[sdiy] Linux and Sound

[Michael Baxter]

Hello SDIYers,

While I'm still building my analog transistor-based synth, I could not 
help but comment on some of the comments seen in recent posts about a lack 
of open source softsynths, or ease of use for sound in Linux. 

This is patently false; softsynths and numerous powerful free sound tools
exist in Linux, and they are easy to use. In particular, the new 2.6
kernel series dramatically improves the I/O situation for multimedia. I
have kernel 2.6.5 via SuSE Linux 9.1 running on a picayune laptop, and
this new kernal makes my applications and I/O run as much as 100% faster.
Linux is powerful, robust, and easy to use, and most importantly it
provides freedom -- an important ingrediant for SDIY development, IMHO.

I generally agree with what I think is the general sentiment in the SDIY 
community that real knobs are better than computer keyboards and displays 
for control surfaces -- but I wanted to dispell the myth that Linux and 
sound are hard to use or don't work well for digital sound synthesis and 
processing on Linux.

What follows are links to some of Dave Philips prolific Linux Journal 
articles on sound, particularly a recent international meeting of Linux 
Audio Developmers. Following are links to numerous open source softsynths.

Kindly yours,
Michael Baxter
Technical Editor, Linux Journal

At the Sounding Edge: Sounding Better All The Time
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=7514

Music Education with Linux Sound Tools:
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=7606

Open Source SoftSynths:
http://zynaddsubfx.sourceforge.net/
http://alsamodular.sourceforge.net/
http://qsynth.sourceforge.net/qsynth-index.html
http://www.fluidsynth.org/