Cool Tools
Music
Alexander Zolotov
https://play.google.com/store/apps/dev?id=6791817400205972629
https://warmplace.ru/about.php
Paid Android app music apps. Unfortunately Alexander is based in Russia, and due to recent changes to google play store, you cannot buy his apps directly from the store.
Instead you can make a "donation" him through his site, and he will send a gift code for the app on the app store. I tried this, and got access within an hour of contacting him.
SunVOX, PixiTracker, etc etc
Audacity
FOSS
"Audacity is the world’s most popular free software for recording and editing audio. So if you're producing music, a podcast, or just playing around with audio, Audacity is for you."
Fantastic audio editor. I've used it for cleaning up vocals and live music recordings. Spectral editor allows very powerful and easy noise edits like removing coughs, de-essing.
BandLab
Freemium
This is what I used to make my first music tracks. You don't need a full-fledged DAW, in fact I find it can be very distracting/overwhelming. Free BandLab provides the essentials in a relatively clean and intuitive layout. I've never messed with it for sharing music so not sure how great it is or isn't there.
Tbh I paid for a year of their premium version, which also includes Cakewalk Next and Sonar. This isn't a bad deal at all. BandLab->CakeWalk Next (basically bandlab with more features)->CakeWalk Sonar (or another pro DAW) isn't a bad path.
FamiTracker
"FamiTracker is a free windows tracker for producing music for the NES/Famicom-systems. The interface is based on MadTracker and should be easy to use if you've been using trackers before."
http://famitracker.com/links.php other stuff worth checking out
FL Studio
frankly i don't necessarily have any more love for this daw than any other. I remember playing with FL studio when I was 13. So now that I'm 37 and trying again, I stuck with the name I remembered. It is cheaper than some of the other options, but there are even cheaper options like Reaper or the FOSS options Ardour and LMMS
Furnace
https://tildearrow.org/furnace/
FOSS
"the ultimate chiptune music tracker"
Mixxx
FOSS
Haven't played with too much but seems like a very cool dj app. 2 or 4 "turntable" configs, record scratching, sampling, and tons more. Also very useful BPM, key detection tools
strudel / tidalcycles
FOSS
"strudel is a JavaScript version of tidalcycles, which is a popular live coding language for music, written in Haskell."
VCV Rack 2
Freemium
virtual eurorack studio
modular studio
Other Stuff
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rbUbx9cJPX0
https://musictheory.pugetsound.edu/mt21c/MusicTheory.html
Free
totally free comprehensive music theory course created by Robert Hutchinson
Notes: stuff to check out
https://www.scales-chords.com tools for finding chords, scales, progressions, and hearing demos
https://www.chordwarepa.com/?page_id=648
https://siennasphere.acustica-audio.com/blog/3-websites-every-music-producer-should-know/
Game Dev
Adventuron
create html adventure games in your browser
Godot
Unity
Unreal Engine
Twine
GameMaker
RPGMaker
Mudlet
Pico-8
https://www.lexaloffle.com/pico-8.php
Paid
"PICO-8 is a fantasy console for making, sharing and playing tiny games and other computer programs."
Evennia
Voxatron
https://www.lexaloffle.com/voxatron.php
"Voxatron is a fantasy console and collection of games made entirely out of voxels (little colourful cubes, kind of)."
Other Stuff
Full online interactive book on using p5.js library for programming natural processes; fractals, conway's game of life, evolutionary computing, etc etc etc
https://devpods.itch.io/hands-on-intro-to-game-programming-textbook-pdf-with-js-source-code
getting started programming video games using javascript
Image Editing
Krita
Gimp
aseprite
3D
Blender
Video
Davinci Resolve
OBS Studio
ffmpeg
stacher 7 / yt-dlp
Words
Electric Zine Maker
https://alienmelon.itch.io/electric-zine-maker
name your own price
The Electric Zine Maker (⚡️📝✂️) is a printshop and art tool for making zines.