[LAU] DAWs and licensing Was: Symphony of love illusive

[Sam Kuper]

On Sun, Feb 14, 2021 at 10:02:38AM -0700, Paul Davis wrote:
> On Sun, Feb 14, 2021 at 9:20 AM Christopher Arndt wrote:
>> Am 14.02.21 um 09:01 schrieb Sam Kuper:
>>> I no longer think the licensing model can be separated from the
>>> usefulness of the tool.
>>
>> I fully agree with this sentiment and the things you said afterwards.
>>
>> Licensing choice isn't just a different flavour or colour of
>> software.  Conversely, choosing a closed license doesn't mean that
>> you don't care about your product, but it does mean that you restrict
>> the way it can be used, which, as you point out, makes it less useful
>> (all other factors being the same).
> 
> The problem is: all other factors are NEVER the same.

Maybe not *exactly*, but they can be *very* close.

I regret buying Guitar Rig years ago.  (Twice!  I had to pay for an
upgrade in order to retain compatibility, after an OS and/or DAW
upgrade.)

I wish I could get a refund, and give the money to Guitarix or Rakarrack
or other free software developers (including you, Paul!) instead.

But at least now I know about Guitarix and Rakarrack, and can choose
them.  I don't miss much from Guitar Rig.

Sure, they aren't *identical* (neither is AmpliTube), but these are very
*similar* pieces of software in core functionality.  They all provide
guitar FX.  When suitably dialled-in, they all sound good enough for
studio use.  With adequate hardware, they are all fast enough to satisfy
a good percentage of live performers.

Only the Free Software options, though, have ergonomic licensing that
makes them a relatively trouble-free long-term choice.


I'm still (piecemeal, when time allows) learning the libre DAW
landscape.  But thanks to the great options now available thanks to folk
like you, I don't think I'll miss Cakewalk, Cubase, or even SADiE very
much.


> There's no FLOSS application that will give you the possibilities of
> FL Studio, or Live, or Bitwig.

Indeed.  And I regret giving so much money to proprietary software
developers.  Had I known then what I know now, I would have saved it to
give to Free Software developers.  Had enough other people done the
same, maybe we would now have a libre Live.

Free software developers: I'm sorry.  I was ignorant for years of how
much value you were creating.  I was ignorant about how much better off
you and I would have been if I had given that money and time (which I
can't get back) to learning to use your tools on a libre OS.  Instead, I
wasted months of my life building and learning proprietary software
assemblages (and giving product feedback and bug reports to proprietary
tech support people), only to have to start half from scratch at the
next upgrade cycle.

I was more productive using an old 1/2" 16-track, a Seck 1882 or a Ramsa
DA-7, and a few multi-FX rack units, than I was after switching to
proprietary software!

This time, I'm trying to do a better job of understanding how to make
good use of my limited resources.


> [..] users are actually faced with complex tradeoff calculations,
> rather than just "FLOSS gives me more freedom". As Louigi has noted in
> his long and excellent essay on software freedom, sometimes freedom
> can mean the freedom to do what you actually want to do, quickly and
> easily. And sometimes, of course, it means something else.

I think we can all agree that nothing is perfect :)

But Free Software:

- benefits from the "long tail"; and
- mostly avoids enforced obsolescence; and therefore, if
  well-maintained,
- successively approximates perfection,

whereas proprietary software, in my experience:

- tends to do none of the above.

These days, I see buying proprietary music software as being a bit like
hiring a piece of boutique audio hardware.  If you truly need it for
that project, it might be indispensable; but you'd better hope you don't
need it again in a few years' time because it might be unavailable.  So,
it's always wise to look for a more sustainable solution first;
proprietary software, like boutique unobtainium, should be a last
resort.

Personally, the only pieces of proprietary music software that I still
find tempting are Ableton Live and RME TotalMix.  But I'm hoping I can
assemble just enough libre or DIY workarounds to be able to do without
them, until comparable (or better!) libre alternatives emerge.

Thanks, and sorry for the rant.

Sam

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