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

Posted by timothy on from the this-looks-very-nice dept.

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."

12 of 356 comments (clear)

  1. This rules by necro2607 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Awesome... The only reason I still use Windows on my desktop is because the audio software I use is Windows-only...

    Let's hope this program will be good enough for me to be able to switch over to Linux full-time :)

    1. Re:This rules by Indy+Media+Watch · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I will probably be branded a troll for this, but have you considered Macintosh?

      It beats Windows hands-down for anythiing to do with audio/video straight out of the box. As much as I support Linux development, I don't think the release of first-generation software makes it quite ready for the studio yet.

      As an added bonus, OS X will probably run everything else you are looking at. Think about it...

      --

      Indy Media Watch-Proctologist of the Internet

    2. Re:This rules by Lumpy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      for mac -> seting up any of these audio tools is easy.

      for linux -> getting alsa and JACK running together correctly is a nightmare.

      getting some of the apps to recognize your version of JACK is also a fight, give up on binaries, try to compile and then can not figure out why rosegarden will not see your installed JACK libraries and therefore refuses to compile with JACK support making it 100% useless.

      Fight to get your midiman MIDI hardware recognized. Get pissed because your nice 8 channel USB midi rackmount device is not supported yet, you need to downgrade to the 2 port cheap model.

      Be happy that your pro soundcard is supported, format your linux partition and go back to windows in hopes of tyring this while dance again in another 6 months.

      I am a huge support and user of linux, the only 2 machines in my home that run windows are my video editor and the dedicated audio PC in the music studio.

      I would love to get microsoft completely out of my house but it is not possible yet again.

      --
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    3. Re:This rules by boodaman · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Maybe it is due to lack of knowledge, but I haven't found anything yet that compares to SonicFoundry (now Sony) ACID on Windows. I have a G4 Powerbook, and GarageBand, but it just isn't the same. In my amateur opinion, GarageBand doesn't come close to ACID, and the interface is horrible.

      I use Windows, OS X, and Linux at home, on three different computers. Whenever I want to whip up some quick audio tracks, whether for fun or something serious, I always find myself back at ACID on Windows. It just works, the interface is great, and it is inexpensive (almost as cheap as iLife/GarageBand).

      I've looked for over 2 years for something comparable, preferably on Linux, and haven't found anything. For my purposes, ACID is the "killer app"...its the one app that is preventing me from dumping Windows altogether.

      If anyone out there knows of a stable, robust application that is ACID-like, can read my hundreds of ACID project files (not loops, but the project files describing tracks), isn't GarageBand, and runs on Linux, I'd love to hear about it.

    4. Re:This rules by Necr0maN · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I think you really should check out Ableton Live (for mac or wintel), it has the same autostretching loop-based approach as ACID + lots of extra's.

    5. Re:This rules by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I use Demudi from the AGNULA project. Tons of audio tools, (including Rosegarden, JACK, Muse, Ardour,Hydrogen, +++) all in binaries and working.

      If you want a working Linux/JACK system I recomend Demudi......

  2. How does this compare with Ardour? by adrianbaugh · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That seems to be a pretty comprehensive recording package. I'm guessing this is more a mixing / editing / adding MIDI type of program?

    --
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  3. Cool, but what about... by AceJohnny · · Score: 5, Interesting
    There are other "professional audio" tools for Linux out there. Now I'm not into this, but how does Wired compare with these?

    Ardour multi-track sound editor (not MIDI, I think)

    Rosegarden Audio and MIDI sequencer

    The smaller Audacity A wave/AIFF/MP3/Ogg/etc editor

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  4. SMP support? by Thaidog · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Being both Linux and "pro level" I would imagine this would be a no brainer but I don't see it in the documentation...?

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  5. Suggestion: A music section by gad_zuki! · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Music tech has gotten extremely geekified in the past twenty years and its a shame tech sites don't embrace and report on some of the very-high tech stuff out there. Many "geeks" are either musicians or have dabbled in music. Many are also hardcore music fans.

    I've found one blog that does this very well and its called MusicThing (I have no relation with the people there, just a fan). I wished slashdot or other high-profile tech sites would also report on pro-audio gear, audio software both free and Free, the digital revolution in music (not just in techno), etc.

    I mean, one of the coolest pieces of tech I own has to be my Line6 amp, which models eight tube amps digitally. That's a little revolution in itself.

    After reading this article I was wondering if there were open source equivalants or homebrew solutions like build your own analog synth, theremin, microphone, etc.

  6. Re:Damn. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I completely agree. What's really needed, as things stand, is a wrapper library that can be used by all X apps. It's sole purpose should be nothing more than mapping the functionality to the interface library of the user's choice; be it GTK*, Qt, Motif, or whatever.

    Mind you, such a thing would be quite a difficult task, and would likely fail without the major camps agreeing on how things should be done; and if that's the case, they could work something out on their own, virtually making the wrapper useless.

    The days of GTK vs Qt, KDE vs GNOME need to end, quickly. Not in terms of actual usage, but in terms of incompatibility. For the "Linux Desktop" and all we're so fond of pushing....

  7. MOTU's Digital Performer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    is the bomb. But it is quite expensive, and Mac only, although it will work with any Mac-supported sound card/ input hardware, including ProTools.

    Everyone talks about CakeWalk, ProTools (sw), etc. I'm an audio pro, and I work with (literally) Grammy-winning recording engineers and producers, and MOTU's "Digital Performer" is absolutely hand's down by far the best. The others (Windoze issues aside) are somewhere between limited and clunky (ProTools: horribly clunky UI, but has a few really good plugins.)

    As a very serious Linux enthusiast and supporter, I'd like to see the community work together and produce one stellar Linux-based (or cross-platform) midi/sound recorder/editor, rather than so many mediocre efforts.

    At the very least, use Digital Performer as the basis of how to do the functionality and GUI RIGHT.

    And yes, I want to contribute- to a single combined project.