[LAU] Some thoughts on making electronic music

[alex stone]

Interesting read, and i'll add this for discussion.

We have tremendous potential in Linux for making music, and images, be
they stills or film.
Unlike commercial operation systems, we can operate free of
limitations. For someone like me, who uses a lot of everything, be
they ports, tracks, etc.., writing music and recording it in a Linux
environment gives me, for the first time in over 25 years, the chance
to use 'everything at once'. I run 64bit, and have little or no
interest in using VST's, or more generally plugins, as sound creation
devices.So apart from needing a lot of ports, tracks, and great midi
editing tools, my needs could be viewed as fairly simple.

I used to record my orchestral mates on an 8 track, and had a lot of
fun doing so. It was faster than using a computer, because i hit
record, and voila, we're off and running. (more or less) When i
started using a computer to do the same, for a living, i spent a lot
of time tweaking, and maintaining, and those who used Gigastudio in
the past will know what i'm talking about here.
It took a lot longer, and often proved to be a larger barrier than the
8 track method, which was hit record and go.

Despite that, i soldiered on, as it wasn't everyday i could muster up
likeminded orchestral players, and record them. (and i did the same
for them as they recorded for themselves in the same way, and i played
for their work.)

Dave Phillips got me into Linux, after over twenty years of using Win
and Mac, and it proved to be a great move. (And thanks again Dave.
It's been excellent)

I'm closer to the "setup and record" method than i've ever been, using
a computer instead of an 8 track, but one thing remains, that i think
would put the icing on the cake for not only me, but linux audio and
midi application users and developers alike.

And that's workflow.

Like the commercial world for our particular niche, there's a heavy
dependency on mousestrokes. For those of us who use a computer for
orchestral and film writing, using a mouse kills the workflow. This
may not be so readily apparent for the user who generally works with
4, 8, 12, or 16 tracks, but when writing for 60, 70, 80, and more
tracks, the limitations of a mousecentric workflow paradigm become
painfully apparent. This is particularly true for midi inputting and
editing, where we might have a thousand segments, or items, to manage
and edit, and constantly swapping between a mouse and the few
keystrokes available kills any semblance of efficient workflow, and
makes the donkey work of editing, even harder.
In linux apps defence, they are no better or worse than commercial
apps, but with the opportunity to exceed commercial offerings, we
could get close to that '8 track' paradigm, and forge a path that few
could follow.

Using an 8 track was enjoyable, still had limitations, and relied on a
good relationship between composer and player to get something done.
Our little community of players stuck together, and helped each other
out, and that worked for us. Using an orchestral sample library can be
the same, if the tools are complimentary to workflow, and remove as
many obstacles as possible in the record and edit process.

I continue to be a big supporter of Linux, and the remarkable work
done in our niche, by talented people. We still have workarounds yes,
but in my case, not nearly as many as before. And i'm constantly aware
of the undeniable fact that i'm in a niche, within a niche, as i've
very few linux composers who write similiar music to me. (2 so far.)

For developers looking to mature their apps further, i respectfully
ask that you consider workflow, particularly navigation, as an
important part of what you code, when making your project decisions. I
was told recently by a talented dev, that many of you don't use your
own apps that often, something i found amusing and ironic, so from a
power user who uses linux audio and midi apps are part of a fulltime
working environment, i share this view in the hope that you'll
consider the efficiency of using keystroke maps as an added asset, and
code accordingly. Using a mouse for so many tracks, items, and
actions, is counterproductive, and introduces an element of building
frustration that works against creative workflow. Gaining momentum and
keeping it is essential, imho.

I tend to be a bit geekish about workflow, so please take the above
comments in context. I tend to examine every action stroke, in a
workflow "chain", and work to reduce the number of stroke actions
required, assigning keystrokes where possible, within the limitations
of a coded application. If this was considered, and coded, at app
development level, i'm confident the user experience, and their
perception of the excellence of an application would change
considerably for the better, form the already high regard many apps
are held in. There's already much to enjoy in our niche community with
the tools that are built, and i view great workflow as the "8 track"
experience, on a computer, something few in any world, linux or
commerical have achieved so far.
Coding keystrokes, and examining workflow to a fine degree, including
studying every action in a workflow chain when building your app might
not seem very glamorous, or even interesting, but, imho, it's
the....last 10% that seperates great apps from good ones.

Sorry for the ramble, but i thought this important to add, when
reflecting on the 8 track experience, and the potential to get close
to this using a computer.
Alex.




On Tue, Jun 2, 2009 at 11:39 AM, Jostein Chr. Andersen <jostein at vait.se> wrote:
> On Tuesday 02 June 2009 09.11.41 Ken Restivo wrote:
>> Some words of wisdom from a local electronic musician:
>>
>> http://www.generalfuzz.net/blog/?p=486
>>
>> He doesn't use Linux, but his point #2 is one of the nice side-effects of
>> Linux being off the beaten path: there isn't the distraction of entirely
>> new synths and plugins coming out every day. So it's easier to focus on the
>> tools that are already there.
>>
>> Of course, there's another problem replacing it: the potential distraction
>> of endlessly tweaking the system instead of making music on it.
>
> Great advices, and like his #1 too. As the matter of fact: I decided last fall
> to focus on #1 and #2 in order to be more productive. But I have to admit that
> I spend way to much time for tweaking the system and nosing on new apps and
> stuff.
>
> I was much more productive in the late seventies and in the eighties: I used
> to record guitars and vocals and bounce the tracks between two stereo compact
> cassette recorders. When I had a little more money, I got a 909, FB-01 , a
> JX8P (wonderful synth) and a KORG SQD-1 sequencer, but still into a compact
> cassette recorder or two. Not much of equipment and the record quality was
> poor - but it was more than enough for making demos and doing stuff. A local
> radio station in Oslo, where I lived at the time, was even playing 6-7 of my
> songs in a program in '88 or '89; still recorded with SQD-1 and cassette
> recorders. Even back then, the local radio stations did compress the music so
> hard that everything sounded like shit, so my equipment was sufficient for
> that too.
>
> Today, I have everything (and much more) I dreamed of thanks to the myriad of
> wonderful Linux audio apps and gizmos, but the productivity is like shit. It's
> time to concentrate on #1 and #2 and just make music.
>
> Thanks for pointing this out. :-)
>
> Jostein
>
>
>
>
>
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