To Linux users...

*You* people:

I'm trying to give guidance to a friend who wants to start up a Linux system and make music (question: is it really a default Linux situation these days for consumers, or should I assume *nix?).

Anyhow, I'm a bit bummed by driver support for the sound cards - we were hoping to go with the M-Audio 2496 card, but it appears dodgy at best. And the screenfuls of config code made me realize how techy some of this still is (i.e. I couldn't recommend it to a complete non-tech person).

But besides drivers, *nix-people: anyone tried out Rosegarden, a multi-track audio and midi application that includes notation as well?

http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/

Cheers,
Jon

On Thursday 27 May 2004 11:05 am, Jonathan M. Szanto wrote:
> *You* people:
>
> I'm trying to give guidance to a friend who wants to start up a Linux
> system and make music (question: is it really a default Linux situation
> these days for consumers, or should I assume *nix?).

Most desktop *nix these days is I'm sure Linux......I would recommend
Gentoo...been happy with it...installing packages has never been easier..but
this is good only for people with high bandwidth internet--it downloads and
builds all packages mostly from source code. Also I hear that there are
distros for audio emphasis...like Planet CCRMA or something.

> Anyhow, I'm a bit bummed by driver support for the sound cards - we were
> hoping to go with the M-Audio 2496 card, but it appears dodgy at best. And
> the screenfuls of config code made me realize how techy some of this still
> is (i.e. I couldn't recommend it to a complete non-tech person).

Don't know about this...have you checked Alsa's webpages? www.alsa-project.org
I know that whoever has $$ for the Hammerfall cards has good support in Linux,
because the author of Ardour, the main multitracking Pro-Tools modelled
recording app, customized Ardour for Hammerfall cards (even though others
should work fine)

> But besides drivers, *nix-people: anyone tried out Rosegarden, a
> multi-track audio and midi application that includes notation as well?

I haven't. I tried to compile it years ago, before using Gentoo, and couldn't,
or I think I didn't want to jump through the major upgrades or something so
that I could. I hear it's nice, though.

-Aaron.

Aaron Krister Johnson
http://www.dividebypi.com
http://www.akjmusic.com

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Aaron K. Johnson"
<akjmicro@c...> wrote:
>> Most desktop *nix these days is I'm sure Linux......I would
recommend
> Gentoo...been happy with it...installing packages has never been
easier..but
> this is good only for people with high bandwidth internet--it
downloads and
> builds all packages mostly from source code. Also I hear that there
are
> distros for audio emphasis...like Planet CCRMA or something.

Here's an article that describes Planet CCRMA and AGNULA
(unfortunately the AGNULA website is "closed under protest"):

http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=7342

What do you think of Dave Philips' book? Do you think it's a good
intro to Linux music?

I'm considering getting another laptop to use as a Linux music
playground, though it may not be for a while as I just joined another
orchestra whose repertoire is much more difficult to play than the
first one I joined.

Paolo

Hi Aaron,

BTW, this is a project you know about... :)

{you wrote...}
>Most desktop *nix these days is I'm sure Linux......I would recommend >Gentoo...been happy with it...installing packages has never been easier..but
>this is good only for people with high bandwidth internet--it downloads and
>builds all packages mostly from source code. Also I hear that there are
>distros for audio emphasis...like Planet CCRMA or something.

Thanks for that. I realize that the beauty of this paradigm is to download the latest and greatest, but for broad market penetration I'd like to see a box set I could slap on someone's hardware. Too OT at this point, but thanks for the info.

>Don't know about this...have you checked Alsa's webpages? >www.alsa-project.org

That's where I started.

>I know that whoever has $$ for the Hammerfall cards has good support in >Linux,
>because the author of Ardour, the main multitracking Pro-Tools modelled
>recording app, customized Ardour for Hammerfall cards (even though others
>should work fine)

I know other sound people that use Hammerfall, but this situation is not in the larger money category. And Ardour was my second thought, but it is audio only, and if one could have midi/audio in one app it would be preferable.

>I haven't. I tried to compile it years ago, before using Gentoo...

Ouch. I sure hope it is available compiled as well. These are *not* implementations for neophytes!

Cheers,
Jon

Hi Paolo,

{you wrote...}
>Here's an article that describes Planet CCRMA and AGNULA (unfortunately >the AGNULA website is "closed under protest"):
>
>http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=7342

Cheers for that, in that it gives me a more complete picture. But it also sheds light on the fact that this is NOT an approach for non-tech people, nor is it nearly as easy as setting up either a MS- or Mac-based audio workstation. I hope that some day it will be just as turnkey as the above.

