DeMuDi Linux

Sleen writes: "DeMuDi stands for Debian Music Distribution. This is the first distribution of GNU/Linux whose sole purpose is to create a stable OS for Multimedia. The project is led by Guenter Gieger who is the developer of the Linux low latency driver for the RME Hammerfall 96xx series. Combined with realtime kernel patches, the Hammerfall card in Linux can achieve hardware level latencies. Though many are already using Linux to make music, Guenter has started this project to consolidate the decentralized resources needed for setting up a linux system for multimedia. Drivers, applications, a realtime kernel and many other things are missing from the typical linux distro. If anyone wonders what is available to work with, take a look at the packages page. They include multitrack hard disk recording software, physical modelling and virtual analog synthesizers, beatboxes, midi sequencers, processors, and Advanced Open Architecture Synthesis systems such as Csound. For more information such as project details, a mailing list and contact info visit DeMudi.org."

This is very nice...

Music production requires a decent amount of hardware to work right, particularly for those that like to play a instrument directly to a digital version (ala midi keyboards). Notoriously a heavy OS can get in the way as to increase latency and reduce the quality of the final product. Linux is well suited since the OS can be very small and avoid latency. I'd love to see a similar project used for video technologies too; sure Linux doesn't have a Premiere-like program, but if someone develops the groundwork for a sleek kernel to avoid interrupting digital real-time editing, someone will write the necessary tools.

Re:CSound

I thought EMACS was to text editing what a howitzer is to precision shooting:)

(I use emacs, so don't get all pissy)

Ardour

The most surprising thing was that Ardour was packaged and included in that distribution (http://ardour.sourceforge.net/ [sourceforge.net]). For those who don't know, ardour is Paul Barton-Davis's professional DAW software package, and is quite possibly the most important professional audio application available for Linux.

So many of us have had problems setting ardour up. This is definately a godsend to anyone looking to do professional audio work, which is consistently overlooked when people are designing operating systems and environments.

I wonder how long until this story is overrun by "Linux audio SuX! Use BeOS!" or "Mac RuLeZ!" posts...

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Re:Multitracking on Linux -

Are these multitracking / hard disk recording packages new? And for this distro only? Are there user reviews of any of these packages?

Are these multitracking / hard disk recording packages new? And for this distro only?

Are there user reviews of any of these packages?

I'm still using a Mac and Deck or ProTools for multitracking / hard disk recording and would love a stabler, though just-as-able alternative ...

BeOS looked real good for awhile - especially Pebbles - but things have way slacked off. Any additional, personal usage info would be great.

If you're looking for multitracking, you can use either Broadcast2000 [heroinewarrior.com] (which is fairly limited, since it doesn't use ALSA, AFAIK) or Ardour [sourceforge.net] (which is very far in development).

I believe that both are included in this distribution (check the package list if you're not sure).

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Some corrections to the "article"

The project is led by Guenter Gieger who is the developer of the Linux low latency driver for the RME Hammerfall 96xx series. Combined with realtime kernel patches, the Hammerfall card in Linux can achieve hardware level latencies.

• Not "realtime" patches to the kernel. The patches in question are "low latency" patches that decrease scheduler latency. They have nothing to do with RTLinux or "hard realtime" programming.
• Guenter didn't write the "native" digi9652 driver, Winfried Reitsch did that. Guenter hacked Pd to use the driver. There is also an ALSA [alsa-project.org] driver for the Hammerfall (I wrote it) that was based loosely on Winfried's driver.
• "hardware latencies" is a loose term. lets just say that a properly written application can use any audio interface via ALSA to get audio i/o latencies that are bounded only by the h/w design.
• I don't think Guenter started Demudi, but I think he may be those most active developer involved in its evolution. Most active by far, in fact.

If you are a developer working on or interested in Linux audio software, I also encourage you to check out the Linux Audio Development [linuxaudiodev.org] web site.

--p

Re:Again, Linux's issue is software

As the author of Quasimodo, I beg to differ. Quasimodo is not a sequencer, and more importantly, its a dead project at this point, for many reasons. You should be looking at MusE [muse.seh.de] which is a really high quality MIDI sequencer. As an aside, if the MIDI specs look daunting, I would forget about even considering programming in this field. MIDI is one of the simplest protocols there is, and one of the simpler problems in the area of MIDI/Audio programming. --p

GNU Music

Wop-bop-a-loom-bop-a-bop-bam-boom
GNU DeMuDi au rutti
GNU DeMuDi au rutti
GNU DeMuDi au rutti
GNU DeMuDi au rutti
GNU DeMuDi au rutti
Wop-bop-a-loom-bop-a-bop-bam-boom

Thank you.

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Re:Specialized Distros!

In an earlier /. story, an animator from ILM explained that the reason they dumped Windows for Linux was not the cost, but that they could customize Linux to meet their needs.

Specialized Distros!

I have to admit, even though a specialized distro is not really a new concept I'm quite intrigued. Imagine that instead of selling a card that plugs into a PC (as it's sometimes done now), a company could sell an entire PC with a home brewed Linux distro. Obviously the price would be higher but that kind of custimization could lead to some really interesting setup from a professional perspective. Kinda like the embedded concept but scaled a lot higher!