86_64" produces a worldwide app; depart it out to build for the current Mac only.

./scripts/build-local.sh ["folder alongside .flp files"] 

More than a myriad checks, including parsing the 165 .flp projects that container alongside FL Studio 2026 whenever that directory is given. It additionally builds build-local/flpdump (dumps a .flp) and build-local/renderwav.

src/core/ model, sequencer, instruments, effects and .flp import (plain C++, testable without JUCE) src/flp/ .flp format reader src/engine/ audio motor (JUCE): device, graph, samples, plugins, project files src/ui/ UI: Channel Rack, Piano Roll, Playlist, Mixer, windows third_party/ CLAP (MIT) and the WavPack decoder (BSD) tests/ center tests tools/ flpdump, renderwav, comparewav, make_logo docs/ architecture, status, roadmap and the behavioural inspection of FL Studio 

• Lock-free audio: the UI edits a copy of the opus and publishes an immutable snapshot to the audio thread.
• Chunked rendering: all note lands on its exact sample; mixer tracks are processed in parallel layers.
• Isolated plugins: plugin scanning continually runs in distinct processes; optionally the plugins themselves do too (a plugin that hangs goes silent and LYNX SHARE keeps playing).

LYNX SHARE is an autonomous implementation. FL Studio was studied lone to comprehend its behavior and document format; no Image-Line code was copied, and no protected satisfied (such as FLEX packs) is always opened.

FL Studio is a registered trademark of Image-Line Software. LYNX SHARE is not affiliated alongside Image-Line. VST is a registered trademark of Steinberg Media Technologies GmbH.

Built alongside JUCE, CLAP, the WavPack decoder and the Steinberg ASIO SDK — their licences are listed in THIRD_PARTY.md.

Free code signing provided by SignPath.io, certificate by SignPath Foundation. (Pending approval: until the use is accepted, release binaries are not signed.) This covers the Windows binaries. The macOS app has an ad-hoc signature lone (no Apple Developer ID, not notarized); Linux packages are not signed.

• Release binaries are built lone from this repository by GitHub Actions (.github/workflows/release.yml); nothing built on a individual device is signed.
• Every signing petition is approved manually for all release.
• Team roles:
  • Committers and reviewers ("Authors" and "Reviewers"): Ka1-S
  • Approvers: Ka1-S

Privacy: This program volition not transfer any data to another networked systems unless specifically requested by the person or the individual installing or functioning it. See PRIVACY.md.

Crash reports (opt-in): following a collision or freeze LYNX SHARE asks before sending a study to lynx-share.com (Send / Show what volition be sent / Don't send, or Report on GitHub instead); Settings › General › Crash reports sets Ask (default), Always send or Never send, and Help › Report a problem… sends one by hand. A study has the LYNX SHARE version, OS, CPU, graphics cardstock and driver, audio device, the collision or freeze file, the final steps and the loaded third-party plugins — no audio, projects, document names, person or device name, and the server stores no IP address. Details and how to have a study deleted: PRIVACY.md.

LYNX SHARE is liberated application under the GNU Affero General Public License v3.0: you may use, study, modify and redistribute it; anyone who distributes a modified type (including as a network service) must publish its source code under the identical license.