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Pure Data: http://puredata.info/

They're not flow-charts, but the PureData programming language is provides executable diagrams. Pure Data (or just 'Pd') is an open source visual programming language for multimedia. Its main distribution (aka 'Pd Vanilla') is developed by Miller Puckette. Pd-L2ork/Purr-Data is an alternative distribution (originally based on the now unmaintained Pd-Extended project), with a revamped GUI and many included external libraries.

I just started experimenting Pure Data, and it is an example of an environment that does this quite well. Although it can be very complex when you dig down into it, it's very easy to get started with and create useful objects without the "fuss" that TFA talks about.

It's commonly done with multimedia programming languages for audiovisual generation. See tools like puredata, Max/Msp, or vvvv

MS appears to basically doing optical flow & color tracking. the above libs can do those, and more, and are great for programmers and nonprogrammers alike. tho if you really hate code, you may rather use max/msp/jitter or gem/pd.

Max/MSP is a (2D) graphical language for sound synthesis. PureData (PD) is the FOSS equivalent. I find graphical programming can be tedious and often counter-intuitive, but it's worth a look.

Anyway, I disagree that software engineering tools are particularly bad. With a modern IDE, you can see all the class and instance methods of any public API class very easily (you even get some documentation in a tooltip). And a well-designed OO library should need fairly little documentation - most of the functions should be self-explanatory. Refactoring tools have become very powerful. And thorough testing should catch the most serious errors. Last but not least, languages themselves are higher level and easier to understand. Where's the bad?

Last time I tried CSound, I couldn't really get into it, but Pd is nice. The learning curve is admittedly something of a learning cliff, but I think the interface it presents -- a blank canvas on which one draws networks of operators, subpatches, unit generators, etc. -- is close to ideal for this kind of work.

I've still found it to be too much work to build, say, an entire softsynth in Pd (although people have done so), but I've had a lot of luck creating nifty effects boxes, delay units, and audio/data gadgets. Combining it Pd with LADSPA plugins has been especially effective.

I've performed with Pure Data on tour and it stood up well on my Debian laptop. At the time I was either using a gamepad or midi-slider interface to drive the instruments I made with this tool, some of which were multichannel. A friend and I have had several hundred people play with our audiovisual instrument Fijuu2 day in day out for a week. This setup runs on Ubuntu and uses PD as a sound server. Several other friends perform with Supercollideron their Linux laptops .

Where sequencing is concerned I've heard some enjoy Hydrogen. For a DAW on Linux it's hard to go past Ardour, though that's hardly an instrument.

You're looking for Pd:

http://puredata.info/

Have you heard of Max/MSP? It's a modular, graphical programming environment where you use basic unit generators to create the synthesis or processing that you want. Pd is the open source, free version written by Miller Puckette (who wrote the original Max). It is all the power you need to create your own music improvisation / processing / performance environment from scratch. All you need is some basic knowledge of how synthesis works.

It all depends on which pro. Sure all advertising professionals will prefer Photoshop to Gimp, but what if you're an experimental artist working with computerised visualisations? Then you'll probably appreciate Gimp's superior scriptability. Or more likely, you'd use something like Pure Data, which is about as far as you can come from Adobe's CS suite in usability and slickness. Some professionals use power tools, and know their tools well. Power tools are crude.

"I think they were using Ardour / Jack with RME Hammerfall cards. Obviously this won't work with SoundBlaster toys."

Obviously? For some purposes Jack works better on Linux than ASIO on Windows. And Soundblaster devices certainly are well supported by ALSA.

"I don't know if Jack is enough for "real" work, or if other real time patches are needed."

The realtime patches are useful to reduce audio latency, which means monitoring is improved and it means the computer can be used for live effects or synthesis.

I understand the point of your article. I would never represent to anyone that Linux is useful for them, unless maybe they came to me with the machine they wanted to install linux on.

But if they come in here and need to use a computer, they have Linux and Linux to choose from. As for *tasks*, there's all the usual stuff, plus there's music synthesis and recording. I have a whole studio, and while I do have a Windows machine for running FLStudio and EnergyXT, I also have a linux box with, among other things Pd (the best thing ever http://puredata.info/). Somebody who wants point-and-drool simplicity is going to *hate* Pd (and will *really* hate Max), but that does not stop it from being the best thing ever.

Likewise, one look at ECASound http://eca.cx/ecasound/ might make a Cubase user cringe, but it's better, in something of the same sense that LaTeX is better for typesetting than Word. For instance, I know people that *hate* LaTeX, but mainly because they haven't actually needed a tool that does for them what TeX can do.

