27 Oct
2010
27 Oct
'10
12:25 a.m.
Hi all,
I'm new to the Linux Audio community. Let me introduce myself:
(You can skip to "Ok getting to the point" if you like :P )
I'm primarily a rock musician and have a home recording setup with a Presonus Audiobox
USB, Guitar Rig 3, and Reaper on a Windows system, and it works really well for me.
I've been using Linux ever since I started studying computer science in college since
2006 and immediately recognized it as marginally better than Windows. I've considered
switching my home system completely to Linux and free software (all knowledge must be
free!), but I love Reaper too much.
So I decided to dual boot on my new laptop about a month ago. I still have Windows 7 to
get stuff done in Reaper quickly and comfortably, and Ubuntu Studio to experiment with. I
must say, this last month I've learned so, so much about Linux, DSP, and computers in
general. The flexibility of Jack is awesome. I love how all my plugins don't have to
be run all in one DAW application. Jack with Ardour and Guitarix rivals my Windows setup,
though I still prefer Reaper.
Ok getting to the point:
Does anyone have suggestions for diving into the world of open source development?
I've looked at some source code of applications I use but get pretty lost. Are there
any simple Jack applications that have easy to read code? I'm all for taking baby
steps. I'm also open to reading suggestions (online resources, books, anything
really).
The lowest level of DSP programming I've ever done was with Pure Data. (I made a
wavetable/FM synthesizer in pd that I could post if anyone's interested.) Are there
other programming languages I should learn? I know C, C++, and Java. I understand that
FAUST is a good DSP language. Are there others?
The Linux community is great and the free audio software is really powerful! It's
definitely THE ideal alternative for musicians on a budget like myself. Unfortunately,
you sort of have to be tech savvy to be a Linux musician. The average musician is not. I
want to be part of the development of free audio software as my way of giving back to this
wonderful community and helping the average musician.
27 Oct
27 Oct
12:55 a.m.
On Tue, 2010-10-26 at 15:24 -0700, Kris Calabio wrote:
Ok getting to the point:
Does anyone have suggestions for diving into the world of open source
development? I've looked at some source code of applications I use
but get pretty lost. Are there any simple Jack applications that have
easy to read code? I'm all for taking baby steps. I'm also open to
reading suggestions (online resources, books, anything really).
There's a lot to be said for just pitching into things like LADSPA, DSSI
and LV2 plugins. Try and trace through how they work, change stuff, and
see what breaks.
Gordon MM0YEQ
5:27 a.m.
On 26 October 2010 23:24, Kris Calabio <cpczk(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
Does anyone have suggestions for diving into the world of open source development?
I've looked at some source code of applications I use but get pretty lost. Are there
any simple Jack applications that have easy to read code? I'm all for taking baby
steps. I'm also open to reading suggestions (online resources, books, anything
really).
Find a small JACK app and debug it. Learn how to load core dumps in
gdb, how to step through code in gdb, and how to use valgrind. Even
just fixing small problems (ie memory leaks, GTK warnings) in GUI code
is a good baby step that can bring some familiarity to that scary
looking code you don't understand. Look at the API's of the libraries
an application is using and try and see if that app is using
deprecated functions (but also consider debian-stable users ;-).
Just start small.
5:32 a.m.
On Tue, Oct 26, 2010 at 6:24 PM, Kris Calabio <cpczk(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
Hi all,
I'm new to the Linux Audio community. Let me introduce myself:
(You can skip to "Ok getting to the point" if you like :P )
I'm primarily a rock musician and have a home recording setup with a
Presonus Audiobox USB, Guitar Rig 3, and Reaper on a Windows system, and it
works really well for me. I've been using Linux ever since I started
studying computer science in college since 2006 and immediately recognized
it as marginally better than Windows. I've considered switching my home
system completely to Linux and free software (all knowledge must be free!),
but I love Reaper too much.
So I decided to dual boot on my new laptop about a month ago. I still have
Windows 7 to get stuff done in Reaper quickly and comfortably, and Ubuntu
Studio to experiment with. I must say, this last month I've learned so, so
much about Linux, DSP, and computers in general. The flexibility of Jack is
awesome. I love how all my plugins don't have to be run all in one DAW
application. Jack with Ardour and Guitarix rivals my Windows setup, though
I still prefer Reaper.
Ok getting to the point:
Does anyone have suggestions for diving into the world of open source
development? I've looked at some source code of applications I use but get
pretty lost. Are there any simple Jack applications that have easy to read
code? I'm all for taking baby steps. I'm also open to reading suggestions
(online resources, books, anything really).
The lowest level of DSP programming I've ever done was with Pure Data. (I
made a wavetable/FM synthesizer in pd that I could post if anyone's
interested.) Are there other programming languages I should learn? I know
C, C++, and Java. I understand that FAUST is a good DSP language. Are
there others?
The Linux community is great and the free audio software is really
powerful! It's definitely THE ideal alternative for musicians on a budget
like myself. Unfortunately, you sort of have to be tech savvy to be a Linux
musician. The average musician is not. I want to be part of the
development of free audio software as my way of giving back to this
wonderful community and helping the average musician.
_______________________________________________
Linux-audio-dev mailing list
Linux-audio-dev(a)lists.linuxaudio.org
http://lists.linuxaudio.org/listinfo/linux-audio-dev
My best advice is to pick up a project that you are objectively interested
in completing. Pick a goal that you would be happy if *someone else* did.
That way when the novelty wears off, you'll still have some motivation to
keep working and keep learning when you otherwise might tire of it. So ask
yourself: What's something that you think linux audio is lacking? Find
something small, and find something you care about.
Jeremy
5:46 a.m.
Hi Kris,
On Tuesday, October 26, 2010 05:24:59 pm Kris Calabio wrote:
I'm new to the Linux Audio community. Let me
introduce
Welcome!!
Does anyone have suggestions for diving into the world
of
open source development? I've looked at some source
1. Watch this movie:
http://wiki.xiph.org/A_Digital_Media_Primer_For_Geeks_(episode_1)
2. You said you know C and C++... so, you're all
set there. :-)
3. Read through jack docs and examples in the source
code for jack.
4. Another good tutorial/resource is Paul Davis's tutorial
on using the ALSA API:
http://www.equalarea.com/paul/alsa-audio.html
5. Pick an app that you like, and start squashing bugs.
It'll be slow and tedious and confusing at first.
But that stuff pays off big-time later. Not only
will you have massive debugging chops, but you'll
have some good trial-and-error opportunities to
learn what you do/don't like doing. Not everyone
likes nasty DSP algorithms, but some guys can't
get enough. Not everyone likes picking the perfect
pixel size for a custom widget... but other guys
really enjoy that.
code of applications I use but get pretty lost. Are
there any simple Jack applications that have easy to
read code? I'm all for taking baby steps. I'm also
Gordon suggested playing with plugins... and I think that's
an excellent suggestion.
Fons Adriaensen writes very clean, well-designed code, with
many small apps, plugins and libraries.
http://www.kokkinizita.net/linuxaudio/downloads/index.html
Except for his DSP algorithms (which use terse mathematical
notation), I find his code easy to follow.
-gabriel
4930
days inactive
4931
days old
linux-audio-dev@lists.linuxaudio.org
4 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
-
Gabriel M. Beddingfield -
Gordon JC Pearce -
James Morris -
Jeremy -
Kris Calabio