Slashdot Mirror

there's always Renoise.

Didn't we make beats in NoiseTracker

The source code for NoiseTracker was used as the basis for Renoise, which is cross-platform including Linux, but not free. It's a reasonably popular host for composing songs / beats that obviously appeals to a fairly specific group of users due to it's tracker heritage. Most musicians prefer the piano roll for editing MIDI, which is used in most other hosts including Cubase, Ableton Live and Logic (none of which are available for Linux, and Logic is only available on Mac).

As for the cost: Renoise is around EUR 60.00. Reaper is a similar price for a non-commercial license, but only runs on Linux using Wine. The "high-end" or industry standard hosts cost considerably more. Although the price of Logic was recently reduced to $199 - which is a bargain - Cubase is more expensive, as is Ableton Live which can cost up to $800 depending on how much content is included.

Why aren't there more hosts available for Linux? It's about the plugins - similar to video editing suites, there is an ecosystem of audio plugin instrument and effects developers, and the users who have invested heavily in these plugins. The plugins adhere to specific standards (VST, AU and RTAS mainly) so developing for Linux is just not very cost effective for most of these developers, and users are generally unwilling to change to Linux because the plugins they own are not supported.

Also, the VST SDK (supported by most audio hosts on Mac and Win with a few notable exceptions) needs to be licensed from Steinberg (they also develop the main VST host Cubase). It is possible to use VST plugins on Linux, but it requires a reasonable amount of technical skill to do - and one must download and build the SDK, which is not strictly legal.

Peace,
Andy.

I have absolutely no problem whatsoever with Sony objecting to hacked consoles connecting to PSN - especially if they are being used to cheat or obtain content from the services illegally. If not for the benefit of legitimate players.

I do however have a problem with them removing features i payed a premium for OR penalising me for deciding against upgrading my vanilla - unhacked firmware.

So now I am without PS3 Linux because i wanted to access the PSN Store. I dont condone piracy , Im happy to buy games - In the past I had boxes of dodgy floppies on my Amiga , piracy was rampant on that platfom and that , together with the mal-management of Commodore and Amiga INC contributed to the demise of the system. Linux and open source takes care of my needs and where there is software worth purchasing i will buy it ( http://www.renoise.com/ ).

Having been a loyal Sony customer for so long im wondering where to go with my next console purchase, i already boycott Microsoft and Nintendo's cutesy game library (SuperZeldaMario World Galaxy 13 Yawn ) doesnt really appeal to me - although i am sorely tempted by the 3DS.

We need another player here ....

N ...

Don't forget Renoise, a sequencer/tracker of considerable quality for Win/OSX/Linux. It's not open source, but you can get a demo that has no limitations other than rendering support.

OctaMED (and later Sound Studio) - music software even today on Windows either seems to be poor, or very expensive (anyone have recommendations? MadTracker is the best I've found...)

If you're used to trackers you should really try Renoise. It's inexpensive and incredibly powerful. AFAICT, the demo is fully functional too, save for being unable to render to WAV.

Of course, you could switch to Renoise, which recently got an amazing linux port.

You'll still be without the vsts, though. Or try to use fst. Sadly, it seems Wine 0.9.9 is the latest version that doesn't crash when tweaking synths and effects.

Writing code for the sound sources directly is a cool thing, but kind of difficult to deal with. Wouldn't it be better and more efficient to just create a VSTi (or DXi)? It also doesn't lend itself very well to anything other than electronic-style music.

He says he tried FastTracker, then moved on to Buzz. The FastTracker style always seemed more intuitive to me, so for anyone who liked that style instead, try out Renoise.

FWIW Renoise has a very dedicated group of developers and a really vibrant community around it, as well as very solid documentation. I really recommend it. (I'm a paying user, not part of the Renoise team.)

FWIW Renoise has a very dedicated group of developers and a really vibrant community around it, as well as very solid documentation. I really recommend it. (I'm a paying user, not part of the Renoise team.)

The modern incarnation of the tracker concept would be Renoise. It has VST support and other things that electronic musicians would expect from a studio application, with the efficient interface only a tracker provides. It's also only $60, which is trivial compared to FL Studio, which is something like $300 for the fully functional version. [/ad]

Oh, sorry for answering myself, however I forgot to mention that if you want to play with anything more current than FT2 or IT3 (running under DOS, ugh!) or MPT (defunct since a couple of years), the most modern tracker out there seems to be Renoise. The shareware version contains more or less everything except WAV rendering.

I just posted about Renoise, and thought just now I should mention Skale while were covering trackers.

Skale.org

Skale is available for windows and linux, Renoise is available for windows and osx.

Both are free. They both are trying to fill the legacy of Fast Tracker 2 and the next generation tracker. I tried both and Renoise is far more advanced at this point. Both of these trackers are 100% free to use, although renoise has a string attached.

Renoise has a registered version at $45. on windows that gets you asio support and highest quality render support. So the 100% free version is slightly crippled. Me and all my friends registered. My personal take is that Renoise is so much better than everything else, that it is worth it to try and support the development effort.

Skale is a lot more like Fast Tracker 2, and in my opinion not as good as Renoise. Skale's big advantage is that they have a linux version. Renoise has talked about doing linux, but currently there are no plans for it. They just added Mac support.

So I hope this is helpful to someone. The sound quality in all these apps is great. Forget about people's personal bias and use something that you like. I warez Cubase for a while, and personally I prefer Renoise for what I do. The great thing about Buzz, Renoise, and Skale is that you can use them 100% free.

Okay, since you mentioned Buzz, I have to plug Renoise

Personally I chose Renoise over Buzz, Renoise doesn't have any built-in 'buzz machines', so you have to use samples, and it has full VST support including multi-tibral support now. Renoise is a tracker on steroids.

Renoise just released a public beta of their latest and greatest. I just installed yesterday and I'm very impressed so far.

I think you are looking for Renoise. It is easier on newer hardware and it runs under Windows.

To quote the developer: "FastTracker like Windows music software tracker with MIDI / VST / ASIO - Renoise"