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If you've ever tried to multitrack using Audacity and ended up with mush, you'll know why this is great news. It will sound in sync while you're recording to the first track, but upon playback the 30 ms (or longer) delay wreaks havoc.

Planet CCRMA http://ccrma.stanford.edu/planetccrma/software/ a Fedora Core distro that uses the realtime preemption patch by Ingo Molnar to achieve low-latency. DeMuDi is Debian customized for audio production by the Agnula project http://demudi.agnula.org/ and uses JACK. I'm curious to see what this development will have on these and like-minded audio production Linux distros.

I think it helps if you play with sound/media-centric Linux distros:

http://www.studio-to-go.com/
http://demudi.agnula.org/
http://ccrma.stanford.edu/planetccrma/software/

One of us, is not a audio professional. So let me make this easier for - it is not me.

Avoid non-specialized Linux distros such as Ubuntu. The average person knows fuck-all about Linux/Unix stuff, the experience will be very bitter at best. I know of a musician that broke in tears, poor thing.

Having said that - I've heard there is a distro called:

http://www.ubuntustudio.com/

Good Luck

It would be possible to rebuilt all the package collection on top of a different RPM based distribution, but it would be a LOT of work. Volunteers accepted :-)

The Sound & MIDI Software For Linux site is a useful reference for all things Linux/Audio. (Yes the site is ugly but there is a lot of good info available there.) Here's their link to several audio-centric distros. One that I have not used but would love to try is Studio To Go! by Fervent Software. An installable LiveCD that is supposed to be end-all of Linux audio solutions. It's a pay-to-play disc, so you'll have to shell out some cash to give it a go. Sight unseen, I'm betting this distro is probably the most refined option available...

There's also the Agnula distribution. Comes in two flavours, one based on Red Hat, one based on Debian. Supposedly low latency and comes with all these audio apps.

I've used neither Agnula or CCRMA. Anybody care to compare or praise/criticise?

One of the good things about linux is that anyone can package it.

For example, I work in a Sound production environment and we use Agnula Demudi linux in our studio.

This is a linux distribution which is geared towards sound production and has all the required software already configured and running.

Take a look at:
http://www.agnula.org/

You may find it easier then setting it all up from a 'generic' distribution.

And searching for drivers on outdated unsupported websites? its been ages since I did that (but I admit I only buy hardware which has good linux support nowadays)

Another free service: http://muzik.agnula.org, hosted by the guys who created the linux agnula music distro.

They need a reputation/grading system too though - there is some really awful stuff as well as some really good stuff.

Disclosurey sort of thingy: My stuff is here
I don't *think* it is awful. Actually I think it is pretty good. Hey, maybe it will be the psychological turning point of your life. Or something.

To install software on Knoppix (or Ubuntu, or Gnoppix, or any other of the squillions of Debian based distributions, liveCD or otherwise) the procedure is something like the following:

1. check the configuration of /etc/apt/sources.list - usually the default is perfectly sensible, but you may want to add things like the aGnula project for music software (see http://www.agnula.org)
2. "apt-get update" to make sure your computer is up to date with the latest versions of everything - no need to do this every time, but you should be keeping up with the security patches and if you're tracking testing or unstable you should do it at least once every couple of days
3. "apt-get install mygroovypackage" to install the package, you may be asked a variety of configuration questions depending on the package, many install without any interactive input.
4. enjoy your groovynewsoftware

If you don't know the name of the package you want to install (often they can be guessed, but not always) then consider using one of the many front-ends like dselect (hardcore, a little old fashioned) aptitude (prettier, but still text based), or whatever others here will suggest.

HTH
Cheers & God bless
Sam "SammyTheSnake" Penny

The software that is available currently is utterly unacceptable for any type of music recording.

Also, the results you get using JACK + Ardour + Hydrogen + Jamin are comperable, if not superior, to available commercial solutions. (Well, assuming that you're using professional hardware ... )

not having your entire plugin system crash on you is another.

In a nutshell: The features are not there, the stability is not there, the usability is not there, and the overall effectiveness of the applications is just not there.

The software that is available currently is utterly unacceptable for any type of music recording.

Also, the results you get using JACK + Ardour + Hydrogen + Jamin are comperable, if not superior, to available commercial solutions. (Well, assuming that you're using professional hardware ... )

not having your entire plugin system crash on you is another.

In a nutshell: The features are not there, the stability is not there, the usability is not there, and the overall effectiveness of the applications is just not there.

um, so audio...

the aGNUla - DiMuDi project has a great install disk for audio recording freaks out there..

http://www.agnula.org/download/demudi/

If you want a live cd for audio stuff, try auppix as well:

http://www.auppix.org/auppix_intro.html/

I use them both regularly, and have yet to be disappointed :)

Anyone who wants to put some of their music out under a CCL is also welcome to do it at muzik.agnula.org. Yeah, an awful lot of it up there is crap. I like to think our stuff is good, but hey, you can do what you like with it to improve it if you want to. That's freedom of the kind that used to be around before the RIAA and the Happy Birthday silliness was enshrined.

Anyone who wants to put some of their music out under a CCL is also welcome to do it at muzik.agnula.org. Yeah, an awful lot of it up there is crap. I like to think our stuff is good, but hey, you can do what you like with it to improve it if you want to. That's freedom of the kind that used to be around before the RIAA and the Happy Birthday silliness was enshrined.

This is the same reason why I haven't installed SP2 myself, fear of screwing up my currently working music workstation. Incidently, I could never get my nForce's ASIO drivers to work properly, so that may be the culprit.

As for linux audio, I'm not very familiar with it, but you may want to check out http://www.agnula.org/ which is a distribution for audio.

AGNULA is a Linux distribution preconfigured for audio, with everything you mentioned plus a lot more ready to go.

If I imagine a noise and manipulate the controls of Rosegarden expertly, will I get the noise that I'm looking for?

To be able to do that, you'll probably want something like a modular softsynth. For Linux, there's ams. That combined with a virtual keyboard like vkeybd is enough (given the "expert manipulation" part). Something like Rosegarden could then act as the "player" of the synth (which is like the "instrument").

If you really want to get down to the bits and bytes, there's pd.

The easy road to all this is to install the AGNULA Linux disribution, which comes with a shitload of software.

The project was originally funded by the European Commission, and is still going since official funding ceased. It's got some work to do still, but I'm thinking about pulling it down and having a play. A dedicated music machine sounds like a lot of fun!

Does the m-audio transit work with Linux? I looked for a linux driver on their support page and couldn't find any.

Thanks!

and here is a link agnula

Here's what I use:
multitracking: Ardour
MIDI sequencer: Rosegarden
editor: Audacity
drums: Hydrogen
softsynths: Alsa Modular and QSynth

There's really a ton of stuff out there . . . it just (like almost all free/OSS) doesn't get as much exposure as commercial work.

Here's what I use:
multitracking: Ardour
MIDI sequencer: Rosegarden
editor: Audacity
drums: Hydrogen
softsynths: Alsa Modular and QSynth

There's really a ton of stuff out there . . . it just (like almost all free/OSS) doesn't get as much exposure as commercial work.

>> Here is a audio specific distro:
>> http://www.agnula.org/

Here's their Debian based flavour (ISOs here): http://www.agnula.org/download/demudi

gogogo... Project is financed by the EU btw.

This is about the fifth +5 insightful, funny troll post about what a waste video blogging is.

No bandwith is wasted when someone visits a site and downloads a video. They want to see it. Tons of bandwith is wasted every day by advertisers who movies into 80% of their visitor's browsers. Requested video is not a waste. Forced video is. Get the difference?

The real story is that it is now easy to make movies on Linux. Angula has got what you want. They in turn point to dynebolic and Chainsaw. Don't take my word for it, go get an iso or a live CD and see it for yourself.

This is about the fifth +5 insightful, funny troll post about what a waste video blogging is.

No bandwith is wasted when someone visits a site and downloads a video. They want to see it. Tons of bandwith is wasted every day by advertisers who movies into 80% of their visitor's browsers. Requested video is not a waste. Forced video is. Get the difference?

The real story is that it is now easy to make movies on Linux. Angula has got what you want. They in turn point to dynebolic and Chainsaw. Don't take my word for it, go get an iso or a live CD and see it for yourself.

This is about the fifth +5 insightful, funny troll post about what a waste video blogging is.

No bandwith is wasted when someone visits a site and downloads a video. They want to see it. Tons of bandwith is wasted every day by advertisers who movies into 80% of their visitor's browsers. Requested video is not a waste. Forced video is. Get the difference?

The real story is that it is now easy to make movies on Linux. Angula has got what you want. They in turn point to dynebolic and Chainsaw. Don't take my word for it, go get an iso or a live CD and see it for yourself.

Just the names that MS gives to applications give them a very very big advantage over Linux Open Source applications.

Yes, Angula. I've seen Demudi run off CD Live with zero configuration. It worked well on a 1GHz class computer. Show me a CD from M$ that does half as much.

Knoppix does some of the same.

Mepis also does much of the same but comes with non free goodies like Flash, Real Audio and a version of Xine that plays WMF.

I also think that players like Xine, Noatum etc. have been able to play non free formats for a long time. While it sucks that companies continue to make devices that use such nasty formats, it sucks even worse to not be able to use all those toys. Free software is more than up to the challenge. Sooner or later, those companies are going to turn to free formats as it's cheaper and better.

JACK uses a callback based API much like Core Audio.

Basically every high-end (e.g. ardour, JAMin, Rosegarden, Hydrogen, etc.) uses it.

You can get really low latency using it if you have good sound hardware (e.g. RME Hammerfall for extremely low latency or even an M-Audio Delta 1010). Something like an SBLive! (what I have) will need a period size of 2048 bytes with two periods to avoid underrunning (I have a Dual AthlonMP 2800+ so I'm pretty sure it's the sound card...). Stuff like QJackCtl and Jack-Rack make controlling Jack easy.

Getting realtime mode working for a normal user can be tricky, but Debian makes it really easy. Just install the realtime-lsm package and build the realtime-lsm-source package for your kernel and all users in the audio group gain the ability to run applications realtime (at least with the default config). It could be made easier (mainly by prebuilding the realtime-lsm modules for the stock kernels) but GNU/Linux pro-audio is still mostly for hackers and adventurous people right now. Stuff like PlanetCCRMA and AGNULA are aiming to make everything work out of the box. I have yet to try either (I use Debian so PlanetCCRMA is useless for me) but it looks like DeMuDi has everything set up for recording out of the box.

Here it is: http://www.agnula.org/ and here is the MuSE tutorial: http://www.agnula.org/documentation/dp_tutorials/m use/index_html/view

Here it is: http://www.agnula.org/ and here is the MuSE tutorial: http://www.agnula.org/documentation/dp_tutorials/m use/index_html/view

I have tested the AGNULA/DeMuDi LiveCD on about 20 machines so far. 16 of these worked out of the box (all of these having consumer grade sound cards).

Another nice feature of the LiveCD is the list of applications and the bunch of tutorials that come with it. Just don't close the browser window that pops up automatically. The list of applications is amazingly long.

The other GNU/Linux Audio Distribution you mentioned was Apodio.

Let me add that AGNULA/DeMuDi will get even better with your feedback. Consider to join the mailing lists and post your bug reports.

AGNULA/DeMuDi was not initially designed to be a "Live Distro". If you consider to install AGNULA/DeMuDi onto your harddisk, check out the normal installation CDs. There will be a new version released Very Soon TM.

