Linux and music

[Sean Costello]

"P.M. van Nugteren" wrote:

> The trouble is that all these new products are promised a year before
> they come out, promised too much functions and then they rush things and
> all you get is some buggy software that looks cool but no more than
> that. I don't know about BeOS.

The cool thing is, if you know programming, you can dive into the code
yourself and fix what is wrong. Most of these apps are open source,
which is very cool - although some of them are released under the GPL
license, which I wouldn't touch with a 10-foot pole, as it really places
restrictions on any code you contribute. 

I use Linux all the time, to create music. I use Csound and SND. These
are admittedly not user-friendly tools, but the power is enormous. If
you can figure out how to build your own analog synth (or even if you
can't, and just lurk on this list like me ;) you can figure out how to
use Csound. The techniques you learn can be used in all of the Music
IV/V style languages, some of which have real-time capacities. I have
been programming unit generators in C to include in the Csound language,
using techniques I first worked out in Csound.

BeOS is a new commercial operating system that runs on Intel type
systems. It is designed from the ground up to be a realtime streaming
media operating systems. VERY VERY VERY low input/output latencies. Not
much working on it yet, but it shows a great deal of promise. Check it
out at http://www.be.com.

Sean Costello