What is Linux? More than
just on operating system, GNU/Linux is becoming a universal and
industry standard computing platform. Through the work of
the Free Software Foundation and thousands of developers
worldwide, Linux and the software which runs on it are the world's
largest software technical reference library. For any idea you
could wish to develop on a computer, there are is a wealth of free
information available under the GPL or similar licenses. There's
no longer a reason to reinvent the wheel.
If you just want
to give Linux a spin, you should try KNOPPIX
- Live Linux Filesystem On CD. It runs off your hard
drive, without you having to install anything. Just set your
BIOS to boot from the CDROM before the hard drive, and restart
your computer with the CD in.
Planet
CCRMA at Stanford is a wonderful site geared toward multimedia
production on Linux (and there's also a bunch of stuff that runs
fine under MicroSoft Windows™, too) Their CD images (and
apt-get servers) build upon the RedHat and Fedora Core
distributions with custom kernels for Intel and AMD processors
(both SMP and single CPU) and alsa sound drivers. They have
a huge repository of audio applications, from recording, MIDI,
effects processing, live streaming, analysis and synthesis.
Source code is also available for all these goodies, so you can
see how they work and modify or build your own
applications.
Ever wanted to count the number of
violins in Handel's Messiah?
Baudline™
is a wonderful FFT spectrum analyzer written by SigBlips, a custom
software provider. While it is free to download, it is not Open
Source, so there is no peeking at the code, unfortunately.
Also, it cannot be redistributed by a mirror or distribution, only
from SigBlips' http server. Even so, it is a real hoot to
play with. It supports mp3, Ogg Vorbis, aiff, au, snd, wav,
and a whole slew of formats I've never heard of. Windowing
from Blackman to Kaiser, drift integration, heterodyne conversion,
phase tracking, EQ, and a bunch of stuff you'll need a DSP
textbook to understand.
FluidSynth is a SoundFont®
realtime software synthesizer. Good fonts can be had at
HammerSound
and PersonalCopy.
Jack
is digital patchbay for audio applications, allowing for all kinds
of bizarre realtime interactions and conversions. For more
info, check out the CCRMA site for instructions and links
LADSPA
is an audio plugin framework designed for effects processing and
synthesis. Everything from convolution to reverb is available.
Cap
and Tap
and CMT
have some really great plugins.
Sfront
is an audio Mpeg-4 compiler. With it you can create portable
programs which can play back compositions, be controlled my a MIDI
keyboard, or which can compose music automatically. Building
blocks include allpass and comb filters, oscillators, wave tables,
and fourier transforms. The syntax is similar to C.
While similar to CSound, it makes much more efficient use of the
CPU.
All materials © 2002-2010 Jason Downer