Zrythm v2.0.0-alpha.3: what the C++23 DAW mirror actually ships today

What Zrythm solves, and who it is actually for

Zrythm is a digital audio workstation, which is the software a producer or composer opens to arrange audio and MIDI into a finished piece. The README describes it as tailored for both professionals and beginners, and the feature list leans toward composition rather than pure mixing: a piano roll with velocity editor, a chord pad with chord suggestions, a chord editor, multiple lanes per track, and adaptive snapping. Someone writing music with chord progressions and MIDI parts is the target reader here more than someone doing post-production on recorded stems.

The project is a mirror on GitHub of what the README calls the official repository, and it is written in C++23 using Qt/QML and JUCE. That stack matters for who should consider it. Qt/QML gives the hardware-accelerated UI, JUCE handles the audio and plugin side, and the README claims SIMD-optimized DSP. The build instructions assume you have a C++ toolchain and a Qt installation, which filters out users who only want to click an installer. Those users are pointed at the download page instead.

How the v2 rewrite is structured, and what the porting gap means

The clearest signal in the README is a collapsed section titled "Not yet ported from v1". It lists clip linking, bounce anything to audio or MIDI, piano roll chord integration and drum mode, event viewers, punch in/out recording, device-bindable parameters, signal groups and aux sends, detachable views, searchable preferences, VST2 and SoundFont support, a built-in file browser, optional plugin sandboxing, stem export, automatic project backups and a serializable undo history.

That is a substantial list, and it is the single most useful thing on the page for anyone evaluating the project. Version 2 is a rewrite, and the features that are present are the ones already carried across. The repository confirms the split: there is a CHANGELOG.md and a separate CHANGELOG-old.v1.md, so the v1 history is kept apart from the current line. The releases confirm the stage: v2.0.0-alpha.1 in May 2026, alpha.2 in July, alpha.3 in September.

So the architecture is not the selling point to evaluate. The porting progress is. If your workflow depends on stem export or automatic project backups, the README says those are not there yet, and no amount of DSP tuning changes that.

Installing Zrythm: prebuilt packages first, then CMake

The README is direct about the recommended path. Prebuilt installers are available at the download page on zrythm.org, and the README states this is the recommended way to install Zrythm. There is no package manager command in the README, so the honest instruction is to go to that page and pick the build for your platform. If you are on Linux and searching for a Zrythm download for your distribution, that page is the starting point the project names.

Building from source is the alternative, and the README notes that CMake's FetchContent module is used heavily to fetch dependencies, so you need only CMake and Qt installed manually. On GNU/Linux the sequence is three commands. The first configures the build directory with Ninja and points CMake at your Qt prefix:

cmake -B builddir -G Ninja -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=<path to your Qt prefix>

Replace the angle-bracketed path with your actual Qt installation prefix, and change Release to Debug if you want a debug build. The second command compiles it:

cmake --build builddir --config Release

When that finishes, the README says the binary is at builddir/src/gui/zrythm. Run it from there. On macOS the generator is Xcode instead of Ninja, and you open the generated Xcode project inside builddir; on Windows the generator is "Visual Studio 17 2022" and you open the generated solution. The Windows note is worth reading twice: you must build Qt with the same compiler and the same Debug or Release configuration you use for Zrythm, or the build will not link.

There is an optional Conan path for reproducible builds. It starts by creating a virtual environment and installing from requirements.txt:

python -m venv venv && source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt

Then you install the project's Conan profiles, initialize submodules including a custom Qt recipe fork, and run conan install followed by cmake --preset default. The README carries a warning that the profile install step overwrites everything in ~/.conan2/profiles/ along with ~/.conan2/settings_user.yml and ~/.conan2/global.conf, and suggests backing up or using a separate CONAN_HOME. Take that warning literally; it is the kind of step that quietly breaks an unrelated project's Conan setup.

