Audio creation spin development

Edit at Will!
This is a wiki, so all interested users are encouraged to edit the page as they see fit.

Please Leave Explanations
If you're making a change, leave a note with your username to explain why. This will help us arrive at decisions pragmatically.

Goals

• Create a Fedora spin configured with software and optimizations designed for audio creation work.

Contributors

• David Timms
• Christopher Antila
• Bernardo Barros
• William Blackburn
• Brendan Jones
• Karsten 'quaid' Wade
• Nikos Roussos
• Jørn Lomax

Status

• 2010-07-22: Creation of the Spin Development page.
• 2010-07-18: There has been renewed interest on the music list in developing a Fedora Music Creation spin.
• 2012-02-19: Renewed interest here
• 2012-02-23: GSoC started with one student on the project

Timeline

The aim is to release with the next mainstream Fedora release, Fedora 18

Tasks

If any of these areas interest you, please put your name next to an item, and indicate when you think you might be able to complete the task, etc.

• Develop the list of primary audio packages. (collab)
• Develop the list of other audio packages. (collab)
• Develop a list of system tweaks to improve the user experience (bsjones: currently looking at the kxstudio suite of tools. It provides jack / pulseaudio / ALSA midi integration. Needs some work to be packaged for Fedora)
• Build initial kickstart file based on primary audio packages. done. see Spin Page.
• Publish the first cut via torrent/site for SIG feedback. (crantila: this should be done via fedorahosted?) (dtimms: not sure, but time is of essence - so I have tried publishing both the torrent and ks so that people can further test the spin).
• Make a cool name for the spin.
• Prioritize tasks; assign them to people.
• Team up with Artwork for themes and CDs/DVDs. (Jørn, but anyone is allowed to contribute)
  • See this page for a collection of Fedora community-contributed artwork.
• Document "primary" software (Christopher).
  • Use [1] as a reference for rtirq
• Get space at fedorahosted to store development materials (git done).
• Get a beat written for the Release Notes (Christopher).
• Contact the Spins SIG to notify them of our project , and ask for help

Primary Packages

Primary packages
Please only write up packages that we *need* to have in the spin.

The spin developers consider this group of packages to cover key audio creation areas.

A python script crawls the Primary list. Plwase enter package names as found as you would install using yum. If you want to add a comment to an entry, please use | as a delimiter ( package | comment).

The script will show what needs to be packaged [2] to complete the primary list.

Written Music / Sheet Music

• LilyPond
  • LilyPond-mode for Emacs
  • Frescobaldi
  • LilyPondTools for jEdit
• mscore | This is MuseScore
• emcas-muse
• swami
• tuxguitar |can be substituted for kGuitar

Recording and DAWs

• Audacity
• Ardour
• Qtractor
• Rosegarden4
• muse
• Traverso |This one is debatable (seems to compete with ardour)

Sound Analysis

• Praat
• Friture | [3]

Synthesis

• Drums:
  • hydrogen
• Keyboard:
  • zynaddsubfx
  • bristol
  • monobristol
• Effects:
  • rakarrack
  • guitarix
• Sampling:
  • SooperLooper
  • SpecimenSampler

Sound Server and Configuration

• Jack:
  • qjackctl
  • jack-audio-connection-kit
  • jack-audio-connection-kit-dbus
  • jack-audio-connection-kit-example-clients (Contains the very useful jack_control)
  • jackctlmmc
  • pulseaudio-module-jack
  • patchage
  • ladish |Will be removed. Has too many dependencies (mostly gtk/glade)
• alsa:
  • a2jmidid
  • alsa-firmware
  • alsa-tools
  • alsa-utils
  • alsamixergui
  • alsa-plugins-pulseaudio
  • alsa-plugins-jack
  • alsa-plugins-usbstream
  • alsa-plugins-samplerate
  • alsa-plugins-upmix
  • alsa-plugins-downmix
• Midi:
  • arpage
  • qmidiarp
  • FluidSynth
  • fluid-soundfont-gm
  • Qsynth
  • timidity++
  • seq24

Utilities

• lash
• jack_capture
• jamin
• multimedia-menus
• jaaa
• jmeters
• qastools
• japa

