Caveat lector!
The obligatory warnings: Please note that this software is in apre-release state. Testers are welcome, but don't expect the stabilityor finished feature set of a final release. You will be using thesoftware at your own risk.
64 Studio 3.0
I'm testing 64 Studio 3.0 beta2 on my HP G60 notebook. The machine'sCPU is an AMD Turion X2 clocking at ~2 GHz; the internal hard disk is a250G SATA drive; graphics are handled by an nVidia GeForce 8200M; soundis managed by the ubiquitous Intel HDA audio chipset/codec.
64 Studio is designed for 64-bit processors, but a legacy version isavailable for i386 CPUs. I have been unsuccessful in attempts toinstall some other 64-bit distributions on this machine, so I tried thei386 version first. I aborted the installation when the installer toldme that no installable CPU could be found for my system. Later Idiscovered the workaround for this message, but I opted to try the64-bit installation. To my happy surprise, the system installed withouta problem. I rebooted the box and soon saw the familiar login screenfor 64 Studio. Unfortunately, it was displayed at a 640x480 videoresolution, courtesy of the default VESA graphics driver. Apparentlythe kernel nv driver doesn't like the 8200M, so I was either stuck with VESA or I could install the nVidia binary driver.
I used the excellent Synaptic utility to install the 2.6.29 sourcepackage, then I copied the existing kernel configuration (in /boot) tothe source directory at /usr/src/2.6.29. The nVidia installer needs tofind a configured source tree, so I ran sudo make oldconfig and then installed the nVidia driver. I removed /etc/X11/xorg.conf, ran nvidia-xconfigto make a new video configuration, rebooted, and soon saw the familiarnVidia splash screen, followed by the 64 Studio login. Figure 1 showsoff the new rez and 64 Studio's new look.
Figure 1. The Hardy Look of 64 Studio 3.0The 3.0 release marks a new stage in 64 Studio's development track.Previously, the system has been built on a stable Debian release, butthe wait for Lenny frustrated many users and developers. Thus, thedistro maintainers decided to switch the base system to Ubuntu,specifically the 8.04 release (a.k.a. Hardy Heron). In another moveforward, the system developers have adopted a real-time kernel built onthe 2.6.29-rt track. uname yields the following information about my current kernel:
dlphilp@64studio:~$ uname -a
Linux 64studio 2.6.29-1-multimedia-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT RT Fri Feb 20 23:08:51 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux
I've run only some lightweight audio tests, but I'm impressed so far.I'm testing two audio devices with the system. I've mentioned theonboard HDA chipset, and I have an Edirol UA25 attached to a USB port.Figures 2 and 3 display the settings dialog in QJackCtl for eachdriver. The UA25 is working with its Advanced mode on, its Limiter off,and its sample rate set to 48 kHz. Both devices operate with ~8 msecslatency, but there is little comparison between their audio quality(the UA25 is the clear winner). The HDA also suffers from a problemwith its microphone input. The level is unbearably high and apparentlyuncontrollable. I'm still looking for a solution and welcomesuggestions from readers. The UA25 performs without such troubles.Given its better performance, the UA25 is likely to be my primarydevice, but it's good to know that the onboard device is viable.
Figure 2. JACK Settings for an HDA Onboard Audio Chipset
Figure 3. JACK Settings for an Edirol UA25Incidentally, when it detects a multiprocessor CPU, 64 Studio defaults to jackdmp,a version of JACK tailored for multiprocessor systems. I haven't usedjackdmp before now, and I am impressed with its performance. Anothercoup for 64 Studio 3.0 !
The distro is loaded with an excellent selection of audio/videoproduction software, and the maintainers particularly want feedback onthe base system (that is, the system as it's set up by a freshinstall). I took things a bit further and installed a completedevelopment environment as well. I've already built and installed thelatest libsndfile,which I needed for building and installing Ardour3 (see below).Everything's gone smoothly, and I've had no problem finding anyrequired tools and utilities.
Ardour3
Because of its ongoing development, I'll skip explications and gostraight for the screenshots. Figures 4 and 5 show off the twomost-requested features: MIDI integration and explicit support forVST/VSTi plugins. Figure 5 also displays Ardour3's support for theemerging LV2 Linux audio plugin standard, a most worthy successor to the LADSPA plugin API.
Figure 4. Editing a MIDI Track in Ardour3
Figure 5. Ardour 2.7.1 does LADSPA, VST and LV2 plugins (in JAD 1.0).Thanks to the work of Javier Serrano Polo's Vestige Project, Torben Hohn's FSTsoftware has dispensed with the Steinberg header files and now compileswithout proprietary code. Thanks to this revived and renewed FSTProject, a VST-capable Ardour can be distributed openly and legally, amost welcome and long-awaited development.
However, despite its present popularity, the VST standard just mightget some competition from the LV2-based plugins. The collection ofcompliant plugins continues to grow, with some impressive examples ofLV2's capabilities available now (see Krzysztof Foltman's MultiChorusplugin in Figure 5). Incidentally, the not-so-invisible hand at workhere belongs to Dave Robillard, who somehow manages to work on avariety of his own projects while he supplies Ardour with its LV2 andMIDI edition support.
This extended support for plugins also is available in the 2.7.x andthe soon-to-be-released 2.8 series of Ardour2's public releases.Interested readers should note that VST support is currently available onlyfor 32-bit builds of Ardour, while LADSPA and LV2 plugins are equallyat home on 32-bit or 64-bit systems. The new MIDI editing capabilitiesare unique to Ardour3 and will not be backported.
By the way, to indicate some of the gyrations often required tobuild software at this stage, I had to compile and install up-to-dateversions of the Raptor and Redland libraries (including liblrdf andlibrasqal), liblo (Steve Harris's library of OSCfunctions) and the indispensible libsndfile. Most of that stuff isneeded by the latest LV2 support packages. Versions of all thesecomponents are available in the Hardy repos, but they aren't quitecurrent enough for projects out here on the edge. Building andinstalling these packages isn't difficult, though it is a task that ismore easily accomplished if you know what you're doing. The projectmaintainers will gladly help any serious tester, just be sure that youalready know how to set up and use a software development environment.
Outro
That's it, that's all I'm going to show you for now. Expect a fullprofile of Ardour3 when it's been released, but until then, it would beinappropriate to review features and functions that may change beforethe software's public release. I know it's a tease, but I want readersto know that some important development is going on in these projects,development that may have a great impact on the Linux audio world. 64Studio 3.0 promises a new world of kernel capabilities, and Ardour3will assume the status of a complete professional DAW. Linux soundsoftware is indeed looking and sounding better all the time.