[ecasound] Re: [alsa-devel] Re: Usage of Sourceforge (fwd)

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Subject: [ecasound] Re: [alsa-devel] Re: Usage of Sourceforge (fwd)
From: Kai Vehmanen (kaiv@wakkanet.fi)
Date: Tue Sep 05 2000 - 13:09:55 EEST


Here's something I wrote to alsa-devel and lad... Might be of interest.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
On Tue, 5 Sep 2000 sonofzev@free.net.au wrote:
> To be honest, Linux is not quite ready to draw the masses of home musicians
> away from other OS's but we are very close to that day. (see my other posts re

While you've raised some good points here (+ in your previous messages to
alsa-devel), you should note that for people that don't expect Win/Mac
like polished interfaces, and who don't need to work in a mixed
environment (sync issues), Linux has been a viable platform for a couple
of years now. I've done lots of music using Linux sw (two demo-cds), so
I'm pretty sure about this. In many ways, my current Linux setup is
superior to my analog recording setup. I have two full-blown Windows boxes
with up-to-date audio software, but I don't use them. A couple of years
ago I was still using them, but that's a long time ago.

Case 1. My recording machine is a relatively powerful dual-cpu box. It
doesn't have any extra hardware, it isn't connected to a monitor, no
keyboard, mouse, etc, etc... in other words, it's cheap and it's easy to
carry around. In my home studio, I can log in to the box using my desktop
machine. When I want to record somewhere else, I take my Linux laptop with
me and connect it to the recording server (via LAN of course). I can use
both console and X-connections when I record (I guess I don't need to
mention what sw I'm using ;)). I'm pretty sure, that my home setup is
quite a bit more portable than the average Mac/Win-pc based setups. And
cheaper, and especially when compared to dedicated hardware solutions. And
yup, sync is a _very_ important issue, but not for everybody. I record
live musicians, so I don't have anything to sync to. Often I use
presequenced backing tracks, but using those doesn't require sync-support.
And I know that there are _LOTS_ of peole, who can live without midi/smpte
sync. Not that we should concentrate on making software just for these
people, but still, it's a fact.

Case 2. Trackers. I'm a regular user of SoundTracker. It's a great tool
for making music. I admit that it doesn't suit everybody, but it's still a
great tool. And more importantly, it compares well to similar Win/mac
apps. Same with Csound, Jmax, etc... If you prefer to work with these apps,
Linux has no real disadvantages.

...

And just to make sure, I'm not implying that we should stop here. As
you've said, Linux audio has a lot of potential. But still, I want to
remind that people have worked hard on these issues, and for a long time.
In my opinion we have already achieved much.

As for myself, my apps are aimed towards a certain type of recording
environment, but what can I do, that's what I have at my use! I don't have
a large MIDI-setup, I don't use MIDI-sequencers, etc ... writing code for
these purposes is difficult, if you can't test and use them yourself. And
if we start writing software for other people's needs, well, that's
commercial development. Pay me, and you'll get the sw. That's what my
employer does. ;)

-- 
 . http://www.eca.cx ... [ audio software for linux ] /\ . 
 . http://www.eca.cx/aivastus ... [ aivastus net radio ] /\ . 
 . http://www.eca.cx/sculpscape [ my armchair-tunes mp3/ra/wav ]

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