LivePlay vs SoundTools Soundboard

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.

SoundTools Soundboard is a browser soundboard for recording, editing, organizing, and playing audio clips. Users can upload files, capture sound from a microphone, slice waveforms, and assign clips to tappable buttons. It accepts MP3, WAV, OGG, FLAC, AAC, and M4A, and can play multiple sounds at once. Boards save automatically in browser local storage, with an option to export a full board for backup or transfer. There is no fixed sound count, though performance depends on device memory. Audio processing takes place locally in the browser, and sounds are not uploaded to a server. Clips can be exported as WAV, processed with effects in SoundTools Voice Changer, then imported back into a board. The service runs in desktop Chrome, Safari, Edge, and Firefox, as well as on iPhone and Android. Its free plan costs nothing, with no account, installation, watermarks, or limits. Playback comes through speakers or headphones rather than virtual microphone routing.