8 Oct
2003
8 Oct
'03
6:18 p.m.
Mark Knecht wrote:
For me, my little project studio is now 2 Windows
boxes and 1 Linux box.
The Linux box is the only one that's on 100% of the time. Nothing gets done
without it anymore. That's a lot more Linux than I used a year ago.
I like hearing that. :)
In the last year I've probably spent $1K-$2K on
software. It's all been
Windows software. As a user, I'd buy Linux apps if they existed and did what
I needed them to do. As a user I have very few options in this area.
Sadly (?), all attempts at commercial Linux audio software have failed,
with the sole exception of 4Front (and I believe they're still here
because they wisely diversified to provide audio drivers for a variety
of *NIX platforms). IMO it's a classic double bind: few users mean
little commercial potential, while lack of commercial apps (especially
the existing powerhouses) stifles any potential for an existing user
community to move to the new platform.
The bells have tolled for the Ceres soundfile editor (*not* the Ceres of
NoTAM fame), the Jazz++ MIDI sequencer (now GPL'd but perhaps too late
for a strong development interest), and the Ultramaster RS101. The TAON
soundfile editor was a promising piece back in 1999, but the authors'
insistence on closed sources inhibited community involvement, and when
they graduated from school the project went belly-up, with no possible
life-support from its users. And God knows how long I cajoled Boris
Nagels about releasing the sources for his Multitrack, to no avail.
Sometimes I worry about things like Stefan Nitschke's very cool RTSynth
(free, but closed-source) or the Bros. Hayward's STEEM project (though
they plan on going GPL sometime in the future). Those projects are
wonderful, but if their maintainers disappear or simply lose interest,
we lose some very nice software. I know, we don't really lose it
completely, but it dies the death as far as development is concerned.
Given the dependency hell that is Linux, you never know when the next
kernel release will break binary compatibility with such apps, leaving
the user with the uncomfortable choice of remaining behind the OS curve
or abandoning the tools. Lose/lose.
But not to worry much. We have ecasound, we have Ardour, and these are
fantastic tools, 'way beyond what I had any right to expect back in
1999. And things are getting better here all the time. Recently I sync'd
SoundTracker, ecasound, and Hydrogen via the JACK transport. Yeh, it's
got some problems, but fundamentally the scheme works, and the
particular developers are all dedicated to making it *really* work. I'm
getting happier...
One of my favorite cautionary tales re: closed sources regards the
beautiful version of M produced by Voyetra in the late 80s. Apparently
the original coder simply walked off with the sources, so even Voyetra
no longer has access to the code. And has anyone else ever wondered what
happened to the code base for Opcode's Studio Vision ?
Btw, I've been testing some Windows apps for WINE compatibility. I have
Buzz working now, and the WINE AppDB lists at least one user who claims
to have run Reaktor under some version of WINE. Just FYI... I'll have to
check for a Reaktor demo to test...
Maybe we need to lobby the folks at Crossover or WineX to consider
versions of their products optimized for running Windows audio/MIDI apps
? Obviously I'd prefer users to simply switch to the Linux equivalents,
but at least you wouldn't have to write off your considerable investment
in Windows software.
Best,
== dp