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hello

im considering trading my mac in for a high spec laptop (ibm/dell etc) because apple are stnuc.

pure data looks like an incredible program, but i dont have a background in max/msp, only simple programs like reaktor. does anyone know what the learning curve is like with puredata? is puredata as good as i've heard it is?

does anyone else use linux? what other music wares is there for that os?

thank you, sorry bout the queastion overload
alan

Computer Music do a 1/4 of a page a month on Linux audio software - still not a big area as far as I can see. Looked on Kvr and managed to find a total of 2 vst instruments and no effects for Linux, so does not look promising.

just wondering why you'd choose to run linux for audio ?

it'll be quite a serious jump from the 'softly softly treat you nice' UI of OSX and as goes music software you're pretty limited.. why not just run windoze? you'll have *so* much more choice..

i've got windows. i got given a desktop pc and i use it for arrangement.

my laptop is for improv and live work. im also after a challenge and open source software is ideal for music. im sick of being able to hear which vst/i's people are using.

i can use reaktor fairly well, so hopefully it won't be to big a jump, its just i have to learn code

also i dont like these massive conglomerate company, and i prefer freeware,

there's a whole distro for linux that's based around audio apps called agnula/demudi I have it but I can't boot it up cos the hd it's on has a major error. The only problem I had was getting it to recognise my sound card, which is as it goes is fairly fundamental to an audio based distro. Spent ages fucking about to no avail. It did recognise the soundcard which I didn't want to use though. Possibly subsequent releases might work because I've had versions of knoppix since that version that do recognise my soundcard.

PD has a huge amount of documentation around online. I've got it on my desktop but I've never got much further than tinkering with the things that came with it. Mainly because I never had any real intention of using it. It was more of an exercise in seeing if I could get it to work or not.

yeah i know what you mean in terms of 'hearing' vsts and so forth but sometimes is it not just avoiding the issue a little by over-complicating your setup ?

i have this very *embryonic* theory that we, as electronic musicians, are too often guilty of over-complicating our setups as some kind of 'putting off' or 'avoiding the issue' type reaction to the 'task at hand' of creating something genuinely new and exciting with audio/music. I would agree that throwing yourself the odd curve ball by limiting tools or jumping into a new creative environment is almost essential sometimes to satisfy all of our latent ADD but i think at the same time we can push it a little too far.

anyway. dont wanna hijack your thread.. just thought i'd throw in my 2p on the matter.

easy

ekstrak

There's actually many linux distributions aimed for music production. If I were just starting with linux I would choose between ubuntu and opensuse and then install either ubuntustudio or jacklab for suse.

I haven't tried PD simply because it looks far too complicated, although it looked fun now when I gave it closer look. There's countless other audio software for linux, but Ardour, Audacity, Rosegarden, Hydrogen and Wired are some that you might want to check.

There's also DSSI and LADSPA which are linux equivelants for vst/i's. Some windows vsts also work fine under linux with wine.

This video is also a good view.

ekstrak wrote: i think at the same time we can push it a little too far.

Correct

forensix (mcr) wrote:

ekstrak wrote: i think at the same time we can push it a little too far.

Correct

i know the sound i want, and i know how to get it. it may take 1 years it may take 5. and you know at the end of the day its just another string to my bow.

thanks everyone for the help, any more advise, would be greatly apperaciated