Audio Plugins

• calf | Audio plugins pack
• JACK-Rack | LADSPA effects rack
• ladspa:
  • LADSPA | Audio Plugins
  • ladspa-amb-plugins | Ambisonics LADSPA plugins
  • ladspa-blop-plugins | Bandlimited LADSPA Oscillator Plugins
  • ladspa-caps-plugins | The C* Audio Plugin Suite
  • ladspa-cmt-plugins | A collection of LADSPA plugins
  • ladspa-fil-plugins | LADSPA Filter plugins
  • ladspa-rev-plugins | A reverberation plugin for LADSPA
  • ladspa-swh-plugins | A set of audio plugins for LADSPA
  • ladspa-tap-plugins | Tom's Audio Processing plugin
  • ladspa-vco-plugins | Anti-aliased pulse and sawtooth oscillators
  • ladspa-autotalent-plugins
  • ladspa-mcp-plugins
• lv2:
  • lv2
  • lv2dynparam | LV2 dynamic parameters extension
  • lv2-swh-plugins | LV2 version of swh plugins
  • lv2-vocoder-plugins | robotic effect to vocals
  • lv2-zynadd-plugins | LV2 port of ZynAddSubFX
  • lv2-mdaEPiano
  • lv2-ll-plugins
  • lv2-kn0ck0ut
  • lv2-invada-plugins
  • lv2-fil-plugins
  • lv2-c++-tools
  • lv2-avw-plugins
  • lv2-abGate
  • lv2-EQ10Q-plugins
• slv2 | LV2 host library
• zynjacku | LV2 synths and plugins host
• zita-at1
• zita-rev1
• dssi:
  • DSSI | Soft Synth Interface
  • dssi-vst | DSSI plugin wrapper for VST plugins
  • fluidsynth-dssi
  • hexter-dssi
  • nekobee-dssi
  • whysynth-dssi
  • xsynth-dssi

Streaming and DJ applications

• IDJC

Non-audio extra programs

• xchat
• firefox
• nano |if anyone has a problem with this, please tell me -jvlomax
• shutter
• vim
• emacs
• emacs-color-theme
• backintime-kde
• screen

Kernel and Drivers

• rtirq
• FFADO |FireWire audio capture/output

Default Desktop Environment(s)

KDE

Secondary Packages

Secondary packages are nice to have, but will not be on the Live CD/DVD. If there will be a separate "Installation DVD," these packages should be included.

Secondary packages may or may not already be packaged for Fedora. If a secondary package is not already available from the main Fedora repository, it should be noted here, and the package should be included on the "Wishlist" below.

The purpose of secondary packages is that they can be advertised as part of the Audio Spin, and/or we can help users install them more easily, and/or just so the Audio Creation SIG is aware that they exist and we should keep an eye on them.

• Audio Programming Languages:
  • SuperCollider (needs to be moved from CCRMA)
  • PD-extended (needs to be moved from CCRMA)
  • CSound5
• Music Research
  • music21 (not packaged; see [4])
  • humdrum (not pacakged; see [5])
    • maybe some music from KernScores ([6])
    • maybe PerlHumdrum
• Printed Music
  • Krescobaldi, the KDE-dependent version of Frescobaldi (not yet released; see [7])
• Instrument support
  • plug (not packaged, see wishlist)

Legacy List

This portion doesn't follow the guidelines above.

• these packages are not in the repos, but can be downloaded from the linux rtwiki and linux audio creation sites.
  • rtirq- this script, (if I understand it correctly), determines which IRQ numbers are used for soundcards and sets them for realtime audio priority.
  • realtimeconfigquickscan-this script performs a number of checks and with every check also provides the method of fixing the corresponding settings.
  • rtirq actually changes setting whereas the realtimeconfigquickscan merely checks for real time optimization and offers suggestions.
  • I would like to write a tutorial for these in the fedora musicians guide. Let me know if you think this is a good/bad idea.(William Backburn)

Wishlist

Enter any Audio Creation related software you want to see packaged here:

