Hi, On Thursday 18 March 2004 18.29, Hawkeye Parker wrote: > hi all, > > i'm fairly new to linux and linux audio, and i've been just trying to > get my bearings amid the staggering amount of audio software. > > i'd like to use linux as a hard disk sampler, and here is the general > functionality i'd like: > > -ability to "compose" with samples, in the same way that you'd use a > sequencer to work with a synth. i.e., be able to arrange samples into > tracks and specify when (rhythm) and at what pitch the samples play. > -some sort of mixer to mix things down so i can record it. > -ablility to add software effects to the above tracks. > > essentially, what i'm looking for is some way to reproduce the ~nature~ > of Sonic Foundry's Acid for Windows. i don't really *want* Acid, or even > one specific piece of software, but just some way to use samples in a > similar sort of way. > one thought i've had is to use fluidsynth/swami to build soundfonts of > the samples i want to use, and then drive those samples with MusE. MusE > supports LADSPA, so i would have per/track access to LADSPA plugins on > top of the samples. right?? Yep. > > building the soundfonts will take time, though, and i wonder if there > isn't a more direct way to accomplish the same thing (like Acid, where > you drag and drop waveforms right onto your track). You can import waveforms in MusE as well (not drag and drop at the moment though). Biggest problem with this approach is that it's much harder to "drive" these samples in a sensible way since you can no longer use midi. Pitching is a pain, you would need to pitchshift the samples externally and import them individually. If you have looped samples you might also have significant problems getting it right... As far as I know _no_ app in linux-land can currently do this in a sensible way. (I'd be glad to be proven wrong though.) ... on a related note... I've pondered a bit lately about implementing a timestretch subsystem in MusE to make it possible to dynamically alter tempo and have the audio tracks adapt to the new tempo in a non-pitchshifted sensible way... (I guess acid can do this kinds of things ?) It would be a quite powerful feature if done correctly... > i've looked at > Simsam (sampler) as well, and the occured to me that i could run > multiple instances of Simsam through multiple jack-racks, but this is > obviously a kludge, and there must be a better way (?) I'm not sure how advanced simsam is, but for mixer app you would probably fare better with one that is multichannel, Ardour seems the obvious choice (though it's much more than a mixer, ofcourse), possibly there are others. Next revision of MusE will have much better jack connectivity which would make it possible to use it both as midi sequencer and mixer app... but that's in the future... > > i'm also considering diving into TerminatorX -- it looks very promising > . . . > > any suggestions? Keep bugging the developers :) /Robert > > thanks in advance, > hawkeye parker