I have tested the AGNULA/DeMuDi LiveCD on about 20 machines so far. 16 of these worked out of the box (all of these having consumer grade sound cards).

Another nice feature of the LiveCD is the list of applications and the bunch of tutorials that come with it. Just don't close the browser window that pops up automatically. The list of applications is amazingly long.

The other GNU/Linux Audio Distribution you mentioned was Apodio.

Let me add that AGNULA/DeMuDi will get even better with your feedback. Consider to join the mailing lists and post your bug reports.

AGNULA/DeMuDi was not initially designed to be a "Live Distro". If you consider to install AGNULA/DeMuDi onto your harddisk, check out the normal installation CDs. There will be a new version released Very Soon TM.

Although they do redirect you to a page about software patents in Europe if you don't click though in 15 seconds.

Clicking on the "to enter the site click here" link, we find that the site (and the project) is up and running just fine.

Software patents will either be recinded, or software development will come to a screeching halt and ALL free software will be killed, not just this project.

In which case we can all just pack up and find another profession, or move somewhere other than the US and the EU (if current legislative trends continue). After the IT economy has been destroyed and innovation has moved to India and China, perhaps the US (and possibly EU) beurocrats and politicians will get their heads out of their asses and ban software patents ... assuming the West doesn't just bully the Chinese and the Indians into adopting similiar measures and crippling their own tech industries as well.

I am quite frankly amazed at the EU's stupidity in this, as it clearly benefits Microsoft and other big American firms, to the detriment of European startups such as Suse, Mandrake, et. al. But that is neither here nor there.

I will continue to develop and use free software (including this project) until such a time as $un, Micro$oft, or one of their stooges ($CO) kills free software dead, or reform occurs.

At which point I will continue to use and develop free software, until such a time as their thugs pry my keyboard from my cold, dead fingers...but that is a rant for another day.

Moron, they just replaced their front page with a software protest one. Perhaps you should click through?

http://www.agnula.org/index2_html

Agnula states its closed due to software patent issues.

This will probably hinder any efforts in making this work for me.....which really sucks, as I was looking for a good Linux-based studio system :(

I'm sure other people here can make recommendations

Linux has several promising projects on the cards, however I havent found any that I have been able to use to compose tunes. Ardour for example is a very promising hard disk recorder with a few nice bells and whistles, however instability and regular crashes rendered it useless. Same goes for Rosegarden (Cubase VST-esque) which suffers similar stability problems. This is seems to be exacerbated by the variety of audio drivers / audio subsystems required Arts, Jack, Alsa (which is now part of the kernel) OSS, esd, GStreamer and whatever else i've forgotten. The latest build of Arts on my Gentoo box is less stable than the previous build and VBR MP3 playback is so bad I've had to change my audio backend to GStreamer and use non-arts players instead. (Clearly not a happy state of affairs)

Most of the soundtrackers are pretty damn inferior when you've spent a lot of time with Med Soundstudio a clone of which id love to see under linux. There are some good sample editors I've found though , really that is about it.

My comments probably sound rather negative, but the sad fact is this is an area in which linux is sadly lacking. I switched to linux around 4yrs ago. Since then I havent used my computer for music making purposes, not for want of trying but there simply are not any tools that I have discovered that come close to windows / mac counterparts. Rosegarden is probably the closest we have but its not really viable for anything serious yet.

I've tried many of the tools but most of the time the interface gets in the way of creativity or stability is poor.

Im not sure what the real solution is, Id like to see an audiosubsystem/backend standardised for a start. It looks like Alsa is going to be the replacement for OSS, but the additional layers Arts (KDE) seem to interfere and get in the way. I think these guys might be on the right track in creating a dedicated music distribution. Ill be keeping an eye on these guys and maybe the day will come when I can use my computer to write tunes again.

Nick (who would really like to use linux for music composition, but remains without tools)

Having principles make you feel dirty sometimes, as when you are forced into a pragmatic decision such as getting a mac because you don't have enough ability to get Linux/BSD/WhateverFreeOS running well, for example.

