Anyone using EnergyXT 2.7?

[GMaq]

Hi,

Just a question of idle curiosity more than anything else, but... is anyone here using EnergyXT, I see the 2.7 release is fairly new so I downloaded the demo and compiled the JACK support and truthfully I gotta say it ain't bad... A few years ago I shipped the 2.5 demo in AVL but there were some issues with it functioning on the LiveDVD so I kinda forgot all about it...

Why is it never (or very rarely) mentioned here?

Secondly it seems the built in synth/sampler kinda sucks with using Soundfonts... are there any LinuxVST SF2 players out there, I recall Soundcrab being a particularly buggy one but seriously there are no others?!
* yes I know about all the LV2 and DSSI ones but EnXT only supports LinuxVST's

I'm not exactly jumping in with both feet here but I would be interested if anyone here has an informed opinion on the pros and cons of EnergyXT...

[sysrqer]

Is it still active? I thought it had completely died. I was interested in trying it a while ago but never actually did and heard it had a few problems. I remember liking the looks of the screenshots I had seen of it.

[GMaq]

sysrqer,

Hmmm well I was reading this http://www.energy-xt.com/index.php?id=0108 which says May 6.. but not what year so perhaps it is not current news, or maybe it is...?

[GMaq]

Hi,

Well definitely need a linuxVST Soundfont player to have any meaningful fun with EnergyXT, I grabbed the github JUCED code and built the Soundcrab 0.2.4 linuxVST, it actually will launch the UI and accept a Soundfont then it goes nuts and generates horrid sounds and phenomenal Xruns and runs the CPU up to 100%

Is there any chance of Soundcrab linuxVST ever getting any love from a developer here ?? It apparently used to work in EnergyXT and Renoise. Generally speaking it prolly would be nice to have something other than Fluidsynth DSSI and Calf Fluidsynth but I don't know if Soundcrab's issues are major surgery or some tweaks...

falkTX help !!!??

[danboid]

Gmaq:

Yes, you can use SF2's with linuxsampler-vst. If you want to use qsampler for the UI you'll need the svn version for proper SF2 support.

I've heard good things about XT2 as a MIDI editor but I've never tried it. I dunno what its selling point is these days.

[GMaq]

falkTX help !!!??

linuxsampler-vst maybe?

I can create some fluidsynth (for sf2) or linuxsampler (for gig and sfz) kind of plugin with DPF.
The only minor issue is getting a working file-browser with it, but I think I can use zenity or kdialog in the beginning.

that, or make carla-rack work as a vst.
considering energyXT and bitwig only load vsts, the carla-rack vst plugin sound better to me (so you can load ladspa, dssi and lv2 in there).

hm....

Hey!

Well actually Carla-Rack would be the ultimate, however I'm sure that is a huge task especially on top of all the work you are doing on Carla already but in time Carla-Rack VST will certainly make BitWig/EnXT users very happy!

linuxsampler-vst?? Hmm I can't believe I wasn't aware of that one... Is it part of the linuxsampler code? I'm well aware of the LV2 plugin and obviously have built linuxsampler SVN numerous times but I haven't run into the VST yet that I know of... on the other hand a simple, quick n' dirty fluidsynth VST frontend would be kinda cool too..

Sounds like out of what already exists linuxsampler-vst is the best bet for now... got a link??

@danboid

Thanks for the tip on Qsampler, and yes what really is interesting me currently about EnXT is the MIDI Editing, especially for drums, it has a great built-in Drum Sampler but I much prefer SFZ's or Soundfonts with multiple velocity layers.

[GMaq]

Whoa! Quick reply!

Quick question: will your plugin work with my SVN version or do all plugins have to be compiled against the actual SVN version on the system? If so then I'll need to rebuild the whole enchilada...

[sysrqer]

falkTX help !!!??

considering energyXT and bitwig only load vsts, the carla-rack vst plugin sound better to me (so you can load ladspa, dssi and lv2 in there).

hm....

And Tracktion and Renoise (this does allow dssi though).
It definitely sounds the better way to go and would kill two birds with one stone.

[glowrak guy]

that, or make carla-rack work as a vst.
considering energyXT and bitwig only load vsts, the carla-rack vst plugin sound better to me (so you can load ladspa, dssi and lv2 in there).

hm....

hm....would this not be a great commercial product? It maximises a lot of your work,
and could greatly enhance other commercial daws, bitwig, traction, energyxt, (will this work in ardour3?)
by making some fine linux apps more accessible. Hexter, Whysynth, Calf, and the linuxsampler,
would be very useful in any daw, among many others.
cheers

[GMaq]

Quick question: will your plugin work with my SVN version or do all plugins have to be compiled against the actual SVN version on the system? If so then I'll need to rebuild the whole enchilada...

no idea, but you can grab my qsampler package that matches that svn version:
https://launchpad.net/~kxstudio-debian/ ... hive-extra

kxstudio packages use static libs, so there's no liblscp, libgig or liblinuxsampler to worry about.
afaik both linuxsampler-plugins and qsampler have no extra dependencies.

