"Become a rockstar using FOSS!" @ FOSDEM 2023

Discuss how to promote using FLOSS to make music.

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Rainmak3r
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"Become a rockstar using FOSS!" @ FOSDEM 2023

Post by Rainmak3r »

Hi all,

yesterday I did a presentation called "Become a rockstar using FOSS" in the Open Media devroom at FOSDEM 2023. It was meant as a very basic introduction and overview on the Linux music ecosystem, starting from JACK/Pipewire to how you can start plugging your instrument in, tinker with the sounds you get, work within the context of a DAW and then to how you can take care of virtual instruments of different kinds (drums, keys, etc.). It was very rushed as I didn't have much time, and I also failed to progress quickly enough, so the last slides are barely touched, but it seemed to be well received for what it was. Don't expect anything deep or meaningful (pretty sure there isn't a single thing you don't know already, or that there may be things you'll disagree with), but again, it was just an overview and an attempt to scratch the surface, to make people interested in this often underlooked and yet amazing ecosystem.

I also gave a shoutout to LinuxMusicians towards the end, which has been fundamental in my progress as a hobbyist musician using FOSS, as the feedback and exchanges I had with you all here have been invaluable so far and still are. I even got to briefly meet @raboof, which was an unexpected, shocking and amazing surprise to me! :mrgreen:

You can find a link to the talk below. I completed my video review yesterday and the video should be there too: at the time of writing it isn't (I contacted the FOSDEM video team about it to get this sorted out), but it probably soon will, so if you don't see it right away please try again later. The slides are already available for download instead, in case you're interested in checking out what topics the talk touched.

https://fosdem.org/2023/schedule/event/om_music/

I'd love to hear what you think of it! I had a nice chat with a couple of people after the talk, which I was really pleased about. Someone I know also said he liked the talk so much he started playing with the software I mentioned with his son, which I was really happy to hear, since my main objective was indeed getting people interested enough that they'd start digging deeper themselves. Hopefully it won't stop to just one person... :lol: I'm still hopeful we'll be able to get a devroom just for music software at FOSDEM sooner or later, but I'm still grateful I had the opportunity to share this in one of the existing devrooms.

Thanks!
Lorenzo

Last edited by Rainmak3r on Sun Feb 05, 2023 4:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: "Become a rockstar using FOSS!" @ FOSDEM 2023

Post by Rainmak3r »

Quick PS: apparently the video is available, but not linked to the talk page yet (it should appear there too soon). To watch the video, you can use the following link instead.

https://ftp.fau.de/fosdem/2023/K.3.401/om_music.mp4

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Re: "Become a rockstar using FOSS!" @ FOSDEM 2023

Post by Basslint »

Lorenzo, you may not be a rockstar but you are our rockstar. Thank you :D

The community of believers was of one heart and mind, and no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common. [Acts 4:32]

Please donate time (even bug reports) or money to libre software 🎁

Jam on openSUSE + GeekosDAW!
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Re: "Become a rockstar using FOSS!" @ FOSDEM 2023

Post by Rainmak3r »

Basslint wrote: Sun Feb 05, 2023 10:13 am

Lorenzo, you may not be a rockstar but you are our rockstar. Thank you :D

hahaha thank you, that's appreciated! :lol:

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Re: "Become a rockstar using FOSS!" @ FOSDEM 2023

Post by ufug »

Very nice presentation, well done! It must have been a challenge to give this talk to many non-musicians but you did a great job of delivering lots of info in a short amount of time.

If you do it again I hope you include more of your music as an example of the objective.

listenable at c6a7.org
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Re: "Become a rockstar using FOSS!" @ FOSDEM 2023

Post by Rainmak3r »

ufug wrote: Sun Feb 05, 2023 8:41 pm

Very nice presentation, well done! It must have been a challenge to give this talk to many non-musicians but you did a great job of delivering lots of info in a short amount of time.

If you do it again I hope you include more of your music as an example of the objective.

Thanks for taking the time to watch it, and thanks for the feedback and support! Actually I tried not to explicitly mention too much of my music (apart from the reference at the video at the end) since I was afraid it could have been perceived as self promotion, which was definitely not the aim of my talk. I think that other talks in the future, possibly more focused on some specific aspects, could use actual songs I authored as a reference: e.g., how to write a drum track, and how it turns out in an actual song, could be an example. This only works if you have ways to play audio, though, and I wasn't sure it would have been possible, especially considering at FOSDEM there's a setup that tries not to keep remote attendees out of the loop.

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