The plugin story, and where the alpha bites

Zrythm supports VST3, CLAP, LV2, LADSPA and AudioUnit plugins, according to the README, plus type 0 and 1 MIDI files and WAV import. That covers the formats most Linux and macOS users reach for, and CLAP alongside VST3 puts it in a fairly small group of hosts. If you are searching for whether Zrythm handles VST, the answer is VST3 yes and VST2 no, at least in this version: VST2 appears in the not-yet-ported list.

Optional plugin sandboxing is also on that list. This is the limitation that matters most in practice. Without sandboxing, a misbehaving plugin runs in the same process as the DAW, so a crash in one instrument can take the whole session with it. The README does not document rollback, crash recovery or a recovery mode, and automatic project backups are likewise listed as not yet ported. A producer running a large template of third-party plugins should treat that combination as the main risk in v2, not as a detail to check later.

The other gap is file and preference handling. The built-in file browser and searchable preferences are both unported, and the README notes that other audio file formats beyond WAV are not yet supported. Importing a project that leans on SoundFonts or a non-WAV format will not work in this version.

Zrythm compared with Ardour and LMMS

Ardour is the obvious comparison, and the difference is in emphasis rather than format support. Ardour grew out of multitrack recording and mixing, so its centre of gravity is the mixer, buses and routing. Zrythm's README puts chord assistance, a chord pad and chord suggestions near the top of the feature list, and the unported list mentions signal groups, aux sends and direct anywhere-to-anywhere connections. In other words, the flexible routing that Ardour users take for granted is something Zrythm v2 has not finished porting. If your work is tracking bands and mixing, Ardour is the better fit today. If your work is composing with MIDI and chords, Zrythm's direction is the more interesting one.

LMMS is the other free option people weigh, and the split is different again. LMMS is built around pattern-based sequencing and bundled instruments, which suits loop and beat production. Zrythm is a track-and-clip DAW with a piano roll, audio editor with adjustable gain and fades, and musical mode with offline time-stretching. Neither is a superset of the other. Someone searching for free music making software with instruments should note that Zrythm's README does not advertise a bundled instrument collection; it advertises hosting for third-party plugin formats.

Maintenance, licensing and what the build costs you

The repository is not archived, and the last push was on 2026-09-23, one day before this writing. Releases are arriving on a roughly two-month cadence: alpha.1 on 2026-05-31, alpha.2 on 2026-07-28, alpha.3 on 2026-09-03. That is a project in motion, but the version numbers are the honest measure of stability, and nothing here is a 2.0 stable release.

Upgrade cost is the real budget item. The README states that if you distribute your builds to others, you must comply with the license terms of Zrythm and all dependencies, in addition to the project's Trademark Policy. The GitHub metadata reports the license as NOASSERTION, which means the repository's licence file does not map to a standard identifier, and the README links the Free Software Definition rather than naming a licence. There is a LICENSES/ directory and a REUSE.toml, so per-file licensing is tracked, but the practical consequence is that anyone packaging or redistributing Zrythm needs to read COPYING and the LICENSES directory rather than assume a single well-known licence applies. This is not legal advice; it is a pointer to where the answer lives.

Source builds also carry a maintenance tail. The Conan route pins a large dependency set through requirements.txt and conan.lock, and the README notes that the custom Qt recipe fork is pulled in as a submodule. Keeping a source build current means re-running the Conan install and CMake steps as those pins move.

Editorial conclusion

Adopt Zrythm if you want a free, cross-platform DAW with VST3, CLAP, LV2, LADSPA and AudioUnit hosting, and you are willing to run an alpha: the latest release is v2.0.0-alpha.3, and the README lists clip linking, bounce, stem export, automatic project backups and VST2 support as not yet ported from v1. Do not adopt it if you need plugin sandboxing, punch in/out recording or a built-in file browser in this version. Before committing a project, verify which of those unported features you depend on, and check that your plugin format is one of the five the README names.

Frequently asked questions

Official sources

1. Issues
2. Project website
3. README
4. Releases
5. zrythm/zrythm on GitHub