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Linux-Based Musical Keyboard Workstation Debuts
Henry G. writes "Lionstracs of Italy has released the Mediastation X-76 music workstation. It runs Red Hat and KDE 3.1. The base model features a 1.67 Ghz Athlon, 512MB RAM, 80GB HD, CDRW/DVD-ROM, 8.2" LCD, and a host of other things. Full specs can be found here and pictures can be found here. To this submitter, it looks more like a keyboardized computer than a computerized keyboard."
For playing music, it's the bomb. However, the only thing I can type in OpenOffice is "FACE"
Man, 3 comments and the site is down. :-(
It's either on the beat or off the beat, it's that easy.
I moderate therefore I rule!
--
Actually, it doesn't look any more computerized than many other keyboard workstations out there (e.g., Yamaha Motif). The fact that you can hook up external LCDs, etc. in order to more fully exploit what's under the hood will put it a generation beyond.
Why does Slashdot go nuts over anything running Linux? I mean yeah, it's nice to see Linux being used everywhere but it's not big news.
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Can I run Logic or any of the other industry-standard music applications ? If so, this would seem to be the breakthrough Linux has been waiting for in the audiophile/professional musician marketplace.
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You don't know how happy it makes me to know that no one will h4x0r my keyboard.
clifgriffin > blog
Anyway, before it got /.'ed, anybody catch what kind of DSP cards they were using? 256 polyphonic voices per card with a dedicated 256megs RAM. That sounds impressive.
This is a test. This is a test of the emergency sig system. This has been only a test.
For whatever it's worth... http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache:uhfH21MOZZwJ: www.lionstracs.com/+lionstracs&hl=en&ie=UTF-8. ..
Who doesn't like free music?
The focal point is a picture of a keyboard, with these "helpful" navaids:
Wow, that's clear. I always think "Demo" when I look at the bottom left corner of a keyboard at Best Buy.
It's a computerized keyboard, which implies a computer-human interface. Let's hope that the design team responsible for the web site wasn't allowed anywhere near the actual prodcuct. "Click on the penguin's right toe for MIDI Configuration!"
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
How long before someone mods it to run Windows?
(Laugh, it's a twist on the "How long before it runs Linux?" jokes)
Shameless plug:
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no, the real reason to use OBSD is because, OBSD knows music. Just take a look at the new songs for each release ;)
now that's a funny one.
in the rest of the world, it's a computerized keyboard
in soviet russia, it's a keyboardized computer
all clear now?
Linux-Based Musical
And I thought that a LotR musical would be bad enough...
Hopefully more things like this will open up the doors to more serious high-end audio tools for Linux. Lack of such things is probably the one thing keeping me from switching over completely. As for Red-Hat ... well, a custom Linux distro made for audio production workstations would garner some attention, no doubt.
Who doesn't like free music?
From a musician's standpoint, I doubt many would care what OS their sound-making device is running. Most musicians just want a device that is stable, affordable, and sounds like they want it to sound. Lots of coveted synths (say, the Access Virus C) run an embedded OS, and musicians are totally happy with that.
With software synths (Reason, Reaktor, plus the various VST and DXi synths available) gaining in popularity, a laptop and a small USB keyboard are all many electronic musicians need to get going. Factor into this the low cost (since downloading of MP3s is killing small/new artists more than it harms anyone associated with the RIAA), and the fact that even electronic musicians are not highly technically savvy ("Yo, mate, I plugged my 'board into the Insert Jack on this Mackie, becuase I want to Insert the sound, right?"), musicians will tend to go with what everyone else is using because then support is easy to find. Unless some new device offers some unique and killer sound with a dirt simple or intuitive user interface, it's just another box destined to fade into obscurity.
oh my god. this is the best troll ever. in fact, you're so good that the moderators were even fooled into thinking you were insightful...
whop whop
"This Website is powered by PostNuke"
I suppose it's appropriate if you're gonna be slashdotted.
