Install

Alda is open source and available for free. You can run it from the command line on your Mac (10.13 High Sierra or newer), Windows, or Linux computer.

(If you’d like to try Alda without installing it, check out Severák’s unofficial Alda web workspace!)

Step 1: Install Java

Alda’s sound engine requires Java to be installed.

To verify whether or not you have Java installed, open a terminal and run java -version.

If you don’t have Java installed yet, we recommend downloading and installing the latest stable release of OpenJDK from Adoptium.

Step 2: Download Alda 2.3.2 (2025-05-20)

Download the Alda executables below for your platform:

Mac (64-bit): alda + alda-player
Windows (64-bit): alda.exe + alda-player.exe
Windows (32-bit): alda.exe + alda-player.exe
Linux (64-bit): alda + alda-player
Linux (32-bit): alda + alda-player

Step 3: Put it on your PATH

On Mac and Linux, first run chmod +x ~/Downloads/{alda,alda-player} (replace ~/Downloads with wherever you downloaded the files) to ensure that the files are executable.

On Windows, the .exe files are already executable, but you may need to right-click the files and click "unblock" in the file properties.

Next, make the executables available to run from the command line by placing them in a directory on your PATH. (If you don't know what your PATH is, here is some information about PATH for Windows or Mac/Linux users).

Try it out!

In a new terminal, run these commands to verify that you’ve installed Alda correctly:

alda version
alda doctor
alda --help
alda play -c "(tempo! 160) trumpet: (quant 60) f12 b- > d f6 d12 f1"

If you’re having trouble, please don’t hesitate to ask for help in the Alda Slack group!

Next steps

Once you’re up and running with Alda, we recommend: