Subject: Re: [linux-audio-dev] Theater Sound FX with Linux [was Re: playing three sources at one time]
From: David Olofson (david_AT_gardena.net)
Date: Fri Jul 21 2000 - 18:23:27 EEST
On Thu, 20 Jul 2000, Jörn Nettingsmeier wrote:
> has anyone used a linux box for theater sound effects ?
> i think this might be a very useful thing. it should feature
> "instant play", i.e. buffer the beginnings (ok, i know some shithead
> has patents on that) and mix an arbitrary number of samples of
> arbitrary length. latency is not the key issue here - if it's under
> 50ms, it's fast enough for cues :)
EVO?
> can the linuxsampler folks comment on this ?
> the problem here might be sample length (which might easily be many
> minutes, let's say for an atmo).
Should definitely not be a problem! :-)
> plus the baby must be staaaaaaable.
Well, this *miiiight* be a lil' bit early...
> looping and other sampler-typical features are nice but not
> essential.
Good. I guess we could basically just rip out suitable version of
EVO, make it do the job, and give it some serious testing/abuse.
> does such a program exist yet ?
> if not, could you sampler folks maybe include this usage into your
> specs ?
>
> there might even be a market for this. i know what i'm talking
> about, i've been mixing more than a few theater events, and i've
> been doing effects on cue with a pile of audio cassettes... :)
Radio stations use $$,$$$ dedicated equipment for this. There is an
"affordable" Windoze solution, but that still requires special audio
cards with their own mixing and (IIRC) mp3 decoding power to work
reliably. I think EVO + an mp3 decoder in the streaming daemon could
be a great engine to build this kind of things on.
Oh, BTW, those systems are usually client/server style, with a
central server managing all audio data (usually mp2 or mp3) and doing
the mixing and playback. It's controlled from one or more terminals,
which can connect to different ports on the audio cards. That is, you
can have multiple users doing totally unrelated work at the same
time, using the same server. True multiuser RT audio. Something
like UN*X + hard RT scheduling feels kind of Right for this job, I
think...
Next problem (the BIG one, perhaps?): The UI.
//David
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