KVR :: Hosts (Sequencers, DAWs, Audio Editors, etc.) » The best sequencer for Linux... [View Original Topic]
There are 37 posts in this topic.

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peejunk - Mon Jun 11, 2012 9:00 am

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..is Caustic for Windows.

No, really.

If you think music-making should be fun, then I can't see how any Linux DAW can be appealing. I understand Linux users aren't really in the numbers, nor that willing to spend (even tho some game sales show quite differently) but with so much good and proper stuff being made.. no.. ORIGINATING from Linux by developer communities in other software fields, it always surprises me how the world of Linux audio is a minefield of anti-useability and dumb design choices. Workflow is a four-letter word, most DSP stuff (barring LinuxDSP stuff, but who is their market I haven't the faintest idea) looks like it was designed by people who never moved a (virtual) knob in other music software, let alone had anything to do with any music-making process.

So if you want to have fun making music on Linux, save yourself time and bandwidth required to test Ardour, LMMS, Muse, Rosegarden, Seq24 or any other Linux music software. Download Caustic for windows, pay the man for the Android version (even if you don't have an Android phone, he deserves it) and have fun.. real fun. Yes, it works flawlessly in Wine.

(ok Renoize is as cool as anywhere but a tracker is not really a DAW in the sense that typical user will see the hex and run away screaming)

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Numanoid - Mon Jun 11, 2012 9:59 am

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Wouldn't it be better to make a separate thread for Caustic?

I just stumbled across this by chance, wonderful news, really dig the Android version.

But for more people to notice this, a thread with "Caustic now for Windows and free" should be made

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stanlea - Mon Jun 11, 2012 11:39 am

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I answered sincerely before to read your post. I regret now. If you want to promote Caustic it's ok, but don't insult native Linux software. You need not.

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peejunk - Mon Jun 11, 2012 12:12 pm

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It's a rant. Out of frustration.

It's supposed to be like that.

Caustic is basic and, apart from being a fun toy, useless. The central point of my rant is really about the state of native Linux software. Which is dismal. And I'm a long time Linux user, that uses it both at home and for work. As in: Exclusively use Linux.

But there is no decent DAW for it. I'm seriously considering buying Renoise and going back to trackers. I don't have the guts to go back working that way, so if there was a decent payware option on Linux shelling out the dough would be a no brainer for me.

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gckilla - Mon Jun 11, 2012 5:09 pm

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very happy with renoise, mixbus combo.

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trimph1 - Mon Jun 11, 2012 6:58 pm

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I'm going with renoise here...

I've used Linux a few times myself and don't really see any issues with it.

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decalogue - Tue Jun 12, 2012 12:51 am

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+1 for Renoise

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4damind - Tue Jun 12, 2012 1:49 am

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It's all crap, sorry!
IMO the best solution is to use Reaper with Wine/Wineasio. There is also the chance to get a lot VST plug-ins running if they don't use special copy protection stuff.

Ok, this will eventually changed with Bitwig. It could be the first feature complete native Linux DAW with a professional touch (I will not call it the new "Ableton Live" but we all know it goes a bit in this direction)

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stanlea - Tue Jun 12, 2012 2:14 am

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I make music with Ardour and other apps. No problem at all. But it's true that you have to know a little about what is an OS.

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glokraw - Wed Jun 13, 2012 11:46 am

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Yes, reaper is the best daw for linux, but using hydrogen, yoshimi,
hexter, rakarrack, guitarix, calf plugins, timemachine, and clever routing
with jackd GUIs, is an excellent composing environment, especially within a custom
distribution like www.getstudio1337.com

http://youtu.be/5aQkpINWABU

When you utilize linux components as the daw, instead of software like
qtractor, ardour3 or Muse2, you will have fewer problems. Starting off using gear from the short list of compatible hardware will also smooth the way forward. As will avoiding using the newest version of 'anything'

qtractor, ardour3 and Muse2 are advancing very nicely, so this time next year,
things will be much better on the daw front.

cheers

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dannysinzx - Fri Jun 15, 2012 1:41 pm

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check out the windows expansion pack for Caustic: http://bigbeardaudio.com/products

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glokraw - Fri Jun 15, 2012 6:38 pm

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www.getstudio1337 preconfigured RT audio distro runs in ram. Fast.
Apps configured with the custom kernel, sold on a 2 gig usbstick.
Set up to use reaper. It works. I admit to benefiting from
the heavy no-brainer aspects, and stress-free recording it provides.

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abstractcats - Fri Jun 15, 2012 6:53 pm

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Just watched their video, very interesting! Hmm! $29? Hmm!!

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glokraw - Sat Jun 16, 2012 10:50 am

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using qjackctl, gui for connections, the left and right are always
exposed to connect separately, so using 3 rakarrack stereo fx instances,
could, preset depending, give the drums, guitar and keyboard each 6 differing modulations. Rakarrack holds 10 fx at a time. It would be easy to create mud,
but also not so hard to make dreams come true

Hydrogen plays kits made of any 32 .wav samples in patterns and sequences of patterns,
placed as you play, like a drum machine, zynaddsubfx/yoshimi are 16 part multitimbral synths, with large sound collection, so with just those two, there is a large sonic gallery waiting just outside the box.

If you install reaper, its stereo outs can be routed for more fx and recording,
it's just another instrument to linux.
Cheers

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peejunk - Tue Jun 19, 2012 8:40 am

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Just googled it. Looks promising. Very promising. I think it also goes a bit in the early Mackie Traction direction, in a good way.

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svrc - Tue Jun 19, 2012 8:56 am

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Where is EnergyXT?

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allofdrab - Tue Jun 19, 2012 6:56 pm

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Yah, EnergyXT not being mentioned is a MAJOR oversight.
That said - Renoise is brilliant. Spend a bit of time - read the excellent documentation - and it becomes a VERY elegantly designed, easy and SUPER FUN DAW to use.
Identical on Linux, Windows, and OSX, and rock solid.
I suspect many people don't realize how powerful it is.
It takes the concept of tracking employed by other trackers to a whole new level.
It's a reimagining of tracking, and pushes it into new territory with every update.
IMO Renoise is sort of the Ableton Live of the tracker world.

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peejunk - Wed Jun 20, 2012 12:08 pm

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Somwehere in the back of my head there was this information how eXT Linux was in perpetual unfinished state. A glimpse at their site shows that I'm wrong, will fix.

edit: it appears that poll editing is impossible after votes have been cast.

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glokraw - Wed Jun 20, 2012 4:26 pm

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I think there was an ongoing wish list of 1.4 features, much relied on by some
paying customers, that didn't make it to the new versions. Then, communications
from the dev slowed, then the deal with Behringer, with the wish list hung out
in the breeze.

Reaper is also unfinished, in the traditional sense of a stable xxx.0 version
every year or two, but everyone knows whats happening, and the plethora of releases
are stable anyway.
Cheers

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gckilla - Wed Jun 20, 2012 4:59 pm

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While I enjoy working with XT2, it is unpredictable - just can't trust it not to do something funky.

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fedexnman - Wed Jun 20, 2012 5:16 pm

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The Best ? Ardour for audio , Hydrogen for sampled drums . Specimen for making a synth from a wav sample . You can record the output of Hydrogen n Specimen to Ardour using Qjackctrl or Jack, Linux Rewire....... Or you can save the Hassel and just dualboot Windows and pick your DAW of choice !!

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pljones - Sat Jun 30, 2012 4:02 am

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Just chipping in with a link for anyone wanting to try out MuLab and maybe let the developer know you want it on Linux. Keep it sane, don't just flood, okay?
http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=4974709#4974709

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glokraw - Mon Jul 02, 2012 1:19 am

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wine devs seem to be ignoring the needs of recording artists.
Unless some people within the wine team can rekindle interest
in recording audio and vst support, or a solid fork takes place,
it maybe a losing effort to work on compatibility.

I had an MUlab version partially working with vsts in wine,
well more than a year ago, but a newer version refused,
on the same setup. I'll try the newest this week some time,
since I have since changed to wine 1.4.
Cheers

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pljones - Mon Jul 02, 2012 3:40 am

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I don't think the Wine team make enough fuss about updates. When Microsoft roll out a new OS, there's a huge fanfare and everyone buys a complete new PC just to run it, not expecting any of their existing gear to carry on working. The Wine team is expected to take this in their stride and integrate this new OS into Wine and have everything just carry on as before.

Sometimes stuff breaks.

Of course, WineASIO breaks, too. Joakim is doing a good job trying to keep on top of it. I keep hoping I'll get time to catch up again, so I can help him out. I'm certain there are one or two other forks of the code that could do with integrating, too.

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memyselfandus - Mon Jul 02, 2012 6:48 am

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anyone have a download link for the windows and linux versions of Caustic? cannot find any download links on the site.

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Jacques Hass - Mon Jul 02, 2012 11:01 am

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I've found it hard enough to find DAW software for Windows that is stable, bug-free, and has an interface/workflow I can live with. I can't imagine why anyone who needs to get actual work done would choose Linux.

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allofdrab - Mon Jul 02, 2012 9:53 pm

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Perhaps they appreciate the stable, bug-free beauty of Renoise, it's excellent interface/workflow, and more than adequate range of high quality, native effects, and want to get actual work done instead of giving in to a distracting urge to download and try every free, likely unnecessary Windows VST plugin, while they wait for their virus scan to finish.

