My resumee

I am the founder of JackLab. Now I’ve made a resumee of using and developing AudioLinux for a half year. (only in german at present, english translation in preparation - but most of the JackLab content is available in english) http://www.jacklab.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=273&Itemid=42&lang=en_EN

Here my resumee in very short:

I think it is time for a commercial AudioMidiSequenzer for AudioLinux. With a fullpreemt realtime kernel and Jack, Linux giving a stable and highperformant base for DAW applications. But MusE and Rosegarden4 are far behind Tracktion on OS X or Windows. Ardour is OK, but an audiosequenzer only.

Also H2, zynaddsubfx, AMS, sooperlooper, aso. are very nice apps - but the connect is allways like in a big rewire system - To make complexe setups like with eg Tracktion or Cubase, I need to open, initialise and connect many standalone apps (via jack connect and sync) and this can kill creativity. A better solution will be a full featured hosting software sequenzer with its total recall feature.

Also the VST item is a “be or not to be” for AudioLinux. VST ist supported partialy on linux and only very rough and basic. Sometimes it works. But it is possible to tune existing VSTwrapper for better support.

The promising all-in-one sequenzer rosegarden4 and MusE are in very slow development. Because there is no commercial background. Their useing different plugin extensions.

So I find the option of juce -

A kind of Tracktion on Linux?

-with full jack support (connect and sync master/slave)
-with support for linux native plugins
-with a very good VST wrapper
-with a very good AU wrapper
-with OSC Support

And I think I’am not the only one who will pay more than 100 bucks to use this sequenzer on an audio distribution like demudi for debian, planet ccrma for fedora and newly JAD for SuSE.

I am very happy to see a active community behind juce.

I am not a developer, just a musican exploring Audiolinux.
i have realised, the great companies like Steinberg or Applemagic will never give an option for Linux. But I think it is stupid to ignore it. So Jules are the only one thinking about Linux from the “great 5” - and thats very promising from my point of view as a user of applications.
So dear developers specialy Jules: What do you think about this?

Will there ever be a chance for a “kind of Tracktion” for Linux?

CU Michael Metasymbol

I agree it’d be good to see something like this, though I’m afraid the chances of seeing a linux port of tracktion are extremely slim…

The problem is that the work involved in supporting linux is huge, but I’d expect only a tiny handful of sales compared to on the pc/mac.

Out of interest, is there actually any successful paid-for audio software available for linux at all? Or is it all open-source? Seems to me that linux users don’t like it when you suggest that they should pay for their apps!

[quote=“jules”]I agree it’d be good to see something like this, though I’m afraid the chances of seeing a linux port of tracktion are extremely slim…
[/quote]
pity…

[quote=“jules”]The problem is that the work involved in supporting linux is huge, but I’d expect only a tiny handful of sales compared to on the pc/mac.
[/quote]

An endless turn: If you don’t take the risk to check out whats possible, you will never make a sale on linux. And if there is no really fuckin great Tracktion for linux, no one will think about Linux, because there is no commercial fucking great software.

It need a time of preparation and testing - and a good commercial background. i think with a Tracktion port to linux the DAW world would be shaked and this will be a kind of revolution.
Many users will decide to use Linux if Tracktion support linux.

[quote=“jules”]
Out of interest, is there actually any successful paid-for audio software available for linux at all? Or is it all open-source? Seems to me that linux users don’t like it when you suggest that they should pay for their apps![/quote]

There ist no strict paid-for audiosoftware - Ardour can be paid (donate) if you use it frequently.
But there ist a small german MovieSequenzer (mainactor) are commercial software coming with SuSE and also some wine optimations for commercial games/office applications are commercial apps for Linux.

For sure I think linux user are willing to pay for a good userfriendly software. if you ever seen a linux fully working you never will imagine that the base system is for free. “Tracktion for linux” can be sold with an own LinuxOS maybe with the juce-windowmanager and a special kernel bundled with pro audio hardware. I think, there are really great commercial possibilities.

But linux user are not willing to pay every price like on Win / Mac.
Tracktion onced was breaking the law of “good audiosoftware must be complicated and expensive” (I’am a happy user of tracktion on a windows computer)
So I think it is also time to change the paradigma that opensouce based projects are have no value for the market. Thats defenitivly not true.

But what should I say - if there is nearly no chance for a Tracktion port to Linux - so another audiodeveloper using the chance and will make a success story on Linux… I hope so. In a way pity because i like the concept of Tracktion.

CU Michael

It is the typical chicken-egg problem. As soon as we have a good, usable sequencer, the rest will follow. There is a ton of (expensive) commercial software available for Linux. Look what happened to the computer graphics scene: most - if not all - studios switched to Linux, just because the high-end 4D/rendering software is there.

That thread has already been done to death on KvR, but to reiterate what I said there:

My PC at work has win and linux installed, and the linux partition is worth way more than the win partition in terms of software licenses.

I also personally bought a Linux distro, rather than just download one. I’ve given money to mozilla, openoffice.org, and others. I know I’ far from alone too.