On Thu, 2004-03-18 at 09:29, 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?? > > 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). 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 also considering diving into TerminatorX -- it looks very promising > . . . > > any suggestions? First, welcome. Good to have you here. You might want to look at LinuxSampler. It's not really ready for prime time yet, but it's moving in a direction that may be of interest to you one day. It's more like GigaSampler than Acid though, and so far there is no work being done (that I know of) on an editor to allow you to build your own gig files with your own samples, but possibly someone is. You could also look at using a tracker like SkaleTracker. It's interesting and handles some of the things you want to be able to do. We had some discussions about Acid-like features in the Ardour lists a year ago. There was some work done and a few features put in, like dragging a loop and having it repeat, but I don't know much of anything about their current feature set. Check it out. It might now be very 'artistic', but I suspect that a lot of this stuff could be done at the command line with scripts that take sample files, pitch shift them, concatenate and mix them, etc. Linux has lots of tools that could do things like that. Good luck, Mark
