[LAU] integrating linux+osx boxes?

[Robin Gareus]

On 10/17/2011 02:29 AM, shane richards wrote:
> I have scored a gig doing music for a feature film.
> 
>  They want us to use "...the same software that was used for the submission..." - yay for Linux audio!

Wooha. Champagne!

>  Now, my singer has a shiny new mac laptop. I have a linux based laptop and a linux tower will be added on commencement of the job. We want to have a common application stack, and hook everything up with netjack.
> 
>  On my box I'm using latest dev sources, which I will freeze:
> 
>  Jack2
>  Qjackcontrol
jack2 on OSX comes with a GUI called JackPilot. The connection dialog is
not as nifty as qjackctl's but it gets the job done.

The Mixbus manual (free PDF download) includes a section about setting
up JACK on OSX.

>  js_wrap
requires glib.h - which is not avail OOTB on OSX. Otherwise straight
forward to compile.

>  Ardour2 (Hopefully purchase Mixbus for the project)
native OSX version available.

>  Rosegarden (scoring)
There are (or at least were) some endeavors to port it to OSX; but I
don't think there is a binary around. I am not sure.

>  QTractor (sequencing, instrument host)
QT apps are usually very painless to port. But AFAIK there's no binary.

>  Hydrogen
don't know.

>  Xjadeo
native OSX version available.

>  ladspa/dssi/lv2/vst (win)

VST may be a problem. Also I don't know any OSX binary packages for LV2
or LADSPA, but they can be compiled just fine.

>  What are the options here on the mac side?
>  Using netjack on the mac ... how? 

jack2's built-in 'netone' driver (aka netjack2) works OOTB.

> Is there a gui?

yes and no. JackPilot's preferences do not include the netone/netjack
setup. I'm running 0.87 but I don't think this has changed in 0.88.

The ardour2 "Audio Setup" dialog does include it but it fails with
"invalid parameter" messages here. Launching `jackd -d netone` manually
works just fine.

>  Is there any kind of session support on the mac 

jack2 includes jack_session support; but I don't know if it is compiled
into the OSX binary. It is not yet listed in the news at
http://jackosx.com/ and it is not available in 0.87.

> or am I better off using shell scripts?

shell-scripts can be copied easily over to other systems or OS. I don't
know if you can migrate [jack-]sessions to/from OSX.

Personally I prefer a shell-script in the work-folder to a session-dir
in my $HOME, YMMV.


> I have exactly zero experience with macs, it's all new. I do not want to use sources.

You may not get around compiling a few plugins and js_wrap.

All in all: installing GNU/Linux on the Mac will be easier! :)

HTH,
robin