Expectations

I started in Linux nearly 2 years ago, after a very clever campaign run by a colleague called Dave Phillips, who eventually wore me down, and left me little choice but to try, my interest piqued.

It seemed a lot to take in that time, and there are still moments where the learning curve is fairly steep.

But what Dave did was show me an alternative which has proved immensely important in my plans to build a decent professional native Linux based environment, and strengthened my conviction that there is more than one way to "kiss a bear." (so to speak.) I remain in debt to Dave, who told me the truth, gave me the plusses and minusses without embellishment, and devoted a lot of time to making sure i was off to a decent start, without telling me every command, or walking me through the entire process. That suits me, as i am by nature interested in finding things out by myself. Sometimes it's a case of knowing which question to ask, but i've been in safe hands there too, as many devs and power linux audio users have shown extraordinary patience with my new user questions, and confusion. So, nearly 2 years on, a big learning curve, and armed with at least a modicum of information, where do i go from here?

At the time of my linux initiation, i was thoroughly immersed in getting product out the door. That is, a client would ask for a few bars of orchestral score for an ad, or a section for a documentary, or maybe a theme for a radio show. I've done lots of this type of work over the last 30+ years, and a good slice of it involved using parchment and ink, rather than working in the computer. It isn't neccessarily glamorous, and is unlikely to make me rich, but that suits me, as i'd rather write than put on a suit, and take fake congratulations from fake people. There's enough doing that without me getting involved.

I would turn up in someone else's studio, look at the vid, and write, which they would then record, and turn into the end product. However, I did plenty of computer work too, making midi backing tracks for singers, experienced and hopeful, recording snippets for the self same ads and docs, and other bits and pieces as well, including writing for short films, cartoons, and other projects. Most of my recording time had been on the other side of the glass in studios, so although i could find my way around a desk, i was no engineer. I absorbed what i could, but that's no substitute for sitting down every day , and practising. After an enforced early retirement (auto accident) from playing with orchestras, conducting theatre ensembles, and lots of gigs to pay the rent, i had the time to devote to my first love, compositiion. It's always fascinated me, and continues to do so unabated, even after all this time. If anything, since my journey in Linux began, i'm even more enthused, and now i come to the point of this blog.

The Open Octave Project came to life because of that relentless urge to achieve a goal. A complete, unhindered, professional standard, working rig that gave me the maximum potential to achieve my goals, with the minimum of workarounds, or "clunk" moments, where the workflow would suddenly stop, because a tool, or component was missing, or didn't work properly. I was fortunate to team up with Chris, who shared the same vision for his wife, Wendy, an excellent musician and songsmith in her own right, with a voice as pure as i've ever heard.

Iin the process of doing this, we want to share this with other users, and give them the the opportunity to enjoy the same sense of creative freedom, and enjoy as much of the process as possible, to the point of constant inspiration, and that great feeling of being able to "fly", in the process  of composition. OOP is, by it's nature, based on our goals, of a great orchestral and film composition environment, but it also has opensource at it's heart, and that's just as important in the motivation to go forward.

But OOP isn't for lazy people, or those who bring commercial or even desktop bound assumptions. It's about a stripped down, powerful, save the cycles for performance setup, where the user gets precisely what they put into it. I'll speak only for myself here, but i'm bored with hearing users profess their intent to write "real" music, and then complain when they can't run Youtube with serious music making apps, in a huge desktop environment, full of games, kludge, more kludge, etc... You're either serious  about writing and recording music or not. Make your mind up.

So, moving on, the most commonly asked question we've had so far is: "How can we do this, if everyone has a different workflow?"

The answer is, frankly, we can't please everyone, but we can try and create the best possible foundation, from which others can spring in their own direction, based on our orchestrally inclined goals.

So, and i say this with continued respect, real enthusiasm, and after pondering the question above,  what's still to be done? Is Linux Audio ready for prime time for our genre choice? Do users know themselves what they can or can't currently use, if they look beyond commercial considerations of workflow, or cleverly marketed "essential" tools?

In the next blog, i'll give a strictly personal view of what we already have, and what more we could possibly add, to thrust Linux Audio and Midi into mainstream, for professional users, in the field of orchestral and film musical production, unhindered by commercial assumptions, or marketing hype.

Stay tuned..........