Rosegarden 1.0 Released 39
bonch writes "Rosegarden 1.0 has been released for Linux. From the website: 'Rosegarden is one of the most comprehensive Linux music software projects, and is the only Linux application to offer full composition and recording capabilities to musicians who prefer to use classical notation.' Rosegarden is free software under the GPL. Take a tour or find a package for your distro."
Wow (Score:1)
Rosegarden (Score:4, Informative)
There have been lots of exciting developments in OSS music software in the past year or two.
Re:Rosegarden (Score:2)
Re:Rosegarden (Score:2)
So I guess maybe it's:
Linux audio (Score:4, Insightful)
Rosegarden in conjuntion with jack, ladspa, ardour and a lot of other packages are getting to the point where profesional audio in linux comes closer to a reality.
I know that it has still a way to go to be at the level of other platforms, but the gap is closing. It is already posible to work in audio with linux.
Re:Linux music (Score:2)
Re:Linux music (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Linux music (Score:2)
I RTFA, but... (Score:1)
1) define MIDI synth. Is this an external keyboard that is hooked up and controlled from the program?
2) It says "Rosegarden includes synth plugin support for sample-accurate synthesis of MIDI tracks." OK. This sounds like how Voyager once got out of a sticky situation. Does this mean that Rosegarden makes the noises, and NOT an external keyboard device?
Basically, I would like to tinker with sounds. I know my sound card that I already have, cheap and old as
Re:I RTFA, but... (Score:1)
Re:I RTFA, but... (Score:5, Informative)
If I imagine a noise and manipulate the controls of Rosegarden expertly, will I get the noise that I'm looking for?
To be able to do that, you'll probably want something like a modular softsynth. For Linux, there's ams [sourceforge.net]. That combined with a virtual keyboard like vkeybd [alsa-project.org] is enough (given the "expert manipulation" part). Something like Rosegarden could then act as the "player" of the synth (which is like the "instrument").
If you really want to get down to the bits and bytes, there's pd [puredata.org].
The easy road to all this is to install the AGNULA [agnula.org] Linux disribution, which comes with a shitload of software.
Re:I RTFA, but... (Score:5, Informative)
For example, I have a Creative SBLive! card which is supported. I load a patchset using the asfxload utility, and my hardware synth can be accessed at MIDI port 65:0. I also have Timidity+ installed, and it's found at port 128:0. And finally, I have an external MIDI keyboard (an old Yamaha PSR-300) which is connected via a gameport to MIDI adapter cable to the SBLive!. The external keyboard is at port 64:0.
Using ALSA's "pmidi" command, I can spool a midi file to any of these devices, so I can actually make the Yamaha play the file externally. I haven't checked out the latest Rosegarden yet, but if it supports ALSA now, then it should be able to output to any of these devices. Old versions only supported the old linux OSS device /dev/sequencer, or you could output a midi file and play it however works best for you. Supposedly you can also capture MIDI and WAV data from external keyboards and other sources but I haven't figured that out yet.
Rosegarden is very cool if you have ALSA sound. I use it to write sheet music scores for my drums, bass, and synth tracks. Then I play the midi file and jam along with my electric guitar which runs into the soundcard through an amp simulator on the line in port. The computer mixes the output together and sounds great. The amp simulator (Zoom 503) basically makes my guitar sound like its being miked from an overdriven Marshall stack and that way I don't have to have a bunch of effects pedals daisy chained together to get a decent sound from the guitar. There are newer amp simulators like the PoD units that are also ideal for running a guitar directly into a soundcard.
Yes, you too can be just like Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails, making weird music in your own home all by yourself with a Linux computer, Rosegarden, and some rather inexpensive equipment.
Another really cool music creation program to check out is Cecilia [ufl.edu]. It is a pretty technically oriented synthesizer package which can make some really weird sounds: think Pink Floyd. I haven't figured out how to really use it in combination with Rosegarden yet, but its a blast to play around with it and make strange sounds. Cecilia is pretty crashy and hasn't been updated in a while, but it's still a very nifty toy to fool around with.
recurring list... (Score:1)
Is there a more turnkey system? (Score:2)
I took a look at Rosegarden not too long ago and thought it was impressive, but it really isn't a turn-key system--there are just too many ducks to line up (ALSA, JACK, getting MIDI sound libraries, etc.). I got the impression that if I had already shelled out the big bucks for the right hardware, it would be a lot easier. But for someone who just wants to play around with notes on the screen, is there something simpler and turn-key?
