Subject: [linux-audio-dev] Audio distribution revisited
From: Paul Winkler (slinkp23_AT_yahoo.com)
Date: Thu Sep 14 2000 - 02:53:59 EEST
Dear LAD folks,
There've been a few threads in the past in which we've bandied about
the idea of an audio-oriented distribution or at least a group of
add on packages.
I've been wondering lately if there's a viable business idea in
there somewhere, at least in the future. We spend a lot of time on
this stuff anyway - might as well make a go of it! Anyone else on
this list have such thoughts?
Such an organization could of course take many forms.
My own notions at the moment are:
-- A product idea: workstations and portables pre-configured with
pro-quality hardware (e.g. RME, Midiman), low-latency kernels, cool
applications and good documentation. Considering that a
keyboard-based "sampling workstation" retails for US $2500 and up,
can't be used for net access or word processing, and has very
limited upgradeability, I think we could come up with a much more
flexible product at a marketable price. Rackmounted systems of the
sort PBD is using would be good.
-- I have some much more far-out product ideas that I'm paranoid
enough to prefer to discuss off-list. >:-}
-- The applications are not really "there" yet. This is crucial.
This business could not be realized until some time in the future
when we have more substantial real-world tools for musicians and
audio engineers.
-- Much work needs to be done on making it easy to hook various apps
together. For instance there are a bunch of cool soft-synths out
there, but can you run two of them at once from a single MIDI
sequencer and record the result into a hard-disk recorder?
-- Ideally the business would be a partnership or limited
corporation formed by any willing persons on this mailing list. Much
work can be done over the 'net but some sort of center of operations
would be needed eventually; and if we could survive arguing over
where that should be, we'd be in pretty good shape. :)
-- I assume most people here would feel as I do that an open source
model is the Right Way.
-- What needs doing: All the cool applications you're all working
on, of course; LADSPA and a nice library of plugins; ALSA of course.
I'm not enough of a programmer to be much help with the hard stuff,
but there's a lot I can contribute to: I'm currently making a living
as a web developer (immersed in Zope at the moment), and I'm also
good with end-user documentation, useability and design issues,
useful little shell scripts and so forth.
Thoughts? I'd be curious to know who here would consider forming
such a venture and who wouldn't touch it with a 10' | ...
--
................. paul winkler ..................
slinkP arts: music, sound, illustration, design, etc.
web page: http://www.slinkp.com
A member of ARMS: http://www.reacharms.com
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