Information				Software			Instrument				Type
Package	Summary	License	Assignee	Appl	Lib	Notation	Drums	Piano	Strings	Other	Audio	MIDI	Mixer	Sampler
athenaCL	Modular poly-paradigm algorithmic music composition in a cross-platform interactive command-line environment.	GPL2	M. Edward (Ed) Borasky	✘		✘				✘
CheeseTracker	software sampler & step-based sequencer	GPL?	currently in PlanetCCRMA	✘							✘
chibitracker	Impulse Tracker clone	GPL		✘							✘
Ecasound	multitrack audio processing	GPL+LGPL	currently in PlanetCCRMA	✘	✘						✘		✘
humdrum	Software tools intended to assist in music research	?	Christopher	✘	✘	✘
IanniX	A graphical real-time open-source sequencer for digital art	GPL3	M. Edward (Ed) Borasky	✘		✘				✘	✘
Impro-Visor	Jazz Improvisation Advisor for the Improviser	GPL2	M. Edward (Ed) Borasky	✘		✘				✘		✘
ingen	modular audio processing system using Jack LV2	GPL?	currently unreleased	✘					✘	✘	✘	✘
ladish	Linux audio session handler	GPL/LGPL	bsjones	✘
LuaAV	Real-time audiovisual scripting environment using Lua	University of California Regents (https://github.com/LuaAV/LuaAV/blob/master/COPYRIGHT)	M. Edward (Ed) Borasky	✘	✘	✘				✘	✘
music21	Python-based toolkit for computer-aided musicology	LGPLv3 & CC-BY-SA3 & ??	Christopher	✘	✘	✘					✘	✘
Mustajuuri	audio signal processing	GPL/LGPL		✘							✘	✘		✘
NASPRO	the NASPRO Architecture for Sound PROcessing	LGPLv2/GPLv3/ISC		✘	✘						✘	✘	✘	✘
Neil	Modular tracker	GPL?	libmad dependancy needs investigating	✘							✘	✘		✘
Non Mixer	Digital audio mixer	GPLv2+		✘							✘		✘
paulstretch	Paul's Extreme Sound Stretch	GPLv2	bsjones has a patch to remove mp3 support	✘							✘			✘
plug	PLUG is Linux software for Fender Mustang amplifiers.	GPLv3	imalone has a spec file based on SUSE package	✘					✘
PureData	Real-time Graphical Programming Environment for Audio	Std. Improved BSD	currently in PlanetCCRMA	✘							✘	✘
python-paulstretch	Command line version of Paul's Extreme Sound Stretch	GPLv2		✘							✘			✘
ReZound	graphical audio file editor	GPL?	currently in PlanetCCRMA	✘							✘
sfront	MPEG-4 Structured Audio: Developer Tools	GPL, GNU Free Documentation License	M. Edward (Ed) Borasky	✘	✘	✘				✘	✘	✘
slippery chicken	Algorithmic composition system	GPL but may have a "non-commercial" clause ... see http://www.michael-edwards.org/sc/licence.html	M. Edward (Ed) Borasky	✘		✘				✘
SuperCollider	Programming Language for Real-time Audio Synthesis	GPLv2	currently in PlanetCCRMA bsjones / nando	✘						✘	✘	✘
synthclone	Synthesizer cloning into SFZ/Hydrogen by means of outputting MIDI and recording the result	LGPL/GPL		✘	✘		✘			✘	✘	✘		✘
terminatorX	realtime audio synthesizer	GPLv2?	currently in RPM Fusion, but for Fedora 11	✘							✘	✘		✘
Traverso	multitrack audio recording and editing	GPL?	currently in RPM Fusion, but for Fedora 11	✘							✘		✘
WineASIO	ASIO support for wine	GPL?									✘
Wired	music production and creation	GPL?	✘							✘	✘	✘	-

Audio Creation related software submitted for review

Information				Software			Instrument				Type
Package	Summary	License	Bugzilla	Appl	Lib	Notation	Drums	Piano	Strings	Other	Audio	MIDI	Mixer	Sampler
Non-sequencer	Real-time, pattern-based MIDI sequencer	GPLv2+	571993	✘								✘

