Re: [linux-audio-user] Noob at Music ( me ), Noob at Computers ( friend )

Hi Andrew,

Thanks for the reply.

I know about most of the packages ( dont know Frinika, hmmm or Om ).

I was hoping for a tutorial teaching me a bit about music and also a bit about using some of the software to create what had been taught in the tutorial. I don't want to become a musician, but I want to learn enough for my friend to get started. You never know, after playing around with the software I might want to become a musician, and start studying more, but right now my main aim is to teach him so that he can continue on his own.

William

>>> Andrew Lewis <alewis@email-addr-hidden> 07/26/06 9:18 AM >>>
On Tuesday 25 July 2006 16:52, William Kinghorn wrote:
> I am a Computer Technician and not music literate, my friend is a musician
> and not computer literate. I am trying to show him music using open source.
> Can anyone point me in the right direction, I need to learn enough about
> music to show him how to do it.

The thing about producing music on Linux (indeed, on any platform) is there is
lots of choice/different ways to go about doing things, just have a look at
the catalog of tools here: http://linux-sound.org/

An appropriately configured kernel with realtime pre-emption can improve audio
performance but is not entirely necessary. How you can go about getting one
depends on your distro, some generic info here:
http://tapas.affenbande.org/?page_id=6

A nice simple all-in-one sort of package is LMMS, http://lmms.sourceforge.net/
<- check a copy out of CVS and give it a try; although it has come a long way
in a short while both in terms of features and stability it's still not
entirely finished/stable... ;) Other all-in-one environments are BEAST,
Frinika, hmmm, what else?

Rosegarden is a relatively mature/stable MIDI sequencer with support for
DSSI/LADSPA (and VST via a DSSI container/wine). There are plenty modular
synths for Linux, of which Om is a good choice... Hydrogen is a nice
simple/mature drum machine ....

Bottom line is there is a lot of stuff which you might find useful, so you're
best off trying as much of it as possible, so you can at least find what
works best for you... :)

-- 
Andrew Lewis