[linux-audio-user] Poor Schmuck...

[Brad Fuller]

Jan Depner wrote:

>On Fri, 2005-07-22 at 17:04, Reuben Martin wrote:
>  
>
>>Seems this fella from Oreilly is having some trouble figuring out how
>>to get ardour, jack, and the like working to his satisfaction.
>>
>>http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/wlg/7421
>>    
>>
>
>    But, but, how can this be?  He's been a "full-time writer and
>technology consultant/developer since 2000 and has worked for a variety
>of publishers and companies".  Apparently he doesn't want to read
>documentation, ask online, check the FAQs, etc.  He didn't even know
>about ALSA's envy24control for his Delta 1010.  Comparing Ardour to
>Firefox is pretty ridiculous as well.  
>
>    "a real sticking issue is the fact that it looks so drastically
>different from the rest of my GNOME driven desktop (Ardour uses GTK) and
>is rather unintuitive".  Ooh, it's not esthetically pleasing.  Give me a
>break.  Yes, Ardour is complicated, duh.  
>
>    "If I can't use it, how is someone with no knowledge of audio
>recording supposed to use it?"  It wasn't designed for someone with no
>knowledge of audio recording.  That's what Cakewalk and its ilk are for.
>
>    One of the comments was pretty nice too - "Just getting your instant
>messager to notify you of a message while you are playing music from
>XMMS".  Are we interested in doing serious recording here or are we just
>wanking around on the box?  Pick one.
>
>    I wonder if this guy has gone to a real studio and used a full-blown
>Alsihad, er, Pro-Tools system.  Yeah, it just works right out of the box
>but it takes a damn PhD to run it.  Hell, I was trying to mix on a
>stinking little VS2000CD the other day and I actually had to read the
>manual (what a surprise).  The only reasonable bitch you can make about
>Ardour is that it doesn't have a full manual yet.
>
I agree with some of what you say. Any specialized application requires 
some past knowledge to get it going quickly (and, that is what we are 
really talking about - the time it takes to be reasonably efficient in 
the app to get the job done.) Otherwise, you are in for a learning curve 
that is <somewhat> steep. It's not accurate to say "If I can't use it, 
how is someone with no knowledge of audio recording supposed to use it?" 
because it's a specialized application - it isn't meant for grandma.

If someone never used Photoshop, then they wouldn't agree with the 
author that GIMP just works... cause it doesn't just work. If you 
understood Photoshop then GIMP is an easy learn. No previous experience 
with this type of software? Good luck!

On the other hand, he does have some valid points. If you start from the 
level of a user that uses audio software day in and day out (like I do) 
you prefer (demand?) interfaces that are intuitive and work seamlessly 
with your other work. Sound Forge and Vegas are two applications that 
have intuitive interfaces that do as they're told. I have found myself 
right-clicking on an area in Vegas where I "guessed" the answer would be 
-- and lo and behold the facility is right there. This has happened to 
colleagues as well.

I think it is also valid to state that apps should work with you - not 
against you. There are many application that just don't... but there is 
nothing special about Linux that makes this so.

brad

-- 
Brad Fuller
(408) 799-6124
** Sonaural Audio Studios **
(408) 799-6123  West San Jose
(408) 799-6124  Cambrian
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