On 07/02/21 22:48, D. Michael McIntyre wrote:
On 2/7/21 12:11 PM, Tom Peters wrote:
Hi, I am a beginner with Rosegarden and indeed with sound editing. I
am struggling with what appears to be everybodies first problem:
getting sound out of my computer.
First of all, I just want to take a moment to hang my head in
disappointment that this is still so complicated 20 years after I first
used Rosegarden. Twenty years!
I see your point.
IMHO the problem is the many different 'layers' to setting up stuff in
general in Linux: you have application layer (Rosegarden + jack +
midi-aware sound generation (or DSSI plugins), distribution layer (it's
different paths on different distributions, different package versions,
etc.), hardware (soundcard), ...
It's essentially the flip-side of custimise-ability. Which I like. If I
want to quickly hack something up I have a couple of command-line
scripts which will start fluidsynth with standard GM soundfonts just
just like I want it to (no chorus or reverb, autoconnect jack audio
output, no session management stuff, acceptable lower gain..), if I want
to use yoshimi I'll just fire that up, etc.
If I want to test out stuff I'll fire up Carla, start a2j... and test.
I mean, I've used rosegarden + a bunch of synths + xjadeo + ardour +
whatnot for video in the past for soundtrack production and that kind of
modularity and flexibility would be impossible (or harder to achieve) on
a non Linux system and without jack.
Again IMHO for a beginner the hardest part now-a-days is probably
getting DSSI plugins working (including the fluidsynth one), which would
typically get you going 'just' by running RG (and assuming _it_ would
start jack for you).
But I think these days DSSI is considered obsolete or semi-obsolate? For
example here on Manjaro (Arch-based), only amsynth and hexter are listed
in community packages as DSSI; there's fluidsynth-dssi in AUR but I
wouldn't call having to install from AUR 'beginner friendly'.
Today, maybe, the most straightforward way to get sound(s) for a
beginner, given that we will probably never have LV2 in Rosegarden is to
advice like you did Qsynth + some recommended soundfont (I guess the
Fluid_GM one exists in virtually all distributions, although it's huge),
and maybe even have an option for RG to launch it with the soundfont
ready (qsynth does have some handy comamnd line options).
Another option would be Carla which supports SoundFonts natively + it
opens up a bunch of LV2 (and even Linux VST options) for sound
generation. Probelm is (again from a beginner perspective), that Carla
works only with jack-midi, which is of course easily worked around with
a2j or ajbridge, but again not 'beginner' friendly.
So, to be constructive, maybe we could have some sort of documentation
or maybe even helper script to help new users launch qsynth + a
soundfont? Maybe even search for nice software?
I mean for starting out a decent soundfont + yoshimi would be a pretty
rich combination. Of course even beginners should understnad that the
Linux ecosystem and workflow (therefore creative mindset), is different
compared to the 'all-in-one' one (Logic, Cubase and co.)...
My two cents, and hope you don't mind me deraling this a bit :)
Lorenzo
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