ciao nathan in sunny phoenix of the arizona!
just posting to say hi to you, to write an intro in case others are interested, and to test out making a first post (i just posted one but it seems to have dissapeared so this is my second attempt)
by way of an intro,
techwise, i've been 'linux only' (aka 'windows free!') for five years, sticking to debian based distros because i always prefer stability over cutting edge
as for music, i'm a self taught guitarist who is now trying to learn a little music theory (for that i'm generally keyboard based) because i want to understand how it works, to see if it adds anything to what i already do by instinct and ear. we shall see
my musical tastes are everywhere so can't begin to list or explain. i like free noise, achromatic and chromatic, acoustic and electronic, western and non-western, old and new. i like joy division and astrud gilberto and schoenberg and music concrete. all the same, all different. if you can hear it, it's music (if not to you, then to someone else, so not to be dismissed or disrespected).
i'm here because i love making music and love the free and open community ethos of gnu-linux and foss (and hate the closed and monopolistic mindset of the big tech digital imperialists).
unfortunately, to date (hence why i am here, in frustration and a little desperation) i have not been able to get my music and my linux tech to play happily together.
my impression so far is that while linux has got the daily driver OS thing resolved nicely by now, and is nearly there on the graphics and video front with Gimp Kden etc (perhaps gaming too, i don't game so don't know), but on the music front it is still a very distant straggler compared to the music options available to windows and mac.
for example, whenever i have asked on linux forums for good FOSS piano software, so i can just plug in my midi controller keyboard into my desktop and practice piano (without having to fight with the inscrutable menus-within-menus complexities of a full DAW), every linux i asked has replied 'pianoteq' (not FOSS).
no one has ever suggests anything FOSS, and i think they would if it existed as that is most linux users' first port of call for software. and this seems a shame to me, because the piano is the 'foundation instrument' for most (western) learners (of classical and jazz) from childhood up.
so that experience (and my many failed attempts to get such a thing working on my desktop via more complex means, DAWS etc) is what has left me with the abiding impression that (to date) linux is still a poor cousin for music makers compared to other systems.
and that is what has brought me here, to ask the specialists for their ideas and their solutions in order to bridge that gap until it is properly bridged.
i look forward to meeting you all around the forum.
olivia
Statistics: Posted by olivia — Sat Nov 23, 2024 11:09 am