Subject: Re: [linux-audio-user] Newbie questions for live gigging
From: Frank Barknecht (fbar_AT_footils.org)
Date: Fri Apr 23 2004 - 12:48:43 EEST
Hallo,
Richard K. Ingalls hat gesagt: // Richard K. Ingalls wrote:
> 1) I want to have many sounds available for live playing (via MIDI) on
> my keyboard. That's the top priority. Lots of sounds. Good quality
> sounds. I'm thinking a sample playback machine or sound fonts
> (right?). Can't I even achieve BETTER sounds with my PC than with a
> very expensive new sound module?
The most important question is: What kind of sounds do you want? If
you want to sound like a Piano, no computer will ever sound better
that the real thing. If you want experimental sounds, then some kind
of modular synth would be a good way to go, something like Pd,
Suppercollider or Csound. Those also will offer very high flexibility
not possible with most other systems.
> 2) I'd like to be able to sequence those great sounds. It would be
> even better if I could use the sequencer WHILE playing live sounds
> through this machine.
Also "sequencing" is a word, that's not very concrete. Do you just
want to play some prececorded midi snippets or do you want something
with more intelligence, something that can react somehow intelligently
to your or someone else's playing? In the first case, you'd probably
get aways with some Midi sequencer like MusE or seq24, but for the
other approach, you'll need a modular system again.
An example of someone using the second approach live would be William
Fields, who sequences very interesting things with Pd. For example the
livesets on http://bill.teamtechno.com/live.php were done in a way,
William describes as:
Basically, my system consists of a number of "generator" patches
[...]. There is one that plays MIDI files, there is one that
generates patterns of notes in a given scale (which is set
globally), there is one that generates chords, etc.. Each of these
generators can be turned on or off, routed to any midi channel, and
have a number of other parameters.
Under the hood, it is simply generating, processing, and routing
around <note,velocity,duration> vectors.
This is done with Pd on Windows, though, but will work the same on
Linux.
> 3) It would be very cool to be able to edit those sounds and tweak
> them. Doesn't have to be "live" though.
>
> MY QUESTIONS: Can I achieve these goals without too much fuss
> (remember I'm a newbie)? Which "distro" (CCRMA or other?) would be
> best/easiest? Do I want to go with sound fonts? What sound card
> should I go with (not too expensive, ok?)?
CCRMA reportedly is quite nice for newbies.
Ciao
-- Frank Barknecht _ ______footils.org__
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