Subject: [linux-audio-dev] plug-in mania and the sound editor du jour
From: Dave Phillips (dlphilp_AT_bright.net)
Date: Fri Apr 07 2000 - 16:41:55 EEST
Greetings:
I've been following the whole LADSPA/plug-in discussion, and I thought
it might be interesting to enumerate the Linux audio apps which already
have plug-in systems. Here's what I found at a quick glance:
Mix
JaWavedit
Schroeder
TAON
Snd
Quasimodo
OCTAL
GLAME
Three of those projects are effectively defunct, along with their
plug-in APIs. Two are really just prototypes and cannot be considered at
all finished or useful (nor do they claim to be, so no criticism is
implied). None of the listed projects can share plug-ins, so I would
have to write the same plug-in 8 times if I wanted to use it in each of
those progs. I believe that LADSPA was intended to mitigate just such a
situation, yes ? As things stand right now, the situation is decidedly
non-optimal.
So then I decided to see how the most recent stack of soundfile
editors was coming along. I decided to look at these apps:
Electric Ears
Gmurf
WaveForge
GLAME
WaveSurfer
Gmurf's download fails repeatedly (Note to authors: You're right, it
*is* a terrible connection !), Electric Ears wouldn't even compile on a
stock RH 6.1 installation (Glade *is* there, damn it !), and WaveForge
crashes loading a WAV file. GLAME built and installed easily, but it is
not usable.
WaveSurfer, in case you haven't heard about it, is an offshoot of the
SNACK Tcl/Tk extensions. I've been very impressed with it so far, but I
can't claim to have gone into it in depth yet.
I also took a look at Xwave again. Juhana, if you're reading this
message, perhaps I could convince you to release your improvements to
Xwave. The package available from MetaLab won't build under RH 6.1, and
I had to make some links that weren't specified in the docs to get
anywhere at all with the build process.
Martin Wilz's Kwave is abandoned. Too bad, it has a lot of nice
features but needs some more attention to push it over the top.
Right now, the winner sound editors for Linux are Snd, WaveSurfer, and
Nick Bailey's Studio. I really like DAP and MiXViews too, but they have
serious shortcomings that are a real pain in the butt. Broadcast 2000 is
really another kind of beast entirely (though it's a winner too, IMO).
Curiously, BC2K built and ran beautifuly under my RH 5.2 system, but
I've been unable to build it under RH 6.1.
TAON is worth mentioning too: It's a fine app, with a really solid
feel to it, and of course it has its own proprietary plug-in API (to
which, AFAIK, no one has ever contributed). It is also closed source,
and its authors seem to have abandoned it entirely. Without open
sources, TAON is dead too. A shame, because a little more work on it
could have made it into a Big Winner.
So I see a lot of duplicated and wasted effort. I've been observing
the development of Linux audio software for a few years now, and I see a
certain "project life cycle" at work. Ideas are easy, planning is easy,
talk is easy, even getting a distributable prototype is easy. But
building a solid application is not easy, and maintaining it over years
is even more challenging (special kudos to Bill Schottstaedt for his
indefatigable dedication to Snd and CLM). Yes, we all know this, which
is why I wonder sometimes why developers charge ahead without
considering whether their efforts might be better expended helping out
with some of the established projects. Please understand though that
I've nothing against new projects of course !
Am I simple-minded for thinking that a lot of that wasted effort could
have been better directed towards helping out with some of the
longer-established apps ? How far along would Snd's Gtk interface be
with the assistance of the authors of TAON, Gmurf, EEars, and WaveForge
? Also, I can't help thinking that the development efforts that went
into Schroeder and JaWavedit should have been combined, and we might
actually have one good Java-based soundfile editor instead two dead
projects.
Okay, I'm rambling, I know, so I'll sign off for now.
Best regards from your Socratic gadfly,
== Dave Phillips
http://www.bright.net/~dlphilp/index.html
http://www.bright.net/~dlphilp/linuxsound/
"There's a whole lots of people talkin, but there's a mighty few people
that know..." (Sonny Boy Williamson)
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