Hello! Wanting advice for software selection

[Pistos]

Hallo, LinuxMusicians.

This looks like a great community!

I'd like to make music on Linux using FLOSS software. To be more specific, for starters, I would like to make original music in the genres of pop and hip hop. Ultimately, I want to have end products which sound good, but in the short term I'd be content to just have audio that sounds mediocre, as long as it doesn't sound like background music from an 80s video game. I want to be able to input notes with a MIDI-connected piano, both in real time and in step, as needed. I will also want to layer on vocals.

I've done some websearching, but am still feeling a bit lost. A bit about my background and ability level to help focus people's replies:

* I am a classically-trained pianist, so I have strong familiarity with music notation and music theory.
* I understand that sequencing is usually done with a "grid" of bars where pitch is on the y axis and time is on the x axis, and note duration is shown by the length of a given bar.
* I've used Audacity for basic destructive audio editing.
* I use Ardour for basic non-destructive audio editing and basic track mixing.
* I've dabbled a very tiny bit with LMMS.
* I use MuseScore for notation software.
* I have a beginner's understanding of JACK. I use patchage to connect things.
* I have a digital piano with MIDI cables
* I have attempted to fiddle with the following, but have generally felt lost, and haven't had much success: fluidsynth, sound fonts, linuxsampler, qsampler, qsynth.
* I've been using Linux (Gentoo, at that) for over a decade.
* I'm very comfortable navigating in the Linux shell, editing config text files, and that sort of thing, if it's necessary to get a certain something installed towards these goals.

I'd rather not use a dedicated audio Linux distro, because having to reboot in and out of it would be quite inconvenient. Ideally, what I want to do could all be done with one program (Ardour?), but I'm willing to use two different software programs if that would be easier or produce better results (e.g. something for sequencing, then Ardour for effects and final mix).

I'm willing to pay a little bit of money (say, under 100 USD) towards buying things to help with these endeavours, BUT I only wish to use FLOSS software.

Any advice is appreciated!

[sysrqer]

I would say Ardour would probably do everything you need from what I can tell. Was there something about it you didn't like?

[Pistos]

I would say Ardour would probably do everything you need from what I can tell. Was there something about it you didn't like?

Ardour does seems like it should do what I need, but the furthest I've gotten is hooking up linuxsampler/qsampler to two tracks, and then having the qsampler interface freeze or otherwise become unresponsive whenever I try to add a third track/instrument. I think I need a video tutorial to show me what buttons to press, what text or numbers to enter into fields, etc. (I was trying to follow this: http://libremusicproduction.com/tutoria ... m-together )

[Michael Willis]

From your detailed list of background information, I would say you are well on your way. I'm curious about a classically trained pianist wanting to make pop music! Whatever your taste and motivation, I would definitely encourage you to make use of that classical training and intermingle it with the music that you compose.

With regard to using fluidsynth, Linux sampler, sound fonts and such from within Ardour, the general idea is that you'll want to route the data from a midi track into the fluid synth or Linux sampler plugin, which will give you audio output. You will route that audio either directly to your master bus, or through other plugins for reverb, compression, eq, etc., as desired.

[Pistos]

Heej! Where did the main topic go??

The system said my posts are being held for moderation, presumably due to being very new. The original post is gone because I edited it to correct a spelling error, and that put it back into hiding, waiting for moderation again.

[Pistos]

From your detailed list of background information, I would say you are well on your way. I'm curious about a classically trained pianist wanting to make pop music! Whatever your taste and motivation, I would definitely encourage you to make use of that classical training and intermingle it with the music that you compose.

Well, with respect to that, I just find certain modern songs pretty cool sounding. My ear is trained enough that I can pick out the various instruments layered into a given modern production, and I figure I could imitate the styles I hear, in theory, if I only knew how to do so, technologically speaking, and if I had access to nice-enough-sounding sound fonts (or whatever the terminology is for that?).

With regard to using fluidsynth, Linux sampler, sound fonts and such from within Ardour, the general idea is that you'll want to route the data from a midi track into the fluid synth or Linux sampler plugin, which will give you audio output. You will route that audio either directly to your master bus, or through other plugins for reverb, compression, eq, etc., as desired.

This actually helps me envision what needs to be done. I'll fiddle some more; thanks.

[Michael Willis]

... if I had access to nice-enough-sounding sound fonts (or whatever the terminology is for that?).

There are a number of ways to render audio from a midi track, sound fonts being one of those ways. When people talk about sound fonts on Linux, they're usually taking about one of the following formats: SF2, SFZ, and/or GIG. These formats are based on playing sound samples, either live recorded or otherwise pre sampled sounds. Fluid synth will only play SF2 sound fonts, and is fairly simple to use. Linux Sampler supports all three, it's a bit more involved to set up, but based on your having several years of Linux experience, I imagine you can figure it out. For what it's worth, I use Linux Sampler to play orchestral samples, and I'm content with it.

In addition to sample-based audio, there are also a number of virtual synthesizers for Linux, like synthv1, Bristol, zynaddsubfx, etc. The ones I've tried allow you to build your own sounds with one or more oscillators, plus a number of different filters and effects. Based on your comment about nice sounds, you may find that you like making some of your own sounds, instead of using prefabricated ones that you get from sound fonts.

Then there's the matter of percussion and recording live instruments and vocals, which I know almost nothing about, but there are certainly other people on this forum who can give you guidance on those subjects.

This actually helps me envision what needs to be done. I'll fiddle some more; thanks.

If you want to use ardour, definitely read the sections in the ardour manual about signal routing and related subjects. Depending on what you're trying to accomplish, it can be as simple or as complicated as you want. It may be sufficient to put a synth/sampler plugin on each midi track and then route them all to the master bus. If you're doing something more involved, you may decide that you want synths/samplers/effects on busses separate from your midi tracks, with elaborate routing in between. My advice would be to start with something simple to learn the DAW concepts.