[LAD] On LAD (WAS: Re: [OT] IR: LV2 Convolution Reverb)

[Lorenzo Sutton]

Unless you're interested on somewhat more 'user-oriented' reflections 
triggered by David's long-winded rant... :) also skip.

Not a real developer here, so some reflections from a more user-oriented 
point of view maybe.

Excerpts from David Robillard's message:
> Maybe not true with blinders on, pretending that this community is
> actually a significant portion of musicdom and not the tiny niche of
> nerdery that is really is.
>
> How many music events have you been to? At how many did you see Linux
> being used?
>
> How many albums have you listened to? How many were produced with Linux?
>
> How many music producers do you know? How many use Linux?
>
> For the vaaaaaast majority of music people out there the answers to each
> of these are "lots" and "almost none" (or "what's Linux?").
So what. Really. I don't think the point here is to conquer the world. 
Having switched to Linux for me was the best move I made for my musical, 
technical and I should say personal experience. Is it a bit harder and 
challenging than other environments at times? Maybe but who cares really.
> Sure, people here obviously care - but people here are an insignificant
> shred of musicdom, and designing tech exclusively for that insigificant
> shred of musicdom is... well, insignificant.
>
> Maybe you'd consider LAD a success because some bedroom nerd made a bonk
> he thinks is neat. Fair enough - most of us, myself included, are such
> bedroom dorks. If, however, you're going to invest a LOT of time into
> this (like, "dedicate my life to" kind of time), the bar needs to be set
> a little higher to justify it:
>
> I will consider LAD a success when going to a show and seeing it being
> used isn't an extremely unlikely and noteworthy occurrence like it is
> now.
I personally consider this and the LAU communities great communities and 
feel thankful to the hard work every developer puts in FLOSS audio 
software each day. Sorry if it sounds rhetoric but I really think it. 
The first 'full project' I did entirely in Linux was a big satisfaction 
for me, and by the way the workflow *was* better than in windows (which 
I used before) for me, all the credit for this cool software goes to the 
developers and users communities. IMHO.
> Also, from the perspective of a developer trying to actually support
> themselves doing this, a handful of bedroom Linux audio nerds do not
> donate enough to pay the rent ;).
That's a tough and sensitive point to comment on.. Let me just say that 
for many musicians trying to do something 'different' the situation is 
very similar and their day-jobs, which pay bills, often don't involve 
music at all.

> ...
> Shouldn't we be working to make people care? Shouldn't we be working to
> make the above a reality, replacing those closed and limiting
> technologies with open alternatives, liberating artists?
Yes I personally think we should... I try to advocate about FLOSS more 
in practice by showing what can be done, than with words... It's not 
easy, but slowly we'll get there I think. (and yes, I often do turn 
compiz with all the cool desktop effects on at times when showing off)
> All I know is that we now have real, actual, working plugins with MIDI
> in/out, GUIs, waveforms, etc. and soon we'll have plugins doing things
> VST couldn't dream of.
At a more basic level, imagining myself working without JACK, with those 
monolithic 'do it all' windows VST-clogged applications seems to me a 
nightmare and I regret not having got into this sooner, especially when 
I was a student-only and had much more free time than now.
> We'll get there, sooner or later. Help, or - please - get out of the
> way.
He he :) yes
> Apologies for taking things a bit meta and personal here, but at least
> it's not a big pathetic ego war :) A little optimism and hope sure as
> hell isn't going to hurt this place anyway. Anyway, talk is cheap, and
> at the end of the day the ratio between actual decent work done and
> amount of time spent irritating people on mailing lists says a lot about
> any given developer. Mine has taken enough of a dent for one day; I'll
> get back to that doing thing now.
People can skip the email if they don't want to read it, and you even 
put a disclaimer so.. ;)

Lorenzo.