Making music with linux! :)
 

Hi everyone,
I'm made a website to showcase some of the linux-based virtual music synthesizers. If you are familiar with amSynth, you can find the link there to the developer's version, that you can add to your repositories, and have basically a whole new instrument. There are 5 banks of sounds I put together that can be downloaded, and a set of audio demos to hear some of the sounds.

I'll be adding other synths as well, but the amSynth page is at a good point.

Come and visit!

www.amsynth.com


Let me know what you think!

brian

Yo!

How about a showcase for other musicians showing off their studios and stuff? And a hearcase, where someone can publish (semi)finished stuff...

Maybe some tutorials on how to program synths, especially analog ones...

Some suggestions... :)

Thor

Finally! I thought you'd disappeared! :D

Yes, I'd love to showcase other people's work, just as long as it's largely done with the related instrument.
Tutorials might be a good idea too, especially if from someone better than me! :D

I've been spending a lot of time with amSynth, but I'm planning to focus on several of them as the month's roll on.. There are several neat ones. "Phasex" has recently undergone some neat changes, but I don't know if all the distros have the latest version. If you use Ubuntu Studio you should be able to get it. linuxmusicians.com is a great group of people helping out..

Anyway, I'm very open to suggestions..

brian

Well...I did, or better...my PC did. I did'nt survive a system update on Arch. A (perhaps) little known fact is that there are more types of console. Instead of running the update in the system console I (by accident?) took the Gnome console, and that one had a bug that kept it from properly storing the link to the kernel...so, after reboor: kernel panic!

I'm on an different box now...taking a time-out from the "bleeding-edge" rush for now...

And, yes, still no time for music, and yes, all the time goes into the house that needs painting, wallpaper, tiling, stuff... :)

Thor

Wow, talk about learning from other people's mistakes! I've never heard of that happening before.. At least everything's ok now!

Speaking of housework.. I wrestled all morning with a disobedient garage door.. But I won! :D

brian

The down-side of that stuggle is that you cannot put it in a corner like a kid...that would'nt help at all :D you just HAVE to win, there is no alternative...

Thor

Right. I was risking having the door crash down on the car... I would've had two problems instead of one! :D


brian

Hmm, not a good prospect...let's hope it lasts a while, these things can be expensive. Is it a sectional door, or a classical one-piece door?
I've got a sectional, that'll not crash into the car any time soon, these things have a rail they slide up and dons in, no risk of that comming down, unless the door is open and THEN...the frame detatches from the fixings...but, that's one in a zillion...heh...

No, it's a one-piece. Kind of old, but it's been sanded, repainted, and now also super-lubricated, so it opens and closes like it's on butter.. :)

It was the cable on one end that had snapped free, and so I had to find a new way to connect it again.

I just learned of a new app for linux for making music, very similar to Supercollider, called "din." You can see a neat video here: http://vimeo.com/19017469

Really neat!

brian

Hohoh....looks like the next-gen theremin... :)

Some new pages and demos have been added, synths like TAL NoizeM3k4r and Hexter, Zynaddsubfx and mx44 (version 2)!!

amSynth.com

brian

...just too bad the interface of the "new" amSynth is somewhat minimal, unless I'm missing a detail :)

Hi Thor!

Well, if you downloaded it from your standard repository you will have a very old version. The newest one (that is what you see on the website) is only by adding the repository on the link I gave. Otherwise, just wait another week or so, the newest version should finally be coming out in all the distros. (The "big" update)

Good to hear from you!
Almost springlike here in Italy now..

brian

Hmpf...lucky bumm, we still have some snow to plow thru :)

The interface is a brown (nice though) one, but, since I like twiddling knobbs...there's not a lot...still, AmSynthh is the workhorse here... ;)

THor

I've completed banks 8 and 9 for amSynth. ;) There's some interesting stuff in each bank, including some really warm sounds that I was surprised to discover. http://www.amsynth.com/amsynth.html

I'm also wanting to add "Triceratops" to the list of synths, but I've had problems running it correctly on KXStudio. Hopefully it'll be fixed shortly..

brian

Thanks! I'll download/enjoy them this weekend, it's a long one this time :D

I think the git version already has both banks in it.. just do an update of that repo and you should get the update. :)

We sure need a long weekend here too! :D

brian

Well, thursday is one of those national hollydays (belgium has quite a few) and thus the plant sorta "bridges the gap" by staying closed the friday as well...

