Introducing L2Ork, World's First Linux Laptop Orchestra

Agram writes "Take a netbook, Wiimotes, Nunchuks, and hemispherical speakers (which were once IKEA salad bowls), toss it up with some Ubuntu goodness and what you get is Virginia Tech's L2Ork, the world's first Linux-based laptop orchestra. With its affordable design and support from the Linux community, L2Ork hopes to bring laptop orchestras to K-12 education and beyond. So, regardless whether you wish to hear how L2Ork might sound or to learn how to build your own Linux-based *Ork infrastructure, perhaps this is a good opportunity to reopen the age-old debate: is Linux finally ready for some serious audio work?"

Comments

Glad Linux Is Catching Up

[royallthefourth]

Windows has had a stranglehold on laptop orchestras for such a long time that it's really good to be reading about the world's first Linux Laptop Orchestra.

Re:Glad Linux Is Catching Up

[Pete Venkman]

When is there going to be a BSD port?

A Bit of a letdown, really...

[damn_registrars]

Based on the headline (and reading it a bit too fast) I was expecting some sort of cool Linux Zork tie-in. I think I'll go find a grue now... It's almost dark enough in my office for one.

Re:A Bit of a letdown, really...

[schon]

I was expecting some sort of cool Linux Zork tie-in.

Funny, I was expecting Pam Dawber and Robin Williams.

Re:I've read the article and gone to the site, but

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's a video of the "orchestra" performing:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFt4MgN7JPQ

Basically they just have a bunch of wiimotes hooked up to linux laptops running some sort of synthesizer controlled by waving the wiimote. It sounds really mindless and everyone just seems to wave their arms around in circles.

Re:I've read the article and gone to the site, but

[Idiomatick]

Its a wierdo music group not an app?

When I tried

[Threni]

doing audio work I got unstuck immediately. Really bad delays on my midi keyboard. I googled and was told I needed a low latency kernel or something. This was of course wrong. Linux needs a low latency kernel so that it can be taken seriously out of the box. Why would you want, by default, a high latency kernel? Also, I needed to stick together several apps, to turn midi input into something I could hear. I don't understand why. Why can't there be an app which takes midi input and plays sounds (from a sound font file, wav file, etc) when it gets them?

Re:When I tried

[Cheile]

A general rule of thumb is that latency and throughput are opposing interests. For the majority of users and uses occasional latency is a good tradeoff for higher overall throughput and performance. For realtime applications low latency is a good tradeoff for lower overall performance. Linux can be tuned in many ways for many different use cases and may not suit your needs right out of the box.

Re:When I tried

[Hatta]

Ubuntu Studio 9.10 comes with an official real time kernel.

Re:When I tried

[sowth]

In some ways this is a good point. Distros intended to have desktop users should probably include options to use low latency kernels. I don't see how it would be too difficult to include a few kernels compiled for different uses.

• High latency (100Hz), no preemption for server / intensive cpu jobs.
• 300 Hz with Voluntary Kernel Preemption for gamer / media playing. I noticed videos were not jumpy at all with this setting. The default would sometimes cause mplayer to stall for a several frames, then play them all at once. I didn't think about this or consciously notice it on video before I did this, but I really can tell now.
• One with the lowest latency setting and complete preemption, etc for more time critical and reaction sensitive work such as music and running robots and such.

All a distro maintainer needs to do is compile them with a few minor option adjustments each time, then either put each kernel in a separate package or just install them all and config the bootloader to run the correct one. Not a huge amount of work, relatively.

This seems to be a decent article about preemption.

As for an app which takes in MIDI and plays sounds, would Zynaddsubfx be it? I seem to remember seeing that feature when playing with it, though I have no MIDI devices, so I couldn't use it or say if it worked...

Hmm

[mugnyte]

  How are they choosing notes, keys and other aspects of music? This looks a lot like a very complicated version of the historical crank organ.

Things should be made as simple as possible...

[digsbo]

...but no simpler.

It's an interesting idea and may have beneficial applications for entertainment, music therapy or childhood education, but I don't see much potential for any real [read artistic] musical applications. Excepting, possibly, interactive performance art or something.

