Snippets!

Greetings all, and we hope all of you have had a decent start to the New Year, and that it continues. Christopher and I have continued to work behind the scenes, building, testing, and evaluating, so i'd like to bring some of our discoveries up to date, and share what we've found......

In the quest for a great modular setup, for what we do, we've been on the hunt for a few programmes to fill the gaps, so to speak, and make a more cohesive setup. We've been searching in particular for JACK based mixers, that will not only give us complete control over audio (and midi) porting, but be able to manipulate that audio outside of a hybrid app that does several things at once. Our modular paradigm and intent is well known, but more than that, we'd really like to see single use apps that do one job really well.

I had quite a few discussions with some very talented coders in a couple of IRC channels, and there's a common ground and desire to provide what is basically a JACK "master" mixer. This isn't new, and we have a couple of options already (Jackmix, Jack_mixer, and Jackmixdesk), but the 3 of them can be a bit problematic in use, and lack the ability to construct a master port framework complete with sends, inserts, etc. Jackmix goes close, with it's xml file save process, and jack_mixer seems to have recently added this function too. I had a discussion quite some time ago with a colleague who shared my view that something like Ardour's mixer as a standalone would do a good job. I agreed with him, and have been thinking about this for quite some time.

In my recent research i found 3 future contenders that may meet this goal, and possibly exceed it. I'll talk about 2 of them here, as the 3rd is still being worked on, and may not be ready for a while.

Jonathan Moore Liles is well known for his fine work with the Non-Sequencer and Non-Daw programmes. The Sequencer is a pattern based programme, and the Daw does audio. Both are simple, easy to use, and do precisely what they say on the tin. Light, fast, and simple to work with, they're testament to Linux's modular design, and Jonathan's enthusiasm for this. I've had the privilege of working with him this last week, and testing (clumsily, as is my virtue as a user) the Non-Daw in a 64bit environment. Within 5 mins of starting Non-Daw, and connecting ports, i'm recording, and getting around the app quickly. Non-Daw brings the fundamentals of recording, without bloat, or a stream of options many of us are unlikely to use. Most importantly, Jonathan.. "gets it" , and has provided simple and powerful tools to do the job, in a pure JACK environment. Non-Daw, in my experiments chewed half the CPU i normally get through with a hybrid use app, and worked well. I can't overstate the simplicity and ease of use. It just works, and with some additional workflow options (I was always going to mention workflow, right?) could rapidly expand it's user base further, for relatively little effort.

for more information about the Non suite of apps....

http://non-daw.tuxfamily.org/

http://non-sequencer.tuxfamily.org/

The complement to the Non suite of apps, the Non-Mixer, is to come shortly, and after testing (for which i am an enthusiastic participant ready and waiting), will provide a powerful "hub" for JACK based systems. I've seen the screenshots, and again, Jonathan has been careful to have 1 app do 1 job well. (There's a theme here) I look forward to getting my hands on Non-Mixer, and giving it a thorough workout, and report back with initial findings, but if the standard of the current apps in the Non suite is anything to go by, we're in for a treat.

Torben Hohn never ceases to surprise me. In one breath he's building and modifying important structural components in Jack, the next he's fixing something, and most recently, after something  that started as a casual discussion, he fixed his attention and formdable skills on, you guessed it, a mixer. It's being built, and from the screenshots, will do a solid job. Again , i look forward to testing this, and giving Torben feedback form a user's perspective. More to come on this, as Torben has a number of projects on the go at any time, so it's a little harder to get a time frame for that initial build and test.

If there's one thing this pair of talented chaps have in common though, it's their fearlessness in contemplating the idea of 100 ports +. Managing such a large number of channels strips, as track inputs, busses, etc is daunting enough, but keeping them as close to immediately avaliable to the user, in a visual format that is fast and effective, is a big challenge. In a big orchestral framework, numbers are big (naturally), but managing them is a constant challenge. In the other mixers mentioned above, they operate a single row, and disappear off the screen quickly once the port count exceeds the design spec. For users who write rock, pop, etc, used to dealing with 10, or 20, 30 channel strips in a mixer, this is ok, and tolerable even if a fairly modest scroll is required. For our use, this comes up as inadequate, and is extremely frustrating and time consuming. 

Jonathan and Torben understand this though, and both mixers are being built with a LOT of ports in mind, as well as more...normal use.Thanks fellas, for keeping us "large numbers" chaps in mind. Thanks also to Petern for his help and patience in testing Non-Daw, as well as the code contribution. It's appreciated.

I'll report back with intial results from testing, as soon as i have these JACK mixers on the box.

more to come,

Alex.