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Re: [microsound] linux newbie stuff [WAS:puff 'n stuff]



Hi all,

Quoting ag@xxxxxxxxxxx:

>  could you share some of your ideas about linux vs. Cubase and
> Logic,
> or vs. Mac and Windows setups, and the future of linux sound?  How does
> Ardour stack
> up at this point? 

One of the real strong points of the Unix/Linux philosophy is that apps work
together in the same way that a community of programmers works together. There
is no single monolithic app which does everything, but lots of interrelated
programs and shared libraries which cooperate to get the job done. There is a
certain philosophy behind this that appeals to me, as someone who is very
interested in collaborative art.

As Alex mentioned, it is hard to compare Ardour with the big comercial apps
because they have more programmers, more time and more money to produce
something like CuBase or ProTools. On the other hand, a small, unpaid group of
people, with support from a good user community, has put out a great start to
what could be one of the gems in the Linux crown.

Rather than a checklist comparison of features, maybe I could describe a
"typical" user setup for someone who otherwise might make music with CuBase or
some other sequencer/VST environment.

You might start with some MIDI input, generated by external controllers or from
a softsequencer like Muse or Rosegarden. This MIDI cold be sent to any number
of softsynths, such as AlsaModularSynth, Zynsubfx, SpiralSynthModular or [of
course!] Pure Data, or to a sampler like Fluidsynth. Alternately, you could use
a pattern generator/drum machine like Hydrogen, or, like me, you might build a
self-standing instrument or environment in PD which takes care of all sound
generation for you.

Using Jack, you could route the audio from your softsynth directly to Ardour for
recording [maybe while monitoring another channel via Jack again...], or you
could route it to Jack-Rack, which is a plugin rack for the LADSPA plugins
[there are hundreds of plugins avaiable in this protocol]. Another option would
be to use the Vsti and VSTserver applications to run VST plugins or instruments
under Linux [I haven't tried this myself, as VSTs are generally closed-source
applications even if they are freeware, but I have heard it can work quite
well.] 

Once you have a multitrack session laid down in Ardour, you can arrange the
chunks of audio there, or perhaps edit some new chunks in an app like Rezound,
which looks and feels quite like Sound Forge. Need to batch-process a bunch of
audio? Use the command-line application Ecasound, along with a short shell
script, to convert 60 mono files to stero, compress them, chop them into 30 sec
chunks, change bit depth, or any other repetitive function that otherwise would
take hours of mousing around in a GUI sound editor.

Once you have something you are ready to take to stereo, you would use Jack
again to send the mixdown channels through Jamin, which is a fantastic
mastering tool, with multiband EQs and compressor/limiter functions. Just about
all of this can be done in 32 bit floating point, so you have a lot of bit
depth to play with. Burn it to a CD with Xcdroast, encode it to MP3 with LAME
or use Ogg Vorbis for better encoding with no proprietary licenses, and set it
free on the internet or out into the world.

Hope this inspires,
d.

http://www.umatic.nl

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