Maolan DAW

A modern, open-source Rust-based DAW for recording, MIDI editing, automation, and music production.

🎵 About Maolan

Maolan is a free, open-source Digital Audio Workstation built in Rust. It prioritizes transparency, performance, and community-driven development.

Unlike proprietary DAWs, Maolan gives you full access to inspect every line of code, build custom features, and contribute improvements. Own your tools.

✨ Key Features

🎙 Recording & Arrangement

Record and arrange unlimited audio and MIDI tracks with precise timing
Latency-free monitoring with multiple input sources simultaneously
Automatic project backups and recovery to protect your work

🎹 MIDI Editing

Intuitive piano roll interface for composing and editing
Advanced MIDI editing with velocity, note properties, and automation
SysEx and controller tools for deep MIDI manipulation

🔌 Plugin Support

Load CLAP, VST3, and LV2 plugins on any track
Create complex routing chains with explicit audio, MIDI, and sidechain paths
Per-track plugin graphs for parallel processing and custom signal flows

🎚 Mixing & Mastering

Full track and plugin automation for volume, pan, mute, and plugin parameters
Balance levels, EQ, compress, and process your mix
Export mixdowns or stems to WAV, MP3, OGG, and FLAC with normalization

📁 Project Management

Session templates and track templates for repeatable setups
Autosave snapshots with recovery features
Preferences stored in ~/.config/maolan/config.toml

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

Rust toolchain (edition 2024)
Platform libraries for audio/plugin integrations (e.g., jack, lilv, suil on Unix)

Build from Source

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/maolan/maolan.git
cd maolan

# Build release version
cargo build --release

# Run Maolan
cargo run --release

# Run with debug output
cargo run --release -- --debug

📚 Documentation

Website: maolan.github.io
GitHub Repository: github.com/maolan/maolan

🤝 Contributing

Maolan is built by the community, for the community. There are many ways to contribute:

🐛 Report bugs and request features
💻 Submit code improvements and new features
📖 Improve documentation
🎨 Contribute to UI/UX design
🧪 Test and provide feedback

Visit our GitHub repository to get started!

📝 License

Maolan is licensed under the BSD-2-Clause license.

🔗 Links

Built with ❤ and 🦀 Rust.