>In reply to the 'not having the same sound as >everybody else', I think this is a question of how you >use software and not what you use. You can play a >million things/styles etc on a guitar. The same goes >for software synths etc.
Yes, but guitar still sounds like a guitar (with the exception of the extended performance techniques and guitar preparation), acid loops still sound like acid loops, and DX-7 synth patches still sound like DX-7 patches. Keep in mind that software is not "musical style" (i.e. rondo vs. waltz vs. rap vs. rock etc.), but that software is an instrument. I am not trying to say that each person's music does not have that grain of "individuality" but rather that by using "more-difficult-to-use" software, I am likely to use tools that are less used by others, hence my music has a greater chance to sound "unique." Try listening to some of the "academic electronic music" and see just how different it is from everything else out there. >The truth is we will never have all the apps that are >available for windows ( unless commercial software >becomes a happening thing ). But if we are prudent we >can focus on the core type apps and frameworks. I disagree. Time works for us, not against us. Open source apps have the great advantage over the commercial offering in that they can be updated indefinitely by a huge number of developers -- and every time they get updated, they become [mostly] even better. Commercial apps do not have a secure life span and a lot of developers have to reinvent the wheel due to closed-source nature of commercial software. For instance look at opcode's Vision DSP (one of the first versatile pro Midi/Audio Studio solutions), it's dead now since the company is out of business, and all their effort and money spent for it is now completely useless, since app will never have its source code released nor ported into anything beyond OS 9). What we really need in Linux is already happening, and that is a dedicated group of developers working on versatile tools within an open-source framework. Ico
