Hi Everybody! I have some old pc hardware that I want to use for live music performance. To start with it would be an effects box, then if all goes well an expander, a sampler, and/or whatever other ideas I come up with. I was thinking of using a footswitch controller, with a few buttons and a wah-wah like pedal as a knob. I have yet to buy the controller so I'm open to suggestions. It would work with USB or MIDI, or better both. If MIDI, then I also need a MIDI input card. Ultimately I would like the software to be as compact as possible, so I can run it off a flash card instead of a hard drive. It would probably be without GUI, though I'm leaving this open. Now to the linux bit: There is all this cool stuff already programmed for linux that I could be able to tailor to my needs, so its worth looking at, it seems. And I am sure I am not the first one to come up with this idea. So would you have any suggestions on where to start? As you have probably gathered, I'm a newbie to Linux. But I'm not to programming, and I'm ok with doing some coding. bye, Ariel
Definitely go MIDI. You just can't go wrong with MIDI, it's always going to work with everything forever.
As long as whatever controller (conventional or completely insane) you have is MIDI, you're set. Most all linux audio apps support MIDI control to some extent, many support MIDI control of almost every possible parameter.
The ones that don't need too anyway, and it shouldn't be too hard a feature to add.
For a MIDI controlled FX box, you probably want to check out jack-rack (for simpler chains) or AMS (for arbitrarily complex networks of effects). Both allow mapping MIDI to most any control (AMS in a really nice easy way too, no remembering controller numbers etc.)
AMS can supposedly run without a GUI (there's a command line option for it anyway) even though at a code level the two aren't separated. Not sure about jack-rack, but I have a feeling it can't.
-Dave
