Best beat syncing / matching app in Linux?

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prupert
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Best beat syncing / matching app in Linux?

Post by prupert »

Hi

I'm new here - I've been a long time bedroom producer, making stuff for my own enjoyment and have gone through a fair number of different Windoze Music sequencers and apps (Music Studio 7 -> Orion Platinum -> Tracktion -> Ableton Live). I mostly like to take whole songs that I like and re-edit them to cut out the bits I don't like and emphasise the sections I do.

Up until now I have been using Ableton Live for this (editing and cutting up loops in the Live part and then importing them in to the arranger part for mixdown).

Having previously been an XP whore, I have now almost entirely moved over to Linux and Ubuntu as I like the flexibility it gives you and all the bash stuff is great (plus MythTV and XBMC of course). I haven't been able to get Ableton to work well under Wine in Linux and anyway, since it isn't a Linux native app, I don't want to support it if I am using Ubuntu. Consequently, I want to find an app that I can use on Ubuntu to carry on my music doodlings. After having a hunt around, I have narrowed the choice down to a few apps (Ardour, Renoise, RoseGarden, energyXT and Traverso).

HERE IS MY QUESTION, read this bit for a short and sweet ;) I was hoping people could give me their views on which app is best for Audio remixes / mashups and has the best beat syncing capabilities? Essentially, in Live, you can take a loop, be it one bar or a whole song, and set a couple of beat markers, so Live can then adjust its tempo to match the tempo of that sample / song. You can then ensure all the other samples you import in to Live sync correctly to that loop and are in time. I was looking for a similar solution in Linux (not the live aspect, but the beat syncing to a sample's tempo function).

I have found that you can do this in RoseGarden (thanks to this useful article from a poster on this forum: http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1000304) using the Set Tempo To Audio Segment function from the Composition/Tempo And Time Signature menu. I was wondering if any of the other Linux DAWs mentioned above can do this and what is generally regarded as the best for messing with samples and songs for remixing? I really have no need for MIDI, so that is not an issue.

I know Ardour is a great Multi-Track studio, but I have as yet to find a way to sync it's tempo to a sample. In Renoise you can do it by trial and error and it works reasonably well, but it is kind of hit and miss.

Also, completely unrelated, but out of interest, is there an Open Source alternative to Audiomulch available in Linux? I know energyXT has a similar modular make-up, but it has no where near the same number of built in modules. I just love the way you can build really cool audio patches using Audiomulch. Sadly v2 doesn't work so well under wine.....

All answers much appreciated. Sorry for the long post, I do tend to ramble.
studio32

Re: Best beat syncing / matching app in Linux?

Post by studio32 »

I'm not an expert in this area, and I think nothing can beat Ableton Live here, but I have to think about:

- qtractor
- lmms
- http://tardigrade-inc.com/index.php/En/Software (in combi with midi)
- specimen (in combi with midi)
- ardour
- sooperlooper
- non-sequencer (in combi with midi/specimen/sampler)
- seq24 (in combi with midi/specimen/sampler)
- puredata
- supercollider
- smasher http://smasher.sourceforge.net/
- latest Hydrogen
- Kluppe
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autostatic
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Re: Best beat syncing / matching app in Linux?

Post by autostatic »

prupert wrote:Hi
Hello prupert, welcome here :)
prupert wrote:HERE IS MY QUESTION, read this bit for a short and sweet ;) I was hoping people could give me their views on which app is best for Audio remixes / mashups and has the best beat syncing capabilities? Essentially, in Live, you can take a loop, be it one bar or a whole song, and set a couple of beat markers, so Live can then adjust its tempo to match the tempo of that sample / song. You can then ensure all the other samples you import in to Live sync correctly to that loop and are in time. I was looking for a similar solution in Linux (not the live aspect, but the beat syncing to a sample's tempo function).

I have found that you can do this in RoseGarden (thanks to this useful article from a poster on this forum: http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1000304) using the Set Tempo To Audio Segment function from the Composition/Tempo And Time Signature menu. I was wondering if any of the other Linux DAWs mentioned above can do this and what is generally regarded as the best for messing with samples and songs for remixing? I really have no need for MIDI, so that is not an issue.
If I understand you correctly than I think Qtractor and LMMS can do this. they have a BPM setting that you can easily configure and they allow you to load samples. But I know nothing about Traverso, maybe Traverso has that option too.
prupert wrote:I know Ardour is a great Multi-Track studio, but I have as yet to find a way to sync it's tempo to a sample. In Renoise you can do it by trial and error and it works reasonably well, but it is kind of hit and miss.
What do you mean exactly with syncing to a beat? Manually or automatically? Beat recognition tools are scarce for Linux afaik, and the ones available are not really up to par with their Windows and Mac brethren.
prupert wrote:Also, completely unrelated, but out of interest, is there an Open Source alternative to Audiomulch available in Linux? I know energyXT has a similar modular make-up, but it has no where near the same number of built in modules. I just love the way you can build really cool audio patches using Audiomulch. Sadly v2 doesn't work so well under wine.....
Wow, someone mentions Audiomulch! It was revived recently wasn't it? Well, audio production with Linux IS completely modular ;) When it comes to separate apps, maybe AMS (Alsa Modular Synth) comes close to what you're looking for.

