Subject: Re: [linux-audio-user] Looking for a software drum machine usable on stage
From: Jan Depner (eviltwin69_AT_cableone.net)
Date: Tue May 11 2004 - 11:57:24 EEST
Have you looked at Hydrogen?
Jan
On Tue, 2004-05-11 at 01:38, Charles Goyard wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> this is my first post on the list, so I'll introduce myself shortly. I
> play (bass guitar) in a punk rock band with a drum machine (an old Boss
> DR-5). We are kind of limited by the drumbox, because of the small
> memory size (200 patterns, 20 songs), the non-extensible and boring drum
> kits and the lack of certain features. As a system administrator with a
> bits of programming knowledge (I know Perl, a bit of C and some other
> useful things) and a free software fan, I said to myself : let's get a
> software drum machine on a laptop, it should have unlimited features.
>
> So far I looked at a number of projects, but none is usable on stage.
>
> Here's what I need :
>
> 1/ A simple programming interface (Hydrogen is perfect). It can also be
> something like a simple programming language editable in a text editor.
>
> 2/ For length-fixed songs, it's just a playback of a .wav, no problems.
>
> 3/ On some songs, we stop the drumbox, play a bit, and start it again.
> When I hit the stop pedal, it stops immediately (and therefore I need to
> hit "reset" to be sure to be at the beginning of the pattern when it
> starts again). It would like it to stop at the end of the pattern if I
> hit the stop button.
>
> 4/ It should "know" the song structure:
>
> "start" : plays part1 of song
> "stop" : stops :)
> "start" : again part1
> "stop" : still stops
> "start" : plays part2 of song
>
> 5/ We need programmable tempo changes.
>
> 6/ Big display, playlist control, easy to load songs ! We're on stage,
> it's dark,, there is smoke, and it's not very practical to
> "file/open/click/click/click..." with a guitar in the hand and people
> jumping over you. Song name should be displayed BIG (full screen), the
> name of the next song should be already programmed, so I just have to
> press space (or a pedal wired to the parallel or whatever port) to jump
> to the next song.
>
>
> I just spoke about a pedal. I can build a "stop/start, next song" pedal
> and code something that reads events and make it to the audio app.
>
>
>
> For some songs, just chaining two or three .wav files works well enough.
> But when it comes to things more elaborate, I have been unable to find
> something appropriate.
>
> == The point is to have something simple to use on stage. ==
>
>
> I imagine a little program that feeds a software drumbox MIDI (or JACK?)
> events for stop/start/jumpto/tempo changes. I just don't want to
> reinvent the wheel.
>
>
> If someone has something that does the job or some hints/useful
> libraries/glue, I would be happy !
>
>
> Thanks for your reading, enjoy music !
>
>
>
> --
> Charles
> you can listen to some of my music on http://www.raia.info/
> (french web site, sorry for non-french-speaking people)
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