Re: [linux-audio-user] open source soft synth for osX

Atte André Jensen wrote:
> Hi
>
> One of my friends has gotten quite interrested in my linuxbased csound
> setup, but after talking a bit I figured I'd rather start him up with
> something more "easy". He've only done some mild tweaking of presets in
> wavetable synths. He's a bit impatient, I think he would rather prefer
> to "just play", although he has some interrest in shaping the sounds.
>
> He's running osX (G4 laptop, 1.5Ghz or so), and would like something
> open source that will:
> * play samples, stuff like piano, rhodes
> * do descent hammond, pref with leslie simulation
> * a few synth sounds (pad, lead) here and there
> * runs under osX
> * is OSS
> * can be controlled from logic
> * can be used in realtime, controlled by keyboards
>

Gosh, If you find one package with all that in it, be sure to tell me.

> I think it would be best for him if it was one package, since this gives
> him less to learn. I think it should be gui-based to some extend
> although I didn't discuss that with him.
>
> I promissed him to ask around here, so here goes: Is such a thing
> available??? Or would you recommend other directions that I was thinging
> of?
>
>

If your friend is impatient, he may not be able to last the madness
required to get some OSS apps to work on a Mac OS.

First, the OS automatically rules out anything requiring ALSA. What your
left with is JACK based apps, but JACK can be a PITA to get working
correctly on a Mac. Secondly, even if you get it to work, I'm not sure
how many jack apps will compile on a Mac anyway. (Not many I suppose)
That leaves you with portaudio apps and apps that happen to support
coreaudio. (Not many)

Secondly, your friend will likely have to install a lot of dependencies
such as X11, Qt/KDE, gtk/Gnome, etc. Also a mess to get working on a Mac
for the impatient.

I think your best bet would be to try wired. It doesn't support
everything you listed, but I think it comes closest. You have to use the
CVS version though if you want any decent functionality since it is a
very young project.
Received on Tue Apr 5 08:15:07 2005