Free open source software for musicians:
. sourceforge.net/
http://ardour.sourceforge.net/
http://audacity
http://www.musictheory.net/
Other interesting I forgot ?
Animoog.org
Very Funny! Those Athlons get so damn hot...
Has a php-nuke/post-nuke/thataware site ever withstood a slashdotting?
Maybe they were hosting it off one of thier linux keyboards.
%\
Perhaps like Planet CCRMA?
"To this submitter, it looks more like a keyboardized computer than a computerized keyboard."
What it is, is a music workstation - it allows you to compose, arrange, and send to disc all your musical thoughts. Whether it's music or not...
The backend to a music workstation needs to have more guts to it these days, which is why they are letting you know what's under the hood in the OS department. My preference is to have a PC that you can trade out all the components for, including recording & mixing software and hardware. This piece of hardware here is neat, but it's too much like those cheesy Casio synthesizers. JMHO
Professional audio is one of Linux's weak points. Kernel 2.6 might help by integrating ALSA completely and making MIDI less of a bitch to configure, but there is still vast room for improvement in setup and the available software packages. Hopefully, if this is a success, Lionstracs will be investing in relevant OSS (abbreviating for "software", not "digital dog turd masquerading as a sound system") projects.
"Neque enim lex est aequior ulla, quam necis artifices arte perire sua."
I don't think there has ever been an article that had more than 3 icons? With 6 icons - we have a new record!
From excellent karma to terible karma with a single +5 funny post...
Since the site is down, let me chime in with 2 cool devices I've seen lately: PC keyboard with integrated MIDI keys and a rack-mounted device that supports VST plug-ins without a computer.Both look pretty cool, I though the musicians on here might find these interesting.
What is the sound of a synthesizer getting slashdotted?
The opinions stated herein do not necessarily represent those of anybody at all. Deal with it.
First off the availability is slowly but steadily increasing. With projects like Ardour nearing major releases even professional recording studios are starting to take note. Even the home user is finding more useful tools available. And with preemptive kernels there's lots of possibilities.
The future for Linux holds many things. Hackers composing music? You bet.
Quack, quack.
Windows keys. :(
because most pro-audio apps use floating point as the basic representation of audio samples, and the athlon wipes the floor in terms of FP performance.
intel chips not only have worse FP performance, they have an unbelievably bad problem with denormals that can cause code to slow down by factors of 4-100.
Can't RTFA thanks to 'the effect'. Anyone know how much they are charging for this contraption? I have been in the music business for 7 years or so, never heard of 'Lionstracs'. Is this a complete digital audio workstation? Does it offer any significant advantages? I use Logic 4.7 on a G4 tower and Logic 6 on a G3 iBook. I can hook up a usb midi controller for the keyboard if I wanted one. (I prefer to click all the notes into place with a mouse..) I can't imagine anything being more powerful than Logic at this time. Other packages have been getting better, but Logic outdoes them all these days, even pro-tools.
TallGreen CMS hosting
Now, if we can just exorcise the Free Software Song from the world's collective memory...
It consisted of two boards you plugged into an Apple ][+ or better, and had a piano keyboard, and you could use the Apple to modify the patches, and create sequences, and play music on the piano keyboard. A wonderful sounding instrument that was the closest I have ever gotten to a Fairlight.
ttyl
Farrel
CAN-CON 2019 - Ottawa's only book oriented Science Fiction Convention! October 18-20, Sheraton Hotel, Ottawa, Canada h
in almost every benchmark the p4 kills the athlon..
Two things need to happen before Linux can be used in a digital audio setting:
1. Drivers for at least one professional audio card need to be written for linux. I would expect to see multi-channel recording, midi, and ASIO 2.0 drivers at the very least.
2. Applications like Cubase, WaveLab, Sonar, and Reaktor need to become available for linux.
We've still got quite a long way to go before this becomes a reality, but if hollywood keeps using Linux for movies then eventually they might start demanding it for their scorers. The movie industry is key in making professional Linux audio a reality.