Orphaned Packages Needing Maintainers

No Currently Orphaned Audio Creation packages

Packages Accepted into Fedora

Information				Software			Instrument				Type
Package	Summary	License	pkgdb	Appl	Lib	Notation	Drums	Piano	Strings	Other	Audio	MIDI	Mixer	Sampler	Notes
AlsaModularSynth	Realtime Modular Synthesizer and Effect Processor	GPL	[https://admin.fedoraproject.org/pkgdb/acls/name/ams	✘						✘	✘	✘
Ardour	Multichannel Digital Audio Workstation	GPLv2+	[8]	✘							✘		✘
arpage	MIDI Arpeggiator	GPLv3	[9]	✘								✘
Audacity	Multitrack audio editor	GPLv2	[10]	✘							✘		✘
Bristol	Synthesizer emulator	GPLv2	[11]	✘						✘	✘	✘
Csound	sound synthesis language and lib	LGPL	[12]	✘	✘						✘	✘	✘
FAUST	real-time audio signal processing language.	GPLv2+...	[13]								✘
fmit	Free Music Instrument Tuner.	GPLv2+...	[14]	✘							✘
FluidR3 soundfont	Pro-quality GM/GS soundfont	MIT	[15]									✘
FluidSynth	Real-time software synthesizer	LGPLv2+	[16]	✘	✘							✘
FreqTweak	FreqTweak is a tool for FFT-based realtime audio spectral manipulation and display.	GPL	[17]	✘					✘	✘	✘
Frescobaldi	LilyPond sheet music editor for KDE4	GPLv2+...	[18]	✘		✘						✘
Frinika	Music Workstation	GPLv2+	[19]	✘		✘				✘	✘	✘	✘	✘
giada	Live sampler / looper	?	[20]	✘							✘			✘
Gnome Guitar	small suite of apps for the guitarist	GPLv3+	[21]	✘					✘
guitarix	Mono amplifier to JACK	GPL+	[22]	✘					✘		✘	✘
Hydrogen	advanced drum machine	GPLv2+	[23]	✘			✘				✘	✘
JACK	The Jack Audio Connection Kit	GPLv2&LGPLv2	[24]		✘						✘
Jack_capture	Record sound files with JACK	GPLv2+...	[25]	✘							✘
jack-keyboard	Virtual keyboard for JACK MIDI	BSD	[26]	✘								✘
JAMin	JACK Audio Mastering interface	GPLv2+	[27]	✘							✘		✘
jconv	Jack Convolution Engine	GPLv2+	[28]		✘						✘
k3guitune	Guitar and other instruments tuner	GPLv2+	[29]	✘				✘	✘	✘	✘
KGuitar	Guitar Tabulature Music Editor	GPLv2+	[30]	✘		✘			✘		✘	✘
laditools	Linux audio toolbox	GPL/LGPL	[31]		✘
liblrdf	lib for manipulating LADSPA RDF files	GPLv2+	[32]		✘						✘
LMMS	music production	GPLv2+ ...	[33]	✘							✘	✘	✘	✘
meterbridge	Meter Bridge for JACK	GPL+	[34]	✘							✘
mididings	MIDI router and processor	GPL?	[35]	✘								✘
Minicomputer	Software synthesizer	GPLv3	[36]	✘							✘
monoBristol	GUI launcher for the Bristol synth collection	GPL/LGPL	[37]	✘						✘		✘
MusE	Midi/Audio Music Sequencer	GPL+...	[38]	✘							✘	✘	✘	✘
MuseScore	music composition & notation software	GPLv2...	[39]	✘		✘		✘			✘	✘
Non DAW	Digital audio workstation	GPLv2+	[40]	✘							✘
Non Session Manager	Persistent Session Manager	GPLv2+	[41]	✘							✘	✘	✘
nted	Musical score editor	GPLv2+...	[42]	✘		✘						✘
MusixTeX	Sophisticated music typesetting	GPLv2+	[43]			✘
PortMidi	Real-time Midi I/O Library	MIT	[44]		✘							✘
Qjackctl	JACK control application	GPLv2+	[45]	✘							✘
QasTools	Collection of ALSA utilities	?	[46]	✘							✘		✘
Qsynth	Qt based Fluidsynth frontend	GPLv2+	[47]	✘								✘
Qtractor	Audio/MIDI multi-track sequencer	GPLv2	[48]	✘							✘	✘	✘	✘
Rakarrack	guitar effects processor	GPLv2	[49]	✘					✘		✘
Rosegarden4	MIDI, audio and notation editor	GPLv2+	[50]	✘		✘					✘	✘		✘
rtaudio	Real-time Audio I/O Library	MIT	[51]		✘						✘
rtirq	Utility to assign IRQ priorities	GPL?	[52]	✘
rumor	Really Unintelligent Music transcriptOR	GPLv2	[53]	✘		✘						✘
Seq24	Real-time midi sequencer	GPLv2+	[54]	✘								✘
Sooperlooper	Realtime software looping sampler	GPLv2+	[55]	✘							✘			✘
SoundTracker	Sound module composer/player	GPLv2+	[56]	✘							✘	✘	✘
Swami	Sampled Waveforms And Musical Instruments	GPLv2+	[57]	✘								✘
Sweep	audio editor & live playback tool	GPLv2+	[58]	✘							✘
TamTam	Music and Sound Exploration Application for the OLPC	GPLv2+	[59]	✘		✘	✘	✘	✘	✘	✘			✘
TSE3	MIDI Sequencer Engine	GPL+	[60]		✘							✘
TuxGuitar	multitrack tablature editor	LGPLv2+	[61]	✘		✘	✘		✘		✘	✘
yoshimi	ZynAddSubFX fork	GPLv3	[62]	✘						✘	✘
ZynAddSubFX	Real-time software synthesizer	GPLv2	[63]	✘							✘	✘

• Please add others that have already made the jump into Fedora, so that we can show that the SIG is making positive progress ;-)
• The above table is made for ease of classification. Feel free to tailor it.

