Linux and Audio Production: Simplicity Required

To me, this article points out two interesting things to its readers. First of all, it’s OK for Linux users to use Windows when needed. While it may not always be the OS of choice, it does offer us software that we are not going to find elsewhere. Secondly, it would be great if audio productions tools were given a little ‘bump up’ as well. Just my thinking…

I am a musician. I spend a reasonably large proportion of my life creating and recording music. My home studio has all the marks of a musician - guitars, drums, mics, mixers and of course a computer. Despite the fact that pretty much all of my computers run Linux, the studio box is running Windows 2000 so I can use my sound recording tool of choice; Cubase.

From a Open Source consultant and advocates perspective, that computer is obviously a chink in the armour. To replace it with a Linux box and achieve the same results is a real challenge though. There are simply no multi-tracking applications on Linux that provide a comparative experience in terms of functionality and integration. Don’t get me wrong, there are certainly efforts going in to this area and applications such as Ardour, Wired and Rosegarden, but these tools face a number of uphill battles in winning me over. The interesting point is that the challenge is not focused so much on features but on usability and integration. [Read the rest]