Probably in isochronous mode too, so the rest of the notes got dropped on the floor. Can't blame them really, anything in excess of 250k bpm would have got them in trouble with Disaster Area.
Actually, there are already drivers under ALSA for pro sound cards, like RME Hammerfall Sound cards. There is the linux equivelent of ASIO, and it's called JACK, which gives real-time sound IO for Linux. And there is already a number of free and commercial applications that will do multi-tracking under Linux.
Now all I have to do is get a sample editor under Linux for the Ensoniq EPS keyboard I have...
ttyl
Farrell
CAN-CON 2019 - Ottawa's only book oriented Science Fiction Convention! October 18-20, Sheraton Hotel, Ottawa, Canada h
You're behind the times. ALSA has drivers for the RME cards and for ICE1712-based cards (including M-audio Delta and many others). This has been true for at least a couple years, I don't remember the exact timeline. I use a Delta 66, it works beatifully. With a properly set up system, latency meets or beats any Windows / ASIO platform.
2. Applications like Cubase, WaveLab, Sonar, and Reaktor need to become available for linux.
It remains to be seen whether any of the existing commercial vendors will release linux ports. However, check out ardour.sf.net (currently beta) for an example of the future of open-source audio software. Other examples include Rosegarden 4 and more soft synths than you can shake a midi cable at. The infrastructure for a complete music workstation - alsa & alsa sequencer API, JACK, LADCCA, LADSPA - is now very good and still improving rapidly.
Nice to hear that some stuff has low-latency ALSA drivers for it, I didn't know that.
My point is that while solutions may exist for linux, everything I've seen is still lacking compared with the powerhouse apps like Reaktor and Cubase. It would be nice if the big wigs would just port their stuff to linux, but hey it might happen with open source too. If it does though I still think the movie industry is going to be partly responsible for the development that results in widespread professional adoption of open-source linux based sequencers/synths/samplers/etc...
Dedicated synths will always have a more robust sound in the production environment - nothing will ever replace my JP-8000, SP-808 and 202 sequencers and samplers, 12RU effects outboard, mixers, preamp etc for delivering pure, phat, phunkin sound.
But of course, that isn't the point with this product. It's a great entry point for beginners; and may possibly be an excuse for those with weekly gigs to downsize somewhat and not have to lug multiple sequencers around.
Many kudos to the developers; What a breath of fresh air.
Hey relax fella, you need a rest, guy.
JACK might be more accurately called the linux equivalent to ReWire than "the linux equivalent of ASIO." However, it does offer a similar callback-based development model to ASIO and apple's CoreAudio. But neither of those allow applications to transparently connect to each other the way JACK does.
There are drivers, but yea that's one big thing. If you can't use the "professional" sounds cards under linux, then the whole point is moot.
I'd be VERY happy if Fruityloops was ported to Linux. Its cheap and it works for all electronic and can work for hip-hop and rap. You could theoretically compose most type of music in it, but that's not a discussion for here.
"in almost every benchmark" ... sure. problem is, it doesn't beat it in the benchmarks that matter for pro-audio.
In another comment I found this link:/ 007355. html ... and there's a comment there from one of the developers. Apparently, other developers on this project include Rob Buse of SEQ24 (really nice little midi-loop sequencer) and Benno Senoner who we've known on the linux-audio-dev list for many years now. Congratulations guys!
http://www.synthzone.com/ubbs/Forum37/HTML
DON'T let "Great White" use it!
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
On the Synthzone forum they're talking about $5000 (US?). Ouch. Also there is talk of a later entry-level model. OTOH, it's not out of the ballpark for this market; Korg Tritons can be $3400 depending on features.
This wouldn't happen to be a Ensoniq ZR-76 would it??
Those keyboards were so nicley laid out.
I consider them to be the Commodore64/Amiga of keyboards.
To bad they went the they way of the C-64.
