[linux-audio-dev] Hartman Neuron

[Vincent Touquet]

On Tue, Jun 03, 2003 at 10:19:02AM +0200, Jay Vaughan wrote:
(cut)
>Linux has all the right ingredients for a good general-purpose audio 
>i/o processing platform.  The API's are fresh and well thought out, 
>and expanding rapidly to accomodate the needs of performance app 
>writers.
Knowing that you know the APIs of Mac OS X too,
do you still see some things lacking in the current
Linux APIs ?

I must say I really like the jack api and ladspa.
One thing that is unfortunate (others would call it
a strength), is the lack of a unified set of widgets we 
could use to build plugin guis from (or any application 
for that matter).

When I look at OS X I see consistency all the way
(besides the high price which is also hard to ignore ;).

>It should come as no surprise... in fact, I would say stand back and 
>watch: just as embedded Linux systems have revolutionized the 
>networking appliance realm, so too will it happen with the 'musical 
>instrument appliance' market.

Yes. I was amazed with Stanton pioneering their Final Scratch on Linux,
but coming to think of it, it is all about total control.
Using some sort of live cd distro, you can avoid a tech support
hell supporting operating system bugs, while you should only
be giving support for your own bugs.

>Here at Access we only use Linux as a lab tool for testing purposes, 
>but it is feasible that a synth manufacturer could base a product 
>around the Linux platform.  Hartmann have done it, a few other known 
>synth brands are doing it too.

What I really crave for, is a affordable general purpose
DSP card, with a decent driver for Linux, to experiment with.

>There is little doubt that Linux has a firm hold in the embedded 
>world, these days... and in that realm, it has a lot to offer.
I would also note the use of live cds (cfr. Knoppix, Gentoo, ...).
Imagine popping in a cd in a tray of a machine, and having
an instant audio workstation/synth/...

Combine it with LinuxBIOS booting in a few seconds and you
have a very powerful platform :)

regards,

v