[linux-audio-user] Sequencer + Sampler

[Iván Almada]

hi,  ive been making music for 5 yrs with the
computer,  ive been using virtual sequencer + sampler
configurations (cubase + halion) i just love making
music this way (i dont use synths a lot, when i use
them i render them to .wav and load it in a sampler) ,
 i bought a creative labs audigy card for using the
software sampler  in realtime using the asio driver
with my midi keyboard (yamaha DSR-500, very old but
with midi!) and a dual head graphics card (ati radeon
7000)... ive been using it in windows with dual
screens and just love the way dual screen works in a
virtual studio...  so,  what i want to do is totally
dump windows and start making music in linux i totally
love this os , so i installed fedora core 2 with the
all the planet ccrma tweaks and apps... i think i have
a decent setup now,  alsa, jack bla bla bla ,  i also
have a decent computer (i guess) athlon xp 1700+ with
640 mb ram (or something like that) ...

so, i have several questions:


1) Which software combination do you recommend for
using a sequencer and a sampler? ive been using
rosegarden,  and i think its excellent but i havent
found a way to hook up a virtual sampler,  and i
really need one!!! (have my own custom wav sample
library ive been making all these years)
is there any dssi sampler or something like that???
or maybe should i mess with the muse softsynth api ?

or it would be better to use an external soft sampler
like specimen???  any one knows other programs?

or should i use a tracker and render to wav and load
it in rosegarden or perhaps ardour???

or should i use soundfonts (ive never tried) and send
midi data to the audigy wavetable? (thats the last
option for me i guess... ive never really liked sf
though ive never tried them really... i just like to
make it all in a soft sampler) but if its needed then
ill use this as last resort...

or maybe should i buy an external harware sampler ???

any people with the same problem???


the second question:

2) how can i make 8th note shuffle in rosegarden
sequencer?? are there anyways to create offbeat
patterns??? this function is so important in my music.

the third and last question:

3) any one knows how to setup the dual head monitor
configuration? ive been trying to setup but failed...
i have both monitors showing the same screen... what i
really want is the Big Desktop extended in both
monitors so i can use a sequencer in one and another
program in the other... i think this is called
xinerama in linux... i just cant configure it...


thanks in advance (for the patience reading this mail)
but i really want to setup my studio in linux... 
i only use windows for audio apps but i have to boot
another hd and i also want to fully dump win32... i
want to make music with open source tools... i know
may be everthing is not as developed as in the win
world but i am willing to accept drawbacks like having
to configure everything by hand (a typical musician
just want to use the tools and not worry about how the
configuration) and trying to optimize your work
(typically i just load as many vst synths as i need in
my song i usually dont worry about cpu load and
rendering everything to .wav ) im very excited about
this excellent apps growing up and getting more stable
like rosegarden and ardour... and being able to
compose music with the opensource philosophy...

ivan.

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