They were bought out by E-MU systems.
Finally I can start composing fine karaoke songs with my Linux box! I'm sure my family can't get enough of those great 80s classics! :)
Cozinha para as massas (e para geeks)
Asio is supported with jackd if the card supports it.
It's just a pci transfer method.
When you start jack, include --asio.
Hi,
While the Mediastation X-76 uses embedded Linux within some of the 11 in-house developed DSP cards, it is a hard disk based system with commodity computer components. Of course the value of commodity parts is that they're affordable and users can upgrade them.
The eleven Lionstracs DSP cards are the result of two years and $500,000.00 U.S. of research and development. The basic system includes two wavetable DSP cards with 128 voices on each card. These cards run the sam9708 firmware which is common in high end keyboards. The system can be ugraded to run four wavetable cards, 512 voices. The X-76 is tentatively scheduled for release in April, 2004.
Of course the OS is Linux based, with low latency and preemption patches to the kernel and it runs Alsa. With Alsa the system is able to run Jack Audio Connection Kit (JACK). Jack is a low latency audio server that automatically detects hardware ports and user defined application ports. So, routing data from one application to another is simple. Jack also inludes jack_transport where Jack clients are automatically synced to each other. Any jack client can initiate transport commands.
Any available Linux audio applications can be run on the system. Lionstracs will package and maintain a selection of GPL licensed applications including audio, midi and video. Plus, there's modem and ethernet capabilities so software upgrades are "free" (GPL) and automatic.
There will be three unused pci slots available on the basic X-76 system. These pci slots can be occupied with professional grade audio cards like those from RME. So you can build the workstation into a 24 track recording studio.
With JACK and an RME audio card, the user can start Ardour (DAW), JAMin, (audio mastering tools) and Rezound (destructive wave editing). Jack enables routing of the audio chain and syncs the transports. In this scenario the audio source to the mastering tool is multitrack. Very cool!
The X-76 has two hardware transports that can be mapped to any application transport. Of course these applications include sampler, DAW, midi sequencer, etc. One of the included applications is the Lionstracs full featured DJ mixer/player.
Because Linux is a multitasking environment, in live performances a midi sequence that's playing can be fed into the Seq24 based style player where the beat can be changed from rock to reggae on the fly.
The X-76 is designed for live performance where navigation speed to application interfaces is vital. There are 120 configurable hardware buttons on the top panel. The use of a mouse is not necessary.
It also has a 116db dynamic range analog mixer matrix with master, cue and eight stereo in/outs. In a live situation you mix multitrack DAW to stereo_out:1, hardware transports to stereo_out[2,3], sampler_out:4,mic_out1and2:5, etc. This is typical functionality required in DJ/House control systems. Of course it would also be simple to sync MIDI control light mixers and beyond this, the X-76 video outputs can feed projector systems, etc.
The disk based sampler includes time stretch, pitch correction and beat matching algorithms that are usable to +/- 30% without audio artifacts.
bout time someone was able to get through to the site, how'd you do it man?
Apparently, in German of the day, a B-flat was written 'B', while a B was written 'H'. Johann Sebastian included the phrase Bb A C B as a signature motif in some of his works. At least, that's what I've read-- I have an ear that's more tinny than a soup can.
[
(what would that sound like)
>1. Drivers for at least one professional audio
>card need to be written for linux.
The Delta cards work pretty darn well. But yeah, there isn't anything to compete with Cubase. I wish the Magix folks would just go ahead and release their stuff for Linux. That would do it for me. I actually prefer using Magix Audio Studio over Cubase.
-fb Everything not expressly forbidden is now mandatory.
No, really imagine it. Sounds like Devo playing Dueling Banjoes, doesnt it?
%\
Straight from the site:
Optional equipment
* 15" or 17" color LCD screen transmission fluid temperature(TFT) display
The problem here is that the keyboard has become a computer, which is kind of retarted. My computer is a box. Just a box. The keyboard (the one I type on) plugs into it. The monitor and the speakers plug into it. Doesn't it make sense that the keyboard (that I'd use to play music) should plug into it, too?
