Subject: Re: [linux-audio-user] Looking for a software drum machine usable on stage
From: Frank Barknecht (fbar_AT_footils.org)
Date: Tue May 11 2004 - 12:43:55 EEST
Hallo,
Charles Goyard hat gesagt: // Charles Goyard wrote:
> 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.
>
> 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.
You project sounds like a very custom--although not really
unusual--project, so I would suggest to take a look at some of the
modular systems around to build your own drum synthesizer with a
custom GUI. At the danger of sounding repetitive: my standard
suggestion here is Pd (or jMax, SSM,...). You will need to do some
learning of Pd but a drum machine with a custom GUI is a nice project
for that, because it's not too hard to implement (sample players and
even a drum synth like my rrad.angriff~ synth are already done)
I'd say, the decision you need to make is: Do you want to have a
ready-to-use application and can you live with some restrictions then?
Or do you want your application to match your personal needs? In the
first case, you might want to help out the Hydrogen team or so, in the
latter you probably want to learn Pd or a similar program.
Ciao
-- Frank Barknecht _ ______footils.org__
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