[linux-audio-user] Some music made with Linux

Pete Bessman ninjadroid at ml1.net
Thu Feb 19 17:56:58 EST 2004


At Thu, 19 Feb 2004 13:36:49 -0800,
davidrclark at earthlink.net wrote:
> 
> Thanks so much for producing the Specimen program.  I realize it's
> just the start, but what start you've made.  It's great.

Ah geez, thanks.  More to come (The weekend rapidly approaches, as
does ample free time)!

> I have been working on 3-D audio but also 1-D, 2-D instrument
> generation (physically simulated strings and membranes --- not just
> oscillators or FM synthesis).

Yeah, I've been lurking on that thread.  My friend, that is some
crazy, ground breaking stuff you are working on, which, if brought to
the masses in an easy form, could be one of the sleeper killer apps of
the Linux Audio scene.


> I'm looking forward to future releases, and I hope to be able to
> provide some instrument-generation capability which should work well
> with what you've done, freeing us from SF2's and canned samples.  I
> really like being able to simply assign WAV files.

You pique my curiousity.  I _HATE_ soundfonts.  Regardless of
technical merit, they are a pain in the arse to work with from a
creativity standpoint, and just not fun IMHO.  Keep me posted with
developments on your end, it might be worth our collective while to
make sure that our respective endeavours can interact as easily as
possible.

> One thing that would help a bit is to be able to assign a list of
> files to notes as one can do in Vienna.  If some forethought is put
> into place into naming the files by the user, the entire keyboard
> full of samples can be imported in one fell swoop.

Dave Philips suggested something which, at least in my uninformed
eyes, seems similar.  Basically, Specimen is designed for someone who
wants to create their song and sound in a piecemeal fashion.  "I feel
like some lo-fi noise" or "I need a nice phat bass sound."  DLP
suggested creating a bank builder.  The idea, I think, is that if you
already have a sizeable handful of sounds that you want to use, and
you know how you want to set them up, a dedicated interface for
creating banks would be much more useable.  I'm thinking that what
you're suggesting would be best implemented as a feature of this
hypothetical interface.  When the time comes, mind if I pester you
about UI decisions?

> Now because BEEF is XML, I was able
> to script it up easily enough.  But some may not know exactly how to
> do this.  

Yeah, like me...

> (Just another todo item for your undoubtedly long list!)

I think it's in the tarball if you care to see what I'm working
on. I'm pretty sure I can knock out most of the high-priority items
this weekend and make another release.  Filters, envelopes, LFOs,
portamento, and a whole-9-yards approach to JACK are must-haves, and
will really chang things for the better IMHO.


[pb]




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