The richness of a real symphony orchestra's sound is tied to the complexity and expertise of about a hundred different musicians at levels of superb mastery working together as individuals to recreate and interpret a composer's vision. I don't see how it would be possible to do anything different from the already tired new-agey synthesizer muzak with a tool like this. Of course I feel similarly about replacing the big band with an electric guitar.

Re:I've read the article and gone to the site, but

[Trepidity]

SLOrk is basically an attempt to do something like a traditional orchestra but for computer music. A bunch of people on laptops with various control devices attached, with various parts assigned. Here's an ABC News segment on them.

It's from the guy who developed ChucK, which I think they use, but I don't think the orchestra does livecoding, which is what ChucK is best known for.

This is wonderful - Encore!

[harlequinade]

The scene is quite odd, but the result is hypnotic - and *way* more musical than most things infecting the Billboard these days! Where do we get the album? Will they tour?

How is this better than a Theramin?

[JSBiff]

Ok, if we want electronic musical instruments, wouldn't getting schools one or two Theremins be a lot cheaper and more reliable?

I'm sure lots of schools are already struggling to fund basic music programs, and get kids 'ordinary' instruments (although, I suppose it's quite possible these Laptop Virtual instruments may be cheaper than some analog instruments). Do we really need to be complicating things and making them more expensive, and for what benefit? If the goal is to educate kids about music, I don't think you need some gee-whiz laptop-and-wiimote based 'virtual instruments' to introduce more points of failure? Aren't broken reeds and strings enough for kids to worry about?

Now get off my lawn. *grin* (Seriously, I hate to be a cranky old geezer - I mean, I'm only 31, but even after scanning the article, I'm not really sure I see any advantage to this)?

Re:How is this better than a Theramin?

[svtdragon]

Hey, as long as they're not trying to make laptops into drum sets, no harm done, right?

Now, if they made something almost, but not quite, entirely unlike what they're doing now, then it might actually have some use for (e.g.) brass instruments. For example, a system wherein a trombone player--with the wiimote representing the position of the slide when playing a trombone, and some kind of a mouthpiece to blow/vibrate into, which could output a tone accordingly, then we might be onto something. Or with said mouthpiece and three buttons to represent the valves of a trumpet, etc., or other interfaces for brass instruments... you might have a low cost multi-instrument. *That* could be useful for students.

Re:How is this better than a Theramin?

[PopeRatzo]

Do we really need to be complicating things and making them more expensive, and for what benefit?

I've designed and built the computer music lab at a prestigious university, and our experience is that technology is actually a big money saver for a music program.

Plus, it's a boon for the students. If you're studying composition or arranging, do you think it's easier to go out and find an orchestra or chamber group to try out your work or fire up a computer with a (virtual) rack of samplers? There's no substitute for hearing your composition played in real time by a real (if sampled) orchestra. Plus, a fair number of students will seek work in the music industry, and there they will be expected to be familiar with the technology of producing music. Now, if you're talking about a grammar school music program, it might be different, but I'm guessing the same efficiencies apply there. Of course, if you want to learn the violin, you need a violin. But if you want to learn music, a MIDI keyboard and PC can be a great way to go.

If it's cheaper for film composers and music production facilities to use technology, why wouldn't it be for schools' music programs?

So who else is actually going to attend?

[scubanator87]

Ill be there and i think the after party is at Connor's

Re:I've read the article and gone to the site, but

[skine]

So I'm guessing the next goal is to bring it up to three chord changes per minute.

Audio on Linux has come a long way

[sheehaje]

While I'm not into Laptop Orchestra's, I do use Ubuntu Studio now for MOST of my audio processing.

Only 4 years ago, I couldn't make it work. I use a Presonus Firepod to record my band, and also have some other gadgets. The only thing I am really missing is something like Gearbox for my Line 6 PodXT, there just isn't a substitute yet for Linux. No worries though, I pretty much have my board setup the way I want, so rarely even use Gearbox anymore.

Anyway, back to my point. I now use Linux as my DAW, as a sequencer, and increasing for my general computing needs. I love Jackd with Ardour and Patchage. It's gotten to the point where it's not just a suitable replacement for Cubase or Pro-Tools, but is my preferred setup. Now that my ATI drivers are finally working properly with the RT kernel in Ubuntu 9.10, I am finding the cube desktop actually useful instead of just eye candy. I can have my mixers, editors, patchage, etc. on separate workspaces and get to them easily.

