Short reply to you Devin. I agree with everything you write. A couple of thoughts on how to adress some of the issues you raise:<br><br>User feedback. I always try and provide feedback and suggestions for whatever I use, and I enjoy doing it too. I think alot of users would like to do this too, but two general things is kind of lacking in this sense. These are all general thoughts and nothing to you personally. I remember us talking about synthclone and I appreciated that very much, so any negatives shouldn't be taken personally by you ;) :<br>
1. An easy way to provide this feedback, and encouragement to do so. There's IRC, mailinglists and forums for this, but most apps actually lack encouragement for feedback. Something as simple as writing "If you like this software and have ideas/suggestions, please use [insert_method_here] to contact us, all suggestions are appreciated!". The worst thing that could happen is that the suggestion isn't used, but I think tons can be gained by making the user feel more involved.<br>
<br> 2. Appreciation for the feedback. Some devs are better then others on this, but I sadly think it's fairly common that users who try and provide feedback either get treated as complete idiots, or that the dev takes it as some form of personal insult. <br>
<br><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 6:09 PM, Devin Anderson <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:surfacepatterns@gmail.com" target="_blank">surfacepatterns@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
Hi Dave,<br>
<div class="im"><br>
On Tue, Feb 5, 2013 at 6:58 AM, Dave Phillips <<a href="mailto:dlphillips@woh.rr.com">dlphillips@woh.rr.com</a>> wrote:<br>
<br>
</div><div class="im">> Not enough native plugins, esp. instruments.<br>
<br>
</div>I think this is one of the key problems with Linux audio. Part of the<br>
problem is that there is no clear mechanism for (non-developer) users<br>
to create their own instruments. Many VSTs are constructed with<br>
modular DSP programs like synthedit and flowstone (formerly<br>
synthmaker). There's probably an opportunity here for Ingen or a new<br>
graphical DSP program based on Faust to fill this hole.<br>
<br>
In general, I think that Linux audio has a lot of tools that help<br>
users to create music, but not a lot of tools that help users create<br>
their own tools (e.g. instruments, plugins, sample libraries, etc.) to<br>
help others to create music.<br>
<br>
On the development side, I think Aurélien and others like him have the<br>
right idea in taking instruments/plugins that are specific to a Linux<br>
audio application and porting them to LV2. There's a lot of awesome<br>
instruments that are specific to applications (e.g. ALSA Modular<br>
Synth, LMMS, etc.) that would generally be more useful if they were<br>
LV2 plugins.<br>
<br>
> Poor external/internal session management.<br>
<br>
Interacting with external hardware can be frustrating. Commercial<br>
programs like Renoise account for external hardware in their workflows<br>
(e.g. latency management, MIDI clock, MMC, etc.). Most Linux Audio<br>
apps don't do this.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> Too much conflict/fragmentation within the development community.<br>
<br>
</div>I've been trying to write something about conflict and fragmentation<br>
for the past 10 minutes. I think this is a complex issue. I'm not<br>
able to find the words to communicate about it right now.<br>
<div class="im"><br>
> So, in your honest and bold opinion as user and/or developer, what do we<br>
> lack most and what can we do without that we already have ?<br>
<br>
</div>As a developer, I'm missing a couple things:<br>
<br>
1.) User feedback.<br>
<br>
I can't stress this enough. I watch the download counts increase on<br>
the applications I create, but I hardly ever get feedback. I'm<br>
discouraged and frustrated by the lack of feedback.<br>
<br>
2.) Non-code developers<br>
<br>
We have a lot of dedicated open source developers writing Linux audio<br>
apps, plugins, etc., but I have yet to meet an open source UI<br>
designer, or an open source graphic artist. I think a lot of the apps<br>
we create could benefit from the feedback of a user interface<br>
experience expert.<br>
<br>
There's probably more, but these are the two things that occur to me now.<br>
<br>
Dave, this is an important topic. Thanks for taking it on.<br>
<span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br>
--<br>
Devin Anderson<br>
surfacepatterns (at) gmail (dot) com<br>
<br>
blog - <a href="http://surfacepatterns.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://surfacepatterns.blogspot.com/</a><br>
midisnoop - <a href="http://midisnoop.googlecode.com/" target="_blank">http://midisnoop.googlecode.com/</a><br>
psinsights - <a href="http://psinsights.googlecode.com/" target="_blank">http://psinsights.googlecode.com/</a><br>
synthclone - <a href="http://synthclone.googlecode.com/" target="_blank">http://synthclone.googlecode.com/</a><br>
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</div></div></blockquote></div><br>