It's on their site (Score:4, Informative)
Re:It's on their site (Score:1)
Thanks, I don't think that was available back when I tried it.
Re:Is there a more turnkey system? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Is there a more turnkey system? (Score:5, Informative)
Agnula/PlanetCCMA/Apodi LIVE-CD = turnkey ... (Score:1)
In fact, you could say that the LiveCD solution is *THE* solution for the most reliable Digital Audio Workstation setups these days
Linux Audio Aplications (Score:5, Informative)
ardour (Score:3, Informative)
ardour [ardour.org]
Fruity Loops Like? (Score:2)
Pretty Sweet (Score:1)
Re:Pretty Sweet (Score:1)
No, I'm guessing it wouldn't run well on that
now I just need a working midi device.. (Score:2)
Kinda a bummer, to have to use timidiy to play sound.
Re:now I just need a working midi device.. (Score:2)
Re:now I just need a working midi device.. (Score:4, Informative)
A couple of large soundfonts are here at this site: PersonalCopy [personalcopy.com].
These fonts suck up a ridiculous amount of RAM, like 500M or so, so use the ones from your CD if possible (I bought my card second hand so I had to scrounge around).
Honestly, the SBLive (emu101k) is probably the best supported modern sound card available for Linux. When you compile your kernel for ALSA, just check all the MIDI options and build them all as modules. In this case its better to make modules which you don't know what they are than to not make them.
If you are using some distro with a canned kernel, then try running "alsaconfig" which should set up the modules automatically. ALSA used to be a huge pain to set up but in the last year or so there have been some big improvements since it is now the default sound system for Linux and OSS has been declared obsolescent.
To test it out, use the "pmidi" command. For example:
pmidi -p 65:0 myfile.mid
If you don't hear anything then either your mixer has the "music" slider muted, you haven't loaded the right kernel modules, or you haven't loaded a soundfont. Once it is all set up its pretty sweet.
BTW, the OPL3 is just the (Adlib) FM synthesis chip, it doesn't have anything to do with MIDI for the most part.
Re:now I just need a working midi device.. (Score:2)
I need to get some better midi patches, but its way better than the old rosegarden. To many features to learn all at onces, but its got pretty good documentation in the help. I really love this, thanks a bunc
QT dependent... (Score:1)
Re:QT dependent... (Score:3, Interesting)
Yeah, the QT and KDE dependencies kind of suck, but what are you gonna do. I run Gentoo with Gnome, but there are a couple of programs that I use that require QT and there is just no getting around it. QCad and LyX come to mind. I was really bitching to myself about LyX depending on QT until I read somewhere on the net that LyX's author is the founder of KDE! O
Re:QT dependent... (Score:4, Interesting)
There's a lot of history behind the Rosegarden developers choice of Qt and KDE. The original Rosegarden dates from the early 1990's, when free toolkits for X GUI development were limited to pretty much nothing but Athena. Rosegarden managed to look good, which was a remarkable acheivement for any application written with the Athena toolkit.
In the late 1990's, the original Rosegarden developers wanted to do a ground up rewrite using a modern GUI toolkit. One of the main developers is very keen on OOP, so C++ was the obvious choice for the implementation. This was attempted using bits of the then nascent GNOME platform, but got bogged down because the GTK+ binding for C++ was not up to scratch.
The dissatisfaction with the GTK+ bindings for C++ lead to the current incarnation of Rosegarden, which uses Qt and KDE. The Rosegarden developers have commented a number of times that using the Qt/KDE framework has saved them having to reinvent the wheel on a number of occasions.
GNOME is my preferred desktop, and GTK+ is my preferred toolkit for GUI development. However, I'm more than happy to install the base KDE libraries to run Rosegarden, as nothing else can touch it for sequencing on Linux.
Runs on 64-bit, too! (Score:1)
Rosegarden and VST support (Score:2, Informative)
hardware issue (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:hardware issue (Score:2)
MP3 DSP (Score:2)