This increased modularity also means that I only have to buy one athlon xp 3000+ box to play games, make music, etc., and that I am not limited to a keyboard, but could concievably attach a turntable-like machine as well.
Obviously this isn't very portable, but neither is a big keyboard like that.
The one nice thing about it is its plug-and-play ness. I built my box from scratch, tweaked my OS this way and that, and bought addons carefully. This keyboard? You buy it, you bring it home and unpack it, you find a single AC power socket, and start playing. Not even an iMac has that -- you still have to get your pretty little transluscent keyboard and plug it into the USB slot somewhere, and do the same for the mouse.
But then, do I want to listen to music from a non-tinkerer? From someone who's idea of a "remix" is to play their piano-school music with a reverb effect? The truth is, it's all hacking, and so anyone who can hack music well should be able to at least hack together a computer.
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
It looks kinda like they built a nice computer case... In all the screenshots I didn't see a single one with the onboard LCD on.. and the mod wheels (pitch bend and assignable) should be to the left of the keyboard, not up in the middle of nowhere... I'm sure a company wishing to sell for over 3k$ a pop would notice such things right :) ?
Its looking pretty cool, but the lack of demos or screens of ANY functions of the keyboard being used in any way suggest that they're pretty much vaporware with a cool case right now...
and a floppy drive?? it comes with a cd/dvd burner, ethernet etc... why oh why? It has lots of buttons, but i didnt see any knobs, which is odd. It has sliders, but i've never seen a knobless, and it doesnt look like sliders are for more than volume or eq, though they might be assignable :) the scroll wheel also seems to be too tall, but that might just be my preference.
To respond to some earlier posts... musician's mainly care about music :) whether its on linux or windows, all that matters is what it can do. Its a tool, and its very important that it just works no matter what... I honestly hope the keyboard functions are completely seperate from the OS, and the OS has hooks for recording/using the harddrive as library storage etc. I know linux is stable, but its entirely possible to nuke it if you're an idiot, and having any OS and the keyboard stuff being able to mess with each other internally is asking for trouble.
And also, musician's dont tend to buy what everyone else is buying from my experience :) when i went to buy a pro keyboard, EVERYONE was buying korg tritons like candy, but the yamaha motif had just come out and after trying both extensively, the motif was better in just about every way (voice quality and price being the biggest), so guess which I got...
Also, my guitarist friend was looking for a better amp, and instead of justing getting a marshall like everyone else, we went and tested about 50 different amps in the local (well, 2 hours away, but only because their the best music store ever...) store (every marshall, peavey, mesa, some hughes, etc etc etc) and since the other guitarist had a mesa triple recto, he picked up a koch (small swedish company) powertone II, which is a killer amp, even though no one has really heard of them (they have the best unintentionally funny marketing i've seen in a while).
In all the screenshots I didn't see a single one with the onboard LCD on.. and the mod wheels (pitch bend and assignable) should be to the left of the keyboard, not up in the middle of nowhere... I'm sure a company wishing to sell for over 3k$ a pop would notice such things right :) ?
Its looking pretty cool, but the lack of demos or screens of ANY functions of the keyboard being used in any way suggest that they're pretty much vaporware with a cool case right now...
and a floppy drive?? it comes with a cd/dvd burner, ethernet etc... why oh why? It has lots of buttons, but i didnt see any knobs, which is odd. It has sliders, but i've never seen a knobless, and it doesnt look like sliders are for more than volume or eq, though they might be assignable :) the scroll wheel also seems to be too tall, but that might just be my preference.
To respond to some earlier posts... musician's mainly care about music :) whether its on linux or windows, all that matters is what it can do. Its a tool, and its very important that it just works no matter what... I honestly hope the keyboard functions are completely seperate from the OS, and the OS has hooks for recording/using the harddrive as library storage etc. I know linux is stable, but its entirely possible to nuke it if you're an idiot, and having any OS and the keyboard stuff being able to mess with each other internally is asking for trouble.
