[linux-audio-user] Sequencer + Sampler

hi, ive been making music for 5 yrs with the computer, ive been using virtual sequencer + sampler configurations (cubase + halion) i just love making music this way (i dont use synths a lot, when i use them i render them to .wav and load it in a sampler) , i bought a creative labs audigy card for using the software sampler in realtime using the asio driver with my midi keyboard (yamaha DSR-500, very old but with midi!) and a dual head graphics card (ati radeon 7000)... ive been using it in windows with dual screens and just love the way dual screen works in a virtual studio... so, what i want to do is totally dump windows and start making music in linux i totally love this os , so i installed fedora core 2 with the all the planet ccrma tweaks and apps... i think i have a decent setup now, alsa, jack bla bla bla , i also have a decent computer (i guess) athlon xp 1700+ with 640 mb ram (or something like that) ... so, i have several questions: 1) Which software combination do you recommend for using a sequencer and a sampler? ive been using rosegarden, and i think its excellent but i havent found a way to hook up a virtual sampler, and i really need one!!! (have my own custom wav sample library ive been making all these years) is there any dssi sampler or something like that??? or maybe should i mess with the muse softsynth api ? or it would be better to use an external soft sampler like specimen??? any one knows other programs? or should i use a tracker and render to wav and load it in rosegarden or perhaps ardour??? or should i use soundfonts (ive never tried) and send midi data to the audigy wavetable? (thats the last option for me i guess... ive never really liked sf though ive never tried them really... i just like to make it all in a soft sampler) but if its needed then ill use this as last resort... or maybe should i buy an external harware sampler ??? any people with the same problem??? the second question: 2) how can i make 8th note shuffle in rosegarden sequencer?? are there anyways to create offbeat patterns??? this function is so important in my music. the third and last question: 3) any one knows how to setup the dual head monitor configuration? ive been trying to setup but failed... i have both monitors showing the same screen... what i really want is the Big Desktop extended in both monitors so i can use a sequencer in one and another program in the other... i think this is called xinerama in linux... i just cant configure it... thanks in advance (for the patience reading this mail) but i really want to setup my studio in linux... i only use windows for audio apps but i have to boot another hd and i also want to fully dump win32... i want to make music with open source tools... i know may be everthing is not as developed as in the win world but i am willing to accept drawbacks like having to configure everything by hand (a typical musician just want to use the tools and not worry about how the configuration) and trying to optimize your work (typically i just load as many vst synths as i need in my song i usually dont worry about cpu load and rendering everything to .wav ) im very excited about this excellent apps growing up and getting more stable like rosegarden and ardour... and being able to compose music with the opensource philosophy... ivan. _________________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? La mejor conexión a internet y 25MB extra a tu correo por $100 al mes. http://net.yahoo.com.mx