Linux-Based Musical Keyboard Workstation Debuts

Henry G. writes "Lionstracs of Italy has released the Mediastation X-76 music workstation. It runs Red Hat and KDE 3.1. The base model features a 1.67 Ghz Athlon, 512MB RAM, 80GB HD, CDRW/DVD-ROM, 8.2" LCD, and a host of other things. Full specs can be found here and pictures can be found here. To this submitter, it looks more like a keyboardized computer than a computerized keyboard."

Can I run Logic on it ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Can I run Logic or any of the other industry-standard music applications ? If so, this would seem to be the breakthrough Linux has been waiting for in the audiophile/professional musician marketplace.

Website design: -1, Non-Intuitive

[RobertB-DC]

The site does seem to be behaving slowly, but perhaps that's because some "expert" told the company that "surfers love clicky color-changy grafx!"

The focal point is a picture of a keyboard, with these "helpful" navaids:

Click on the upper left part of the Mediastation to view the features.

Click on the upper right part of the Mediastation to view the specifications.

Click on bottom left part of the Mediastation to view the demos.

Click on the bottom right part of the Mediastation to view the screenshots.

Wow, that's clear. I always think "Demo" when I look at the bottom left corner of a keyboard at Best Buy.

It's a computerized keyboard, which implies a computer-human interface. Let's hope that the design team responsible for the web site wasn't allowed anywhere near the actual prodcuct. "Click on the penguin's right toe for MIDI Configuration!"

Re:Can I run Logic on it ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, Apple bought eMagic and Apple has a long history of porting applications to Linux such as Quicktime ... no wait ... iTunes ... no no hang on ... WebObjects ... ummmm. Apple is not interested in a 3 party OS world, it's them and Microsoft PERIOD. So long as Apple owns Logic, it will NEVER get ported to Linux because Apple like to imagine they're still number 2 even though we all know they're number 3 now.

Re:Do Musicians care about Linux?

[RobPiano]

Sorry man, you are amazingly disconnected with the computer music scene. Although many of are enjoying macosx now, most of us know and like unix.

Perhaps its while we are using pure-data [pure-data.org], or STK [stanford.edu] or maybe CLAM [iua.upf.es] or by chance audacity [sourceforge.net]

Linking is getting old, but being surronded by computer music, I promise you WE USE LINUX.

Kind Regards,
Rob

Answer: Some..

[msimm]

First off the availability [linux-sound.org] is slowly but steadily [hitsquad.com] increasing. With projects like Ardour [sourceforge.net] nearing major releases even professional recording studios are starting to take note. Even the home user is finding more [sourceforge.net] useful tools available. And with preemptive [tech9.net] kernels there's lots of possibilities.

The future for Linux holds many things. Hackers composing music? You bet.

Movie industry key in bringing linux audio to life

[blueworm]

Two things need to happen before Linux can be used in a digital audio setting:

1. Drivers for at least one professional audio card need to be written for linux. I would expect to see multi-channel recording, midi, and ASIO 2.0 drivers at the very least.
2. Applications like Cubase, WaveLab, Sonar, and Reaktor need to become available for linux.

We've still got quite a long way to go before this becomes a reality, but if hollywood keeps using Linux for movies then eventually they might start demanding it for their scorers. The movie industry is key in making professional Linux audio a reality.

Re:A piano keyboard for input?

[rsidd]

The Germans use H for B (and B for B-flat), that should help. (Thus Bach managed to encode his name into the last fugue he wrote, and it breaks off unfinished soon after he introduces that motif). Even more possibilities occur when you consider that E-flat is written Es, F-sharp is Fis, etc. Dmitry Shostakovich used DSCH (= D - Eflat - C - B) in many of his works.