Tracktion Software

zOap · Post by **zOap** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 10:02 pm

Myself I am a Linuxgeek, particularly(?) a Debian geek.
I love Linux and everything it stands for.
In the same way I love Tracktion, it stands out in the crowd of sequencers as a fresh breath in an overcrowded mexican bar. I loooove it.
When Jules designed Juice, the app porter for various platforms, my heart jumped over a beat, hoping that T2 would be ported to Linux, but neih, Jules says that it's up to Mackie, and they aren't all that interested. And that is a honest, I can certainly understand that it would create some headache for them:)

But, as the lovely app that T2 is, it is actually not that hard to use in a linux environment. I have succesfully installed and are running T2 on Debian Sarge with the 2.6.12 kernel. I use Wine as the protocol to make it so. It all works ok, accept for one vital thing. The testmachine is built with an ac97 codec which has some problems with T2 and Wine. But I am working on it, and hopefully I will get it to work. Now, for this to be really exciting I need to get my Digidesign MIX 882 interface and DD 001 to work in Linux. So far I have not discovered any drivers attempted to work under linux. But I will not give up just yet:)

Similarly, I have succesfully installed and executed FX Teleport on Linux. I also have managed to run these VSTi's:
ReFX Vanguard
TC Works
z3ta+
Sytrus
Albino
All mda plugins
Cameleon 5000
NI Intakt
NI Battery2
NI Absynth
Bass-station
Hydra
The superwave bundle
Waves Diamond 5.2
Izotope Ozone 3

Do you have any similar succes stories with Linux, Unix, Bsd? Please post them here.
Also, if you have succesfully managed to get ac97 to work, or any of the Digidesign interfaces above, I would love to hear about it.

Note: I don't know how various vendors opinions on me testing out their software on Linux. Jules didn't mind, I don't know about the rest, none of them responded to my mail asking if it were ok. I do own the software so I believe it is my right. But so did DVD-Jon... so....
Time will show:)

zOap · Post by **zOap** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 10:30 pm

Please, if you answer yes or no on the poll, please state why also, since it could be interesting to know why you do or don't:)

scamme · Post by **scamme** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 10:54 pm

Hi, i voted 'yes' becouse:
I love all the concept of Linux as OS.
I like the way things are with the GNU licence software development, there are so many top quality applications in that area.
I also like Traction (1.6 NFR in my case).

My only problem is that i have a very hard time to set up Jack.

Jafo · Post by **Jafo** » Sun Oct 02, 2005 11:03 pm

Yes.

It'd be great to use the app I prefer on the OS I prefer without going through the hurdles and emulations I so dearly despise.

Lunch Money · Post by **Lunch Money** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 12:40 am

I voted 'yes' simply because it would make some people happy and give some hardcore Linux users a robust audio app. No point shutting people out that could be brought into the fold!

It's a qualified "yes", though--

- If it takes up a lot of Mackie resources, forget it. I don't know enough people running ONLY Linux to make it worthwhile if it's going to cost Mackie a bunch of dough.

- Linux users are accustomed to getting everything for free due to the largely open-source enthusiast userbase. Will they pay $200 for it? Hrmm....

So...

I voted "yes" to be nice, but I'll never need it myself, and I doubt there's really a market for it.

Greg

titanium · Post by **titanium** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 1:13 am

where is the "fish" option?

timmyo · Post by **timmyo** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 8:01 am

I voted "No" as it would undoubtedly mean that future development, new features and bug fixes would take longer to develop and test and would either slow development significantly or increase cost in the long term.

So it's a selfish vote, but an honest one

Lunch Money · Post by **Lunch Money** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 8:16 am

Ah, but the beauty of the JUCE framework is that it's already multi-platform, including Linux.

Agreed that it would slow things down a little, but not to the extent of companies that do not have a cross-platform framework.

Greg

ceenda · Post by **ceenda** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 9:10 am

Tried energyXT on linux recently, which was fun, but even after compiling DSSI-VST from scratch and trying to streamline things as much as possible, it was still slow as f**k and barely useable. Perhaps JUCE's native linux libraries would speed things up, but I'm still not convinced that VST performance via wine (or any DSSI link) is worth the hassle involved in setting it up.

I would try running T2, but sadly my frustration level with Linux has reached an all-time high and I doubt I'll go back to it. Linux may be "free", but my time is not.

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic ... ght=fedora

4damind · Post by **4damind** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 9:43 am

I voted "no".
this time (in my opinion) it's to unstable and to complicated to setup linux for music-usage. VSTs with the unstable Wine and Jack-setup, are things too complicated and mostly unusable. but this are the basics before all other things make sense.

First there must be a stable working and easy to use VST environment.

Linux is not ready in this business. I'm using Debian on my server and I used many distributions on my desktop since about 7 years. But for easy music-making as we can do this on windows or mac, I see this time no chance.

jalapeno · Post by **jalapeno** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 9:49 am

4damind wrote:I voted "no".
this time (in my opinion) it's to unstable and to complicated to setup linux for music-usage. VSTs with the unstable Wine and Jack-setup, are things too complicated and mostly unusable. but this are the basics before all other things make sense.

First there must be a stable working and easy to use VST environment.

Linux is not ready in this business. I'm using Debian on my server and I used many distributions on my desktop since about 7 years. But for easy music-making as we can do this on windows or mac, I see this time no chance.

I pretty much agree with this. Native VST support first, followed by Jack ease of use/config, THEN mainstream audio apps.

Linux is not ready yet, unfortunately.

IIRs · Post by **IIRs** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 10:10 am

I said yes, because from what I have seen Linux is fundamentaly more suitable for DAW work than Windows.. I think its high time we all kicked Bill Jobs & Steve Gates out of our studios, & I would like to see Mackie & Tracktion lead the way

IIRs · Post by **IIRs** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 10:12 am

For those who worry about supporting 3 OS platforms: Linux will run on any hardware, so supporting that could be the first step towards eventually dropping Windows and Mac support

larsby · Post by **larsby** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 10:43 am

I voted Yes, my only concern is plugin availability. you would still have to run Wine to get most of the plugs working.

zOap · Post by **zOap** » Mon Oct 03, 2005 12:44 pm

IIRs wrote:I said yes, because from what I have seen Linux is fundamentaly more suitable for DAW work than Windows.. I think its high time we all kicked Bill Jobs & Steve Gates out of our studios, & I would like to see Mackie & Tracktion lead the way

Indeed

And you wouldn't have to reinstall winblows
every 6 months.

And you wouldn't have to use all your cpu power to
antivirus/adware/various scanners/win resources
and such.

And yes, Mackie and Tracktion is certainly the ones I want to lead the way.

As for the VSTi and JACK,
I know this is a nut to crack. But VST is just a dll
which the OS don't have to know what does, as long as the host knows what they are. I run FX Teleport with the VSTis just copied to the VST folder, nothing more.... For T2 too....

So it is possible, but someone have to want to do it...

Tracktion Software

KVR Audio

Linux success stories

Should Mackie port T2 to Linux?