23 Jan
2010
23 Jan
'10
10:46 p.m.
On Sat, 23 Jan 2010, David McClanahan wrote:
Where to start? I have a Dell 7000 laptop and I'm
wondering if it can be a
music synthesizer(something like a Minimoog). If not, why not?
Of course. The major contenders are linuxsampler,
fluidsynth, and zynaddsubfx.
Are you trying to build your own dedicated synthesizer on
top of linux? Like the Korg OASYS?
1. Implement a synth on a hard real time platform.
RTAI or RTLinux. Such a
system would boot up as a dedicated synth aka cut out stuff unnecessary for
other than sound control/production
I would suggest using something like Debian with an RT
kernel. A bare-bones Debian install has a small footprint,
and there are several RT kernels avail. for Debian. It's
also easy to add/remove packages without crippling the
system.
I've heard good things about ArchLinux, too... WRT it's
ability to configure the distro to your needs.
2. Characteristics of a synth could be set while in a
normal Linux
environment.
Are you wanting X11, or not? That's really the biggest
question. If you /do/ want X11... then I'm not sure what
you're trying to accomplish, here.
FYI, with some synths (esp. linuxsampler), you can run the
synth in a headless (no monitor) environment and control it
over ethernet with the OSC protocol.
-gabriel