Subject: [linux-audio-dev] My 2 cents
From: Adam Zygmunt (azygmun_AT_bgnet.bgsu.edu)
Date: ti elo 10 1999 - 11:30:47 EDT
I've been following this discussion for quite a while, and I have tried to
at least install a good deal of the software that's come along, and before
I continue, forgive me if I step on some toes. My main suggestion is this:
before we start talking distributions, plug-in architectures, how much
stuff we can do at once on our machines, we need to focus on one thing:
working, useful, compilable applications. I hate to say this, as I'm one
of the biggest Linux advocates I know (having made a few converts,
actually), but when I want to play, I use Linux, and when I want to get
real work done, I use Windows (or even, heaven forbid, a Mac). This
message is going to be extremely long, but please hear me out.
I think there is some excellent music software for Linux. For example,
grip w/LAME is as good as anything out there. XCDRoast is good (though DAO
would be nice). The little stuff like mixers, players (kmedia and
x11amp/xmms spring to mind), timidity, SoftOSS, CD player w/CDDB, etc.
satisfy me. The rest, well...
A lot of the other programs have, in my opinion, critical problems that
prevent them from being actually useful. Most of the editors out there
don't have the fatal flaw that they don't have plugins. They have the
fatal flaw that they choke on large soundfiles on a reasonable system (say
5 min. of CD-quality audio on an 80M P300). The only one I've found so far
that hasn't used so much swap the system becomes unusable (or crashes
outright) is TAON, and it's not GPL.
So here's what I would suggest if it were all up to me (a grand
statement!)
Editors: At a minimum, it should handle large files. All the Windows
editors I've seen except the Windows Sound Recorder can. Trying to load
the entire sound file into memory at once is clearly a bad idea, and makes
working with multiple files simultaneously (a la Cool Edit Pro or any
other multitrack editor) prohibitive. To raise the bar a little, I would
add nonlinear editing. Add proper crossfading at edit points, and you've
got one up on Cool Edit or anything else that just uses .wav file cue
points for this. Then I might start to worry about plugins, after there's
a debugged, responsive editor that can do at least this. Multitrack
editing and realtime effects would come last, or be more likely handled by
a decent audio sequencer. Check out the latest version of Vision DSP to
see how this is supposed to work.
Sequencers: Working MIDI in and out. No offense to kooBase, which at
present is very promising and well-appreciated. Good, responsive,
intuitive editing (where kooBase is the best yet). I actually hate most
sequencers with a passion for various reasons. The interfaces are usually
overly cumbersome and the editing that actually deals with the MIDI
information itself is underpowered and buried under layers of virtual
faders, windows, and bells and whistles (Logic Audio being the prime
offender and IMHO not one to emulate). What I would suggest would be that
cutting, pasting, and copying MIDI events be as easy as possible. Ditto
for adding/editing velocity, duration, and custom continuous controllers,
as these are what makes a sequence lively and what separates the good work
from the mediocre. I have actually been quite impressed with Mark of the
Unicorn's Freestyle, which isn't targeted as a high-end sequencer, but
which has editing capability that puts many of them to shame. The ability
to overlay recordings of just continuous controllers to a pre-existing
track is also a nifty and unique feature of Jazz++ that would be good to
keep.
Adding digital audio would be the logical second step. I'd suggest
minimum destructive editing capability, but with the ability to set cue
points and volume/pan envelopes (maybe like the Cool Edit Pro multitrack
view, but included in a sequencer instead. Double-clicking the wave would
load it into the aforementioned Ideal Editor, no CORBA needed). Maybe
finally real-time effects, controlled similarly as with real MIDI
controller events and edited with the already well-designed continuous
controlled edit mechanism.
Notation: Forget about it. It's such a complex art that to really do it
justice requires a truly rare breed of programmer. Maybe if an expert in
typesetting, a composer or two, and a Ted Ross fanatic got together, it
could happen. As of right now, all of the Unix notation programs I've seen
combine the complexity of Score with the look of Pro Composer. Ugh. How
many actual musicians are going to learn TeX to write a simple score?
One workable place I can think of to start, though, it to try and read
Score export files. For those not familiar with Score's workings, they
avoid the abstractions that get in the way of so many well-intentioned
text-based attempts. Every object is described by what it is, where it is,
and what its object-specific attributes are, all encoded numerically
(quite a bit like Csound, actually). Very simple. What Score does is offer
some help in filling in default values for positions and attributes, as
well as interactive group numerical editing of objects. The flexibily of
Score comes not from the inclusiveness of its entry system, but rather
that it allows easy access to a well-designed low-level of object
description.
Realtime synths/processors: Csound is making progress in this direction,
as are a number of other packages. RTSynth and jMax have worked the best
for me (two of the few I've gotten to compile actually). For now, there
are realtime issues, but these programs (especially jMax) have
demonstrated that they're not insurmountable. So what if you can't max out
your disk access, compile the kernel, and play Doom at the same time? Can
you expect to do this on ANYTHING right now? Multitasking or not,
resources are limited, and something has to give. Aren't you too busy
playing your synth anyway? If I were to expect it to do anything else, I
would want a disk output (Csound doesn't seem to have a problem with
this) and/or a driver synth device interface (you would of course lose
some interactivity here. See Yamaha's SoftXG or any of the Seer stuff for
examples.)
To be continued...
Adam Zygmunt
azygmun_AT_bgnet.bgsu.edu
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