[linux-audio-user] Re: [linux-audio-dev] Poll about linux music audio app usability

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Subject: [linux-audio-user] Re: [linux-audio-dev] Poll about linux music audio app usability
From: M. Edward (Ed) Borasky ("M.)
Date: Mon Jun 10 2002 - 17:01:30 EEST


On Mon, 10 Jun 2002, Juan Linietsky wrote:

> I think this raises some questions.. My feeling is that most people
> aiming to write music on this OS is expecting to have apps with super
> easy and intuitive interfaces, where you only go trough displays,
> knobs, sliders and paintabe areas.
> Why we dont have apps such as Reason, Reaktor, Sonar, Sound Forge,
> etc? I dont mean full apps, but at least projects aiming for that kind
> of thing.
> We do have very powerful tools, but i have to admit that for most of
> them we have to learn some script programming.
> Do we lack good APIs? Alsa MIDI api is the best I have seen for it's
> kind. Also, sould linux apps really take this windows approach of
> making huge bloated interfaces with lots of eye candy, or should we
> try to improve on making our apps intercommunicate between eachother,
> while still giving some importance to ease of use?
>
> What do you think about this issue?

Well ... I've been a programmer and mathematician for 40 years -- I
started in a time when assembly language, FORTRAN, COBOL and LISP were
the only languages available. And I've been interested in computer music
since then. All the trapping you speak of came into being since then. So
I *personally* work just as well, or maybe a tad better, at a fairly low
level, preferring the efficiency of direct contact with the machine and
familiar skills.

However, most computer musicians are just that -- musicians. They view
dealing with computers as a frustration. I know many who have simply
given up out of frustration; they use computers, if they use them at
all, as score editing tools. Those who have persevered with the steep
learning curve expect the usability of their favorite tools and will
*not* tolerate anything less.

I personally am a composer -- I build tools to make the computer music I
want to hear. I don't expect to spend large amounts of time, given that
computer music is a hobby and not my business, making tools for other
composers. A final word, for those of you who *do* want to make tools
for other musicians ... pay little attention to what people *say* and
look at what they *do* and what they *buy*. There's a reason there are a
lot of tools that only exist on the Mac, for example.

--
M. Edward Borasky

znmeb_AT_borasky-research.net http://www.borasky-research.net/HarryIannis.htm

How to Stop A Folksinger Cold # 5 "Where have all the flowers gone..." Beats me.


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