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#1 2011-06-08 06:10:58

duke11235
Member
Registered: 2009-10-09
Posts: 221

Open Source Alternatives For Music Composition,Editing, and Recording

I was wondering what was available in the open source/linux world for programs such as Finale, Ableton Live, Reason, Logic Pro, and Guitar Pro.I'm looking for programs to compose(like Finale), record(like Logic Pro), and for live (ableton)

Thanks

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#2 2011-06-08 06:18:12

archman-cro
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From: Croatia
Registered: 2010-04-04
Posts: 943
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Re: Open Source Alternatives For Music Composition,Editing, and Recording

Well, Guitar Pro alternative is TuxGuitar, which supports all gp formats. You can record and do the whole production process with Ardour, which is an advanced native linux DAW. Dunno about the live. You mean playing live in a concert or home?

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#3 2011-06-08 08:03:47

karol
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Registered: 2009-05-06
Posts: 25,440

Re: Open Source Alternatives For Music Composition,Editing, and Recording

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#4 2011-06-08 09:59:46

owain
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Registered: 2009-08-24
Posts: 251

Re: Open Source Alternatives For Music Composition,Editing, and Recording

There's no equivalent WYSIWYG notation package to compare with Finale or Sibelius, unfortunately (although I do have them both running fairly well under Wine).  There's a few much simpler point-and-click notation applications, such as MuseScore.

Purely for conventional notation rather than trying to be an all-in-one sequencer/scratchpad/engraver, Lilypond is extremely powerful, and works by compiling source text files.  This allows it to ponder at greater length the questions of 'how should I best space out notes X, Y & Z', rather than rushing into a hurried decision after every click in the way that is necessary in a WYSIWYG system.  There's various helper applications and text editor plugins, too, with Frescobaldi (in AUR) my preference.

It's a matter of choosing the right tool for the job: when I know what notes I want to input, and want a high-quality score with minimum fuss, I use Lilypond.  If I need to play around and experiment, cutting & paste, and have playback, then Finale or Sibelius under Wine or VirtualBox are the better option.

Last edited by owain (2011-06-08 10:00:59)

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#5 2011-06-08 10:55:06

franz1789
Member
Registered: 2008-04-22
Posts: 56

Re: Open Source Alternatives For Music Composition,Editing, and Recording

well, for years I tried to make music with GNU/Linux, and after a while I realized that GNU/Linux lacks a lot of apps. Anyway, I can list some software I found that should be the alternatives for GNU/Linux
Cubase --> Ardour or Audacity
Fruity Loops --> LMMS
Guitar Rig --> Rakarrack (altough I never tested it)
Synth VST --> ZynAddSubFX (tested it, really nice, especially if you use jack you can register what you play with audacity)

Anyway: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio/PackageList here's a list of programs installed by ubuntustudio.. If only it was arch-based and had a wm instead of gnome this distro could be interesting..

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#6 2011-06-08 10:59:36

karol
Archivist
Registered: 2009-05-06
Posts: 25,440

Re: Open Source Alternatives For Music Composition,Editing, and Recording

franz1789 wrote:

Anyway: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio/PackageList here's a list of programs installed by ubuntustudio.. If only it was arch-based and had a wm instead of gnome this distro could be interesting..

There's https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Pro_Audio Which apps are not in the repos / AUR ?

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#7 2011-06-08 12:24:46

creatid
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From: Netherlands
Registered: 2009-12-19
Posts: 75
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Re: Open Source Alternatives For Music Composition,Editing, and Recording

+1 for LilyPond. It has a rather steep learning curve but in my experience the result is well worth it. The output improves legibility over Finale (which I used for years and years) and that is important in sight-reading situations. Believe it or not but I've noticed a reduction in rehearsal time for certain pieces (especially with many similar sections) after I switched to LilyPond. This was at least the case with professional musicians.

As for the 'tinkering' bit: I still tend to stick to LIlyPond as much as possible but if I want to experiment with the sound I output a MIDI file which I load in Rosegarden.
Rosegarden is similar to Cakewalk / Cubase with MIDI and audio capabilities. For pure audio I use Ardour and I intend to switch entirely to Ardour once release 3 (which includes MIDI support) is stable.

It is also worth to take a look at Hydrogen for drum programming.
For sound generation there is also the Linuxsampler project. And if you are really hardcore and want to design your own sounds from the bottom up you can take a look at Csound.

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