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Linux Audio Developers Conference

Posted by michael on from the ear-candy dept.

paulbd writes "This weekend sees the first Linux audio developers conference at ZKM in Karlsruhe, Germany. Gathering together many members of the Linux Audio Developers mailing list and others, the conference will feature 2 days of in-depth technical presentations and demonstrations of many cutting edge Linux audio and MIDI applications." Desktoplinux.com has a related story about using Linux in a professional recording studio.

6 of 263 comments (clear)

  1. LADC? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I think they should be renamed "Linux Audio Realtime Developers And Sound Symposium".

  2. You forgot one by i0wnzj005uck4 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Audacity is pretty good, and for linux too. Can't believe it missed the cut.

    --
    - Cloud
  3. If you want to mix Mp3's in realtime by oliverthered · · Score: 5, Informative

    Try gdam, I havn't seen it in any distros yet.

    GDAM is a digital dj mixing software package. It aims to be a powerful, professional-quality music mixing and remixing system, suitable for live performance. It was conceived on some beautiful summer morning (in 1998), and developed with drive and enthusiasm that seemed completely unnatural. Over four years later, we have achieved many of our goals; yet, development continues. Here is a list of features:

    client-server architecture based around glib
    streaming and mixing of any number of mp3 files
    dynamic filter insertion and removal
    multiple sound device support (see the faq)
    plugin support
    cacheing / playing loops
    contiguous queueing - plays albums without gaps between songs, regardless of output buffer size
    dj turntable-style interface
    assisted beat matching
    waveform viewer / beat calculator
    sequencer
    record from any point in the stream, to disk or another process
    gtk gui's, with simple skin support
    flexible command-line interface
    gdam123 - an mpg123 clone that talks to a gdam server
    Users Guide
    hardware input support (midi and other)
    support to use LADSPA plugins
    support to create LADSPA plugins graphically
    online help

    --
    thank God the internet isn't a human right.
  4. Re:Hardware support by lightcycle · · Score: 5, Informative

    Linux doesn't use ASIO, it uses ALSA, which in addition to being much faster (lower latency) than ASIO also supports quite a few soundcards, both consumer and professional grade.

    Here is a pdf with latency tests

    I think the sound managment in linux has improved quite dramatically in the past few years, and there are right now _a lot_ of projects which will make linux a reasonable choice for professional audio authouring, such as ardour, jack, alsa, etc. (look at links in the story)

    I don't know what the current status on VST plugins in linux is, but there's still ladspa, which seems to be a very competent architecture. Steinberg's hesitation in this area might very well prove to be a mistake, costing them influence in a growing market.

    I'm right now in the process of trying linux out for a synthpop project I'm working on, using ardour, and various softsynths and sequencers. If some interesting experience comes out of it, I'll make it known.

    --

    The stars that shine and the stars that shrink
    in the face of stagnation the water runs before your eyes
  5. Re:could be big by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is a conference for professional audio on Linux, and most of your points are from a amateur/consumer viewpoint.

    You have to invest both in skills (ability to set up the computer and apply patches) and in hardware (RME/Hammerfall or M-audio are well supported) to use Linux for pro audio.

    1 High latency.

    Use a kernel with Low-latency patches, and a low latency sound server like jackd. Do not use a journalling file system on your audio drives.

    2 Poor compatability.

    See the ALSA page for supported hardware.

    3 Feature support.

    3D sound and simple soundcard MIDI music playback are not much use in a studio.

    4 Best Stability.

    Audio drivers rarely if ever crash, you may be thinking of sound servers such as ARTS, or indeed a program like xmms.

    I think that if Linux makes an impression in the pro-audio recording world, it will initially be as a replacement for dedicated systems like the Mackie HDR 24/94, Fostex MX-2424. These are the workhorses of studios, required to do a straightforward job, but with very high reliability.

  6. IMPORTANT:Little known Latency / Scheduler info !! by MarkWPiper · · Score: 5, Informative
    I am also a gentoo user.

    Here are some things to consider:

    1) Did you compile low latency support with sysctl support? In that case you have to turn on lowlatency mode on your own , a little known and not widely documented feature!

    2) I actually had worse performance, w/ the 2.4 tree, when both low latency, and the O(1) scheduler were enabled, and am now using just low latency. In 2.5, AFAIK, they play much better, and it's sensible to enable both.

    4) Are you using OSS, or alsa?

    3) Gentoo now includes a safe hdparm script (I think it's installed by default, at least on ~x86), which works great. Check for it in /etc/init.d

    4) Be wary of the difference between march and mcpu optimizations! The choice makes a big difference!