Audio Plugins

DSSI, LADSPA and LV2 plugins allow usage of wide range of audio processors and effects in many audio synthesis and recording software (Ardour, Audacity, Muse, Rosegarden,...). Fedora currently offers a list of most popular ones of these plugins. There are still many more to package:

Audio Plugins Wishlist

Plugin	Summary	License	Assignee	Notes
ladspa-mcp-plugins	Chorus and Phaser	GPLv2+
ladspa-vcf-plugins	EQ biquad filters	LGPL?
ladspa-vlevel-plugins	Look-ahead compressor	GPL?
Refer to [lv2plug.in] for more unpackaged LV2 plugins

Audio Plugins Submitted for Review

Plugin	Summary	License	Bugzilla	Notes

Accepted Audio Plugins

Plugin	Summary	License	pkgdb	Notes
calf	Audio plugins pack	GPLv2+...	[64]
dssi-vst	DSSI plugin wrapper for VST plugins	GPLv2	[65]
DSSI	Soft Synth Interface	MIT	[66]
JACK Rack	LADSPA effects rack	GPLv2+	[67]
LADSPA	Audio Plugins	LGPLv2+	[68]
ladspa-amb-plugins	Ambisonics LADSPA plugins	GPLv2+	[69]
ladspa-blop-plugins	Bandlimited LADSPA Oscillator Plugins	GPLv2+	[70]
ladspa-caps-plugins	The C* Audio Plugin Suite	GPLv2+	[71]
ladspa-cmt-plugins	A collection of LADSPA plugins	GPLv2+	[72]
ladspa-fil-plugins	LADSPA Filter plugins	GPLv2+	[73]
ladspa-rev-plugins	A reverberation plugin for LADSPA	GPLv2+	[74]
ladspa-swh-plugins	A set of audio plugins for LADSPA	GPLv2+	[75]
ladspa-tap-plugins	Tom's Audio Processing plugin	GPLv2+	[76]
ladspa-vco-plugins	Anti-aliased pulse and sawtooth oscillators	GPLv2+	[77]
lv2core	Audio Plugin Standard	LGPLv2+...	[78]
lv2dynparam	LV2 dynamic parameters extension	GPLv2	[79]
lv2-swh-plugins	LV2 version of swh plugins	GPLv2+	[80]
lv2-vocoder-plugins	robotic effect to vocals	GPLv2	[81]
lv2-zynadd-plugins	LV2 port of ZynAddSubFX	GPLv2	[82]
slv2	LV2 host library	GPLv2+	[83]
zynjacku	LV2 synths and plugins host	GPLv2...	[84]

Meetings

The minutes from previous meetings can be found here. The next meeting scheduled is 3rd of December

Agenda:

• What needs fixing ASAP?
• Fixing the issues raised by the wrangler
• open floor

Involed or Interested Contributors

This list is currently alphabetized by surname. If you do not have or do not wish to use a surname, you are welcome to add your name to this list in any way you see fit.

• Christopher Antila
• William Blackburn
• Renich Bon Ciric
• M. Edward (Ed) Borasky
• David Cornette
• Hans de Goede
• Anthony Green
• Harald Hoyer
• Brendan Jones
• Greg de Koenigsberg
• Fernando Lopez-Lezcano
• Dave Maley
• Dominik Mierzejewski
• Brian Monroe
• Anuj More
• Orcan Ogetbil
• Marco Rhodes
• Nikos Roussos
• Jeff Sandys
• Joao Felipe Santos
• Clint Savage
• David Timms
• Mario Torre
• Clark Williams
• Damian Wrobel

Test days

As the spin develops, we will schedule and participate in test days. If you have an audio itch, see if the Audio Creation spin is scratching it...

Bugs

Please view the bug tracker for the project

kickstart issues

• attempt at setting the default group for all users is not recognised: you still have to mess with users and groups to add the user to jackuser. this is probably one of the key things that is needed for the spin to be instantly usable by beginners. - fixed
• existing package bugs:

We want to keep track of new and existing bugs. Maybe some cached BugZilla queries?

Links to Further Information

• Audio Software Packaging (crantila: what does this mean?)
• Packages Requiring Testing (koji and bodhi)
• The Music Creation Lite spin standard page
• AudioCreationWebResources