Re: [LAT] Setting up a performance synth

I use an old Thinkpad T21 P3-900MHz as a live MIDI controlled synth and sampler. It has been working well with 64 Studio 2.1 on it using Jack, AMSynth and Specimen. I use a Ozone USB audio interface and MIDI controller in one. I just installed the new Karmic Ubuntu Studio on my beefy production machine and it is working great there, but it does have a larger footprint. -Brian On 1/14/10 11:00 AM, linux-audio-tuning-request(a)lists.linuxaudio.org wrote: > Date: Wed, 13 Jan 2010 16:55:42 -0500 > From: David McClanahan<david.mcclanahan(a)gmail.com> > Subject: [LAT] Setting up a performance synth > To: linux-audio-tuning(a)lists.linuxaudio.org > Message-ID: > <977676ab1001131355x1ec62682mf78b8faa15dc68cd(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > Hi, > > I'm trying get a Dell 7000 laptop(with about a 3G harddrive) to be a > synthesizer. Yes it's older(How old is tooo old?) Yes its slower(How slow is > too slow?) But it's what I've got and I'm not convinced it can't do the job > yet. > > Anyway when I say "synthesizer", I mean > > 1. It's tweakable(like a minimoog etc) as in has ADSR, filters, and the like > that can be controlled(via midi) on the fly. > > 2. It doesn't crack and wheeze(or xrun all over me) > > 3. It's doesn't lock up when I bend over to tie my shoes. > > 4. It's midi controllable > > I have managed to install Ubuntu and crippled piece of Ubuntu Studio(Karma I > think). I say that it's crippled because a full installation took up more > disk space than I had so I took some things off(using the normal packaging > mechanisms 'apt' etc). The realtime kernel is still present however along > with the Jack stuff. The sound works-I can play an mp3. > > But soft synths like Bristol either don't work or lock up the machine. I > managed to get Bristol to partially work by starting the network loop > interface, but even then it was sluggish and eventually locked up the whole > machine. Same goes for PD and Zyn. > > Fluidsynth(qsynth) works but it's pretty easy to cause xruns(and the pops). > > So here's my question/comment. > > Is it worth trying to get something working on this(or another) > distribution? > > I'd like to just get something working but these distribution(Puredyne, > Ubuntu Studio, etc) seem to have a heavy footprint and they don't seem very > configurable. Ubuntu seems heavily coupled to GNOME, PulseAudio, LASH and > stuff for which I have no clue what they're for. As a side question, from > the perspective of sound synthesis, is Jack useful? It seems to provide > interprocess communication between audio apps. I can see it being useful if > you have multiple apps talking audio to each other. But if you have a single > process soft synth and ALSA what's on top of the hardware how does Jack > help? m-dist might be an exception. It worked on my desktop but locked up > on my laptops. > > OR would it be better to build a dedicated synth on a hard realtime > platform. > > Has anyone just adapted Linux to just boot a computer as a dedicated > synthbox(or engine) with little or no other I/O concerns to get in the way? > I don't care if I can play Space Invaders and write my resume at the same > time. I've got a Roland JV1010 tone box and I doubt it has 10th of the > processing power or memory of the Dell and yet it doesn't crack or wheeze. I > don't even care if it drove the display. As long as it acted like a stable > hardware synth and was midi controllable I could get along. Maybe such a > thing already is out there. I've looked but had no success. >