PLans? Many. Installing Free BSD on a server, setting up the sorftware on that thing (Apache, PHP, MySQL, Java, security), getting one-on-one with these sound banks (and hopefully stretching the time a little to actually PLAY-n-record some things) tending to the garden (spring has arrived, finally), worjing on that HTML5 project, continuing on that other (Java) project...

Yep, I too will need every single moment...

Thor

That's a lot of projects! (Boy, I wish I were a programmer!)

Still, I keep on tweaking sounds. You can hear some of the newer ones on Soundcloud as well:
amSynth on Soundcloud

Here in Milan it keeps raining! No spring this year.. we'll be jumping right into the heat, in a matter of days...

brian

DONT!!!!! You'll never get a moment's rest! :) I work in a distribution center now, no computer in sight, I'm happier for it :D

...umm, that could mean Milan is located in ...belgium...or, we dont get any spring (or summer :( ) either...
Temperatures "soar" arond...12 degrees, centigrade...

I just played around with sound bank 10, some nice stuff, trhe rubbersteel2, that one's nice...
Now, how to I revert to the original bank, with sounds I needed :)

Thor

Indeed.. sometimes I can't feel my brain...

Heck, if you came to Milan you'd feel right at home! :D I gotta get over that way sometime in my life though..

btw, I always connect amsynth to some effects, especially chorus. It fattens things up a bit.

Glad you're finding a few sounds you like. Hearing that makes it worth the effort! ;)


brian

Eh...I gave up on that a long time ago... :)

Right now, there's sun, but it's not the kind of summer sun...yet. And above that, I live in a new house, no garden to speak from...the wind has free reign...and it's a nothern wind, pretty chilly :)

Here we still have the heat on! Incredible!

Here we still have the heat on! Incredible!

Well...yes and no, really. These springs/summers are pretty common, come to think of it. In belgium especially. There's a comic series here callen Spike & Suzy, and in one adventure, ome of the charactersd makes his way...through the rain...a "typical belgian summer"...so, really, not much has changed. But, it's annoying...at best :)

The longest days of the year now.. but we haven't seen much of the sun here. Of course, if the sun actually does come out, we'll be in for some very warm weather!

I don't remember Spike and Suzy, unfortunately. I think I would've liked them! :)
It reads they were called "Willy and Wanda" in the US, but it still doesn't ring a bell..

Suzy & Spike is somewhat ... local admidetly...but, it drills a point: bad summers have always been a fact/danger :)

It's full-out summer here, finally!!! :D

Yes, here too, it's starting to warm up! Lots of tourists now in Milan! :)

brian

...adds to the atmospere, you're in constant vacation mode :) how cool's that!

Vacation mode or not... it's getting hot!..... :D

I suppose it is on your end of the continent, too..?


brian

Well, the current prediction puts the needle around the 31°C (about 85°F if I'm not mistaken) but just for today. Well, why not, I've just hung out the laundry, would you know, it's dry already.... :)

Umm...Thanks martinjordan546, but, even so, I'd like to welcome you to this forum :) I noticed you just "checked in"...
Do you make music as well?
I use a softsynth (amSynth) to generate sounds. Brian provided some sound banks...
The whole setup here is:
- a mixer panel
- a synth
- a PC with the sortsynth (amongst others)
- a PC that has the recording sortware...
- inspiration...if and when it comes :)

What's your setup like?

Again: warmly welcomed here, and welcome to this thread!!


Thor

Yes, welcome martinjordan546!

