Open Live Mixing System: Become a Sponsor

1. The Silent Revolution: What OLMS and X-Console Actually Are

In a market saturated with expensive, closed hardware ecosystems, those who look further ahead can recognize a true revolution. OLMS is a digital live mixer designed for musicians, bands, clubs, small theaters, and installation systems. It is not a toy for the recording studio: it is a weapon forged for the stage. The project is articulated in two complementary products and a marketplace of extras.

Briefly, how the magic works

Imagine a Linux system supercharged with a Real-Time kernel, the JACK audio server, and the Ardour mixing engine running in headless mode (without a heavy graphical interface, dedicating 100% of the raw computing power to audio processing). The mixer is elegantly controlled from a web interface on tablets and smartphones using the OSC protocol.

The results achieved? Round-trip latency under 5 ms and zero audio dropouts (xruns) under stress tests. And to grow beyond a single PC? Multiple machines connect over a network in perfect synchronization using AES67 and zita-ajbridge.

OLMS, the mixer (free and open source)

It is the heart of the engineering. The collection of scripts, configurations, and files that transforms a standard Linux installation on a normal PC (with at least 4 cores and an audio interface) into a mixer node. It operates the hardware at ultra-low latencies, allows remote Wi-Fi control via browser, and synchronizes the machines. Released under the GPLv3 license, it includes essential tools like Ardour and JACK.

It is a modular system: you grow by adding master nodes (which manage physical inputs, outputs, clock, and control) and slave nodes connected via Ethernet network, which absorb the heavy processing loads like reverbs, amp simulators, and anti-feedback. You start with a 48-channel session and infinitely scale your inputs and outputs by adding machines, without ever having to change your mixing console.

X-Console, the Plug & Play distro (free)

This is the turnkey solution, pre-configured optimally for those who do not want to be system administrators. Got a compatible PC and an audio interface? You already have a mixer. Distributed for free, it boasts a polished graphical interface and advanced features that leverage OLMS's expansion points. X-Console natively inherits the sponsor screen, meaning this is where your logo comes to life and is imprinted in the minds of users at every single boot.

The Add-ons and the Marketplace

OLMS and X-Console are the self-sufficient foundation. But in a second phase, OLMS will become a true market standard, opening the doors to a marketplace. It will be open to any developer or manufacturer who wants to create integrated add-ons: new plugins, adaptation of existing plugins to make them compatible with OLMS, effects, recording tools, automated anti-feedback, and auto-mixers, each with its own interface.

Some add-ons will be free, others paid (creators will keep the full revenue of their sales). The more the ecosystem expands among musicians, producers, and developers, the more people will see the logo of those who supported the project from the very beginning. And as a sponsor, you will have an absolute priority lane to publish your future add-ons.

Note: The corporate structure and the business plan for the marketplace will be defined in a subsequent, separate path, after the realization of OLMS.

2. The Unfair Advantage: Why the Time to Act is NOW

In the world of marketing, there is a brutal, irrefutable rule: the first to position themselves in the minds of consumers within a new category dominates it forever. Think of what Coca-Cola represents for sodas, Red Bull for energy drinks, or Ferrari in the world of sports cars. Creating the "professional software mixer on repurposed hardware" category first means becoming its absolute synonym.

The moment OLMS is being born is no coincidence. Three historical factors have perfectly aligned, creating an unrepeatable window of opportunity:

• Technology has lowered the barrier. Creating complex software that once required massive teams and pharaonic budgets is now within the reach of small, agile realities, partly thanks to artificial intelligence. Our Proof of Concept was born exactly this way.
• The market is starving and looking for oxygen. The international situation makes the future uncertain: shipping costs and hardware component prices are rising, delays are increasing, and live music budgets are shrinking. Transforming a PC you already own into a live mixer, without licenses and without waiting, is not a whim: it answers a fierce and concrete market need.
• The gate is open, but it will close quickly. What I have done, others can eventually do as well. That is why it matters who starts first: we started before anyone else, we planted the flag, and we want to maintain this unbridgeable gap.

If you understand the potential of this revolution, you know you need to get on this train now, before the best spots disappear forever.

3. Undeniable Social Proof: A Community Ready to Explode

The OLMS audience is not a theoretical marketing hypothesis: I have already seen with my own eyes how they react.

On September 29, 2026, I ran a small, informal test. I wrote a genuine message in just 3 Italian Facebook groups dedicated to buying/selling used gear and finding musicians. It started like this: «Giving away a digital live mixer. Got an old PC you no longer use? Don't throw it away!»

The result? In exactly 24 hours, 250 people signed up for the official Telegram waiting list group. With just 3 messages, written without any sophisticated advertising strategy.

The word-of-mouth has already been triggered: those who sign up understand the scope of the project, invite their friends into the channel, and the link passes from hand to hand. This is in the DNA of OLMS: people pass it along because it is useful, it solves a painful problem, and it is easy to use.

