BartonBosch@xxxxxxx wrote: > I have just installed the Planet on my linux partition > and have started in to reading the jack and alsa user documentation. > > I want to do some basic composition and aranging in midi. I was > thinking that I would use MusE with Fluidsynth and various > soundfonts. At this point I am not trying to input any external > signals from guitars, hardware synths, mics, etc. > > I noticed that MusE gives an option to use Alsa only or to use Jack > (which I assume would be in combination with Alsa as a driver). Any > opinions whether it is worth going to the trouble of learning to use > jack with MusE to import, modify, create and playback midi tracks? > > Thanks, > > Barton I never get sick of embarassing myself. So here I go again :-). Maybe the problem is that I'm a "right brain" and that is why I've spent 4 years building my recording studio using Linux (never owned a Window Box in My life). But after endless hardware test, software test, reading about latency issues, a week of hdparm tests, IRQ tests, articles comparing one file system performance over another, testing this peice of software, that peice of software, along with the many other computer tasks that one needs to do (it goes on and on)... I have settled on Muse, ecasound/tkeca, Timidity and no Jack (for now, but this list is educating Me for the future Jack use). Please let Me know if I'm on the mark or not. With Muse's capability to record/play/sync _both_ WAV _and_ midi (in both directions), combined with being able to connect with many synth sources (without Jack), use LADSPA plugins, what would the other advantages be to using Jack in this situation? I _just_ settled on these combinations after 4 years of only producing "test peices" of music. And the latest distraction was the xrun and latency problems that I was having with Jack. I was running as root exclusivly during all this also (just to eliminate as many variables as possible). I'm sure I would uncover all the problems I've encountered _eventually_. But I just need to create some music. The ecasound/tkeca/Timidity/Muse combination seems to solve the midi/WAV sync problems (and I don't even have the version of Muse that _records_ a WAV, it only _plays_ a WAV), and yet I've managed to rec/play/sync midi or wav together in any combination. There appears to be (so far) many ways to accompish any recording task I need with this combination of software. I have, although, only just started with this direction and just joined both the Timidity and Muse mailing list _today_ (been on ecasound list for a while), so more will be revealed. Please forgive my long, rambling email. I've been working on solutions for a long time and have wanted to post something about all this. I think it's also complicated by the fact that I'm always writing scripts or hacking some file to make everything work as hastle free as possible. If I was just concerned with Myself, then it would be much easier because I'm comfortable with (for instance) ecasound command line only. I just want to build things that are easy for my other "left brained" musician friends to use. I just may go (eventually) with "Planet". But I've already invested so much time with SuSE that it would mean learning another distrob. But the idea of eliminating the compiling problems is enough of a reason to do it. And it sounds like they keep things up to date. I will say one last thing and then I will shut up. After all the time trying to figure out all the xruns and latency problems, I finally mounted /tmp in ram and now Move all my files there and do all my multitracking/effect processing/midi recording combinations right out of there. So far so good, but I've only recorded one (WAV) track and multiple midi tracks (with effects). But there's no latency or xruns problems. With Jack, there was no tweeking that would get rid of the latency or xruns. There's not an ounce of latency problems with that aformented set up. Let's see what happens when I have many tracks of WAVS, midi, and effects playing/recording at the same time. If I start getting xruns, I will probly go out and buy some Fostex "all in one" unit and use my Computer to just chat with Women online. :-) Again, my appoligies for the long email... Rocco
