Re: Music on Linux

Thanks David for your excellent discussion on this subject. It gave me a
useful first insight into the Linux music/audio package collection I've
got. So if you ever have time to give a presentation on this subject I'd
love to hear it.

I am still on the amateur level - just trying to setup a working 
midi/sound system for my wife. I did some sequencing before using Cubase - 
it was fun. 

Currently my problem is that the Intel sound-card on my laptop does not seem
to have midi capabilities, and I did not manage to get the softsynth
going.  On my workstation I have a SB-Live! and it works.  I still want to
use the laptop, since I can put it on top of the Yamaha keyboard we have,
and you can take it with you on the trips and work on your compositions
anywhere.  So, I ordered the external SB USB card, hoping that it will
solve the problem. What do you think about it?

Right now I can get MIDI OUT from the laptop and play the scores using
keyboard's synth. I can get the signal from the keyboard and record the
performance on the laptop. However, when I have both MIDI-IN/OUT cables
connected I get into some kind of infinite feedback loop where the note
starts jumping from the computer to the keyboard and back, producing a
jittering sound, that never stops. I suspect it has something to do with
channels. I tried to assign RX channel to 2 and TX channel to 1 on the
keyboard, but I found no equivalent settings in Rosegarden. I presume it
may be a typical newbie problem, so if you have any hints I'd appreciate.

Thanks,

Andrei

On Fri, 1 Apr 2005, David A. Riggs wrote:

> 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
> 
> 
> 
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Dr. Andrei Smirnov,  West Virginia University
Dept. of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Morgantown WV, 26506-6106
Tel:+1(304)293 3111 x2345, fax:+1(304)2936689
Email: [email protected]
http://smirnov.mae.wvu.edu     1024D/5CEDD3E2
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