Just a month ago, I had a friend of mine come over to check out my setup. He is a drummer that also wanted to start home recordings. He bought a ART Tubefire 8, and was very disappointed with the crippled Cubase LE that came with the hardware. After seeing my setup, he went out, bought a $300 computer and a firewire card and asked me to get him setup. Knowing nothing about Linux, or Ubuntu, etc, he is now using the setup to great success.. If there was ever a killer app for Linux, this is it, at least for music professionals and hobbyists.

The major drawback is hardware support still has a ways to go. But, right now there is the ability to get high end music recording equipment working very well right out of the box. I am a very satisfied "customer". And to think, 4 years ago I never thought it would get there.

Re:Audio on Linux has come a long way

[anechoic]

ditto -- I'm an Ardour user on Ubuntu and would never go back to OS X -- ever!
http://createdigitalmusic.com/2009/08/04/linux-music-workflow-switching-from-mac-os-x-to-ubuntu-with-kim-cascone/

Re:Without good DAC support...

[PopeRatzo]

The Layla 3G is a decent home studio interface, but as you say, there just isn't any software that runs natively in Linux that is remotely appropriate for professional work.

I've tried to run Cockos' Reaper under Wine, but I find jack just too much of a hassle.

However, Reaper has features that allow you to use a Linux machine to offload effects processing chores to via Ethernet and it works great. It makes my workflow much more efficient and allows me to do much more in real-time. And of course, a Linux box with a RAID array is an excellent sample server and rendering platform. Reaper is quickly becoming my favorite DAW software because of it's ability to leverage Linux machines in a professional studio environment. Someday, I hope to see a Linux port of Reaper.

Linux may not yet be ready to act as a standalone music production system, but it definitely has a place in a professional music production facility. And of course, it's a great platform for experiments like the one described in this article.

Too Steep a Curve

[b4upoo]

So far Linux does have musical capabilities but not enough and not easy enough either.
            For example converting a treble clef trumpet part to a bass clef trombone part should be a no brainer and printing it out should be a breeze as well. Further converting a melody played through the system into a score should also be simple.
            Having to use different programs to print a score, convert a score and play a score will not attract many musicians.
            So far one of the very, very few excuses for running Windows is the production of music by musicians. Online DJs may fare better as they may alter music but do not usually create it.

Re:Ardour Sucks

[makohund]

Huh? Change the gain of what? Why?

Is a firetruck responsible for maintaining proper water pressure at the fire hydrant it is hooked up to? No. That's not its job.

It's a DAW, not a preamp. If you have to change the "gain" of something in Ardour, you're already doing it wrong. If it could... all it'd be doing is allowing you to continue to do it wrong.

If you are feeding it a weak signal, fix the damn signal.
If you are feeding it an overly strong signal, fix the damn signal.

"Fix the damn signal" means adjust your outboard equipment (preamp, mixer, noise generator, or whatever) and/or your soundcard's mixer to get a proper signal happening to begin with. Don't feed your DAW a crappy signal, unless you WANT to record a crappy signal. Get it right as early in the chain as possible, because once you are in the DAW, it's too late. You're already past the AD conversion... any gain is nothing more than a little math to make it louder, which can be done at any time. It'll never make it "better".

If it is too late fix the signal, and you are dealing with pre-recorded audio that is too weak (or outboard equipment that isn't up to snuff), fix it right (permanently) with an audio editor. That way you aren't wasting CPU doing that same digital math over and over again every time you hit play.

And if you absolutely, positively can't do it the right way, and insist on changing your gain in the DAW itself... yes, you can do it with a plugin. (Not exactly hard to find... I found no less than three already installed, and I've never installed any but the most common/basic plugin packages. And that's on a plain vanilla Ubuntu machine, not a studio machine with lots of goodies on it.) In the end, doing this with a plugin is no different than having it built in. It is better, because it gets it off the damn screen for most people, who will not and should not need it 99% of the time.

Sounds like a lack of either minimal effort or minimal understanding of recording in general. Go get a Mac and use Garageband. It was made for you.

(And hey, I'm not knocking it. I do have a Macbook, and have used GB for sketching around with. It's not bad. Inability to export midi is probably the only really major drawback.)

If you wanna knock Ardour, say something like "it lacks MIDI functionality found in most other DAWs", which would be true. Until v3 comes out, at least.