Guitarix and Android?!

What other apps and distros do you use to round out your studio?

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Aleks
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Guitarix and Android?!

Post by Aleks »

OK, here's another newb question. :) Well, since Android is basically Linux, can an app like Guitarix or Rakarrack be adapted for use on an Android device?
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raboof
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Re: Guitarix and Android?!

Post by raboof »

Aleks wrote:since Android is basically Linux, can an app like Guitarix or Rakarrack be adapted for use on an Android device?
In theory, yes. In practice, maybe.

It's true Android runs on the Linux kernel, but there's some differences.

First, most Android applications are written in Java. Iirc guitarix and rakarrack are mostly written in C(++?). This is not impossible to overcome though: the Android Native Development Kit allows you to include compiled code into your Android app. This might also mean you need to compile packages for multiple phone architectures, instead of the Java 'write once run anywhere' (which even for Java is not always as easy as it sounds).

Then there's the Sound API. IIRC you can't currently run JACK on Android or have direct access to the audio device of your Android device. You'll have to go through Google's API's, which means rewriting most of your audio wiring.

Then there's the GUI: to have a useful GUI on Android you'll have to use the Google toolkits, not whatever X11-based toolkit Guitarix/Rakarrack use. You'll have to basically rewrite the UI entirely.

Then there's libraries. Guitarix/rakarrack might use libraries that are usually available on Linux systems, but not on Android. You might have to add Android/ARM support to the libraries you use.

Then there's performance. I'm not sure what kind of performance you can expect from the phone hardware: specs might look impressive, but mobile phone manufacturers often have to make trade-offs that aren't easily visible but do impact performance.

So: probably not entirely impossible, but by no means an easy task.
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Re: Guitarix and Android?!

Post by tramp »

Aleks wrote:OK, here's another newb question. :) Well, since Android is basically Linux, can an app like Guitarix or Rakarrack be adapted for use on an Android device?
Guitarix provide a java based User Interface since version 0.28.0 which can run on your Android device to control guitarix,
but the audio engine itself needs a "real" linux/jackd system. That didn't need to be a PC or a Laptop, a Raspberry PI or a PCDuino will be enough.
http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/g ... _/_ARM_SoC
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raboof
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Re: Guitarix and Android?!

Post by raboof »

tramp wrote:Guitarix provide a java based User Interface since version 0.28.0 which can run on your Android device to control guitarix,
but the audio engine itself needs a "real" linux/jackd system.
That link suggests it's not a java-based UI / android app, but a web-based UI that can be used on smartphones running Firefox, right? Or is there more to it?
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Re: Guitarix and Android?!

Post by tramp »

Yes, it isn't a android application, it's a platform independent web application written in java.
http://enyojs.com/
That's one of the nice points in Open Source, fetch the source, have a look at it, and you'll know what you've.
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Re: Guitarix and Android?!

Post by autostatic »

Java != JavaScript ;)
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Re: Guitarix and Android?!

Post by tramp »

AutoStatic wrote:Java != JavaScript ;)
:D right, a point for you, :lol:

But for the context here it is unrelated.
It's a web-application, running in the browser.
It run on the device which host the browser, that could be a Android or any other device, even a windows or apple one.
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