Subject: [linux-audio-user] Re: prebuilt tools (long!)
From: Jonathan Segel (jsegel_AT_magneticmotorworks.com)
Date: Sat Oct 11 2003 - 04:58:27 EEST
thanks to all who read that missive and responded, very
interesting. lest you all think that i was complaining about the
state of linux audio, i assure you i was not. i had interpreted
earlier posts to be asking why more people weren't using linux audio
tools, so i gave an example of somebody who had been working in
another world and was moving into linux.
i love the process of learning new things, gotta keep the old
dog young, so for me learning more about how the hardware really
interacts with the software is an interesting puzzle to work through
--i feel the same way about writing code for supercollider. i don't
come from a background of writing code so the process of learning how
to do it is both frustrating and exciting --logic puzzles.
though not necessary, i should clarify my statements about
film and music industry media moving through macs, i meant mostly in
terms of recording (audio), editing and mixing (both video and
audio). certainly all the major visual-effect rendering has been cgi
-moving to almost all linux now. (though my friends at pixar imply
that there's some "upper management" pressure to sell renderman for
mac g5s...but then they'd actually have to man the phones for tech
support.. heh.)
the one thing that i can't reconcile yet is mr shirkey's post
about the other perspective: if you can't hack the pace then you
shouldn't be in the driver's seat.
i am definitely of two minds on this. one side says that,
yes, no compromise should be made by those who know how to make a
thing do what they want it to do simply to allow others do it as
well. in this way there can be major forward momentum in the growth
of a system, but it also makes an elite group of experts that must be
deferred to in order to be able to use their wisdom. this can have
deleterious effects upon the culture of the users, besides just
making some cache of coolness that comes with being "in the know"
(while appearing to be snobs from those that wish they could be in
the know themselves!) that is completely irrelevant to the real
situations, yet completely within human nature, wherein the
development must take long and winding routes to reach the majority
of the users who cannot "hack the pace", pun intended.
for myself, i see the allure of learning to stay on the
bleeding edge of technology and to make music from software that is
coming into being daily from a group of people who are likewise
inclined. i am one of those people who has to take a preset apart to
make something of their own before thinking that they are making
their own music. and while i would love to believe i am special
somehow for being that way, politically i think i am far too populist
to allow it to become elitism. so that part of me wants to make the
hard things get easier, perhaps.
ok, enough of this -
--
_________________________________________________________________
Jonathan Segel -- MAGNETIC -- PO Box 460816 S.F. CA. 94146-0816
4014 Brookdale Ave. Oakland, CA 94619
jsegel_AT_magneticmotorworks.com <-----> magsatellite_AT_yahoo.com
http://www.MagneticMotorworks.com
tel (510) 534 7825 cell (510) 484 7415 fax (425) 955 4495
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