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Goodbye Apple, Hello Music Production On Ubuntu

Posted by kdawson on from the ars-gratia-artis dept.

Adam Wrzeski notes a piece up at Create Digital Music by musician Kim Cascone (artist's bio) on switching from Apple to Linux for audio production: "The [Apple] computer functioned as both sound design studio and stage instrument. I worked this way for ten years, faithfully following the upgrade path set forth by Apple and the various developers of the software I used. Continually upgrading required a substantial financial commitment on my part. ... I loaded up my Dell with a selection of Linux audio applications and brought it with me on tour as an emergency backup to my tottering PowerBook. The Mini 9 could play back four tracks of 24-bit/96 kHz audio with effects — not bad for a netbook. The solution to my financial constraint became clear, and I bought a refurbished Dell Studio 15, installed Ubuntu on it, and set it up for sound production and business administration. The total cost was around $600 for the laptop plus a donation to a software developer — a far cry from the $3000 price tag and weeks of my time it would have cost me to stay locked-in to Apple. After a couple of months of solid use, I have had no problems with my laptop or Ubuntu. Both have performed flawlessly, remaining stable and reliable."

15 of 513 comments (clear)

  1. I know this guy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    He totally switched from Apple to Linux, and he does things with this computer just like everyone else! You should totally post his story on /.

  2. Think Different by fremean · · Score: 5, Funny

    Well, Apple DO encourage it...

    1. Re:Think Different by bigngamer92 · · Score: 5, Funny

      There next slogan: "Think Different, But Not THAT Different"

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      Common Sense
    2. Re:Think Different by calmofthestorm · · Score: 4, Funny

      I thought it was "Think Different, just like everyone else"

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      93rd rule of Slashdot: No matter how obvious my sarcasm is, my comment will be taken seriously by someone.
    3. Re:Think Different by houstonbofh · · Score: 2, Funny

      I thought it was "Think Different, just like everyone else"

      Is it set to that old King Missile song?

  3. yay by el_tedward · · Score: 1, Funny

    yay

  4. Re:Allow me to be the first to say... by Em+Emalb · · Score: 2, Funny

    after clicking a link, Kim is a "him". My bad. Damned gender-implying names...

    slashdot requires you to wait 1 minute in between posting. Your time is not up yet.

    doo doo doo doo doo doo doo....doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo. doo doo doo duh duh duh-duht-bum-bum.

    --
    Sent from your iPad.
  5. BFD by tyrione · · Score: 2, Funny

    Kim Cascone (December 21, 1955, in Albion, Michigan) is an American composer of electronic music who is best known for his

    I stopped caring at this point.

    1. Re:BFD by Trepidity · · Score: 3, Funny

      The article doesn't mention it, but Linux laptops are actually just as good as Macs for acoustic guitarists, too.

      --
      10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
  6. Re:This is a joke by dotgain · · Score: 4, Funny
    Mod parent informative. You could make a mastercard ad with your luck setting up sound on Linux.
    1. Getting a sound card to work $x,
    2. Getting it work without pops and thumps when we slide the volume control $2x,
    3. Getting two sound cards to work $x^2,
    4. Getting two sound cards to work in sync $infinity
  7. Re:Eh... by CarpetShark · · Score: 4, Funny

    it'll take a hell of alot for Linux to beat that.

    Some sort of agreed plan would be a good start.

  8. Re:Music production on Linux? Gimme a break! by value_added · · Score: 2, Funny

    they don't want to shepherd some high-maintenance bird around that has to be hacked ...

    Shepherding birds?

    Flocking hell. Forget beowulf clusters, imagine a bevy of quails! ;-)

  9. Linux is well... by sbeckstead · · Score: 3, Funny

    The only problem I have is that on Linux, when I hear about this fantastic package that supposedly runs on the distro du jour, I usually find that I have to download 5 or more different pieces of kit like libraries or audio driver special patches and low latency kernel patches then re-compile all of these with this switch set and hold my nose a certain way while tweaking this driver then recompile the kernel on Tuesday with my hair on fire then do it again Wednesday standing in a freezer. And when I finally get all that done I find that no one mentioned the package that already existed with half of it done for me but the other half is written in perl and then I have to update perl modules from some depository to the latest and greatest. Then the PHP modules required by the web interface aren't loaded by default and the PHP version is too advanced i have to install the old one but if I switch to this other distro all this other stuff is done then when I finally get all these ducks in a row my sound card isn't fully supported by any distro in existence so I switch to a USB sound card that is supposed to be universally supported except that the drivers are proprietary so they weren't actually included in my distro cause that gave somebody heartburn.

    By the time I get it running I have to update the kernel again and that broke the drivers all over again.
    So Sorry I'm saving up and buying the tools that have already been proven to work.

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    Why bother
  10. Re:Nothing beats Reaper! by Concerned+Onlooker · · Score: 2, Funny

    This is not the first time I've heard that you can't beat the reaper.

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    http://www.rootstrikers.org/
  11. Re:What he fails to mention in his article... by YourExperiment · · Score: 2, Funny

    Had there been, I'd say, with many years experience as a composer, that this article would not be.

    Thanks for the hardest sentence I've ever had to parse.