Re: Just Got Back From NAMM. Why so little Linux?

M0she_ wrote:

If "average Jane" is a professional in the audio industry, then I
imagine it's fair to presume a strong technical foundation. Would
you disagree?

Some more than others.
In terms of working with their gear, definitely yes,
In terms of knowing the innards of an operating system, probably
no.

In terms of being able to learn?

That goes even more so for musicians.
They just want to use the thing, not program it.

Yes ok, but compare keyboard players that use only presets because they
don't want to learn how to program their synths to those who came up
with their own original sounds. After hearing the same presets a few
times (remember the DX EPIANO, I believe it was called?) you start to
hear the player with original sounds as more interesting than the one
with presets, even if they're both equally skilled players. The same
is true for guitar players and programmable effects (in many cases I'm
sure those aren't even meant to be actually played with, so much as to
demonstrate the extremes of the unit's capabilities).

The guys who take the time to learn how to get the most of their systems
(whether that be a single multi-effector unit for a guitar player, a new
synth for a keyboard player, signal processing for someone doing live
mixing, or DAW software and the system it runs on for someone recording)
tend to produce more interesting outcomes. That means there's a
learning curve that the user chooses to embark on (or not), regardless
of the underlying system.

I have to say that I find it odd that this discussion is taking place
on the same newsgroup, and at approximately the same time as the
thread about how music these days is so mass-produced and prepackaged
compared to decades ago when there was a stronger DIY ethic involved.
In this thread, a lot of the same people are telling me that musicians
and recording engineers (professional or not) don't WANT the DIY ethic,
they want the prepackaged pablum! I'm having a tough time reconciling
these two views ...

My neighbor is a neurosurgeon and he doesn't know one end of a
CAT5 cable from the other.

Sure, and my network admin colleagues couldn't tie two neurons together
with a shoelace knot ... However, many of them are into playing (and
perhaps recording) music ...

HD system comes with hardware. It's a more complex install.

Exactly. If Ardour were packaged with an RME card, and reasonable
converters, with the software, JACK, required libraries, and a minimal
set of plugins all on a DVD with a simple installation routine, would
it be given a more fair chance (I'm expecting to still see someone reply
"but only Linux users want to use Linux; the rest of us just want to do
audio ...")

The thing is he doesn't have to install OSX.

True. Let's level the playing field the other way, then, and give him a
system with a reasonably current Linux distribution pre-installed ...
(now I'm getting into the way hypothetical, though, because the obvious
next question is "ok, who provides such a system?" ...)

It comes pre-installed, but even still it's a matter of clicking a
couple times and it's done. Much like Linux when done as the only OS
on the system.

Exactly, depending on the distribution.

The fun with Linux starts when JACK, ALSA and then Ardour enters
the picture.

Well, ALSA is incorporated into the Linux kernel, so it's not an issue,
actually. Ardour is the application in question (which unless a
comparable DAW ships with MacOS or Windows, needs to be installed on
whatever OS is the target), and JACK is a special bit of software that
permits Ardour to share the sound hardware with other software,
interconnect the different pieces of software, and basically helps turn
the whole thing into a proper music system. I'm quite certain that
there are similar bits of software for MacOS and Windows, and that these
are requirements for the featureful DAW software packages.

For Windows he clicks Asio or wdm and is done with it.

How does he know which to choose? Do neither of these permit him to
fine-tune performance?

With Linux he starts Jack and gets some message about it having to
run high priority or as root etc and he is now lost.

Ah .... I would expect that to have been taken care of (by a script that
runs) at installation time. I would argue that's a failure of whoever
packaged JACK for the Linux distribution in question. This is indeed
a concern, yes, but it's a side-effect of Linux (the operating system
kernel) being designed from the start as a multi-user system with a
clearly defined division of privileges between "users" and the system
administrator.

I imagine you already understand that, so please bear with my overly
simplified explanation. The details aren't the issue, but if a
pre-packaged JACK doesn't set things up accordingly at installation time,
that is an issue.

Can we presume at least that professionals in the audio industry are
some steps above technophobes?

Some are and some aren't.
It runs the gamut from people building their own custom gear to
people who are golden eared and only want to run the gear.
When it breaks they pay someone to fix it.

Dream gig for both involved, I imagine. Anyone on this newsgroup lucky
enough to be in that position? Anyone who's taken part in this
discussion?

--
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Sylvain Robitaille syl@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Systems analyst / AITS Concordia University
Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science Montreal, Quebec, Canada
----------------------------------------------------------------------
.

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