EDIT: before you ask about jsampler, I don't have it.

Hi,

Thanks for the offer, I ended up updating the whole LS stack for AVL anyway because it was prolly due for a fresh SVN..

For anyone else reading who may not know and is self-compiling LinuxSampler to build the VST plugin you need the Steinberg VST SDK (2.4) and then you need to unzip the SDK and tell the 'linuxsampler' source where it is at the build configuration:

./configure --prefix=/usr --enable-vstsdk-dir=/PATH/TO/UNZIPPED/VSTSDK

If you are using the included Debian build scripts that already come in the LinuxSampler code it will not build the VST Plugin unless you edit the script in the 'rules' file and then it will only build the VST but not install it. Anyway I'm sure 99.89% of people don't care or need this info but if you like to roll and compile your own this might be useful.

I have asked the EnXT folks about putting a JACK enabled demo of 2.7 on the next AVL 6.0.4LiveDVD, haven't heard back yet but hopefully soon. Yes it is non-free but the price has been reduced and truthfully it is still a decent sequencer with decent built-in samplers, synths and effects and I think the MIDI implementation is worth kicking the tires on the demo especially if you are frustrated by the current state of MIDI in other DAW's...

Of course a Carla VST would make it that much better for Linux users (as with Tracktion and BitWig). If falkTX isn't interested in making it commercial lets all make it worth his effort with donations to show appreciation for such a powerful application!!

There are some cool resources here including a ton of alternate skins, a look at the dates says not much activity of late but I'm sure this 2.7 release will pick things up: http://energyxt2.wikidot.com/

[ssj71]

btw, can we load more than 1 instance of linuxsampler plugin?
it seems to me we need to use qsampler/jsampler to control the plugin, but that won't work if there's more than 1...

You can. It adds them as separate channels or devices or whatever they're called in qsampler. Just in case you are still wondering.

It's not that I don't want to make it "commercial", the point is about making it closed-source.
there are ways to add extra context and sell that, but if it involves not releasing some code I won't be part of it.

Consider Harry Harren's openAV release system. I'm quite sure you could get enough donations to release it after a week. If you keep a git branch local and complete the feature, then ask for donations until your quota is filled or enough time is elapsed. Then merge it to master. Or as a variation, don't package it in your repos until the quota is paid or enough time is elapsed. Either way I think you'll get much more than your current donations. You really deserve it.

(p.s. personally I think Harry asks for too little. Considering most of his products are released so soon, it shows they are worth much more to the community than he is asking. Perhaps that's just the evil little capitalist inside me but I think devs deserve to get paid what they're worth).

[glowrak guy]

why does it have to be a commercial product?

everything I make will always be opensource, that's a price I'm willing to pay myself.
it may sound a very bad business practice, but I'm not here for the money.

Despite the more obvious rewards of fame, and wild women,
what law states that open source coding cannot be a commercial venture?
Or that someone can't do both closed-source or nda work, either for themselves
or for an employer, and also separate unrelated personal open-source projects?
Is it unethical to start a business, and profit from working?
Life is short, you have abilities that have monetary value in this world.
The clock is ticking...

[kawliga]

why does it have to be a commercial product?

everything I make will always be opensource, that's a price I'm willing to pay myself.
it may sound a very bad business practice, but I'm not here for the money.

Despite the more obvious rewards of fame, and wild women,
what law states that open source coding cannot be a commercial venture?
Or that someone can't do both closed-source or nda work, either for themselves
or for an employer, and also separate unrelated personal open-source projects?
Is it unethical to start a business, and profit from working?
Life is short, you have abilities that have monetary value in this world.
The clock is ticking...

Not everything in this world has to be about money.

This is obviously a labour of love for FalkTX and he is obviously a person who cares about helping others - these things can bring a satisfaction that money cannot.

I admire FalkTX and people like him who give freely of themselves to others - it renews my faith in mankind. If FalkTX decides that commercial software endeavours are not for him, I think we should just respect his decision - I don't think FalkTX needs to explain his reasons or justify that to anyone on this forum.

He definitely ought to go easy on the wild women though.

[kawliga]

Just want to clarify that with my previous comment I was not having a go at glowrackguy. I'm sure his questions were well intentioned, it's just that once we start discussing whether things are unethical this thread is going to end up turning into a flamefest. There are ethical questions about free versus proprietary software that are no doubt important and worthy of debate but this is a music forum so I'm not sure if this is the place and besides it's almost July and its hot enough as it is without the flames.

[GMaq]

Hehe... to get back to the original topic...

Well commercial or not, evil or not EnergyXT's demo with JACK support and the latest greatest linuxVST's + LinuxSampler will be on the next AVL release ready to use, thanks to it's developer for the OK...

As Linux Audio marches ahead I am finding while working on AVL 6.0.4 that a few things that have slipped into the past have popped up again with a new lease on life, EnergyXT is one example and Cinelerra-CV Video editor is another on the video side. I love progress and development but it's not always true that the newest tools are the best for everyone...

Viva Linux Multimedia!!