New Kid on the Block

[folderol]

Hi All, Another newbie here.

I've spent some time on 'other' forums and was recommended to come here.

I compose instrumental music - I call it easy listening, but that may be a bit of a cop-out cos I don't know how to describe it 

I work with a couple of elderly hardware synths, and am slowly getting to know how to use softsynths. I'm also using a Linux distro called 64studio.

I'll have to take a good look around here and see where I fit in 

[offthewall]

Well hello there 

It's always good to see newcomers.  It won't be long before you feel like 'one of the family'.
There aren't thousands of us over here.....but we do seem to look after each other.....and the music is darn good!   

James

[Laguna Rising]

Hi folderol and welcome here 

[folderol]

Thanks guys.
...
Funny how the same names crop up isn't it

[Moon]

Hi and welcome to this place. I'me sure you're going to like it here!

Moon

[kara]

Hello & Welcome here 
I'm sure you're gonna like this place

k

[shekk]

wow, i run slackware 9 on a box.. i keep it around for kicks and giggles, but i've never had good performance audio wise. whats 64 studio like? im bout to look it up, but still give me your testimonial if you are around.
pz
-dragcopy

[kara]

yeah I'm interested too to hear some linux experience in the DAW domain.

k

[folderol]

Well <deep breath>

Linux in general is a very fast moving target, so anything missing today may well be there tomorrow

64studio is in fact available for 32 as well as 64bit machines, but the number crunching capability of 64 bits really is noticeable.

This distro is based on debian which is squeakly clean and very stable. It also works in RealTime by default.

Shrink-wrapped you get a very good sequencer (Rosegarden), 2 quite different soft-synths, a drum synth, sf2 sample player, a 3 band compressor/limiter, 3 recorders, one of which is a farly complte DAW in its own right another is very simple, literally just a button that is always monitoring it's input and records from 10sec of material before you hit record - great for live work!

There are also the usual office and internet packages.

However, you have a download manager that links to a truly vast store of other software.

I haven't yet found an arpeggiator, but an still getting to grips with other stuff, so this is low on my list of priorites.

There's a lot I don't know about, and maybe somethings that other find 'essaential' that are missing, but it is more than good enough for me.

... did I mention that all it costs is my download time?

[shekk]

have you looked into emulating windows\mac VST's or even RTAS etc. if someone isnt already developing something like that i would give up on it. oh yeah does it have csound or any kind of development kit of sorts?

[folderol]

I'm really not sure what you are saying here. My choice of platform is both ethical and practical. Ethics is a matter for individual choice so probably shouldn't be discussed here. The practical aspect is that I have my system set up for maximum comfort to me. Other people may find my preferences bizarre, but they are my choices not what somebody else has determined I should need.

I believe that vst plugins are available for linux, but so far I've had no need for them. For ethical reasons I would probably use the native LADSPA plugin system anyway.

My understanding is that the linux version of csound exceeds the capabilities of any other platform, but again I currently have no use for this so it is unimportant.

There are a great many other features I don't know about and may never use. I still haven't begun to reach the limits of just one softsynth (ZynAddSubFX) so I think I have a long way to go before I run out of 'space'

[kara]

Like i said in another post here, it is just a matter of knowing your tools.
And linux is a lot of knowledge, that not every standard musician has, or is willing to aquire or has the time to learn...
I have very litle knowledge of linux in the music domain, I've downloaded once the 'Studio on the go' live CD and gave it a test. My conclusion at that time was that it wasn't ready for serious usage. I do agree that Rosegarden is a realy good sequencer but at that time i had a lot of trouble with Jack who was disconnecting very 5 minutes and screwing up things. And to be honnest the whole connection logic of Jack isn't common knowledge for a simple musician. But I must be honnest, ZynAddSubFX is a great synth !
On the other hand there are excelent sound applications for Linux, audacity only one of them (exist allso on the win platform) propable the best open source audio application in the world. And like you say the LADSPA fx are great and can compete with a lot of (even commercial) vst's when you know how to use them.
Csound is another excelent music application.  And there are others...
We have a couple of BIAB (on windows) users here, but we have allso MMA who has his proper board here on the forum, an excellent composing tool writen in Python by Bob vander Poel, a member of our forum.
And I shouldn't forget to mention that the new version of Energy-XT is now multi-platform and runs on Linux.

As you see I have nothing against Linux, but for the 'simple' musician' who's primary goal is music and who is not a techy, I think that Win still beats it....

You are free to disagree...

k

[shekk]

Hey man, dont get me wrong. sometimes i still use impulse tracker to make tunez. I just see IT and what you do is kind of limiting. but hey more power to you, i wish linux had the audio support windows and mac has. id surely use it. anyways thank for your explanations and keep rockin 64studio. different is good

[kara]

Hey man, dont get me wrong. sometimes i still use impulse tracker to make tunez. I just see IT and what you do is kind of limiting. but hey more power to you, i wish linux had the audio support windows and mac has. id surely use it. anyways thank for your explanations and keep rockin 64studio. different is good

What do you mean by 'sometimes i still use impulse tracker' ? I still use buzz ....
But ok, i'm in the process to take the step to Renoise... 

k

[folderol]

Hmm, I wonder who has the most retro kit still in use?

I've got an original Roland Sound Canvas (1991 I think) and a Yamaha SY35 (middle 90s) and still use both, as well as soft synths.