Wired: Pro-Level, GPL'd Audio Editing For Linux

Sven Hertz writes "For all us music professionals who were longing to a promising music production and creation software on Linux, there is now Wired (screenshots). It supports unlimited Audio/Midi tracks playback and recording, and introduces a Plugin system for instruments and effects (VST support under way too). It can also read AKAI CDs and import 18 different Wave formats. The first test version was released a few days ago and its news made the rounds successfully on OSNews & GnomeDesktop while it was placed "app of the week" over at GnomeFiles."

Comments

Linux sound is start to pick up

[Pecisk]

Yes, it is great to welcome another program, aimed at normal production use for common users for working with sound, but I want to point out that it doesn't arrive in the empty place. We have Audacity, Ardour, MuSE, lot of other programms which slowly reach stability and production use. Also I should mention work on ALSA and JACK, which are critical components making Linux a profesional workstation for working with sound.

Of coarse, lot of work should still be done for getting serious for common recording pro's crowd, but we are moving here.

Linux Audio developement is fairly decent nowadays

[Anonymous Coward]

And it's good enough for the amature/prosumer enthusiest definately. If they have a strong computer background already.

Of course nothing will be good enough for the wannabees, which I suspect will come out in droves on this article. (which I hope not)

Linux has gotten very decent at audio production since Alsa drivers became standard. It makes this sort of thing much easier then compared to the old OSS stuff. Now you have stuff like gstreamer being developed, but that's desktop stuff, not audio developement.

There are lots of apps. Lots of information:
Linux audio developer's list
http://www.linuxdj.com/audio/lad/

google will show you the way.

A great app is Ardour, which makes your Linux PC into a audio workstation.
http://ardour.org/

From their website:
Ardour is a digital audio workstation. You can use it to record, edit and mix multi-track audio. Produce your own CD's. Mix video soundtracks. Experiment with new ideas about music and sound. Generate sound installations for 12 speaker gallery shows. Have Fun.

Ardour capabilities include: multichannel recording, non-linear, non-destructive region based editing with unlimited undo/redo, full automation support, a mixer whose capabilities rival high end hardware consoles, lots of plugins to warp, shift and shape your music, and controllable from hardware control surfaces at the same time as it syncs to timecode. If you've been looking for a tool similar to ProTools, Nuendo, Cubase SX or Sequoia, you might have found it. /end of qoute.

And before you get all up tight about VST/VSTi plugins you can run many Windows plugins thru Wine
http://www.djcj.org/LAU/quicktoots/toots/vst -plugi ns/

And there is ongoing work of getting native plugins developed/ported.

With audio backends like JACK and Linux 2.6's scedualling options you can mix outputs from various different applications and sources with garrenteed latency and quality.
http://www.agnula.org/documentation/dp_t utorials/a lsa_jack_ladspa/

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

Linux audio Guide:
http://www.djcj.org/LAU/guide/index.php

And that's just scratching the surface. If your intellegent and you make sure to select the proper hardware and sound equipment you can setup a very effective Linux-based audio workstation enviroment for relatively low bucks compared to something like OS X or Windows and depending on commercial software.

Unless of course your a Warez'ng pigfucker and don't pay for crap in the first place.

Before you get all up tight about desktop quality or lack of hardware support and how windows kicks ass and such, just stfu. If I was going to do this professionally and I had a lot of money I'd use OS X on Apple hardware. Windows just blows goats for everything except generic desktop usage, unless your willing to just throw pockets full of cash at it.

But Linux is actually fairly decent. Not the greatest, but definately best bang for the buck.

Re:Cool, but what about...

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not a beliver, all pro audio software more or less sucks, so take what I say in context with that.

Ardour is closest to a how a pro DAW should be with a plain workman like interface that inspires confidence. Rosegarden is obviously inspired by cubase, I've fired it up but never used it on a project because I can't stand QT apps. Audacity is a great editor, it's always built without error for me and despite a couple of minor niggles it's solid and usable.

Ardour is the most solid, workman like DAW I've used since the Otari RADAR; if you want to work with sound and not look at pretty brushed metal UI crap that is.

The first step, no more

[NeedleSurfer]

One can hardly run a studio with only one software, I'll agree that the main required software has finally been made for Linux but there is a host of other software you need to actually run a studio. Librarians/editors, machine control for your automated consolle, track and cue sheet software, archival software (which surely exist on Linux), countless number of utilities; BPM to delay calculators, pitch to loop lenght calculators, you know, little utilities you just can't live without in the end when you get use to their function. You will also need, pitch detectors and a lot of pluggins, from noise reduction to convolution-based reverb and so on.

What I'm trying to say is that, this Wired software looks fun and potentially great but as of now it looks like it's not even on par with Cakewalk (or Sonar if you prefer) which in turn, aren't on par with anything they are the lowest grade wares you might find in a studio (I say might because I never have seen a studio running on Cakewalk or Sonar).

I sincerly hope some LinuxHeadz will be jumping at this and bring us back the good ol' days on the Mac, when the entire audio community was working on one platform making better and better by the day, now the devellopement effort are spread a lot less new wares and a lot more me-too wares are being made, Wired has the potential to change that. The Linux community has the necessary structure to bring this back and make this software evolve and get complete with an incredible assortment of companion wares.

So a first step it might be but it's a great one and the future will tell us if it was a leap...
go Linux!

Re:This rules

[krymsin01]

I use a program called Buzz. It's a windows program, and was once the only reason I used windows at all. Buzz is a modular synthesizer/composer, and a very powerfull tool once you get used to it. I tried to get it to run under wine, but never with much success (various dlls would kill wine). Eventualy, I found a good tutorial on how to get it working under wine. Haven't used buzz on a windows machine since.

Re:This rules

[CowboyBob500]

For Mac:-

CakeWalk -> Logic Audio/Cubase/ProTools/GarageBand
BeSweet -> FFMPegX
VirtualDub -> ?
TMPGEnc -> FFMPegX
Alcohol 120% -> Dragon Burn
DVD Decryter -> MacTheRipper
DVD Shrink -> DVD2OneX
? => DVD Studio Pro -> Sizzle
Nero => DiskBlaze -> Dragon Burn

For Linux:-

CakeWalk -> Rosegarden/Ardour
BeSweet -> Mencoder
VirtualDub -> KDenLive
TMPGEnc -> Mencoder
Alcohol 120% -> K3B
DVD Decryter -> AcidRip/Video-DVDRip
DVD Shrink -> ?/DVDShrink runs under Wine
? => DVD Studio Pro -> DVDAuth
Nero => DiskBlaze -> K3B

Bob