HYDROGEN(1)

📦
version 1.2.7 · 4 versions
, in arch rolling, fedora 43, fedora 44

💖 NAME 💖

okay so bestie, meet Hydrogen — it's an advanced drum machine and a step sequencer. like, the whole package. 🥁✨

🌸 SYNOPSIS 🌸

hydrogen [options] [file]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

so Hydrogen is lowkey two icons in one trench coat: it's a drum sequencer for pattern-based programming and a drum synth. and the way its design is simple-yet-feature-rich?? it's giving versatile companion energy. like, it will literally hold your hand whether you're:

  • doing a quick practice session at home 🏠
  • going full professional as a fully-fledged drum machine in your studio 🎛️
  • or being a drum looper on steroids for your live performance 🔥

Features:

  • First-class MIDI support
  • Highly customizable
  • Stable and performant
  • Loads of drumkits to choose from
  • In-depth control of instrument, sample, and note properties
  • High quality time-stretching and pitch shifting
  • Automate it using MIDI or OSC API

no cap, that last one is main character energy. ✨

✨ OPTIONS ✨

  • -d, --driver=[AUDIO_DRIVER] — pick which audio driver to use. and psst, the --help output spells out every audio driver that's actually available on your system, so go look there. 💅
  • -s, --song=FILE — loads a song (*.h2song) right at startup. or honestly? you can just pass the filename with no option at all. we're chill like that. 🎀
  • -p, --playlist=FILE — loads a playlist (*.h2playlist) at startup.
  • -k, --kit=DRUMKIT_NAME — loads a drumkit at startup.
  • -i, --install=FILE — installs a drumkit (*.h2drumkit).
  • -O, --osc-port=PORT — use a custom OSC port.
  • -P, --data=PATH — use an alternate system data path.
  • --user-data=PATH — use an alternate user data path.

The default one is $HOME/.hydrogen. 🏡

  • --config=PATH — use an alternate config path.

The default one is $HOME/.hydrogen/hydrogen.conf.

  • --layout=LAYOUT — the UI layout. either tabbed or single (which is the default).
  • -n, --nosplash — hides the splash screen. bye bye, splash. 👋
  • -V, --verbose=[LEVEL] — prints a lot of debugging info. like, a lot a lot.

The LEVEL, if you actually pass one, may be None, Error, Warning, Info, or Debug.

  • -L, --log-file=FILE — use a custom log file.
  • -T, --log-timestamps — adds timestamps to every single log message. ⏰
  • --log-colors — uses ANSI colors in log messages (this is the default).
  • --no-log-colors — suppresses ANSI colors in log messages.
  • -v, --version — shows version info.
  • -h, --help — shows this help message.

📁 FILES 📁

  • $HOME/.hydrogen/data/drumkits — the user-level drumkit folder. every drumkit you download via the online import and the ones you made yourself by hand end up living here. and a portable version of a drumkit — the .h2drumkit tar archive file — can be included into this folder using the --install option. only the kits sitting either in this folder or in the system drumkit folder (the ones you got from your package manager) will show up in the Sound Library. 🥁
  • $HOME/.hydrogen/data/patterns — if you save a pattern, it gets exported as a .h2pattern XML file into this folder. and only the patterns in here show up in the Sound Library.
  • $HOME/.hydrogen/data/playlists — okay so this folder may have originally been designed for holding .h2playlist XML files, but plot twist: it doesn't serve any special purpose anymore and you can put them wherever you want. 🙈
  • $HOME/.hydrogen/data/plugins — in here you can put LADSPA plugins for Hydrogen to use that are not within LADSPA_PATH.
  • $HOME/.hydrogen/data/scripts — playlists in Hydrogen can be configured to run a BASH script before loading a particular song. this folder may have originally been designed for holding those scripts, but you can put them wherever you want. 💅
  • $HOME/.hydrogen/data/songs — if you want a .h2song XML file to show up in the Sound Library, you have to store it in here. no exceptions, bestie.

🎀 CONFIGURATION 🎀

  • $HOME/.hydrogen/hydrogen.conf — the XML file holding all configurations for Hydrogen.
  • $HOME/.hydrogen/data/emptySong.h2song — whenever you create a new song, it gets derived from this template. 🌱
  • $HOME/.hydrogen/data/themes/ — you can change colors, fonts, and many more things in Hydrogen. these custom settings can be stored as .h2theme XML files in here by exporting the current theme in the Preferences dialog. 🎨

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

  • LADSPA_PATH

Path to LADSPA plugins.

💀 BUGS & FEATURES REQUEST 💀

if you find any bug, or if you would like to propose a new feature, please report it to https://github.com/hydrogen-music/hydrogen/issues — yes, we read them, so spill. 🫶

👑 AUTHORS 👑

The hydrogen development team. See the complete list at Hydrogen's "About" Dialog. You can contact them at <hydrogen-devel@lists.sourceforge.net>.

Subscription to the mailing list can be done here:

http://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/hydrogen-devel .

🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

  • A CLI tool for exporting songs and batch processing drumkits — h2cli(1)
  • A player Hydrogen-based songs on the command line — h2player(1)

Copyright (C) 2002-2008 Alessandro Cominu Copyright (C) 2008-2026 The hydrogen development team

Hydrogen is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GPL version 2 or later.

and that's the whole page, bestie 🫶 this was Hydrogen version 1.2.7, dated October 02, 2026, filed under HYDROGEN(1) in User Commands. go make something iconic. 💖✨🎀
📦 where this page comes from