AudioPad vs LivePlay
AudioPad
audiopad.vercel.app
LivePlay
tdoukinitsas.github.ioSide by side
| Figure | AudioPad | LivePlay |
|---|---|---|
| Price from | Free | Free |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | — | — |
| Open source | — | — |
| Windows | Yes | Yes |
| macOS | — | Yes |
| Linux | Yes | Yes |
| Plans published | 1 | 1 |
| Spec score · Soundboard Software | 8.0 (#9) | 7.7 (#11) |
| Intended users | The maker describes AudioPad as a soundboard for people who use voice chat and explains it was created as a free alternative to paid soundboard software. | The maker describes LivePlay as built for live sound operators and live-event audio playback. |
| Purpose | AudioPad plays music, memes, sound effects, and voice clips through your microphone in voice chat, meetings, streaming software, and games. | LivePlay is an audio playback app for live shows, designed for cue management by live sound operators. |
| Support | The maker invites users to support the project on Patreon and directs press inquiries to GitHub or the project repository. | Users can report problems through the project's GitHub issue tracker. |
Plans
In their own words
AudioPad
AudioPad is a desktop soundboard for sending music, memes, sound effects, and voice clips through a microphone in voice chats, meetings, streams, and games. It runs on Windows 10 and 11 and Linux, with deb, rpm, and AppImage packages. The app accepts MP3, WAV, OGG, FLAC, and M4A files directly. Global hotkeys with custom bindings can trigger sounds from anywhere, and playback latency is described as sub-20ms. AudioPad mixes clips with a live microphone, or can send sound without the mic. The maker lists Discord, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, OBS Studio, Steam, and Slack, and says the app works with any software that reads a microphone. It runs on the user's machine without accounts, cloud services, analytics, or telemetry; crash reporting is opt-in. The free plan costs nothing and includes unlimited sounds and custom hotkeys. First installation requires admin rights to register a virtual audio device; routine use does not.
LivePlay
LivePlay is a free desktop audio playback app for live shows, designed for live sound operators managing cues. Playlists and cart buttons support cue groups, fades, loops, crossfades, and next-cue actions. Cues can route to channels on one or more audio interfaces. Mixing and monitoring tools include audio buses, EQ, gate, compressor, auxiliary sends, output meters, loudness targets, and a master limiter. Playback control works through mouse, touch, keyboard, MIDI, HTTP, and WebSocket. Media can be added by drag-and-drop or YouTube audio import, with waveform display and LTC timecode output. A desktop controller can connect to a local or remote audio server over a network. LivePlay runs on Linux, macOS, and Windows and is released under AGPL-3.0-only. The Free plan costs nothing with all features and no licence fees, subscriptions, or paywalls. Remote control uses plain HTTP and WebSocket; installers are unsigned and macOS builds are not notarized.