Although that's a valid example, I doubt that people without enough ability to get Linux/BSD/WhateverFreeOS running well represents much of the Mac OS X user base. There are quite a few linux distros that are dead-easy to install. I choose to use a Mac because all the software and hardware I use runs flawlessly on Mac OS X (Digital Performer, MachV, Peak, Max/MSP, Final Cut, lots of I/O hardware and synths).

Vendor lock-in may be bad, but "driver lock-out" sucks too. In terms of full-scale pro audio/MIDI interfaces, the RME hammerfall and MOTU serial XT's are about the only devices that I know of that work well under linux. I don't think the old XT's are even made anymore; a friend of mine got one on eBay for the last linux-based project I worked on. I'd love to hear about support for other devices.

Projects like the Agnula distro and the myriad audio packages are making great strides, but I doubt I'll make my next album on linux. I still keep slack and mandrake boxes to watch and play, though.

-Foo

Jeepers will you all cut it out already. Let the man try Redhat, and let him hear about the alternatives: here here here here and here.

Ten'll get you one he'll eventually be installing this distro with a 2.6 kernel and either Redhat or Debian based, and he won't give a rat's ass about all this trash you're talking.

We now return you to your regularily schedualled flamewar...

To reduce time in building these, there really should be a PVR/HTPC Distro.
Try DeMuDi, Debian Multimedia Distribution, currently at www.agnula.org (may be down)

Have you seen Agnula, the GNU/Linux audio distribution that's in development?

Or Planet CCRMA?

Yes -

"Re-H-Mu-Di" and "De-Mu-Di" are both audio oriented. They are hacks of the words "Red Hat Multimeia Distribution" and "Debian Multimedia Distribution."

I was going to recommend that you went to talk to the folks over at demudi who are building a distro variant of Debian tailored to audio applications, and therefore will probably have plenty of information about multi-channel IO, but on visiting their site I found that they have merged with agnula which is news to me and looks quite interesting. Am off to go and read up on what is going on...

"AGNULA's main task will be the development of two reference distributions for the GNU/Linux operating system completely based on Free Software (i.e. under a FSF approved Free Software license) and completely devoted to professional and consumer audio applications and multimedia development. One distribution will be Debian-based (DeMuDi) and the other will be Red Hat-based (ReHMuDi). Both will be available on the network for download and on CD."

the interesting thing is that the agnula project announcement is dated June 16th, and there is a news story on the Demudi site saying they are now officially part of the agnula project. to me, this seems a bit like 'embrace and extend'. this is going to be a big area in the future for linux- it is already growing and widely used in animation and there is the potential for huge profit.

my initial impression (not being any sort of expert) is that demudi has been quietly plugging away for a long time now and already has code available. red hat can come in, box it and work with agnula to sell it and carve out a niche for themselves without (it seems to me) really doing much.

based on this- i think that red hat can pull it off, because they have the support and connections of the agnula project and the work already done by the demudi team.

According to the Agnula website, DeMuDi and ReHMuDi are essentially the same thing just built on different distros (Debian and Redhat).

They're both part of the AGNULA (A GNU/Linux Audio distribution) project. (DeMuDi's home page mentions the AGNULA project as well.)

I've been paying attention to AGNULA for a while now and used DeMuDi (the debian based audio distribution) for some time. While the project could definitely use some serious corporate funding, we really don't need Red Hat Making Life More Difficult

Actually they work together with Debian guys. Here's some information from http://www.agnula.org/:

AGNULA's main task will be the development of two reference distributions for the GNU/Linux operating system completely based on Free Software (i.e. under a FSF approved Free Software license) and completely devoted to professional and consumer audio applications and multimedia development. One distribution will be Debian-based (DeMuDi) and the other will be Red Hat-based (ReHMuDi). Both will be available on the network for download and on CD.