[LAD] automation on Linux

[rosea grammostola]

Hi,


How to do automation on Linux when you work the 'modular way' and how is 
the quality of those features on Linux at the moment? That question came 
up and was followed by a quick research. There are things possible or 
promising in the area, but we got some weak areas here also.

Non-daw and non-mixer seems to be very promising. You can make 'cv 
tracks'  or automation tracks in  non-daw (when you add controls), draw 
an automation line  and connect that to an strip to automation for gain 
(and LADSPA). DSSI is lacking here, but it is 'planned'. LV2 is not very 
popular in the non project, so it seems it will not be possible to 
automate LV2 plugin parameters, unless I miss something or an developers 
step in and build LV2 support into non-mixer. (It would be a missed 
chance imo if LV2 isn't supported here...)

But what to do when the softsynth is not an plugin, but an standalone 
application, like phasex and zynaddsubfx/yoshimi? You can use an midi 
sequencer to control the synth via sending midi cc messages.

Let me quote some quick (!) test results:

"My quick test shows that *Muse* can display cc's on the piano roll, but 
only seems to allow me to edit them in the event list. Not very pratical.
*Non-sequencer* only offers the event list.
*Non-Daw* allows me to add lots of controls, and edit them happily on 
the timeline, but it only outputs them as "CV", which means I'd need a 
pd patch or similar to convert them into midi cc's.
I'll have a look at Rosegarden, once it's finished installing."


"*Rosegarden *could work, but apart from being bloated, it is also 
rather complicated to add automation:
Draw event
Open in Martrix editor
Then under "View" I can add a controller, but for some reason only a 
select few.
This controller can then be edited by right-clicking and adding 
controller line.

I tried *Seq24*, but it keeps crashing on me. At least it allowed me to 
choose a midi CC by number.

Damn, this should be a lot easier. Even the ancient Cakewalk was 
lightyears better.
_I think we have a great opportunity here for some developer to make the 
world a better place. Simply make *non-daw's* timeline controllers 
output midi CCs"_


"*QTractor* actually works very well, only problem is it doesn't have a 
curve-drawing feature, so you need to write lots of little automation 
points. But it lets you select from all possible midi CCs. Just select 
"controller" in the midi clip editor, where it normally says "note" (or 
similar)

Then of course connect the midi output to your softsynth, and remember 
to define what synth knob is controlled by what CC (the midi mapping) in 
the synth."

"it looks like *Dino *has a nice curve editor."

"Midi mapping in *Phasex* and *AMS* seems to be  ok.
And here is the *Zynaddsubfx *Midi implementation (seriously lacking, if 
you ask me):
http://zynaddsubfx.sourceforge.net/doc_3.html
"

    * So it looks like Qtractor is pretty good to do the job, all though
      it misses the nice curve editor like Dino has, for automation with
      external synths.
    * Zynaddsubfx needs improvements when it comes to midi mapping.
    * A big improvement would be to make *non-daw's* timeline
      controllers output midi CCs


Other questions are: "Is it possible atm to automate LV2 plugins in a 
host (lv2rack) and DSSI (ghostess)?"


See this post as sort of feedback from some Linux audio users. Maybe it 
can bring us to some improvements...

Thanks,

\r



ps. see also thread here: http://linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=2535