>ory of this kind of knowledge, but I can't find it. If you know where it is, >please let me know. So, my first question is: where does a newbie go to learn >? I doubt Native Instruments or Steinberg will be quick to tell me the tricks > and hacks that they use.
you have to read the source. even if none of the larger applications that any of us are working on ever actually "succeed" in conventional terms, they represent a huge repository of information on some potential ways to do things. this is something very important to me - even if ardour bombs and i end up working at REI selling backpacks, it will live on as an example of how to do certain things that a DAW has to do. possibly a bad example, but an example nonetheless. use the source(s). read it. come to grips with it. please don't expect us to write white papers on software design for real time audio at the same time as writing real time audio software without pay! >mbining instruments into a track. When I write something in Cubase, I expect >to click "save" and for all my connections, parameter values, automation, mixe >r settings, etc. to be stored, ready to be opened next time I feel like it wit >hout having to go through a number of apps and remember which files went with >this project. Maybe I'm wrong - I hope I am - but Jack doesn't appear to come > close to Cubase in this respect. Is there something else out there? your saved state in cubase is the saved state of just a single program. those instruments you loaded are all individual plugins that ran within the context of cubase. most programs similar to cubase on linux can do just what you are describing. if you were using rewire, say to connect cubase and reason, then cubase could not do what you are asking (and neither could rewire, AFAIK). JACK isn't about connecting plugins, just like rewire isn't about connecting plugins. its a way to wire together multiple applications so that they can talk to each other and run in sync with each other. but then again, perhaps rewire can. we've discussed ways to do this with JACK, but at this time, most JACK apps are not supporting any of the ideas that have been put forwards. > 3. I want to know the state of play. Not of one app, but of the whole linux > audio scene. Which apps work together? Which apps have debs, rpms, mdks, or > whatever. Is there some kind of site like this? If there isn't, how about w >e build one? Something that would really keep it all together. Imagine: Planet CCRMA is the closest thing i know of to this, but its for RPM-based systems only, perhaps even just RH. > - Articles for developers and users > - FAQs that cover a whole host of apps > - Info on the current state of apps > - Pre-compiled packages that work together - something like demudi woul >d be good, but more as a work in progress system - something we could all use >to test software, interoperability, etc. in an environment that is (as much as > possible) what the end users will have. > - Tutorials, links, guidelines. Now, guidelines is a good idea! > - A big, all encompassing TODO list. > - A combined effort on documentation. I think a nice manual that cover >s a whole audio setup would be good. all sounds good. i take it you have the funds and or the time to make this happen? > 4. I'm fully intending to start writing audio apps. My first attempt will b >e a tracker - something I can cut my audio teeth on and produce something I wa >nt. I really do like the tracker paradigm. Anyway, any pointers are welcome - > especially concerning things in item 1. I intend to document my progress and > hopefully turn it into a guide to writing audio apps for people who are in my > position right now. Of course, if it all goes wrong, it might become a what- >not-to-do kind of document, but I hope not. why don't you take an existing program and make it do something better, or something that it doesn't already do? your contribution will be more valuable, you'll learn from the inside out rather than outside in, and you still get to learn from mistakes (though they may not be your own). rather than creating Yet Another Tracker, you'll have done something that can be used by others (and yourself) very quickly. --p
