LivePlay vs Soundplant

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.

Soundplant is a desktop app that turns a computer keyboard into a sample trigger and playable instrument. Users can assign sound files to 88 keys by dragging and dropping them, or trigger sounds with MIDI. It supports playlists, recording, unlimited sound polyphony, and per-key effects such as volume, panning, EQ, pitch, reverb, and distortion. Soundplant runs on Windows and macOS; listed minimums are 64-bit Windows 10 or later and macOS 10.14 or later. The free version is for noncommercial use, supports 16-bit uncompressed WAV files, and includes 25 launches of paid features; after those, a reminder appears every five launches. A Single User License costs $69 as a one-time purchase and covers one user on Windows and Mac, with installation on multiple computers for that person. It lasts for the purchased version and includes 2 years of free upgrades. The standalone app works offline, has no ads or account requirement, and collects no user data.