>What do you think of Dave Philips' book? Do you think it's a good intro >to Linux music?

No idea, but based on his writing in the article it is probably good.

Cheers,
Jon

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Jonathan M. Szanto"
<JSZANTO@A...> wrote:
> Hi Aaron,
>
> BTW, this is a project you know about... :)
>
> {you wrote...}
> >Most desktop *nix these days is I'm sure Linux......I would
recommend
> >Gentoo...been happy with it...installing packages has never been
easier..but
> >this is good only for people with high bandwidth internet--it
downloads and
> >builds all packages mostly from source code. Also I hear that
there are
> >distros for audio emphasis...like Planet CCRMA or something.
>
> Thanks for that. I realize that the beauty of this paradigm is to
download
> the latest and greatest, but for broad market penetration I'd like
to see a
> box set I could slap on someone's hardware. Too OT at this point,
but
> thanks for the info.

Planet CCRMA is really easy to use, and I recommend it, but I still
have trouble getting things to work under Linux when it comes to
sound.

Gene,

{you wrote...}
>Planet CCRMA is really easy to use, and I recommend it, but I still have >trouble getting things to work under Linux when it comes to sound.

Thanks - you are definitely one of the people I figured would have info. At the moment it is a bit disheartening, only because I know if anyone could make it work you would be one of them! I'll keep working on it, and I'm hoping to have broadband in the next month or two. If that is the case then maybe I'll try downloading and installing...

...but I better not if it is at the expense of making some music - I'm way behind the production curve on this list!

Cheers,
Jon

yea it's about time you give up playin music and doin all that percussionist
work, or at least start retuning them all!
that enharmonic stuff is just what those orchestra pieces need!

"Jonathan M. Szanto" wrote:

> Gene,
>
> ...but I better not if it is at the expense of making some music - I'm way
> behind the production curve on this list!
>
> Cheers,
> Jon
>

-- -Kraig Grady
North American Embassy of Anaphoria Island
http://www.anaphoria.com
The Wandering Medicine Show
KXLU 88.9 FM WED 8-9PM PST

On 2004-05-28 02:54:31 +0000 Gene Ward Smith <gwsmith@...> wrote:
> --- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Jonathan M. Szanto" <JSZANTO@A...> >> BTW, this is a project you know about... :)
>> {you wrote...} Most desktop *nix these days is I'm sure Linux......I would > recommend Gentoo...been happy with it...installing packages has never been > easier..but this is good only for people with high bandwidth internet--it > downloads and builds all packages mostly from source code. Also I hear that > there are distros for audio emphasis...like Planet CCRMA or something.

>> Thanks for that. I realize that the beauty of this paradigm is to
> download the latest and greatest, but for broad market penetration I'd like
> to see a box set I could slap on someone's hardware. Too OT at this point,
> but thanks for the info.

> Planet CCRMA is really easy to use, and I recommend it, but I still have I'm using Fedora2 now... I was using Fedora. Before that it was Redhat... Before that {most of the past decade} it was Debian {which I dearly love} but I decided I was either going to build systems or make art. If I ever decide to switch to building systems I'll switch back to Debian. It's {Fedora} got out of the box support for SATA for one thing... It installs as easy as Redhat... Version 1 was nice... Version 2 is amazing.

> trouble getting things to work under Linux when it comes to sound.

It's gotten easier. Linux multimedia has gotten pretty stable. Now it's just time consuming to set things up. The applications are getting good and it's got one of them "Spirit" things going...

I figure I want a strong basic system first. I like configuring everything the way I like configuring it. Planet CCRMA doesn't give me enough of that. To a large extent Redhat doesn't either but, like I said...

If you download the disk images you can have a full multimedia system running in a few hours with CCRMA though.

--- In MakeMicroMusic@yahoogroups.com, "Jonathan M. Szanto"
<JSZANTO@A...> wrote:
> Gene,
>
> {you wrote...}
> >Planet CCRMA is really easy to use, and I recommend it, but I
still have
> >trouble getting things to work under Linux when it comes to sound.
>
> Thanks - you are definitely one of the people I figured would have
info. At
> the moment it is a bit disheartening, only because I know if anyone
could
> make it work you would be one of them!

I think you overestimate my abilities, but the real problem is that,
since I have a dual boot system, I lack motivation.