Since that date (29-09-2026), the community has been in constant, continuous organic growth, without me doing any further marketing operations whatsoever. The reason? I am currently 100% focused on preparing the technical materials for the LEaT con in Hamburg 2026.

Now, close your eyes and imagine what will happen when we launch a structured, professional campaign worldwide. The audience is there, ready and waiting. This is not just an idea: it is a massive market signal just waiting to be ridden.

4. The Tribe: Who We Are Building the Future For

You know perfectly well that those who invest in audio are always looking for maximum results. OLMS is for those who want to embrace the open-source philosophy and drastically save on the digital "brain" of the mixer, to be able to invest their real budget in what truly matters: high-quality preamplifiers, top-tier microphones, spacious stage boxes, and PA systems.

A true tribe is forming around the project—a community of musicians, sound engineers, and entertainment professionals who want to inaugurate a new season for live music, far from the commercial bottlenecks imposed by the mainstream industry. The code is open and the community is open: anyone can follow the development and actively participate.

It is a perfect ecosystem, a choice where everyone wins:

• The User, who allocates their investments intelligently.
• The Music, which finds new life and gathers around accessible tools.
• The Sponsor, who gains an aristocratic, fiduciary, and direct communication channel with this highly profiled tribe.
• The Project, which receives the necessary oxygen to develop in its most delicate phase: the embryonic one.

5. Join the Audio Aristocracy: Become a Founding Angel

OLMS is and will remain free and open source for anyone who uses it. But to scale globally, it is funded by the audio aristocracy: the Founding Angels. Visionary companies that support development from the very beginning and receive a permanent acknowledgment, rooted in the core of the software. We are not offering a sterile advertising banner that everyone ignores. We are offering a positioning that becomes a legacy.

What you get by becoming a Founding Angel NOW:

• Visibility at every boot: Your logo appears every time the system turns on. The more OLMS circulates, the more your brand is imprinted. Forever.
• Your own dedicated card: Clicking on the logo opens a brief description of your company, with a direct link to your site.
• A direct channel with the community: A growing network of users, developers, and add-on producers who will see who supported their revolution from the dawn of the project.
• The privilege of first choice: Those who arrive first choose the best positions.
• Fast-track access: Extremely advantageous conditions for inserting your future add-ons into the marketplace.
• An immortal presence: The logo remains natively integrated in X-Console as well. The list will update online, new Angels will appear without the user having to reinstall anything.

How the Exclusive Grid Works

At startup, before entering the mixer, the loading screen with the Founding Angels' logos appears for a few seconds (to proceed, you simply press «OLMS start»). The grid boasts exactly 100 positions (10 × 10, from A1 to J10). Those who wish to dominate the splash page can purchase multiple contiguous slots and merge them to obtain a giant logo.

Privileged Entry Tiers:

(If all are sold, the total funding amounts to €167,500).
Prices are dynamic: the lowest tiers are the reward for those who act swiftly. Costs will scale upwards as registrations increase, especially leading up to international events.

Absolute Transparency: Where the funds go

The engineering and realization of OLMS is valued at €165,000. After taxes, the net ~€122,000 funds development transparently:

• €90,000: Development Staff. (A Systems/Audio Engineer for Linux RT, Archiso, JACK, Ardour/Lua; and a Full-Stack/Audio UI Developer for OSC, WebRTC, and UI). The developers will be rigorously selected during this very first phase.
• €15,000: Tools, testing hardware, and A.I. coding tools.
• €17,000: Aggressive marketing campaigns, scheduled at the end of development to ignite the definitive explosion of global word-of-mouth.

6. From Theory to Practice: Development Roadmap

OLMS is currently at the critical Proof of Concept stage: the model is thoroughly validated and technically feasible. We are not selling smoke; we are selling solid engineering foundations.

The current POC is a series of sequential scripts (which will become elegant systemd services) capable of preparing the PC in six lethal steps:

1. Cleanup & Detection: Closes pending audio processes and detects the USB interface.
2. Real-Time Optimization: Modifies the OS kernel to give vital priority to audio.
3. Hardware Isolation: Dedicates physical CPU cores exclusively to audio, managing IRQs.
4. JACK Auto-Tuning: Boots the audio server, automatically calibrating the best buffer and bit-depth settings.
5. Headless Mode: Zeros out graphical consumption, preparing the system to run without a monitor.
6. Ardour Injection: Starts the computation engine, connects the ports, and gives the green light.

Real result recorded: Round-trip latency of 3.5 ms (with modest hardware like a 3rd Gen Scarlett) and zero x-runs in a 1-hour stress test on a single channel. This is OLMS at the Proof Of Concept phase:

The 3 Upcoming Phases:

• Phase 1 - Full Desktop Mixer: The local system on a single machine. A rock-solid 48-channel session, basic UI (faders, mutes, pans), and integration of the Founding Angels screen. At the end: mixing a real live event on the field.
• Phase 2 - Remote Control and Master/Slave Architecture: Wi-Fi integration, reactive tablet UI with differentiated access (front of house vs. stage), and activation of network scalability to add I/O.
• Phase 3 - X-Console (Release): The creation of the definitive USB installer. Guided procedure, turnkey system. From here, the marketing budget is triggered for global visibility.

