_ __ __ _____ ____
| | | \/ |_ _| _ \
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|_____|_| |_| |_| |_| \_\
16 tracks. JACK audio. LADSPA/LV2 Effects. Punch in/out. Export the master mix or single stems.
LMTR (Linux Multitrack Recorder, also a nod to Limiter) is a minimalist studio recorder for musicians who want to capture, mix, and export music without the complexity of a full DAW.
LMTR is not a DAW. It does not arrange clips, edit audio, or handle MIDI. What it does, it does well: capture a performance, shape the sound with effects, and export a mix or individual stems. It provides all the tools you need to produce a track from start to finish, mastering included.
Arm any combination of tracks and record simultaneously from JACK inputs.
Set I/O markers and fix a region without re-recording the whole take.
Metronome stays in phase after seeking. Count-in support (1/2/4 beats).
3 serial slots per track + 3 stereo slots on the master bus. Applied during recording, playback, and export. Plugin state (loaded effects + all parameters) saved and restored with the project file.
Dry (raw) or wet (FX applied) — all stems time-aligned and ready to import into any DAW.
Hear yourself through the FX chain in real time. Latency = one JACK buffer period.
dBFS level meters on every track and on the stereo master bus.
Saves every 30 seconds and on exit. Session restored silently on next launch. Note: plugin FX state requires an explicit save (Ctrl+S).
LADSPA/LV2 plugins are scanned in a background thread at startup.
Load WAV, FLAC, AIFF, OGG and MP3 files onto any track. Files can be copied to the project folder or referenced.
The easiest way to run LMTR is the AppImage — a single portable binary that runs on any modern Linux distribution without installation.
# 1. Download the AppImage from the releases page, then: $ chmod +x LMTR-*.AppImage $ ./LMTR-*.AppImage
Requirement: JACK or PipeWire-JACK must be running before launching LMTR. Most Linux distributions already have JACK installed or wrapped by PipeWire — in that case no further configuration is required. If LMTR shows an error on startup, you have a few options to start JACK:
Install qjackctl (or Cadence on KDE/Ubuntu Studio), start the JACK server, then launch LMTR. That's it.
# 48 kHz, 256-frame buffer (~5 ms latency) $ jackd -d alsa -d hw:0 -r 48000 -p 256 & $ ./LMTR-*.AppImage
Most modern Ubuntu, Fedora, and Arch installs ship PipeWire. Install
pipewire-jack — PipeWire exposes a JACK-compatible API and LMTR works
with it without any changes.
Go to Audio → I/O Settings (Ctrl+I) to connect your interface inputs to LMTR's tracks and its master output to your speakers or headphones. I/O settings are saved and recalled in the project. You can also use any JACK patchbay (like Patchance or similar) to connect the 16 inputs and 2 outputs that LMTR exposes to anything you want, or even the command line:
$ jack_connect system:capture_1 LMTR:in_1 $ jack_connect LMTR:out_L system:playback_1 $ jack_connect LMTR:out_R system:playback_2
1. New project ............ Ctrl+N (save first — recording needs a location) 2. Arm a track ............ click ARM or press 1–8 3. Monitor yourself ....... enable MON on the track 4. Set tempo / click ...... adjust BPM, press C 5. Record ................. R → R or S to stop 6. Play back .............. Space 7. Export mix ............. Ctrl+E 8. Export stems ........... Ctrl+Shift+E
| Library | Ubuntu / Debian | Fedora / RHEL |
|---|---|---|
| Qt 6 | qt6-base-dev |
qt6-qtbase-devel |
| JACK | libjack-dev |
jack-audio-connection-kit-devel |
| libsndfile | libsndfile1-dev |
libsndfile-devel |
| LADSPA SDK | ladspa-sdk |
ladspa-devel |
| LV2 headers | lv2-dev |
lv2-devel |
| lilv | liblilv-dev |
lilv-devel |
| suil | libsuil-dev |
suil-devel |
| CMake ≥ 3.20 | cmake |
cmake |
| pkg-config | pkg-config |
pkgconf |
| C++17 compiler | build-essential |
gcc-c++ |
# Ubuntu / Debian $ sudo apt-get install -y qt6-base-dev libjack-dev libsndfile1-dev \ ladspa-sdk lv2-dev liblilv-dev libsuil-dev cmake pkg-config build-essential # Fedora / RHEL $ sudo dnf install -y qt6-qtbase-devel jack-audio-connection-kit-devel \ libsndfile-devel ladspa-devel lv2-devel lilv-devel suil-devel cmake pkgconf gcc-c++
$ cmake -B build -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release $ cmake --build build -j$(nproc) $ ./build/LMTR
$ ./packaging/build-appimage.sh # Downloads linuxdeploy on first run (cached in packaging/tools/), # builds a release binary, and produces LMTR-*.AppImage in the project root.
LMTR is free software released under the GNU General Public License v3.0. You are free to use, study, modify, and distribute it under the terms of that license.