[LAD] [LAU] So what do you think sucks about Linux audio ?

[Niklas Klügel]

+1 on your comments regarding:
>> Too many unstable/unfinished applications.
> in order, i've used beast/BSE, seq24 routed into a bunch of fluidsynths,
> csound with blue, some toying with ardour, energyXT and finally renoise.
>
> some software i just never got working. i never figured rosegarden out
> (but for a long time it couldn't do instrument plugins), compiling MusE
> was hit or miss, LMMS is good but I had XT and renoise by then...and
> every time i use ardour i crash it somehow. it doesn't seem to like my
> little micro-editing aphex-twin-wannabe style.

>
>> Poor support for certain modes of composition (think Ableton Live).
> absolutely. everybody likes to use ableton live here, but i still think
> we're missing a really good NLE. hell, i own a REAPER license and use it
> through wineasio occasionally just because it's so comfortable. i've
> tried ardour3 but i crash it every time.

> it's interesting to me that free (source and/or beer) music software on
> OSX and windows has come further than it has on Linux. off the top of
> my head:
>
> http://psycle.pastnotecut.org/portal.php
> http://www.buzzmachines.com/
>

I actually have 3 other friends (2 of them work now at NI, degree in CS 
+ making music
for >= 15 years) who are avid linux users and made similar comments and 
are rather frustrated with the development
of LAD in the last 10 years. I don't want to comment on that topic too 
much because it kind of frustrates me myself,
I just wanted to point out that I share share your opinions/statements.

My main point would be -besides all the technical deficiencies that some 
LA-F/OSS apps have and the related issue of
entwined dev of toolchains/libraries-  that many applications lack a 
proper musical work flow for anything that goes beyond
*really* basic tasks. I know this comment pisses almost everyone off on 
this list, but I would love to see some projects and devs approach
music creation from a music related angle and not a technical one and 
analyze why some widely used tools have such huge *fan*bases...

because from the user perspective the issue is not "what sucks about LA" 
but something more along the lines of "what drives me to use my tools and
helps me articulate my musical expression" :)
this is certainly relevant to the development of *generic* audio tools 
(versus the specialized tools that developers create for their own needs).

so... please fire up ableton live/fruityloops/* from time to time make 
some music, watch some youtube video of a pubescent guy explaining "how 
to make basslines
just like skrillex" ;)

2c