{"slug": "cardinal", "name": "Cardinal", "category": "media", "category_name": "Media and creative", "description": "", "recommenders": 4, "commenters": 4, "warners": 0, "score": 3.365, "rising": -1.31, "first": "2026-01-11", "latest": "2026-02-08", "why": "Fastest and most accurate file search app for macOS.", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 4, "neutral": 0, "compare": 0, "warn": 0}, "spark": [0, 0, 1, 3, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "Fastest and most accurate file search app for macOS.", "kind": "", "icon": false, "domain": "kx.studio", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Cardinal"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 751021184, "item_id": 46938824, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46938824", "by": "porker", "date": "2026-02-08", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Fastest and most accurate file search app for macOS.", "excerpt": "Cardinal: Fastest and most accurate file search app for macOS. https://github.com/cardisoft/cardinal It's slower to start-up than Everything but just as useful once running. There are a few Mac oddities like OneDrive files appearing twice because macOS is convinced they exist in two locations, but that's a minor annoyance.", "context": "", "use_case": "file search on macOS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Voidtools Everything \u2013 Locate files and folders by name instantly"}, {"id": 750503153, "item_id": 46906447, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46906447", "by": "4k93n2", "date": "2026-02-05", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Cardinal is a free modular eurorack synth you could mess around with", "excerpt": "if you mean you just want to make music and arent too bothered about recording then Cardinal is a free modular eurorack synth you could mess around with or you use a VST host like Kushview's Element and load up on all the free VST instruments and effects that are out there. you would just need a midi keyboard hooked to it then or use Cardinal to generate note patterns https://cardinal.kx.studio https://kushview.net/e", "context": "", "use_case": "Modular synth", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ardour 9.0 Released"}, {"id": 750476240, "item_id": 46904765, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46904765", "by": "PaulDavisThe1st", "date": "2026-02-05", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Cardinal/Rack (or even PD) are approximately infinitely better than anything we could or would do.", "excerpt": "Most likely we would do a closer-than-normal integration of Cardinal .... https://cardinal.kx.studio/ You can already load Cardinal as a plugin and get the full scope of is power(s) (or VCV Rack if you paid for the \"pro\" version). You just don't get the GUI \"integrated\" into Ardour, and its tied to a specific track. We might do this via I/O plugins (an existing Ardour feature), which would make the inputs & outputs o", "context": "", "use_case": "Modular synth plugin", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ardour 9.0 Released"}, {"id": 745228003, "item_id": 46576750, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46576750", "by": "vindex10", "date": "2026-01-11", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "although there are good ones: lsp, decent sampler, cardinal, surge", "excerpt": "I love how windows-linux discussion is populated by DAW/VST incompatibility. I'm still new to the industry, and therefore also open minded about daw/plugins. I actually had good experience with setting up yabridge, it could have worked for me I think. But the elephant in the room is that many big commercial plugins use JUCE as a framework, and the recent release of JUCE (JUCE8) just broke compatibility with wine and ", "context": "new to audio industry", "use_case": "Linux audio plugins", "switched_from": "", "story": "I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too"}]}], "caveats": [], "who": [{"by": "vindex10", "context": "new to audio industry", "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46576750", "date": "2026-01-11"}], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["file search on macos", "modular synth", "modular synth plugin", "linux audio plugins"], "compared": [], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46903001", "title": "Ardour 9.0 Released", "mentions": 2}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46938615", "title": "Voidtools Everything \u2013 Locate files and folders by name instantly", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46574707", "title": "I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {}, "2025-12": {}, "2026-01": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-02": {"recommend": 3}, "2026-03": {}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {}, "2026-10": {}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 751021184, "item_id": 46938824, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46938824", "by": "porker", "date": "2026-02-08", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Fastest and most accurate file search app for macOS.", "excerpt": "Cardinal: Fastest and most accurate file search app for macOS. https://github.com/cardisoft/cardinal It's slower to start-up than Everything but just as useful once running. There are a few Mac oddities like OneDrive files appearing twice because macOS is convinced they exist in two locations, but that's a minor annoyance.", "context": "", "use_case": "file search on macOS", "switched_from": "", "story": "Voidtools Everything \u2013 Locate files and folders by name instantly"}, {"id": 750503153, "item_id": 46906447, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46906447", "by": "4k93n2", "date": "2026-02-05", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Cardinal is a free modular eurorack synth you could mess around with", "excerpt": "if you mean you just want to make music and arent too bothered about recording then Cardinal is a free modular eurorack synth you could mess around with or you use a VST host like Kushview's Element and load up on all the free VST instruments and effects that are out there. you would just need a midi keyboard hooked to it then or use Cardinal to generate note patterns https://cardinal.kx.studio https://kushview.net/e", "context": "", "use_case": "Modular synth", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ardour 9.0 Released"}, {"id": 750476240, "item_id": 46904765, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46904765", "by": "PaulDavisThe1st", "date": "2026-02-05", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Cardinal/Rack (or even PD) are approximately infinitely better than anything we could or would do.", "excerpt": "Most likely we would do a closer-than-normal integration of Cardinal .... https://cardinal.kx.studio/ You can already load Cardinal as a plugin and get the full scope of is power(s) (or VCV Rack if you paid for the \"pro\" version). You just don't get the GUI \"integrated\" into Ardour, and its tied to a specific track. We might do this via I/O plugins (an existing Ardour feature), which would make the inputs & outputs o", "context": "", "use_case": "Modular synth plugin", "switched_from": "", "story": "Ardour 9.0 Released"}, {"id": 745228003, "item_id": 46576750, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46576750", "by": "vindex10", "date": "2026-01-11", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "although there are good ones: lsp, decent sampler, cardinal, surge", "excerpt": "I love how windows-linux discussion is populated by DAW/VST incompatibility. I'm still new to the industry, and therefore also open minded about daw/plugins. I actually had good experience with setting up yabridge, it could have worked for me I think. But the elephant in the room is that many big commercial plugins use JUCE as a framework, and the recent release of JUCE (JUCE8) just broke compatibility with wine and ", "context": "new to audio industry", "use_case": "Linux audio plugins", "switched_from": "", "story": "I dumped Windows 11 for Linux, and you should too"}]}