[LAU] controllerism on linux

[Renato]

On Mon, 29 Nov 2010 01:07:06 +0300
Louigi Verona <louigi.verona at gmail.com> wrote:

> >
> > i've no doubt of that. but i'm almost as certain that qtractor
> > cannot currently do the loop triggering/stretching/warping that
> > Live can. if i'm wrong, i'd love to know.
> > _______________________________________________
> > Linux-audio-user mailing list
> > Linux-audio-user at lists.linuxaudio.org
> > http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-user
> >
> 
> 
> 
> Yes, me too :)
> In fact, I tried doing it a year ago. There was no midi learn but I
> could already assign midi to volume sliders.
> I tried doing something with that, but... it is not a matter of
> bending software, it is a matter of being able to do something or not.
> 
> But we keep saying general things. Let's put it into concrete words.
> What exactly is needed for controllerism?
> 
> *Magic couple.*
> If you do not have beat-matching and auto-sync TOGETHER, then a lot
> of the things you simply cannot do,
> no matter how you "bend" the software or "organize" stuff. Most of
> Moldover's stuff depends on beat-matching and
> auto-sync - these two extremely important functions, virtually
> unavailable as a couple in all audio Linux software I have
> ever used (and I tried out LOTS of software).
> I would love to be proved wrong as it would mean I missed just the
> software I need,
> although I doubt it. I've seen auto-sync in SL, but never saw
> beat-matching in any of the software on Linux. Both Traktor
> and Ableton have it, you can look it up as tutorials on YouTube,
> where you would edit a beat grid over the waveform of a file and
> make sure it is precise throughout the track and then the system
> would store your analyzed track for later use and would at a needed
> moment auto-stretch it to the required tempo and auto-sync it into
> the mix.
> 
> So I think that the first step to making controllerism possible on
> Linux would be to have beat matching together with autosync in one
> software. *
> Midi control.*
> It is obvious and something expected from modern software, but lots
> and lots of software on Linux has no midi control or
> has difficulties in that section. Which makes it very difficult for
> controllerism which requires fluent midi control. So far, I've seen
> good midi
> control in SL and LoopDub, although both have their nuances, but many
> great apps seem very slow to adapt any midi assignment and also,
> like Qtractor, have unintuitive MIDI learn, at least for now, as it is
> probably more important for the developers to make functionality
> available than to make it easy to use (which, of course, is logic
> difficult to argue with).
> Rakarrack also has good MIDI learn and can be of use in a modular
> environment during a controllerism session.
> *
> UI.*
> Finally, it has to be compact and you have got to have the ability to
> see lots and lots of loops on your screen and be able to name them and
> organize them. So far, most loopers on Linux have very cumbersome UI,
> both SL and Kluppe totally fill your screen with 4 loops which is
> totally unacceptable during a performance when you need to quickly
> search through a bank of literally dozens of loops. I personally have
> around 900 loops I use in live performance, from one-shot stuff to
> drum loops, bass loops, melodical loops and all that other stuff,
> organized by tempo, key and type. Also ,as I pointed out earlier in
> discussions, SL gives no filename, so you quickly get lost among
> already opened loops. SL was simply created with a different workflow
> in mind - recording loops, rather than loading them from a file.
> Cyclone seems to be on the right track according to the screenshots
> in terms of UI, although I have not installed it yet.
> 
> 
> So there you go, very clear things:
> 1. Beat matching with autosync.
> 2. Midi control.
> 3. Proper user interface.
> 
> =)
> 

when I talked of bending I meant that these people took a lot of time
customizing! Moldover hacked his hardware into something completely
different from the original, he didn't go asking someone else to do it.
That kind of hacking is definitely not easy!

I see no other route than to take some years of study and write the
software yourself, be it in sc pd or more conventional languages. I
thinks this is, more or less, what Moldover and others did - with the
difference that if you do it open source it will then be avaiable and
expandable by others

renato