[LAU] Building an Open Source keyboard rig

Ralf Mardorf ralf.mardorf at alice-dsl.net
Sat Mar 5 11:18:28 UTC 2016


On Sat, 5 Mar 2016 08:11:04 +0000, Ben Bell wrote:
>> the OP should consider to buy an Apple based solution.
>> Linux simply can not hold ground for this kind of usage.  
>But the only way that will change is if people figure out how to push
>it forward :)

Ok Ben, you're a realist who has got real stage equipment and now you
wants to try something else.

I won't recommend an iPAD for stage usage, regarding solidity and
the fact that it depends on battery, even if you connect it to a power
supply, but OTOH compared to a Linux solution, you could put the iPAD
on top of a master keyboard and get a perfect GUI and you could purchase
all kinds of synth for around 5,-€ per synth, some as the CMI are a
little bit more expensive, but most of those synth are far better than
the quality we know from Linux synth. Linux might provide a few
outstanding FLOSS exceptions, offhand only Yoshimi comes to my mind and
indeed Yoshimi is a good reason to build a stage set-up based on Linux,
but OTOH Yoshimi is not a competitor to a piano related sample player,
a vintage emulation or modern granular synth you could get by iStore and
at least not a replacement for your stage proved Nord piano.

It's simply not the domain of Linux to replace stage gear. Imagine you
would follow Len's tip, to use an USB "Qwerty"-keyboard as the remote
control. On stage? A 20 meter long USB cable, IOW longer than USB norm
allows and in addition it would be another cable on stage, a computer
data cable, not an audio signal cable, so think over shielding,
anybody playing a Clavinet or single coil guitar might not like
additional electric smog. It's the summa of things to consider for
stage usage, not alone the will to handle experimental gear.

2 Cents,
Ralf


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