Ask Slashdot: Best Cross-Platform (Linux-Only) Audio Software? 223
blogologue writes "I have played the guitar for some years now, and these days I think it's good therapy to be creative with music, learning the piano and singing as well. So far I've been using Audacity as the tool to compose improvisations and demos. I haven't done much audio work before, but it is already becoming too limited for my needs. Being a Linux-fanboy since the mid-nineties, I'm now looking for a good audio processing/editing/enhancing setup that can run on different platforms, the most important being Linux. Are there any suggestions for Open Source or proprietary audio editing software that run on Linux?"
Wat (Score:5, Insightful)
"Cross-Platform"
"Linux-Only"
Pick one.
Re:please correct me if you can (Score:1, Insightful)
Yes. You can hear the difference. The human auditory system is very sensitive to *delays* between auditory event, and uses the information to detect motion and location of sound sources.
Of course, once you've digitally sampled re-mixed, oversampled, undersampled, and basically run all that original analog information through the digitization blender that is modern "I can invent an audito theory that gets a new patent but has no actual benefit" technology, the information is about as us intact as the sensation of human skin detected by throwing baseballs at it and measuring how far the balls bounce.
Get your priorities in order (Score:4, Insightful)
Being a Linux-fanboy since the mid-nineties...
There's your first problem. Get over it; an OS is only a tool, a means to an end."I'm a Craftsman fanboy". "I'm a Snap-On fanboy." Sounds pretty silly, right? That's because it is silly. A tool is just that. It is either high-end and suitable, or it is junk and unsuitable for the task at hand.
If you're serious at all about your music, you use OS X or Windows. That's where the action is. Full stop. That's where the the real music software will be found; nowhere else. Swallow your pride, choose one of those 2 OS's, and get on with making music. Honestly, this is like GiMP vs. PhotoShop, but on a whole other level. There is NO comparison. Get on with life, and leave Linux in the server room, where it belongs. ALL of the pro-level tools (and most of the toy stuff, too) is on OS X and Windows. Why are you restricting yourself? You're killing your potential and being held back by insisting on using third-rate tools. And for what? Because you're a "fanboy"? Good God, man, grow up!
I say this as someone who makes their living as a Linux sysadmin. I use OS X at home, because I don't let a misguided sense pride get in the way of making music, among other things. You use the right tool for the job. PERIOD. Honestly, who intentionally sabotages themselves?
Mod me down, boys...
Nothing. In my Professional Opinion. (Score:4, Insightful)
There is nothing. There is no good solution for you. That was the answer in 2005 when I first asked it, and that is the answer today.
Even an ancient copy of Cool Edit Pro running on Widows XP is more usable, useful, and powerful than any audio software available natively on Linux. Your non-professional, non-Windows options all share many (if not all) of these problems:
1. Limited basic functionality
2. Extensible only through writing your own code
3. Difficult (impossible) to configure
4. Literally the worst UIs you will ever see in your entire life
5. Often unable to work with digital mixers and audio interfaces
In the time it would take you to get something useful and functional working in Linux, you could spend the cash you would have made working minimum wage on Windows and Audition (or just pirate a copy of Cool Edit Pro).
Re:Ardour (Score:4, Insightful)
I think what he means is that it can't be Windows-only or Apple-only, but Linux-only is fine. I'm sure he doesn't mean "will work on any distro" by "cross-platform", he just wants it to work on his box.
Both the headline and the summary are just laziness.
Had the submitter taken 5 minutes and done a search, he would have found plenty of software available - and cross-platform at that - to do what he wants.
Or maybe it was just an excuse to link to his soundcloud page?
Re:Ardour (Score:2, Insightful)
Since he plays guitar and sings he also needs the DAW to accept drivers for audio digital interface devices like MOTU [motu.com] or even Line 6 [line6.com]. Without those, or without a simple way to get the software to work with them, you can't do anything reasonable with guitars or microphones. Just plugging into the computer's input gives shite sound quality which is why you need an interface.
I tried a couple years ago and gave up on Linux for recording. Someone suggested 'JACK' [jackaudio.org] and Ardour but bloody hell, JACK was so convoluted and a pain to understand and never seemed to work or never worked simply, that I just said screw it and use Windows 7 with Cubase. My time is worth something too, and considering I already owned the Windows box, another 500 bucks for Cubase was a real deal compared to endless hours getting it to work on Linux (anything is easy if you know how, and I didn't know how on Linux, nor do I think it is worth the hours and hours of time to learn when I can just use something else that simply works). I want to play music when I record, not fuck around configuring the OS and drivers. On Windows I just installed the ASIO [wikipedia.org] driver for my digital interface and selected it in Cubase and I was done. A couple minutes tops.
Until Linux gets its head out of its ass in terms of driver support (even if they are proprietary) I would stay well and gone away from it for recording. Unless you like spending more time configuring the workstation than actually recording stuff.