Audio Workstation

[cavj1]

Hi,
Well I'm new to Linux (just got Corel Linux) and I'm curios if anyone is using Linux for a Digital Audio workstation (DAW) and what they think of it.  How has drive support and software support been?  
Thanks  

[Calum]

you mean for proper studio stuff?

myself, i have been trying in vain to find out if the software even exists for such a workstation.

If i find out, i'll post here...

[cavj1]

quote:Originally posted by Calum:
you mean for proper studio stuff?

myself, i have been trying in vain to find out if the software even exists for such a workstation.

If i find out, i'll post here...

I'm not sure what you mean by proper audio stuff....I mean PRO Audio like PRO Tools, Soundforge, Cube etc.  Has anyone used Linux to record and mix albums...I guess I should have been more clear...sorry

[Calum]

no, you didn't need to be more specific, i just meant do you want proper studio stuff or do you just want bog standard file sharing and mp3 playing with id3 tag editing and all that crap.

Now i know you want proper stuff, i have to say i confess i haven't seen that much around, although i would really like to. The major software houses don't develop for linux and won't for a while. Sonic Foundry does not even develop for the mac. They may be fantastic at bringing out stable software et c (unlike CoolEdit, well what do you expect from a developer that used to work for Microsoft?) but they are well missing the Mac and Linux market i think.

Anyway, here's the only list of stuff that i could really find, a lot of it is ongoing development in people's spare time, so much of it is not up to Sound Forge standard yet. Maybe there are some gems in there though, and if you find any, please post what they are here, so i know. At the moment i only have command line functionality in linux due to my SiS630 so called video card so i can't try out a lot of the programs, so i don't know which is best.

[Master of Reality]

quote:Originally posted by Calum:
no, you didn't need to be more specific, i just meant do you want proper studio stuff or do you just want bog standard file sharing and mp3 playing with id3 tag editing and all that crap.

Now i know you want proper stuff, i have to say i confess i haven't seen that much around, although i would really like to. The major software houses don't develop for linux and won't for a while. Sonic Foundry does not even develop for the mac. They may be fantastic at bringing out stable software et c (unlike CoolEdit, well what do you expect from a developer that used to work for Microsoft?) but they are well missing the Mac and Linux market i think.

Anyway, here's the only list of stuff that i could really find, a lot of it is ongoing development in people's spare time, so much of it is not up to Sound Forge standard yet. Maybe there are some gems in there though, and if you find any, please post what they are here, so i know. At the moment i only have command line functionality in linux due to my SiS630 so called video card so i can't try out a lot of the programs, so i don't know which is best.

if your using red hat 7.2, SiS630 should be supported.

[Calum]

hmm. well, i'm using mandrake 8.0, and it's not. there is a fix though, and i'd sure like to find out what it is rather than just run off to use red hat 7.2, i try to be adventurous in my own little way!!

[cavj1]

thanks for the info...I'll let you know what I find out...I'm looking into MOTU and Aardvark stuff.

[Calum]

what did you find out btw?

i just found a very good site about linux audio workstations (haven't properly read through it yet, but i am just about to) at http://www.esm.rochester.edu/kevine/turnkey/

there is a list of audio projects on this page of their site.

[Calum]

i just found this new music software site at http://www.mp3softz.com/ it only has windows and mac downloads and so on. BUT, they have a section dedicated to linux which they promise to bring online soon. If that is the case then it looks like it may be worth checking back there.

Also they have a forum at http://www.mp3softz.com/cgi-bin/netboard/netboard.cgi with a linux section (so far no posts but there's about ten posts on the whole board so far altogether! i plan to make the first linux post in a minute!) and if some people here went there and posted, i'm sure they would slap up some good downloads once they realised there was support for them.

that's my 2 pence worth for today!

[ May 10, 2002: Message edited by: Calum ]

[Calum]

yeah, but some sort of high end cool edit pro/sound forge/rebirth/cubase stylee programs are really needed. I got SLab for linux, but it will not compile on my system, give me a bit to try to get it to work, and i might post here with a question sometime.

SLab looks like it might fill in some of the gaps but it is NOT GNU style software, ie it is free to download for now but it is closed source and future versions will likely cost money a la staroffice.

[davebrock]

I wish ther were pro tools or cubase for Linux :-(
One excellent thing I've discvered is Audacity, it's very basic (beta) but works really well.........that is the windows, MacOS 9, versions. I haven't been able tp try the Linux version yet but I know for a fact that the Mac OS X version is WAY behind the others, if anyone's interested it can be found here http//audacity.sourceforge.net/

[TheQuirk]

I know this is a very old topic, but I just thought this link might be helpful: http://www.bright.net/~dlphilp/linuxsound/

[Calum]

Dependencies.

I was just on the Ardour page and i was wondering about these dependencies:

 

quote:Requirements
System Level
I recommend that if you want to run Ardour, you use a 2.4 series
kernel with Andrew Morton's low latency patch applied. You can find his patches
here.
You will also need the latest version of the ALSA drivers, 0.9 series.
You will also need the latest version of JACK, the Jack Audio Connection Kit, which Ardour uses
as its underlying audio engine, and as a mechanism to share data and run in sample sync with
other applications.

Now firstly, should i need a patch applied to the kernel? will it harm my kernel if i do get this patch? what's the deal?

Secondly, how can i find out if i have the latest ALSA drivers, and what exactly are they responsible for and so on?

Thirdly, Jack Audio Connection Kit, looks like i will have to get that, and hope that it does not have any dependencies of it's own.

I am not asking a specific question here, really just asking about ALSA drivers and kernel patches, how necessary they are, what i can expect while installing this program and its dependencies (remember i am not used to installing and so forth in linux) and so on...

[creedon]

quote:Originally posted by Calum:
Dependencies.

I was just on the Ardour page and i was wondering about these dependencies:

 Now firstly, should i need a patch applied to the kernel? will it harm my kernel if i do get this patch? what's the deal?

Secondly, how can i find out if i have the latest ALSA drivers, and what exactly are they responsible for and so on?

Thirdly, Jack Audio Connection Kit, looks like i will have to get that, and hope that it does not have any dependencies of it's own.

I am not asking a specific question here, really just asking about ALSA drivers and kernel patches, how necessary they are, what i can expect while installing this program and its dependencies (remember i am not used to installing and so forth in linux) and so on...

I recently setup my analog cassette recorder so I could run it through my sound card (line-in jack).  I successfully copied an analog cassette as a .WAV file, and then burned it DAO to a CD-R.  I didn't need to change anything, just did the mechanical hookup.  I'm using LibraNet 2.0, based on Debian "Woody" with kernel 2.16.