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

Step 3: Put it on your PATH

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: