From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Apr 8 03:28:52 2012 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C9B44106566C for ; Sun, 8 Apr 2012 03:28:52 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd-questions@herveybayaustralia.com.au) Received: from mail.unitedinsong.com.au (mail.unitedinsong.com.au [150.101.178.33]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 79E578FC0C for ; Sun, 8 Apr 2012 03:28:52 +0000 (UTC) Received: from laptop1.herveybayaustralia.com.au (laptop1.herveybayaustralia.com.au [192.168.0.182]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by mail.unitedinsong.com.au (Postfix) with ESMTPSA id 431955C22 for ; Sun, 8 Apr 2012 13:42:28 +1000 (EST) Message-ID: <4F8105F3.6060607@herveybayaustralia.com.au> Date: Sun, 08 Apr 2012 13:28:51 +1000 From: Da Rock User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; FreeBSD amd64; rv:7.0.1) Gecko/20111109 Thunderbird/7.0.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <201204072239.02765.lobo@bsd.com.br> In-Reply-To: <201204072239.02765.lobo@bsd.com.br> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Re: Music production on FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 08 Apr 2012 03:28:52 -0000 On 04/08/12 11:39, Mario Lobo wrote: > On Saturday 07 April 2012 21:04:41 Tony wrote: >> Hello! >> >> Is anybody aware of any talented producers who produce their music >> primarily on FreeBSD? >> >> Thanks! >> >> Tony > > Man, that has been my dream for a good while! > > Ardour is a fine multitrack but no MIDI, at least on FreeBSD. And FBSD itself > has lots of issues with MIDI. > > Besides that, there is the driver problem with most professional sound boards. > > I am going to attempt something a quite bit out of my league which is try to > port the alsa drivers for my echo Gina3G board to FBSD. If I can manage to do > that, then I believe the rest will fall on my lap by gravity. > > I hope I don't blow up my desktop. > > I'm eager to read the replies to the OP. > I have. Or more accurately my wife and co have, with me behind the wheel. My wife is a musician and music teacher, and we only use FreeBSD, so its a given here (and a massive drive for me to find a way to support it). We used simple tools: audacity, rosegarden, and hydrogen. We used a usb yamaha sound board, and a ribbon mic for the vocals. The biggest problem here is that rosegarden refuses to use jack for midi transport now, so even though there is a jack_umidi daemon in the ports it still wont pick it up. I'll have to look at another app like ardour and see if it is better there. Other than that, all good. Incidentally, the reason for the emphasis on rosegarden is that it does midi and audio multitrack; as well as notation editing. Apparently they're hell bent on only using alsa (God only knows why - must have a death wish or something...), with marginal support for jack. Hence they only support midi through alsa, not jack. Madness... The usb audio was a good call; the uaudio driver worked well in our case with jack, and given all work was done on a laptop it made sense. These days I think it makes more sense because of the portability, not to mention if the power happens to go off in the midst of a take you can keep going and finish the track ;) The only other option that would be ideal would be firewire audio - if that ever comes to FBSD. I think there may be some support through jack, but I haven't investigated that fully yet. And dont forget lilypond for notation... :)