Of Macros And Drum Machines
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This week in my random survey of activity on the mail-lists for Linux sound &amp; music software I'll look at two very different software drum machines and a keystroke macro that enters LilyPond music notation into an Open Office text document. And if that isn't enough I've included four thrilling screenshots and links to three entertaining audio files to entice and maintain your interest. Read on for more...
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âOne of the best new features in all of the Final Cut Studio family,â maintains Kevin McAuliffe (CreativeMac) âis the addition of surround sound mixing to Soundtrack Pro 2.â To illustrate, McAuliffe takes readers step-by-step through a simple âsurroundâ tutorial. âThis great and easy to use feature in STP2,â he concludes, âlets you mix your entire show in surround, export your mix as surround, and then take your submix, switch it back to â1,2â, and you now have a downmix to stereo from 5.1 for a stereo version of your show.â
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A growing number of contemporary musicians and techno enthusiasts have reignited interest in the Moog, which can synthesize any sound imaginable.
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âBento,â says Stephen H. Wildstrom  âtakes the essence of FileMaker Pro, a database-management program aimed at small- and midsize businesses, and marries it to Macâs new Leopard operating system. The result is a powerful organizing tool anyone can use.â
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Alexey Zakhlestin gave a talk for the PHPThinktank IRC channel recently on the topic of YAML, PHP, and some of the work that he's done combining the two.   It happened a bit of spontaneously, so noone was invited. It was my first try, to make introduction to yaml for php prgrammers, and if there is more interest I will give another talk which will cover more details, this time with proper scheduling :)   You can check out the log of the discussion for his entire talk (covering topics like what YAML is, where to get more information on it, some of its features, and a mention of the Syck library for parsing it).
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A lot of things are happening in the Ruby world right now, and I wanted to highlight a few of them here:  At FOSCon this year, Amy Hoy has asked people to start writing more instructive articles about parts of Ruby or Rails so that newbies would have more "fine manuals" to read.  I've tried to do my part with two short series (so far), one on RubyInline and the other on ruby-prof.  The RubyInline articles are: RubyInline, making making things faster easier, and RubyInline: Going a bit Further.  The ruby-prof articles are:  Profile and ruby-prof, ruby-prof and call graphs, and Profile and ruby-prof:  getting specific. Another blog related event is the current blogging contest being run by Ruby Inside.  They're offering $100 US to their favorite informativ, ruby related blog post this week (Aug 14-20).  There have been a lot of interesting entries so far.  It would be pretty cool to see more contests like this crop up. We're getting close to a couple of Ruby conferences, I wrote about RubyConf*MI in my last post.  RailsConfEurope is also comingu up quickly.  If you're reasonable close to either of these, you should consider registering. O'Reilly has released the Ruby Cookbook.  It's a massive tome, chock-full of Ruby goodness.  I haven't had time to read the whole thing yet, but what I've read looks good, and I'm hearing good things from folks I trust.  Looks like another good book to add to your Ruby bookshelf. APress is getting ready to jump into Ruby and Rails in a big way.  They've got ten titles listed on their 'Rails Roadmap', and have lined up some well known Ruby names to write for them.  They're still looking for some Ruby authors according to this blog post. No Starch Press is also starting to make some Ruby related noises.  I can't be specific yet, but there's a good looking Ruby book on its way into their catalog.  If the book is half as good as what they've talked to me about, it's going to be another 'must have'. The Pragmatic Programmers also look like they're set to add some more titles to their Facets of Ruby line.  James Gray has said that he's writing a book for them that should be announced soon, Ezra Zygmuntowicz also has a book on the way, and I've recently signed a contract with them for a Ruby related book.  It looks like the PragProgs aren't going to be content to sit on their Ruby laurels. Finally, Developerdotstar is close to announcing a couple of books about programming.  Neither of these is Ruby specific, but from everything I've heard I think they're going to be solid, language independant books about becoming a better programmer.  Just the kind of thing you'd expect from these guys.
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Popular music notation software adds sound library, 'snippets' database, and new options.
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An overview of the creation and evolution of MIDI, from early standalone equipment to an all-in-one computerized composition environment.
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Tycho:  After seeing Chore Wars mentioned yesterday, the opportunities for manipulating people seemed...  rich.  The possibilities for mashups based on this data are also rich - I wonder if it could be exposed, somehow.  When my charge is old enough to manipulate in this way, my crib is going to fucking sparkle.
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An 'export to iTunes' feature is included in GarageBand 4.1.1, released last week.
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Three months ago I introduced my readers to a new system for hosting VST plugins compiled natively for Linux. That system has continued its development and has become a mainstay in the Studio Dave Linux audio arsenal. Here's an update on the system's recent incarnations, complete with the usual multimedia extravaganza of text, screenshots, and sounds.
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I have a friend who has had nothing but nightmares result from his attempts at setting up the fabled low-latency high-performance Linux audio system. In sympathy with his plight I present here a primer in three parts for troubleshooting common and uncommon problems with the Linux sound system. Parts 1 &amp; 2 will present programs used to analyze and configure your audio setup. Part 3 will list the most frequently encountered problems along with their suggested solutions. This week, Part 1 introduces some useful system analysis tools and utilities with graphic user interfaces.
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This entry is a little off my regular beat, but its substance is of great importance to all users of Linux audio software. To get straight to the point, it's about money and two projects in real need of significant financial support, the Ardour hard disk recorder/digital audio workstation and the Hydrogen rhythm programmer/drum machine. Both projects are well along in their development cycles, both have achieved great status not only in the Linux audio software world but on OSX as well, and both need financing for their planned evolution. Ardour and Hydrogen are two of Linux's finest programs for musicians, rivalling their commercial counterparts and providing libre alternatives to the intense vendor lock-in typical of the Win/Mac sound and music software worlds. These are truly important projects that deserve your support and financial backing.
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Freeverb3 library includes high quality freeverb, nreverb and impulse response reverb. Oversampling feature provides higher quality of audio processing. This library includes XMMS plugins, audacious plugins, BMP beep media player plugins and sample programs, which enable you to test the audio effects easily.    Version 2.0.0 includes following bug fixes and features. - Precision of float/double/ldouble support. - fast convolution algorithm - New Double Fragment Buffer Zero Latency Algorithm - SIMD codes for 3DNow!/SSE/SSE2 - merge of libsamplerate Project page at http://freeverb3.sourceforge.net
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There is a new release of Rosegarden, a MIDI and Audio Sequencer and Notation Editor for Linux. This exciting release includes a number of significant new features, including true multitrack MIDI recording, ramped tempos, cut and paste of time ranges across all segments, better Lilypond output, better support for transposing instruments, and a database of acoustic instrument ranges, transpositions, and clefs.   To download, go to this page: https://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=4932
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JavaScript has had a roller coaster ride of early phenomenal success, then some bruisings and now renewed success as a macro language, but this recent success may be the highpoint for JavaScript. By Jacques Surveyer. 0820
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A comprehensive suite of professional tools, Logic Studio provides everything musicians need to create, produce and perform in the studio and on the stage. Logic Studio features Logic Pro 8âa major upgrade that combines an intuitive new interface with Logicâs renowned sound quality and rock-solid timingâand introduces MainStage, an innovative new live performance application that turns the Mac into a streamlined live rig. In addition, Logic Studio includes SoundTrack Pro 2, Appleâs professional audio post production software; Studio Instruments, made up of 40 pristine quality instruments; Studio Effects, with 80 professional effect plug-ins; a vast Studio Sound Library; and a powerful set of production utilities. Available now, Logic Studio sells for just $499.