Best,

Jeremy
prupert
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Re: Best beat syncing / matching app in Linux?

Post by prupert »

AutoStatic wrote:What do you mean exactly with syncing to a beat? Manually or automatically? Beat recognition tools are scarce for Linux afaik, and the ones available are not really up to par with their Windows and Mac brethren.
By syncing to the beat, I mean you can select an audio sample that you have imported into the application and set the tempo of the whole project to the tempo of that loop (based either on the length of the loop / the number of beats (manually entered) or by it calculating the BPM of the beat). The the tempo of the project now matches that loop (so any bar markers fit precisely with that loop. Then if you import any other samples, you can stretch / squash those samples to fit in with that sample.
AutoStatic wrote:Wow, someone mentions Audiomulch! It was revived recently wasn't it? Well, audio production with Linux IS completely modular ;) When it comes to separate apps, maybe AMS (Alsa Modular Synth) comes close to what you're looking for.
Ooh, was it a bad thing to mention Audiomulch? I guess you are correct, that is the philosophy around Jack I suppose. But cool, I shall check out AMS...

Cheers for the replies.
StudioDave
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Re: Best beat syncing / matching app in Linux?

Post by StudioDave »

prupert wrote:Ooh, was it a bad thing to mention Audiomulch?
Not at all. :) I tested 2.0 for a while but had the same experience as you did. Earlier versions worked pretty well, I haven't tried the latest releases. I should, I have a license.

Btw, you can do batch processing with Rubber Band if you need to time-stretch a bunch of loops at once.

Ardour's getting better at accommodating loops too.

Best,

dp
prupert
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Re: Best beat syncing / matching app in Linux?

Post by prupert »

Yeah, I came across rubber band, I'll try it out, thanks for the reminder.

BTW, great articles, very interesting, hope to read more.
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Re: Best beat syncing / matching app in Linux?

Post by autostatic »

prupert wrote:Ooh, was it a bad thing to mention Audiomulch?
No, not all! AudioMulch is a very cool app, I would keep a Windows installation just for apps like this, together with stuff like Buzz.
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Re: Best beat syncing / matching app in Linux?

Post by prupert »

So, I decided to plump for Renoise and energyXT. It seems energyXT has some pretty decent sample pitch correction workflows (and I owned it already - bought it years ago). Renoise looks like a great sample and loop mangling tool, and eventually I'll learn how to make full songs with it. So, I just bought Renoise and I can link the two via Jack - so, let the music making commence!
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Re: Best beat syncing / matching app in Linux?

Post by autostatic »

prupert wrote:
AutoStatic wrote:By syncing to the beat, I mean you can select an audio sample that you have imported into the application and set the tempo of the whole project to the tempo of that loop (based either on the length of the loop / the number of beats (manually entered) or by it calculating the BPM of the beat). The the tempo of the project now matches that loop (so any bar markers fit precisely with that loop. Then if you import any other samples, you can stretch / squash those samples to fit in with that sample.
Qtractor can do this and LMMS too, but to a lesser extend.
StudioDave
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Re: Best beat syncing / matching app in Linux?

Post by StudioDave »

prupert wrote:So, I decided to plump for Renoise and energyXT. It seems energyXT has some pretty decent sample pitch correction workflows (and I owned it already - bought it years ago). Renoise looks like a great sample and loop mangling tool, and eventually I'll learn how to make full songs with it. So, I just bought Renoise and I can link the two via Jack - so, let the music making commence!
Excellent choices. We look forward to hearing your productions.

Btw, if you'd like to hear some great music done by another Linux musician with Renoise, check out Atte Jensen's music at http://modlys.dk.

Best,

dp
studio32

Re: Best beat syncing / matching app in Linux?

Post by studio32 »

Renoise is nice (there is also MilkyTracker and Jacker). I doubt though whether energyxt will give you much more then qtractor.
prupert
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Re: Best beat syncing / matching app in Linux?

Post by prupert »

studio32 wrote:Renoise is nice (there is also MilkyTracker and Jacker). I doubt though whether energyxt will give you much more then qtractor.
I preferred the minimalistic energyXT interface over qtractor and I like the modular set-up especially the way it is presented visually (reminding me a little of Audiomulch ;)) , and I already owned a licence so I thought I may as well....
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