Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] Re: Mix
From: Nicola Bernardini (nicb_AT_axnet.it)
Date: ke elo 18 1999 - 01:29:04 EDT
Today, Dave Phillips mi scrisse cio` che segue:
[snip]
DP> We need to enable flawless recording, and I think support for edit by
DP> regions is important. I would consider these to be basic operations.
You see, Dave: I think we should not fall into the 'integrated solution'
trap. If we decide that Mix is a multi-track editor that basically
handles files, I'd leave the recording/playback functions to some
other processes, possibly callable from Mix and running in background
while you do other things. Other platforms (Mac, Win) cannot do this well
and are constrained into monolicithy. I think that to be flawless we
must be as simple as possible, and thanks god linux allows us to do so.
I can see a *fairly* easy task: build a separate previewer which accepts
a text file prepared by Mix, reads it and runs all operations requested
while playing (again - no guarantees on no glitches). It is easy to
do all the volume and panning job, a little more difficult to run
the effects - but if Mix is modularized and a library is built out
of it, here comes the previewer with effects et al. There are some
good reasons, I think, to keep Mix out of real time - the first one
I could really use is to have infinite tracks, or infinite stack
of effects, etc. (up to memory limits of course). These are things
no CoolEdit nor ProTools nor whatever
can do because they always think in terms of real-time (while most
of the time work is done offline - just previewing is done in real-time).
Speaking of which, and on the other thread of IDE drives, linux drivers
etc. (sorry for mixing threads), while we should of course push the
issue on kernel developers (especially considering the UDMA/66
interface etc.), we should not ignore the fact that software like
ProTools is extremely bitchy about what kind of disk drive you have
(generally they want UW SCSI 10000 RPMs: fairly expensive stuff,
and certainly nothing less than UW 7200 RPMs). The moral of the story
is: if you want real-time, your hardware (not the software) is going
to be the limit. The plus I feel linux has (and one of the main reasons
why I'm a linux-only stalinist) is that with linux you may live
your life more relaxed if you wish to.
Now, regions are another story. I'd really like to see some serious
region editing a` la ProTools in Mix. I've worked with ProTools quite
a lot and if nobody has done anything about it by the end of september
I might give it a try (god knows I should not promise anything...).
[snip]
DP> This is certainly going further than the original implementation of the
DP> Csound variable. I'm still pondering the possibilities of simply being
DP> able to trigger a realtime Csound performance in the context of a mix.
But I think that this is *easier* and actually more powerful than what
the original implementation was trying to do.
DP> As Gunter suggested, at first look it's hard to see the utility of such
DP> a device: the play will not be in sync, it will not be recorded into the
DP> mix, and its action will not be visible. Yet the experimentalist in me
DP> has to wonder what could be done with it. A random-MIDI orc/sco output ?
DP> Some other random process ? Spoken instructions on using Mix ? Given
DP> Csound's flexibility there must be *some* good purpose to its use as a
DP> Mix variable.
There's a number of things we should ask Dr.Hammer... The csound variable,
the networking stuff: what were they meant to do? (hoping that he
remembers - if it was me, after two months I'd already forgotten...)
DP> And I do like the fact that other NoTAM software is Csound-aware...
oh, I do too... :)
ciao
Nicola
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Nicola Bernardini
E-mail: nicb_AT_axnet.it
Re graphics: A picture is worth 10K words -- but only those to describe
the picture. Hardly any sets of 10K words can be adequately described
with pictures.
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