Re: Music on Linux

On Thu, 2005-03-31 at 11:36 -0500, Andrei Smirnov wrote:
> Just in case if anyone is interested in making music in Linux, like using
> MIDI sequencer programs and audio editors, I found that two distributions
> that somehow work better than others are Mandrake, and especially PLANET
> CCRMA distribution from Stanford:

I would certainly include CCRMA, but not Mandrake as an option. My
personal, biased opinion is that the best Linux-based solution for
making music and doing general audio work is DeMuDi ("Debian-based
Multimedia Distribution"), a distro that I've done a lot of work for and
done a lot of work with.

http://demudi.org

The definitive index of Linux audio software is Dave Phillips' page,
which is so large that it makes it a bit difficult to sort out the good
apps from the junk.

http://linux-sound.org

I agree that Rosegarden is the most advanced MIDI sequencer available
for Linux, but I'd hardly call it competition for Cubase. I like Seq24
for simple pattern-based, live MIDI sequencing. Specimen is my preferred
sampler. I recommend Ardour for multi-track recording, Audacity for
lighter-duty audio editing. Jack-Rack and the excellent LADSPA (Linux
equiv of VST plugins) collections by SWH and TAP for effects processing.
Jack-Rack combined with Linux's low-latency audio handling makes for a
great virtual guitar/instrument rack BTW. ZynAddSubFx is a full-featured
software synthesizer, and Hydrogen is a very nice drum machine. The more
programming-oriented people may be interested in PD or Csound.

All the above mentioned software are available along with many many
others, and they work with your consumer sound card and cheap MIDI
controller out of the box. 

Linux audio right now can do some great things, cheap low-latency
processing and arbitrary signal patching between and inside of
applications with Jack and ALSA is incredibly powerful. OTOH,
professional-grade software is just not there yet. I must admit that my
main audio workstation dual-boots Windows 2000 alongside DeMuDi, and I'm
much more productive in Windows, though the things I do in Linux are
quite unique and I wouldn't know how to go about them at all in Windows.

I'd love to have the time to give a presentation on this subject, but
I'm quite strapped for time as it is. It will happen some day, but I'd
love for some discussion to take place on this topic.

- David A. Riggs