Restarting Linux & Music

[Lin]

Hi everyone,

I still feel like a rookie with Linux and music and I'd like to change that. I have been using Linux as my mobile recording environment for a few years (Ubuntu Studio with a Tascam 122 Interface, Jack, and Ardour 2). I do many different styles, instruments and recording situations, but mostly handmade music, with rather little editing or effects. I have also used Windows with Logic Audio in my home studio and Capella for doing scores. The latter two are meanwhile pretty dated and I would like to finally get rid of them and bring it all together on a pure linux environment. I'd be delighted if you could help me find some solutions.

The problem is mostly how I can get midi-sequencing and score-writing to work in a linux environment. I was planning to reinstall the latest version of Ubuntu studio, and compile Ardour 3 with vst-support. Would that be a decent base to start from? Here my concrete questions:

-1.) I definitely need good orchestra samples: This means good quality and comprehensiveness of playing-styles especially in the strings section. Is there any good package that could be used with Ardour?

2.) I like to have an environment, where I can use the keyboard to enter the notes, but step by step, not in real-time. For that it would be necessary to be able to switch lengths of notes and control other things with computer-keystrokes while the pitches are entered with the keyboard. This is the most efficient way for writing I have found so far - is there any better one? Does Ardour 3 or any other software provide this? Does it provide usable and printable score writing? Or would you recommend a different software? Rosegarden, synchronised with Ardour? MuseScore?

3.) Is Ubuntu Studio what people use here? Which alternatives are there (64Studio seems dead) and what advantages do they have? (I am not wedded to Ubuntu. For other purposes than music I prefer Debian proper).

Anyway - hello everybody!

Lin

[tatch]

welcome! to answer at least #3, many people here use AVLinux or KXStudio -- both distros' authors are frequenters of the forums as well. Ubuntu studio seems a little behind but that may just be me.

[Lin]

Thank you, this is interesting. I don't need bleeding edge software. And for core functions I prefer distributions that have a large base of developers, so I can hope they are still around in a few years' time. Do you have an idea how AVLinux and KXStudio are doing with regard to this, also in comparison to UbuntuStudio, which has been coopted by Canonical as an official flavour of Ubuntu, as far as I know? Do the destributions have certain strengths that the others lack, or are they all pretty similar?

As for the notation and orchestra samples, I found this discussion (http://linuxmusicians.com/viewtopic.php ... 0&start=15) pretty close to what I am interested in. However it discusses more the samples than the notation (Garritan Orchestra with wine sounds promising to me). What I don't get out of the heterogenous replies is the state of linux notation programmes (lilypond-frontends, Rosegarden, MuseScore - what else? Ardour3?). Do I rightly get the impression that they have problems with entering multiple notes at once? My few feeble attempts with any of them where all rather shortlived, and I did have problems with multiple notes, too. But that might have been my own shortcomings. So I'd be glad for any help: I wonder which of the programs is offering the functions I need (described above), so I can start right away learning to use the right piece of software rather than investing time and finally finding that what I want it to do is impossible.

(should I create an extra thread for this?)