The idea that a multitrack recorder/mixer/signal processor needs to *look like* a vintage mixing board or tape deck is completely ridiculous, and speaks more to a marketing domain than an audio production one!

Think about it!

There is a *LOT* of audio software for Linux. Not really very many turnkey solutions, and none of them on the order of Nuendo, Sequoia, Pyramid, Digital Performer, etc. But that's not where the demand is.
http://linux-sound.org/

For another instance, setting up a machine with a multitrack sound card (Delta 1010 in my studio), is a hardware job, and if you want to run Linux, you have to be careful to get hardware where the manufacturer isn't hostile to linux and forbids the driver support from being developed (there are a lot of those, and this is the biggest problem.)

Then there's an OS-level software job, installing the linux kernel, and tuning it for audio. This may or may not go beyond simply setting up the new Ubuntu or whatever with the realtime priority stuff.

Then there's the application-level software job, selecting and installing, say, Ardour and learning how to operate it.

Then there's the domain-specific job -- just because you have a DAW, monitors, mics and preamps, does not instantly mean you're a producer! (Although people do frequently have this expectation!)

Speaking of Ardour -- on audio forums, I've seen people dismiss it without ever trying it. For recording, it does work extremely well, although I personally prefer ECASound because it fits with the whole "Unix Philosophy" of doing one thing, well. It does do that one thing extremely well, and like a good unix app, its usefulness is amplified by combining it with other tools.

Sorry I rant too much, but I get tired of people who judge linux as an audio platform based on a minute or two of evaluation, don't see something they can use without putting some effort into it and educating themselves, and then get on forums to badmouth it. (You didn't do that, but it's a daily thing in audio forums.)

It is almost as though they are actually *angry* that we (the linux community) haven't given them something they can recognize as a free alternative to Cubase. The irony is some of the stuff we have is *better*, but coming from a different philosophy.

I said I ranted too much already good night!

PS Using Pd on MacOSX now also, building a Cocoa UI as part of a MacOS programming course.

Pure Data (PD) is definitely worth checking out if you're into computer-aided performance. You can get PD for free (it runs on Windows, OSX, and Linux) at http://puredata.info/. Another one to try if you're more into writing actual code is Supercollider. It's an object-oriented music synthesis language based on Smalltalk. I use a Windows build that I get from http://www.sonenvir.at/downloads/sc3/sc3-win/, but it runs better on OSX and it interfaces with Emacs if you like on Linux.

From my opinion as a student of computer arts/digital arts, the first thing you have to ask yourself is how to include the computer in your artistic work.
I can recommend the Book "Composing Interactive Music" from Todd Winkler, as I found it not only interesting for re-thinking how to use Computers in artistic installations, but also how to completely rethink computer interaction.
Winkler proposes a framework of 5 stages which i think can also be adoped for any digital works, not only music.
The book is inteded for composers working with max/msp, a visual programming language where object boxes can be "patched" together; this style of working shows fast results, as this kind of software is working "realtime", meaning you get constant ouptput of the things you are doing or the parameters you are changing.
I am working with this kind of "patchable software interfaces" for more than five years now; and this is also teached on the University of Applied Arts in Vienna/Austria, where I am studying.
If it comes to interaction (sound-visual, sound-dancers, graphics-interface, whatever) in the field of artistic work, these tools such as
PD Pure Data (windows/mac/linux) - Audio/Video/3D (GEM,Framestein) -opensource-
Cycling74 max/msp (windows/mac) - Audio/Video/3D (also see Nato and Jitter) -free 30days demo-
Native Instruments Reaktor (windows/mac) -commercial, but has education pricing-
vvvv (win) -free-
are used from lots of the people around.
there are hell lots more, you might want to take a look at the audiovisualizers.com tool shack, or pawfal.org for example.

For some visual examples and also works, you might want to take a look at
http://www.harvestworks.org/maxreel/
http://puredata.info/community/ (mostly audio)
talking chair (vvvv+hardware)
http://www.realtimearts.net/

or you might also want to take a look at the department of digital art in the university of applied arts/vienna.
currently we are a group of people trying to bring opensource and arts together. there are also workshops and lots of projects going on: http://5uper.net

for sure there are also "standard" programs teached, which are good for working with business and advertising companies -- but if we are speaking about digital arts, that's going beyond the standard approach of software use. at least for me.