State of Hard Disk Recording in Linux?

Madfishmonger asks: "I'm putting together a live computer rig for a band to play back backing tracks as well as simultaneously transmit MIDI program and control changes to various synthesizers and digital mixers. Are there any Linux-based apps (especially Linux PPC ^? , since we'll be running an older PowerBook) which can replace software like Logic, Cubase and ProTools for simpler tasks like managing MIDI ^? program changes and audio playback simultaneously, or which are even capable of rudimentary hard disk recording tasks, and will also work with the more common multi-IO MIDI interfaces from makers like MOTU and Emagic? I haven't heard of anything comparable to the current Mac and Windows-based technologies like TDM ^? , VST ^? , RTAS and ASIO, but is there anything in the works which could give the music community a third platform to work on, or do I have to wait for the big name proggies to come out on OS X?"

This is an excellent question

[1equal0]

I have been pondering this myself. I have no answer but let me post my similar related idea about using linux, bsd or OSX as a hard disk based personal hi-fi audio recorder. The reason I limited my selection to these OS's is I want a Tivo like stability. When I press record, I want to know it is recording. What I want is a Olympus style dictaphone that will work in the confines of my home. A little 2" x 4" note taker. But unlike the Olympus, which records with crappy 8Khz or 11Khz sound, I want 44Khz, 16bit sound, so I figured why not carry around a small wireless transmitter with on/off switch. I figured I would plug the receiver in the audio inputs of a *nix box. Then I need to find 1) single channel 44Khz, 16 bit linux/bsd recording app 2) a wireless transmitter/receiver (which possibly has a serial port trigger). 3) The app needs to poll the voltage on the audio input jack and start/stop recording accordinly. This would have the added advantage that the little RED broadcasting LED on the transmitter would by definition correspond to the actual recording state of the linux box. Alternatively, use a transmitter that possibly has a serial port control, although it seems to me that you'd be sacrificing the LED. Heck maybe the simplest thing is to just buy a 2nd tivo for this purpose, and a leapfrog for whole house use. Only downside is no LED so no visual confirmation on the transmitter that you are recording...

Stick with cubase ...

[OmegaDan]

There really isn't much out there ... There is a decent hard disk recording package (x86 only?) -- but it has no midi functionality ... how many channels of audio do you think a *powerbook* can record simultaneously? :) Im gonna guess its a small integer under 5 :)

For years, suffering with win98 and cubase 3.5 ... the hourly crashes, unstable midi I wished cubase ran under linux ... But, cubase runs like a *dream* under Win2k. *rarely* crashes (won't say never), midi accuracy/percision is dead on...

This being said, even if there was a cubase clone *today* it still wouldn't be that usefull ... Cubase is your bread and butter, but DX/VST plugins make the cake (to use a bad pun). Im going to speculate wildly that there are probably less then 1000 people in the world with the knowledge to write *professional quality* effects ... And they're pulling 6 figure salaries from Steinberg, TC, Antares, Roland, Novation, KORG, GEM, etc :) They're not writing free plugins for a plugin architecture that dosen't exist on an OS that dosen't have a decent sequencer.

Anyways, thats the state of things as they are ...

For a second oponion, pose your question to the linux audio developers mailing list:
http://www.linuxdj.com/audio/lad/
they may tell you differently, but remember, they're advocates ...

dan
thg music group

Re:Stick with cubase ...

[sg_oneill]

Should be worth mentioning tho that VST plugins work charmingly under Audacity and plenty of other software, although Audacity does seem to suffer from some synch problems.

Doont know bout for Linux tho.

Linux HDR suggestions

[divbyzero]

As with nearly every question pertaining to audio, MIDI, and music on Linux, Dave Philips' site [bright.net] is pretty much the definitive resource. You'll probably want the section on HDR software [bright.net].

From the discussion on the Linux Audio Developers' mailing list, Ardour [sourceforge.net] seems to be the most powerful of your options, designed to beat even ProTools.

Re:Linux HDR suggestions

[OmegaDan]

I actually worked "for" dave philips for awhile trying to develop an audio-specific linux distro ... it was a crushing ammount of work and everyone eventually gave up :)

Linux Audio

[Anonymous Coward]

What you may not know is that there's an amazing bit of GPL'd software out there called JMAX, put out at www.ircam.fr/jmax. This is a graphical interactive programming environment for midi and live audio. (Ircam being the world's premiere electro-acoustic music center) The DSP is in C, and the gui is in java (they are seperable). It is quite powerful, yet easy to learn. There are some recording capabilities built in (though, admittedly it is not as designed for recording as Cubase, etc.). Nevertheless, it's realtime audio capabilities are unmatched, and as a creative tool it's possibilities are great. It has support for the RME9652 (26 channels in, 26 channels out) so you could do some amazing live mixes and record those out to adat. Though it may not be quite what you need, it's an amazing tool for musicians (and has been used by serious composers for many years) and absolutely worth checking out.