7. Take Your Place in History: Secure Your Slot

Time is the key factor. The grid does not wait, and the assignment is peremptory.

The 4 steps to position yourself:

1. Write immediately to founders@openlivemixingsystem.org indicating how many slots you are interested in.
2. Choose the exact position on the grid (those who arrive first have the privilege of choosing the central spots first).
3. Send your high-resolution Logo, a brief company pitch (max 50 words), and the official link attached.
4. You will receive the coordinates to finalize, and your logo will dominate the startup screen.

What is this agreement about?

In short, this is a Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) sponsorship for OLMS—a free, open-source audio mixing software aimed at making professional audio tools accessible to music schools, independent bands, local venues, and non-profits.

This isn’t a high-pressure commercial ad contract with complicated impressions or trick clauses. It’s simply a friendly, value-driven partnership to help a good cause while giving your brand lasting recognition among open-source supporters.

What do you get out of it?

• Permanent Recognition: Your logo will be proudly displayed in the software’s start screen (splash page) and settings menu across the slots you sponsor.
• Your Own Profile Card: Clicking your logo opens a dedicated info card with your custom company description and a direct link to your website.
• Public Thanks: Recognition on the project’s official supporters page and repository.
• A Historical Seal: The splash grid only has 100 fixed slots—ever. Your logo acts as a permanent historical badge showing you were one of the original "Founding Angels" who brought this project to life.

Common-Sense Rules (No Fine Print Tricks!)

We want to keep things entirely transparent and fair. Everything in the legal text is standard, fair-minded, and meant to protect both of us:

• Fair Payment Terms: You pay a 30% deposit upon signing to reserve your slots, and the remaining balance within 30 days. No hidden fees or recurring subscriptions.
• Permanent Spot: Once published, your logo stays in the software releases indefinitely—no annual renewals or surprise price jumps.
• Your Content, Your Rights: You confirm that you own your logo and give us permission to display it. If you ever rebrand or change your company name, just let us know and we’ll update your logo in upcoming software releases.
• Open Source Nature: Development is handled on a best-effort basis for the community. The sponsorship supports the cause itself rather than buying a custom software feature or voting rights on the roadmap.
• Peace of Mind (14-Day Recess): If you change your mind within 14 days of signing (before the logo goes live in a public release), you get a full refund—no hard feelings!

Frequently Asked Questions

• Is OLMS really free? Absolutely yes. The OLMS core and the X-Console distro are and will remain free. Only the user who decides to purchase extras from the future marketplace will pay.
• Is the software already ready for download? No. It is currently at the validated Proof of Concept stage. The aristocratic role of the sponsors is exactly to fund the mutation of the POC into the finished Phase 1 product.
• Can I merge multiple slots? Of course, to fuse multiple squares and obtain a dominantly sized brand.
• Are prices fixed? No. They will undergo dynamic increases based on demand and in conjunction with events and promotions, as the project goes mainstream.
• Can I verify how the money is used? Absolute transparency: the code is open source, inspectable, and the budget breakdown is publicly declared in this very document.
• Where can I see the community?
  

8. The Genesis: The Intuition and the Man Behind the Project

My name is Francesco Nano. I live in Italy, and for over 15 years I have made a living through audio engineering and education. After studying at the Accademia del Cinema in Bologna and the Scuola di Alto Perfezionamento Musicale in Saluzzo, I founded scuolasuono.it in 2009, pioneering online sound engineering courses in Italy. After a long break from the stage, I returned to live sound, mixing on modern compact digital systems, clashing violently with their ergonomic limits and closed ecosystems. Today I am an active sound engineer for a band: I will be the first user and the number one field tester of the system on stage.

Every true revolution is born on the battlefield.

The idea for OLMS struck me like lightning on tour. I was working as a sound engineer for a highly-rated Pink Floyd tribute band. We were using a classic digital rack mixer (I will intentionally omit names). Chatting backstage, the guys revealed to me that, to be able to afford that rack, they had played their very first gigs by sending everything to a modest audio interface connected to a Mac running Logic.

I turned pale. I knew perfectly well that using a DAW for live mixing is an ergonomic nightmare. The guys knew nothing about buffer sizes, and with low settings, the computer would "freeze" mid-concert. A total technical disaster... but with an unbeatable competitive advantage: it was free.

In that moment, the dots connected. I understood that the foundational idea those guys had was brilliant, but the practical execution was wrong. Transforming a PC into a hyper-stable, low-latency, crash-proof mixer is extremely complex. But what if I took all that engineering complexity and hid it under an elegant interface, offering only the benefits and a big "Start" button?

Those are the exact, surgical interventions I am executing today in OLMS.