10. Musical things about Linux

I love Linux. I Love it for its liberties, the spirit and most: Raw performance!
It is just a pity that there is not more commercial software available for it, because it usually offers the best designed workflows.
Here is a list of 10 reasons that spring to my mind why one would like to run Linux. This is not an attempt to persuade anyone to ditch their current setup and go full on Linux. But an attempt to show that it has its place in media production outside of 3D Graphics and storage but also in Audio.

1. Realtime Kernel allows for ultra low latency, unmatched by any other OS!

2. The trinity of Jack Audio and ALSA, held together by Pulse allows you to route any audio or midi signal to any software inside your computer and over the network.

3. Linux can run on very old computers, this helps you reactivate unused boxes. I use a 10 year old laptop as additional synth!

4. DIN is noise, a fantastical and unique digital instrument.
http://dinisnoise.org/

5. FreqTweak
http://freqtweak.sourceforge.net/screenshots.html

6. Harrisson Mixbus
http://www.harrisonconsoles.com/

7. Bristol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_(software)

8. Korg Kronos. Yes, its all linux under the hood
http://korg.com/kronos

9. Muse research Receptor. Again, a music dedicated Linux box to run your windows vsts on a lighting fast OS.

10. Graphical package managers. You think the appstore concept is new? Think again, in Linux this is ages old. Search, click install, thats it. You just never had to pay for packages.

There is a lot more to discover, just check out this wikipedia page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_audio_software

Or just dive in and download a complete multimedia production suite FOR FREE!
Check these out:
Ubuntu Studio
Studio 64
Planet CCRMA

The Future of Media Production

Now, this is some interesting development. Novacut, a Project financed by a Kickstarter campaign implements a webkit based user interface. 

Big deal, Apple did it with iOS and Google did it with Android, so are you about to tell us something new?

Hopefully yes: I have a dream, the dream is a software that provides raw functionality for media editing and generating. 

It needs a timeline, to arrange, syncronize, animate and automate in order to ultimately enable telling of stories,  

The timeline has to be able to sequence all kinds of data. 

The accuracy should be infinitely divisible (beyond tick/frame)

It needs absolute, raw data routing flexibility ( I mean that literally, I want to route a video to an audio channel and listen to the raw data stream, or maybe only the variations of red from the 3rd pixel)

In order to make use of this raw data routing requires intelligent interpretations of the media. This counts for copy/paste as well.

It needs a powerful database to quickly find stuff from your stock, let that be samples/loops, film clips, or a control lane. 

Alongside the database it needs a metadata miner using audio analysis and computer vision.

It shall be cross platform and support as many current extension standards as possible (VST, AU, FxPlug, Ladspa, dssi, directX etc…)

those features I am talking about should not be implemented into a GUI, but a server.

This server shall be accessible over different protocols to provide maximum flexibility how to interface functionality.

All functionality needs to be implemented modular, as plugin to the core server.

Plugins shall be available in central repository (lets not say app store :P ), available for installation if required.

All this will allow for maximum flexibility and scalability.

Some practical examples:

A http Interface: 

Open your browser, enter the servers address, use a HTML5, or better, a WebGL GUI and start producing.

Thanks to the abstraction of interface and function server the way you create can look however you want. 

Do you like music trackers like renoise? 

Connect with a terminal and off you go.

Running out of DSP power on one of your machines?

Add a second server as a slave.

Want to use a mac AU that is not available on your Linux workstation?

Start the server on the mac and slave it to your localhost

Do you like collaborative jamming or bouncing ideas?

Connect to the same server with multiple users.

User interfaces could be as simple as one record button or as complex as a modular patch bay with non interlocking tracks on different speeds in the timeline.

This would even be a way to move media production into the cloud.

Why should anyone desire this kind of inconsistent environment?

Well, this kind of framework would enable more people to build simple access to media production.

I was looking at whats happening with REAPER, Usine, Max for live or Renoise.

Decentralizing this kind of power, making it platform independent, open it up wider. That would be amazing wouldn't it?

I hope someone crazy enough to take that kind of project on has read this article.