[LAU] Reference or HOWTO?

[Fritz Meissner]

Patrick Shirkey wrote:
> Hi,
>
> As one of the technically official maintainers of docs for Linux Audio 
> Users I have to agree with Ken about the above. However I have not been 
> a newbie for a while now and I would love to get feedback from people 
> about what needs to be added to the LAU guide to make it more user 
> friendly. We do have pretty good google and yahoo positioning. Haven't 
> spent much time on getting into the M$ search engine for obvious reasons.
>
> I have asked several times and don't get much feedback on the LAU guide 
> per se. There's lots of feedback on other things tho...
>
> Like Dave Phillips I want to make the site I run relevant. Please let me 
> know what could be done to improve the links and content.
>
>
> Cheers.
>   
Something I've noticed is the lack of tutorials and info on how to 
actually use the apps to make music - there's lots about the low level 
nuts and bolts of just getting it installed and working, but after that 
you are on your own. This means not only the mechanics of using the 
apps, but also addressing musical and sound issues. If I could give 
examples where I have struggled , using Ardour and Jamin effectively to 
get a good sound and master has been difficult, and I have not found 
much guidance on this beyond the basic Ardour tutorials.

When it comes to music, it does seem that those who know the most tend 
to say the least, as opposed to the vocal, ignorant and opinionated 
types who clog up the internet with junk. I've found Dave Philips' 
articles a helpful exception to this.

More specific comments :
- I found it not obvious where to find your guides page - the link on 
the portal just says "Linux Audio Users", which does not give much clue 
as to what the page actually is.
- I really wish (not just for you, but for all pages giving links) that 
you put a date next to each link - not so much for links to active 
websites, but where you link to a specific article or guide, it would 
save so much time if I could see that the article dates back many years 
and not waste time with it (for instance the Linux sound playing HOWTO 
is from 1998). Also I think that Agnula is not really a useful link any 
more (and the link seems to be dead anyway).

Thanks for your work, hope this helps.

Fritz