I think this is a very useful endeaver. I've recently started down the path of Linux audio and wondered myself "What's out there and how good is it?" A resource like that would be great for people coming in. Just so you'll know what I'm used to, my background is Cakewalk/Sonar on Win2k. Now, for about two weeks I've had MusE, Rosegarden, and Ardour installed on a laptop and have been playing with them. I've not messed with Ardour much yet because my soundcard capabilities are limited. I hope to have a Linux DAW running by the end of the month and have a lot more information then. For now, my reviews will just be limited to subjective first impressions of two MIDI sequencing tools. I'm very reluctant to give any bad reviews because I've made no real attempts to optimize MusE or Rosegarden. I've certainly not contacted the mailing lists to find out how to get things to work better. And I can't say I've had enough time to give them a fair chance. So anything I say here is **FIRST IMPRESSION** and not complete testing. MusE (0.6.1) I originally had some trouble compiling MusE. I won't go into it b/c I figure it's mostly learning curve related. At first MusE crashed on me every few minutes, but in the last couple of days has become a lot more stable. I've not made any attempts to get to the source of that. The interface is certainly usable. I like the fact that you can record multiple tracks at a time (I haven't tried it yet, but at least you can *arm* multiple tracks). I also like the fact that you can start synths from within the application and save their properties so you don't have to reload them every time you start to edit a song - though it hasn't worked flawlessly with fluidsynth. The mixer window is very useful. I found the notation window hard to use. The pianoroll window is somewhat hard but I got use to it. Neither of those windows would play back notes as I edited them, as I would've liked. Also, I don't like the way everything opens in a different window. I'd prefer some sort of multiple document interface or something. Rosegarden (latest stable version as of 7/15 - forgot the number) Rosegarden's interface was initially easier to use than MusE's. I don't know if the buttons are bigger or what, but I just had a little easier time getting around. I also really like the big transport window. MusE has one too, but Rosegarden's is a little easer to use. But, I don't like the fact that you have to start your synths externally from the application. And, I didn't like the fact that you could only record one track at a time. The main thing I disliked about RG was the lack of a mixer window (maybe I just haven't found it yet). RG seems to have really great notation features, but I haven't gotten to use them a lot yet. Overall, the combination of these tools seems very useful. I would like to have an application with MusE's track arranger, mixer window, ability to create instances of softsynths and multi-track capabilities, and Rosegarden's pianoroll and notation editors (but not in separate windows unless I wanted them to be). I'd also like to see an API for creating and interacting with softsynths -- maybe an extension to Jack?, and plugin/softsynth automation (maybe it's already there). The question of "can I be productive" is a definite yes. If I've gotten this far in two weeks of hardocre hacking at it, I imagine in a month or two I'll never look back. And this environment comes with something huge that is not available anywhere else -- the ability to analyze, modify, and contribute back to the applications. To me, that's worth a lot. In a couple of months I hope to have some much better reviews. Now, I have to figure out how to write shorter emails. Greg --- Natalia <soulsource@xxxxxxx> wrote: > Hello - > > I'm writing an article on Linux as an OS for audio production. I > was > wondering if I could take a poll of what people think is the best > and the > worst Linux audio software. I'm looking for sequencers, audio > editors, > software synthesizers and samplers. Not really looking for CD > burning > software or MP3 players. > > Please reply directly to: soulsource@xxxxxxx > > Thanks... > > -- N > > __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free, easy-to-use web site design software http://sitebuilder.yahoo.com
