Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] plug-in mania and the sound editor du jour
From: David Benson (daveb_AT_idealab.com)
Date: Fri Apr 07 2000 - 18:24:27 EEST
It may as well be noted that almost all
of gdam's functionality comes from
plugins, and is far from defunct.
We have a large number of working plugins...
However I will fully support LADSPA once it has
stabilised. (other authors are quite correct
in noting that its lack of "control descriptions"
is damning...)
I'm saddened GDAM endlessly gets
neglected from these lists -- perhaps it's
some general mp3 hatred, but we do a lot more than
just mix mp3s...
- dave
(http://gdam.org/)
On Fri, 7 Apr 2000, Dave Phillips wrote:
> 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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