And also, musician's dont tend to buy what everyone else is buying from my experience :) when i went to buy a pro keyboard, EVERYONE was buying korg tritons like candy, but the yamaha motif had just come out and after trying both extensively, the motif was better in just about every way (voice quality and price being the biggest), so guess which I got...
Also, my guitarist friend was looking for a better amp, and instead of justing getting a marshall like everyone else, we went and tested about 50 different amps in the local (well, 2 hours away, but only because their the best music store ever...) store (every marshall, peavey, mesa, some hughes, etc etc etc) and since the other guitarist had a mesa triple recto, he picked up a koch (small swedish company) powertone II, which is a killer amp, even though no one has really heard of them (they have the best unintentionally funny marketing i've seen in a while).
forgot my p's and missed the preview button :(
I suck...
yeah, my XP2200+ hammers the p4 3.06ghz's in the cubase SX benchmark.
some people would claim that the chipsets (via) used by amd boards are bad for audio, but this is crap. via chipsets are fine for audio, they may have been dodgy once upon a time but not anymore.
Openlabs released a similar synthesizer already in january 2003, called OpenSynth EKO. Their current model is called OpenSynth NEKO. The NEKO is running Microsoft Windows XP Professional.
With an Athlon under the hood I guess there're at least a couple of fans attached to the whole thing. How noisy is it? Is that much power really necessary? Is it not a factor for the purpose of this particular gizmo?
---- Take the Space Quiz!
1) not a full keyboard
2) not full-size keys
3) probably cheap springloaded action
4) redhat is soon-to-be unsupported
Looks like they just crammed a PC into a cheap Casio keyboard from K-mart...
so where can i download the source code?
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
(It's Thin Film Transistor Liquid Crystal Display, for those who wonder.)
I sent an email re: open source blah blah,
I got this rather sexual reply, certainly I find the prospect quite exciting.
Hi Nick, a few things:
We have written our own audio/midi applications (user interfaces and engines) and will release (with full sources) most of them under the GNU GPL license because we believe in the superiority of open source development model and involvement of the community.
We are using existing opensource linux audio applications too. And to some we made improvements and fixes to accomodate them in a professional keyboard enviroment like the Mediastation.
Of course we contribute back these the source changes to the community. Open source and community involvement is what will distinguish the Mediastation from traditional Keyboards.
This does not mean that the Mediastation forces you to become a developer or to have to fiddle around with complex interfaces or cryptic key sequences.
The Mediastation is designed to be a fully portable studio with keyboard and sound unit, midi/mp3/wav/ogg players, arranger/style player, multi track audio/midi sequencer, soft sythesizer and sampler.
The usage will be as userfriendly as possible.
To the average musician it will just look like a very powerful keyboard/studio workstation, but advanced users and developers will be able to tweak every aspect of the Mediastation.
Third party developers will be able to write their own, fully integrated modules which they sell or give away.
We do not place any restrictions to people wanting to develop for the Mediastation. No nasty NDAs or developers contracts. Just download the source code and SDKs and start developing.
The software will evolve over time and users will be able to
update and add new applications in the Mediastation by simply connecting the Keyboard to the Internet and pressing the update button.
No rocketscience-engineer required.
The Mediastation is designed by musicians that are live keyboards players and studio engineers with decades of experience and exactly know what a good keyboard workstation/ portable studio needs and how the user interfaces must be designed in order of being easy to use for the average musician that has no particular computer knowledge.
The Mediastation is not on sale yet but you will be able to touch with hands a prerelease at this Winter NAMM release in January.
Feel free to post here on the forum if you have additional questions or need more infos about the Mediastation.
Watch out this space frequently for cutting edge news.
cheers,
Benno
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
How much does it cost?