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glokraw - Mon Jul 02, 2012 11:19 pm

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You would fail classes in both debate, and logic.
Stick to making great music using windows

I can't find a white horse that doesn't buck me off to the ground,
so why would anyone choose a brown one?

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pljones - Tue Jul 03, 2012 4:40 am

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He didn't say that. He said "I can't find a white horse that doesn't buck me off to the ground. I can't imagine why anyone would choose a brown one." Two separate statements of failure on his part. Neither implying that either (a) others have problems with white horses, nor that (b) there's anything wrong with brown ones.

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glokraw - Tue Jul 03, 2012 1:29 pm

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allofdrab can't imagine why anyone who needs to
get actual work done (ride a white horse) would choose Linux, (a brown one)
if allofdrab can't imagine it being ride-able.

I'm just guessing that an OS used to admin gigantic corporations,
can also handle a few synths, fx, and a 4/4 beat
with a default value of a little imagination thrown in
Cheers

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allofdrab - Tue Jul 03, 2012 6:41 pm

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Ugh... I feel like the horse I was riding just came to an abrupt stop and I fell off and landed on my head.
Ohhhhhh, I see; it ran into a period; I was thinking it was a semi-colon.

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D.Wako - Tue Jul 03, 2012 9:12 pm

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Does Ardour has midi now?

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codec_spurt - Wed Jul 04, 2012 12:39 pm

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Very good question.
I download XT2 for Linux and it is .exe file.

wtf?

Audio linux is a joke. I play about a bit, jack etc
Edit:
I mean, http://www.bandshed.net/AVLinux.html AVLinux...
No dual support monitors, No internet connection...

Even got the hd extensions for Puppy that let me play with Hydrogen etc...
Pretty sophisticated really

It's not ready. Won't be ready for the next ten years. Is a shame. Such is life.
Why not use windows?

It won't recognize the firewire cards we use (Focusrite). It is a total waste of time.

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glokraw - Wed Jul 04, 2012 10:34 pm

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If you to read in ADD skimming mode, fail to query the related forums,
and ignore the one absolute fundamental of using a supported soundcard
and videocard, then you won't be ready, in any amount of years.
A new OS, is not lucky to go at alone, when abundant help exists.

"Even got the hd extensions for Puppy that let me play with Hydrogen"

This statement alone tells me you were on a
wilderness adventure, and fell into some deep kimchi.

I only boot windows to use Rhino and Headcase, or set up an app
that won't install in wine, (for copying over later) and then
update avast/spybot. Recording with Reaper output, fed to linux apps,
has been simple for many years.

It's fair enough to consider linux an unwelcome stepdaughter of a
server OS, but it doesn't mean she can't dance.

http://forum.xfce.org/viewtopic.php?id=6738

a script is here for nvidia graphics dual monitor setup,
you could copy/paste into an avlinux
live session, save it as mentioned, log out and back in...might work.

Cheers

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glokraw - Sun Jul 08, 2012 1:00 pm

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https://ardour.org/node/5160

massive change list, a ton of midi is integrated during the
four beta releases. The installation ( for linux) is a binary,
unpack the tarball, click to install,
previous versions took a bit over 100 meg, sent to a new folder
in /opt, so existing ardour is untouched.

I assume the Mac .dmg version is also a no-brainer install.
Never used a Mac.

Cheers

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glokraw - Sun Jul 08, 2012 3:44 pm

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http://www.rncbc.org/drupal/node/503

A new qtractor release, probably counts as a daw,
adds Better LV2 (ladspa V2) support, hopefully
the new port versions from KX, of the TAL plugins, will
just work.
Cheers

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peejunk - Tue Sep 04, 2012 12:28 pm

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I'd like to use this opportunity to add another rant:

WHAT THE JACK IS GOING ON WITH ALL THE RPM BUILDS?

Yeah, they really make a lot of sense.

Since, you know, most Linux users use Fedora, right. God forbit that roughly 80% of desktop installs are direct Debian or indirect (Ubuntu) derivatives, or that most widely used multimedia distro is one (Ubuntu Studio).

Why bother with a PPA. Screw Launchpad and those bastards at Cannonical, let's have an RPM based lovefest on SourceForge.

This way our software gets used by our very own userbase which will repeat our circle-jerk dogma ad nauseam, RMS forbid some fresh outside ideas get to our mailing lists and we have to spend our mental energy getting infidels in line.

Gotta love these FLOSS subcultures..

Oh as an added plus (let's get those other 99% of users screaming away) Ardour insists on serving its website on HTTPS... BUT... with a self-signed certificate. Nice way to protect your bandwidth tho. You really don't want them pesky users comming round your site, just the geeks that know enough to confirm your shitty self signed certificate without feeling scared.

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There are 37 posts in this topic.