[linux-audio-user] Linux Soft Sampler...

[Dave Phillips]

Jesse Ray Lucas wrote:

> I have been looking around on the web for a soft sampler for Linux, but
> haven't come up with anything.  There are virtual synths galore, but no full
> featured soft samplers, ala Gigastudio, Kontakt, Halion, etc.  Am I missing
> anything?

Yes: legal fees. Apparently one of those companies found it expedient to
patent the process of streaming samples from disk. Imagination in the
creative domain is often simply not enough for such companies, they want
to make damned sure that no-one else knows how to do it without paying
them first. And of course they're not going to manufacture a native
Linux version. 

> I don't know much about csound, but am intrigued by it.  Would there
> possibly be a way to write the equivalent of a soft sampler using csound?  I
> suppose that would require a realtime version of csound like DirectCSound
> for Win32.  Can csound for Linux work in realtime?

Yes, beautifully, but you'll need to have a kernel patched for
low-latency.

There has already been some discussion on the Csound mail list regarding
the use of Csound for such a purpose. The discussions are basically
stymied by the fact of that truly noxious patent.

> Has anyone tried getting Native Instruments Kontakt (or any other Windows
> soft sampler) to run in Wine?  I'm curious how/if this would work.

I've always felt that Wine's overhead was too great for any realtime
audio work, but recently I've read reports of people using Rebirth and
other Windows music and sound apps under newer versions of Wine. I guess
it's time to go back to the vino...

Alas, I don't own any of the apps you're interested in, so I couldn't
test them anyway.

> Thanks in advance for your help.

Not much help, I'm afraid. :(

Best regards,

== Dave Phillips

	The Book Of Linux Music & Sound at http://www.nostarch.com/lms.htm
	The Linux Soundapps Site at http://linux-sound.org