# Install waon with Homebrew, Nix Wave-to-notes transcriber. Version 0.11 via Homebrew; verified from local package data. ## Install ```sh sudo av install brew:waon ``` Additional install commands: ### macOS - Homebrew (100%): ```sh brew install waon ``` Evidence: local Homebrew formula metadata ### Linux - Nix (92%): ```sh nix profile install nixpkgs#waon ``` Evidence: nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/wa/waon/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1 ## Package facts - **Package key:** brew:waon - **Package manager:** Homebrew - **Package manager page:** - **Version:** 0.11 - **Source summary:** Wave-to-notes transcriber - **Homepage:** - **Repository:** - **Upstream docs:** - **License:** GPL-2.0-or-later - **Source archive:** - **Generated:** 2026-07-08T18:08:21+00:00 ## Executables - waon (cli) - waon (alias) ## Dependencies - fftw - libsndfile ## Build dependencies - pkgconf ## Install behavior - Post-install hook: not defined - Bottle: available on arm64_big_sur, arm64_linux, arm64_monterey, arm64_sequoia, arm64_sonoma, arm64_tahoe, arm64_ventura, big_sur, catalina, monterey, sonoma, ventura ## Freshness - Page generated: 2026-07-08 - Package-manager version: 0.11 - Local data: ok - Upstream repository: https://github.com/kichiki/WaoN - Upstream latest detected: v0.11 (current) - info: No package-manager update timestamp was available. ## Project history and usage WaoN is Kengo Ichiki's Wave-to-Notes transcriber: a command-line program that analyzes audio and writes standard MIDI. The name is both an English acronym-like description and a Japanese wordplay meaning harmony of notes or chord. ### Project history WaoN dates back to at least the 1998-2007 copyright span shown in the older SourceForge help output, making it an early Unix-oriented open source attempt at automatic music transcription. Its author described the original motivation as wanting to pick up piano voicings from favorite recordings and not finding a functional Unix application for that purpose. The project lived on SourceForge before moving to GitHub. Version 0.10 on SourceForge improved result quality by cleaning up useless notes, and version 0.11, released from GitHub in August 2015, fixed a gWaoN audio-device initialization bug and applied an older MinGW patch, with Win32 binaries becoming available from that era. ### How it is used WaoN's native input is WAV and its native output is Standard MIDI File format 0. Users can pipe audio through stdin and MIDI through stdout, combine it with SoX for broader audio formats, or pipe output to TiMidity for immediate playback. Technically, WaoN belongs to the older FFT and signal-processing lineage of automatic music transcription rather than the modern deep-learning lineage. Ichiki later compared the old FFT-based WaoN approach with Google's Magenta transcription work, making the tool a small but interesting artifact in open source audio-to-MIDI history. ### Timeline - 1998-2007: the SourceForge-era help output identifies Kengo Ichiki's original development and copyright period. - 2015-08-09: v0.10 and v0.11 were published as GitHub releases, with v0.11 described as the first release from GitHub. - 2016: Ichiki published a comparison between WaoN and Google Magenta's music transcription work, framing WaoN as an older FFT-based program. ### Related projects - WaoN presents itself as the inverse of TiMidity/TiMidity++, which synthesize audio from MIDI. It also shipped related utilities: `pv`, a phase vocoder for time stretching and pitch shifting, and `gwaon`, a graphical front end/visualizer. ### Sources - - - - - - ## Security Notes narrow executable package without higher-risk signals. - **Geiger risk:** green / low - narrow executable package without higher-risk signals ## Source Database Details - **Source Database:** Homebrew formula API - **Tap:** homebrew/core - **Full Name:** waon - **Version Scheme:** 0 - **Revision:** 0 - **Bottle Stable Root URL:** - **Deprecated:** no - **Disabled:** no - **Keg Only:** no - **URL Keys:** stable ## Other Package-Manager Records - Nix - waon: normalized package name match | nixpkgs package indexes: pkgs/by-name/wa/waon/package.nix from https://api.github.com/repos/NixOS/nixpkgs/git/trees/master?recursive=1 ## Related links - [Source-control packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/source-control-tools/) - Belongs to a source-control command family. - [Terminal utility packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/terminal-utilities/) - Matched terminal and command-line workflow metadata. - [Networking and protocol packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/networking-protocol-tools/) - Matched network, protocol, or remote-service metadata. - [Media and graphics packages](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/media-graphics-tools/) - Matched media, image, audio, video, or graphics metadata. - [fftw](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/fftw/) - Runtime dependency declared by Homebrew. - [libsndfile](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/libsndfile/) - Runtime dependency declared by Homebrew. - [pkgconf](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/pkgconf/) - Build dependency declared by Homebrew. - [timidity](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/timidity/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: audio, cli, media, midi, music. - [alsa-lib](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/alsa-lib/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: audio, cli, media, midi. - [bandcamp-dl](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/bandcamp-dl/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: audio, cli, media, music. - [cmusfm](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/cmusfm/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: audio, cli, media, music. - [csound](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/csound/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: audio, cli, media, music. - [distill-cli](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/distill-cli/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: audio, cli, media, transcription. - [fluid-synth](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/fluid-synth/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: audio, cli, media, midi. - [jack](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/jack/) - Shares av.db curated category or tags: audio, cli, media, midi. - [mpd](https://www.automicvault.com/pkg/brew/mpd/) - Both packages work with overlapping file formats or content types. Shared terms: audio, cli, libsndfile, media, music. ## Combined YAML source View the package source record on GitHub. [combined/waon.yml](https://github.com/automic-vault/db/blob/main/combined/waon.yml) ## Sources - Nucleus package database - Geiger risk classifier - package-page enrichment - curated package history - package version freshness - av.db category and tag curation - package relationship graph - external package-manager database matches - cross-ecosystem install command graph