Hi Kevin! For the distro: I think Ubuntu and Ubuntu Studio are quite popular and easy to use/install. I personally would put my bet on Debian Etch or Lenny. For the Kernels: If you are used to build them yourself, then it's good to build an rt-patched kernel. Or find one for the Distro you choose. If you build them from source: www.kernel.org Project -> RT and then get the correct patch-version for the kernel you choose. You'll have a few more options mainly under processor/general. Software to use and try: Audacity is a rather simple start point from what I hear. (I use only text-based software myself. If you're interested in that, I'll tag a list on at the end.) Ardour and muse are the big ones. Ardour is rather complex but offers probably more than you will need. Ardour comes from the audio world. Muse comes from the MIDI world, but also has both MIDI and audio support. Also muse has its own softsynth API with a few synths already in place. Normally we use either DSSI synths (disposable soft synth interface) or one of those: ZynAddSubFX - subtractive and additive synthesis (nice 80s sounds and very warm synth pads and more) Fluidsynth and its GUI qsynth - samplebased synthesis (sound in the .SF2 soundfont format) - see www.hammersound.net for free sounds to download LinuxSampler and its GUIs jsampler or qsampler - for samples in GigaSampler/GigaStudio format If you like programming there's csound and its partial GUIs (csound is a programming language for sounds and synthesis, powerful and complex but feature-rich) and there's CLM (common lisp music another lisp-based programming language) and there's PD (PureData a graphical synthesis (language?). Youget nice visual modules on your screen and can do nice things with it. For Effects: There is LADSPA - Linux Audio Developer's Simple Plugin API and its successor LV2. Both currently in use. A lot of linux audio tools accept LADSPA and fewer (but still enough) can use LV2. If some synth doesn't support LAXDSPA directly, there are some simple apps, that just load effects and let you wire some other audio-app (i.e. softsynth or hardsynth) to it. For URLS see http://linux-sound.org and http://apps.linuxaudio.org One thing you should take a quick look at, for it is CENTRAL to linux audio today is JACKD (Jack Audio connection Kit) a lowlatency soundserver. It lets you wire applications among themselves and connect apps to the soundcard I/Os. http://www.jackaudio.org For the text-based world: Still Linuxsampler (via telnet), ZynAddSubFX (only load and play), fluidsynth (shell interface) For recording/processing of audio: ecasound (shell interface) - record/process/mix midish (shell interface) - MIDI sequencing (no alsaseq alas) csound/clm - they can be done with any editor, clm best with emacs of course TiMidity - for simple MIDI playback/synthesis (it too uses soundFonts and GUS patches, you get a set when downloading or installing from your distro) A lot of all the mentioned packages should be available with debian/Ubuntu (maybe all of them). There's of course more, but nothing too basic. You'll get to those left in time. HTH. Kindest regards Julien -------- Music was my first love and it will be my last (John Miles) ======== FIND MY WEB-PROJECT AT: ======== http://ltsb.sourceforge.net the Linux TextBased Studio guide ======= AND MY PERSONAL PAGES AT: ======= http://www.juliencoder.de