windows refugee from NYC

[braintree12]

By "locking the user into their ecosystem" I was referring to licensing, copyright, etc but also the tendency to lure users by offering convenience, one stop shopping and the all-things-to-all-people approach that has been so successful for Apple, Amazon and Facebook, to name three.
Even within commercial software, you can see the evolution where Native Instruments went from the Reaktor User Library to Blocks, or from Kontakt scripts to these slick instruments with GUIs that look like a bass guitar.
I haven't really settled into any DAW, yet. It took me months to get to a certain level with Ardour but the MIDI limitations are starting to chafe. I learned Ableton on Windows because I wanted to use Expert Sleepers hardware with my Eurorack gear. ES currently has no interest in developing for Linux but maybe if Bitwig-on-Linux takes off, he would. There has been grumbling on the ES forum because Steinberg broke the ES software by forcing VST3 on users of the latest Cubase. Linux seems like a natural fit for Expert Sleepers but he's "locked in" to Apple and Windows for business reasons.

[jonetsu]

Are there people 'locked' in such a way that they will not look around ? Like buying car wash soap, dry towels and cleaners from the car dealer instead of the hardware store, never bothering whta's about those hundred brands in the store. I guess so, and it's even more surprising in a domain we would at first think about as being creative. If I look at the Bitwig packages, now a bit more than a year later, I see that I've installed just about everything, and am wondering why I leave the ones that remains. I never use those samples, at all. If they would offer synths, ones that run in Linux that is, there would be a good possibility for me to consider them as the choice is by no means broad. I'm looking forward to try Waverazor for instance which should be out this month and adds a new approach to making sounds. There's no redundancy yet on the Linux market and if the trend continues, there won't be for a while, altough I would like to see it become more popular and having more commercial products made for it. Kontakt has a proprietary format, so its just normal to have instruments design for that only. The Biotek synth has also a proprietary sample format. Soundsets are proprietary in a way. So I don't see any locking, really.

I do not know what Expert Sleepers is, but a 1 minute search seems to point at a hardware interface for synths and such.

Bitwig now has a control voltage in/out or something like that, to control external sequencers and such. I've only seen it briefly as I don't have any such hardware, but it's interesting. You might already know about this..., others might not... Bitwig 2.0 provides control/management of HW Clock Out, HW CV Instrument, HW CV Out, HW FX, HW Instrument, and a HW CV In that patches into modulation. A demo with Irrupt, Bitwig and Bastl modular, at NAMM 2017:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2PyQ7-uEDlk

Here's a more consise one, no interview fluff, and shorter:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJn4tbvUUlc

[braintree12]

Thanks, I didn't know about those. Expert Sleepers makes Eurorack modules that integrate with your DAW by taking ADAT, audio, or SPDIF signals from your soundcard and converting them to CV signals, including pitch, gate, envelopes, and LFOs. It's hardware, but also a plugin suite called Silent Way, where you can write sequences, draw the LFO waveforms, and otherwise "sculpt" the CV signals. Making this work in Linux is too small a niche for the manufacturer, I don't blame him. He has enough problems with Cubase and Ableton.
The Bastl Klik that works with Bitwig is converting an audio pulse to CV clock and transport. The LFO shaping, sequencing, etc, is done on the modular itself (as I am understanding this based on a quick skim). The timing is likely tighter than midi-to-cv, so that's nice to have. I've been using Ardour to send midi clock / transport signals, and converting those to cvs with a Eurorack (Doepfer or Vermona) midi-to-cv converter. It works pretty well but it's not as "deep" as Expert Sleepers. It's basically just start, stop, and run. If Bitwig wants to get further into "shaping" CVs from the DAW, using a soundcard on Linux, they will attract some Eurorack users to Linux (Expert Sleepers has a small,devoted cult in the Eurorack world.)

[glowrak guy]

I've been happily using Reaper in wine for years, your pci card should work well.
As of today, a working linux version of Reaper is also in the wild,
tested successfully on a herd of linux ported U-he and discDSP plugins. Further testing soon.

Linux Mixbus is also useful to many, as a final mixing/mastering destination. Bitwig is a very
unique and stable workhorse, whom many enjoy greatly. It has a light version 'Bitwig 8-Track,
bundled with inespensive Nektar midi controllers, and possibly via purchasing
a back-issue #120 of the German 'Beat Magazine', if you can translate, or phone in.
I hope to get that soon for the fine effects section.

qtractor is another audio/midi workhorse daw, developed continually,
with companion instruments, and quite enjoyable to use, well worth the small learning curve.

Reaper/wine is great for non-dongled windows plugins. Linux daws are light on their heals,
so more than one can be used at once, melding their strong suits, and recording
the sundry outputs with Timemachine, Audacity, jackd recording utilities etc
using qjackctl or other patchbays for connecting i/o
There's no lid on your new toolbox, no vipers sneaking in,
and your expertise will be valuable and appreciated!
Cheers

[braintree12]

Thanks for the suggestions and the welcome. I was looking for something to record my experiments with various plugins in the Carla standalone patchbay -- I installed JACK Timemachine just now -- perfect.

[sadko4u]

Greetings from LSP developer!