There are several softsynths available for the linux platform. I have a website that showcases a few of them, you can see by clicking here: amsynth.com

Feel free to browse and ask questions! :)

brian

Just to update: Amsynth.com is now Linuxsynths.com Over 50 software audio synthesizers (and growing!) for the linux platform. (and some of the best around!)
Of course, linux is great for other audio and video production needs, too. :)


brian

Just to add to that...
- two MIDI keyboards (SIEL and Miditech)
- two computers (one per keyboard)
- samplers on the one, synths on the other
- mixer (EPM6)
- computer to record the thing (Audacity or Ardour, depending on the project)
Who needs a full blown studio? hehe
Melissa

In all these responses, music = sound. If anyone here is interested in writing sheet music, I'd like to recommend an awesome program called Philip's Music Writer. What this man has done is invent a coding language for music that provides equivalents for notes, rests, expression marks and any other musical signs you can imagine, all in plain text. You can create a file in your favourite editor, run it through the pmw program and hey presto! You have a postscript file that prints out as professional-looking sheet music. And if you don't like it, you can edit and play with your original file until you get it right.

Best of all, it has no dependencies except ghostscript.

Interesting.. -do you have a link?


brian

I like the idea of 2 computers! :D I'm currently using one for video and another for audio. :)

How technology has progressed!


brian

Since this thread is speaking about MIDI on Linux in general, <Shameless Plug :)> you might check out SeekMIDI/. It's a simple MIDI song editor written in Perl. It's not quite done yet, but it'll get there. </Shameless Plug>

Cool! So it's a sort of sequencer, right? Looks interesting and worth a try! -Keep us posted on any updates!


brian

Thanks! I'll try to keep you updated.

Yes, here is his site. The funny thing is we have a name in common, but we're definitely not related!

Greetz all
I don't use synths much since I'm more into traditional instruments and recording/editing but I am interested in all forms of Music and how this new digital world can be employed to put tools in musicians' hands. So I thought some of you might like to know about a great Forum created by the guy that wrote and developed Ardour, Jack, and much of LADSPA which has now been in existence for over 5 years and has expanded into covering all manner of Linux Audio work, including synths.

You can find it here -

GEARSLUTZ

Keep Playin! :D

Thanks Hazel! :) I mentioned it over at linuxmusicians too. Very interesting app. Kind of a nice alternative way to write sheet music at the computer, without the GUI frontends that are usually suggested. Looking at the source files at the link you posted, it looks pretty easy to get the hang of.

update: I'm now reading the manual from the zip file, it looks like midi control is indeed possible. Yay! Very intriguing!


brian

If anyone does want a GUI front-end to pmw, I did actually write one, because it's a lot easier editing a pmw file than creating one from scratch (unless you do it frequently). I only occasionally need to write out music and I keep forgetting the syntax. So I use my front-end to create a quick and dirty file as a starting point.

And you keep this stuff secret??? :)



brian

It's no secret. A lot of the folks who came over from Linux Forums know that I write the odd program now and then, just for fun. I've got a website at www.hrussman.entadsl.com where you can find out this stuff if it interests you.

ho, thanks for http://www.linuxsynths.com/ !!!
will check out in more detail.

btw, are you aware of radium?
i'm not using it, but i'm on their mailing list and there's been constant activity and development for years now, which i guess is a good sign, and the app itself is pretty unusual.

Lots of talent indeed! Thanks for the link, I'm browsing it already.. Keep me posted of any new additions!


brian

Thank you. It's been a while since I looked into Radium, and I think I know why: it is only 64-bit for linux (at least as indicated on their site), and I'm using 32-bit. Still, if a 32-bit comes to the surface I'll be more than happy to try it out!


brian

ah, but i see no reason why you couldn't compile it from source?
https://github.com/kmatheussen/radium
that would result in a full version, not a demo.
now i come to think of it, that's what many of the posts on the list are about.
the maintainer seems to have a strong philosophy of keeping it fully available, free and open(sourced) for users of FOSS operating systems.