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Music Sequencing Software for Unix?
caluml asks: "I am looking at getting more into music making, and buying some decent-ish synthesizers. Most sequencing software out there is for Mac or Windows, neither of which I have. I have looked at Audigy and Audacity, but wonder if there are any others that others find worthwile. Can anyone give me their recommendations for sequencers, audio editors, and multi-track recording software?"
I think the disparity stems from the different audiences. For a long time, getting into Linux required a fair amount of technical savviness, and the software for Windows and Macintosh have had a lot of time to mature. Also, the person that needs that type of software often isn't the type that can program. That sort of software also has a narrow user base. I'm trying to learn how to do some programming for a hardware device of my own and I'm finding that making a truly nice end-user program takes an incredible amount of work, so I can understand how a person or group that knows how the software should work wouldn't want to take on such a project.
My understanding, based partly on what others have said here and partly on my experience with Linux, is that there just aren't that many people using Linux for professional audio, so there's no works-perfectly-out-of-the-box solution. However, a good amount of the groundwork has been laid (ALSA, JACK, Rosegarden, etc.), so if you are a programmer (or know one who would be interested in playing with some fancy hardware) and you're not under major time constraints, you could probably get a very nice workflow going on Linux.
You will be one of the pioneers in this area, though, so if you need to get something done NOW, you'll probably disappointed. On the other hand, if you're looking to set something up that you'll be using for a few years, and you have the knowledge and patience to play around with it to get exactly what you want, then it might be worth looking into.
http://outcampaign.org/
I'm impressed. I was just about to write a flamebait post about how the Ardour source code is a mess and lacks the GUI/engine separation and how these thing are hard to add afterwards etc. But then I actually took a look at it and, indeed, according to their website it doesn't lack these things any more. The guys have been doing some progress there.
It's nice to notice OS X is supported better now. After all, OS X completely avoids the two most prevalent problems that makes Linux unsuitable for real music production:
a) Hardware support. Most of the pro level RME Hammerfall cards aren't manufactured anymore or there isn't pci express versions and the rest like M-audio stuff is not so accepted quality wise. Freebob firewire driver can change some of that, as at least Apogee X-FW seems to be supported by it. The hardware side is almost a minor problem, however.
b) The plugin situation is a completely different story. Unlike some Linux folks seem to acknowledge, the DAW cost and the amount of code is actually far less than the cost and amount of code for the plugins. Waves $7,500 Mercury native bundle is just the extreme example, but you get the picture. Even the average studio has loads of expensive plugins. Modern music production just don't happen without the quality plugins and software instruments, that's just the way it is.
Don't get me wrong. I hate working with commercial DAW software. I know all the major flavors, and they all suck. They're buggy and the speed of development is unbelievably slow. (eg. how many years have we been waiting to get flexible routing in Cubase. Similar examples are to be found everywhere. Most user forums seem have a top 'feature request' fix the fucking bugs.) It's almost like there is no real competition on the market regardless of the number of competitors and the eyecandy 'features' they print on the advertising.
Just add a native Aqua GUI to Ardour and it's getting closer to be a real competitor on the market.
ditch the term "windoze" and maybe someone will take you seriously.
You're confusing the operating system with the applications. Yes, there are many professional applications that run on Windows, but that doesn't make Windows a professional O/S. It's basically an unreliable pile of junk with a glossy coat. That contrasts with Linux and the various Unixes, which are professional operating systems but unfortunately wearing a somewhat shabby coat (professionals don't need eye candy).
The term "Windoze" embodies some of the disdain that is rightly thrown at a rather poor quality consumer O/S. It doesn't imply that there aren't any professional applications running on it.
Its a little wierd that if its a hobby toy, major mixing desk manufacturers like Solid State Logic, Harrison and others would support the development of the application. Even wierder that Harrison would demo Ardour on one of their latest high digital consoles at the National Association of Broadcasters last year.
As the author of Ardour, I tend to think that its an unreliable, cumbersome, hard to use and flaky piece of crap. And then I either actually get a chance to play with one of the proprietary DAWs in a high end studio or I get email from someone who has used both, and I'm struck by how much that description applies to them all. ProTools took nearly 8 years to add drag-n-drop! The flexible routing that Ardour has had from its inception still doesn't exist in ProTools or Nuendo, and has been retro-actively added to Sonar and a couple of others as part of a major re-engineering effort.
The main reason to not use Ardour in a pro-audio situation right now has more do with session interchange than anything else, and this is caused by the dominant format (OMF) being controlled by ProTools/Digidesign in a way that makes it very hard for an open source application to offer it. We hope to change that in the next several months. As far as plugin formats go, we'd love to support more than just VST from the commercial world, but you'd have to talk the owners of the plugin APIs about that, since you cannot get docs for RTAS or others for an open source application. For some reason, the audio software world thinks that it is immune to the influence open source has had on operating systems, web servers and services and office software suites. Its a little short-sighted, but then I would say that, wouldn't I?