[linux-audio-dev] Linux For Audio Tutorial at AES Convention

Hello, Yesterday, we gave a Tutorial called "Linux for Audio" at the AES Convention, which took place here in Barcelona. To quote the abstract: "It is obvious that Linux is becoming a real alternative to other well-known operating systems. But, is Linux ready to support all the requirements of the audio industry? In this tutorial, the Linux audio infrastructure will be introduced showing how it compares to and competes with other operating systems, with emphasis on low latency, application interconnectivity, and modularity. In addition, various aspects of this audio infrastructure will be demonstrated, using several promising applications in the Linux audio arena." The tutorial was 2 hours long, and consisted of two parts: a talk and a demo. During the talk we gave several smaller demonstrations. This worked out really well, because it made the final demo much more agile, as we already explained many basic features and operations before. The talk consisted of the following parts: The Linux Operation System (history, distributions, latency), ALSA, Interapplication connectivity (jack, alsaseq), Plugins (LADSPA, DSSI, VST), and the final demo. This demo mimicked a real-life studio situation, with Ardour as the main application. We had some prerecorded material, but also recorded a new bass guitar track on site. We demonstrated basic editting with Ardour, the use of plugins (LADSPA, VST and Jack application inserts), mixing with multiple output channels, automation with an motorized console (Behringer BCF2000), synchronization with Hydrogen and with Rosegarden (connected to fluidsynth), and bouncing the output back to Ardour. We planned to show Jamin as well, but we ran out of time. About 80 people assisted the tutorial, which can be considered quite a lot, taking into consideration that the AES audience seems rather Windows and Mac OS X centered. A quick "raise your hand" survey showed that about 40 percent of our audience were developers. We have the feeling that the tutorial went very well, and that the audience got a good impression of the possibilities of Linux for audio. No real technical problems happened during the demo. We would like to thank all of you who made this possible. That means of course all of the developers, but also the entire community. We had a good time giving this Tutorial, and we hope to have generated some interest in the AES crowd, and given them a good idea of the current state of Linux audio applications. We put the slides at http://iua-share.upf.es/wikis/aes/ and tomorrow we will add some photos. Of course suggestions are welcome! Pau Arumi Maarten de Boer