KVR Audio

Ian B · Post by **Ian B** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 5:41 pm

I've just seen this link over at CM forum (posted by beermonster) http://www.ferventsoftware.com/ Basically it's a complete studio setup of audio production tools running on a Linux OS. Includes support for most major soundcards and VST's.

Not seen it mentioned here before and at first glance, it looks interesting if you're a Linux user.

SJ_Digriz · Post by **SJ_Digriz** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 6:59 pm

just what we need is the flock of people who can't get a DAW working on Windows and Mac to run to Linux

I will laugh my ass off the first time someone in a help forum tells them they need to recompile their kernel with the latest source for a driver from some 3rd party site. Now THAT will be good times.

UltraJv · Post by **UltraJv** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 7:04 pm

Linux is for enthusiasts. They will tell you its more stable than windows and as easy to configure Its not, Windows never gives you a blank display on first install. Ive had various distros of Linux do that to me (the last was Suse 9.2 on an IBM 600x laptop). Ive been told to drop into the command line and update the X window driver as if it was a piece of cake. SJ_Digriz is right, its too techie just for the simplest of things.

Improv · Post by **Improv** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 7:07 pm

SJ_Digriz wrote:just what we need is the flock of people who can't get a DAW working on Windows and Mac to run to Linux I will laugh my ass off the first time someone in a help forum tells them they need to recompile their kernel with the latest source for a driver from some 3rd party site. Now THAT will be good times.

If you look at the screen shots, it looks like a repackaging job only, not new software. One screenie clearly shows Rosegarden, which is an existing sequencer package. They also mention booting from cd. There are some Debian Linux 'run from cd' packages.

I'd gladly pay for a well written Linux based sequencer/vsti package that was equivalent to Cubase/Tracktion/Logic etc. (I've used Linux for years.)

But this just seems like a repackaging of the 'same old same old' and they want you to pay for the priveledge?
Write Tracktion for Linux, then we'll talk!

neverwhere2012 · Post by **neverwhere2012** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 7:07 pm

SJ_Digriz wrote:just what we need is the flock of people who can't get a DAW working on Windows and Mac to run to Linux I will laugh my ass off the first time someone in a help forum tells them they need to recompile their kernel with the latest source for a driver from some 3rd party site. Now THAT will be good times.

and then the flood of "my linux host sounds better than your windows/mac hosts! i can get 8 billion instances of reverbx20006 on my linux machine!" posts. yuck.

http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/?t=arc ... 2005-02-09

Improv · Post by **Improv** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 7:10 pm

neverwhere2012 wrote:and then the flood of "my linux host sounds better than your windows/mac hosts! i can get 8 billion instances of reverbx20006 on my linux machine!" posts. yuck.

http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/?t=arc ... 2005-02-09

Guess I'm backwards-I choose which software that I want to run, then choose the OS that reliably runs the software.
I really don't care which platform it's on. Guess I'm a platform agnostic!

SJ_Digriz · Post by **SJ_Digriz** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 7:10 pm

db wrote: If you look at the screen shots, it looks like a repackaging job only, not new software. One screenie clearly shows Rosegarden, which is an existing sequencer package. They also mention booting from cd. There are some Debian Linux 'run from cd' packages.

I'd gladly pay for a well written Linux based sequencer/vsti package that was equivalent to Cubase/Tracktion/Logic etc. (I've used Linux for years.)

But this just seems like a repackaging of the 'same old same old' and they want you to pay for the priveledge?
Write Tracktion for Linux, then we'll talk!

What you don't understand is those boot CDs won't boot on every system. Their are issues with specific drivers for video cards, audio cards, HD controllers for SATA and RAID, network cards....I could go on forever and I haven't even started on the different chip sets that require specific drivers.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A LINUX BOOT DISK!! There are some that will run on some default setups, but not in the sense that you can just slap it in and your stuff will work.

jtxx000 · Post by **jtxx000** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 7:19 pm

db wrote: I'd gladly pay for a well written Linux based sequencer/vsti package that was equivalent to Cubase/Tracktion/Logic etc. (I've used Linux for years.)

jules wrote:I've not had time to get it going - it's mostly written, but I need to get a new linux installation to finish it off, which is tricky on my pc without messing everything up, and I've been too busy lately..

Improv · Post by **Improv** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 7:20 pm

SJ_Digriz wrote: What you don't understand is those boot CDs won't boot on every system.

What you don't understand is that I never said that! <DUH!!!>

Their are issues with specific drivers for video cards, audio cards, HD controllers for SATA and RAID, network cards....I could go on forever and I haven't even started on the different chip sets that require specific drivers.

You have a grasp of the bloody obvious.
I really don't care what platform you're a fanboy for, I have used Windows, Linux and Atari for quite a few years. I've used Linux since 1994,
before you even new what it was. So ya,
I'm just a bit aware of the driver issues.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A LINUX BOOT DISK!! There are some that will run on some default setups, but not in the sense that you can just slap it in and your stuff will work.

No one ever said it would. Next time read for comprehension instead of speed!

pljones · Post by **pljones** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 7:21 pm

Just to point out the equally obvious that it's not just Linux that is sometimes missing bleeding-edge support. WinXPSP1 didn't come with drivers for:
My mobo's SATA RAID controller (I only have SATA)
My sound card
My video card

(Admittedly, all of these were available for Windows -- there's no Linux support for the motherboard SATA RAID controller due to the manufacturer guarding their trade secrets. So I can't run Linux at all.)

Improv · Post by **Improv** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 7:23 pm

jtxx000 wrote:
db wrote: I'd gladly pay for a well written Linux based sequencer/vsti package that was equivalent to Cubase/Tracktion/Logic etc. (I've used Linux for years.)

jules wrote:I've not had time to get it going - it's mostly written, but I need to get a new linux installation to finish it off, which is tricky on my pc without messing everything up, and I've been too busy lately..

Ya, thanks, I saw that a while ago. Still, it would be nice to try it out if it ever gets released. Ah well, no big deal.

glurgle · Post by **glurgle** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 7:25 pm

SJ_Digriz wrote:
db wrote: If you look at the screen shots, it looks like a repackaging job only, not new software. One screenie clearly shows Rosegarden, which is an existing sequencer package. They also mention booting from cd. There are some Debian Linux 'run from cd' packages.

I'd gladly pay for a well written Linux based sequencer/vsti package that was equivalent to Cubase/Tracktion/Logic etc. (I've used Linux for years.)

But this just seems like a repackaging of the 'same old same old' and they want you to pay for the priveledge?
Write Tracktion for Linux, then we'll talk!
What you don't understand is those boot CDs won't boot on every system. Their are issues with specific drivers for video cards, audio cards, HD controllers for SATA and RAID, network cards....I could go on forever and I haven't even started on the different chip sets that require specific drivers.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A LINUX BOOT DISK!! There are some that will run on some default setups, but not in the sense that you can just slap it in and your stuff will work.

Well of course not, no OS does this. (maybe OSX, being that the hardware is rather restricted). I'd like to see windows do that. That being said, linux hardware detection is getting better fast. Now, assuming one isn't interested in paying the apple luxury tax and buying logic 7, there's not a lot of options for distributing processing efficiently across multiple machines. There's FXTeleport, and that's about it. Take dyne:bolic for example. Burn a few free copies and throw em into a few boxes at your schools computer lab, and you've got some serious processing power. Granted you might have to do some work to configure sound on one machine. Of course, if you're using older hardware, chances are it's going to be auto-detected. Using a portable USB interface is almost guaranteed to work.

That's just an example off the top of my head. Linux is still a specialist thing, but it's not really that difficult. Like any new thing, you need to spend some time adjusting and learning how to find answers. I think that's what puts most people off it.

Of course, the respective developers of Tracktion and energyXT have both mentioned they want to port to linux, and jorgen even has energyXT running on linux using OSS. As well, you can apparently run the VST versions of energyXT through WINE on freebsd and debian. (This of course requires a lot more work)

Since I've pretty much forgotten what my original point was, I'll just restate that Linux isn't that difficult, and it's getting more and more "user-friendly" (shudder) every day.

SJ_Digriz · Post by **SJ_Digriz** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 7:35 pm

Let me backtrack a bit, I use Linux as well. I'm just saying that this concept is stupid. In reality Linux/Unix is ideal for the application BECAUSE it allows you access to the most fundamental aspects of your hardware for tweaking. But, this is exactly the weakness as well.

So, I'm not fanboying Windows or Mac, as much as I was commenting on the claims of that web site.

db and jtxx...ok, I took your posts out of context, sorry for that.

pljones : yes there are compatability issues on every platform. Believe it or not though, Linux usually has bleeding edge drivers BEFORE windows. You just have to be a bithead to get them to work. They are typically buggy as hell and it is a long time before they end up as stable defaults. There are problems and there are PROBLEMS. If you think its ruff in Windows go download any Linux distro..........

SJ_Digriz · Post by **SJ_Digriz** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 7:38 pm

glurgle wrote:That's just an example off the top of my head. Linux is still a specialist thing, but it's not really that difficult. Like any new thing, you need to spend some time adjusting and learning how to find answers. I think that's what puts most people off it.

My point is that their are people that can't get MIDI to work in Logic on a Mac. WTF are they gonna do with a Linux distro no matter how pre-packaged.

moonlite · Post by **moonlite** » Sun Feb 13, 2005 8:12 pm

SJ_Digriz wrote:
glurgle wrote:That's just an example off the top of my head. Linux is still a specialist thing, but it's not really that difficult. Like any new thing, you need to spend some time adjusting and learning how to find answers. I think that's what puts most people off it.
My point is that their are people that can't get MIDI to work in Logic on a Mac. WTF are they gonna do with a Linux distro no matter how pre-packaged.

of course /they/ shouldn't even try. but for /me/ it would be ideal. the only thing keeping windows on my desktop computer is vst.

linux is not for everybody. a good sequencer and plugin support for linux or bsd would be great for me and many other.

not everybody.

Studio....to go Linux OS sequencer