How to create music with GNU/Linux Emmanuel Saracco [email protected] How to create music with GNU/Linux by Emmanuel Saracco Copyright © 2005-2009 Emmanuel Saracco How to create music with GNU/Linux Warning WORK IN PROGRESS Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.html. Revision History Revision 0.0 2009-01-30 Revised by: es Not yet versioned: It is still a work in progress. Dedication This howto is dedicated to all GNU/Linux users that refuse to use proprietary software to work with audio. Many thanks to all Free developers and Free composers that help us day-by-day to make this possible. Table of Contents Forword................................................................................................................................................... vii 1. System settings and tuning....................................................................................................................1 1.1. My Studio....................................................................................................................................1 1.2. File system..................................................................................................................................1 1.3. Linux Kernel...............................................................................................................................2 1.3.1. Realtime Preemption patch.............................................................................................3 1.3.2. Configuration..................................................................................................................3 1.3.3. Installation......................................................................................................................5 1.4. Obtaining Reatime privileges......................................................................................................6 1.4.1. Realtime LSM................................................................................................................6 1.4.2. Using set_rlimits.............................................................................................................8 1.4.3. Using PAM.....................................................................................................................8 1.5. PCI latency..................................................................................................................................9 1.6. ALSA........................................................................................................................................10 2. Hardware..............................................................................................................................................13 2.1. RME Hammerfall HDSP 9632..................................................................................................13 2.1.1. Firmware.......................................................................................................................13 2.1.2. Linux Kernel.................................................................................................................13 2.1.3. HDSP utilities...............................................................................................................14 2.1.3.1. hdspconf...........................................................................................................14 2.1.3.2. hdspmixer.........................................................................................................15 3. Building required audio software.......................................................................................................16 3.1. Jack Audio Connection Kit.......................................................................................................16 3.2. Qjackctl.....................................................................................................................................17 3.3. LADSPA....................................................................................................................................17 3.3.1. LADSPA plugins..........................................................................................................18 3.4. DSSI..........................................................................................................................................19 3.5. Hydrogen...................................................................................................................................19 3.6. QSynth......................................................................................................................................21 3.7. SpiralSynthModular..................................................................................................................21 3.8. ZynAddSubFX..........................................................................................................................22 3.9. Rosegarden................................................................................................................................23 3.10. LMMS - Linux Multimedia Studio.........................................................................................25 3.11. Ardour.....................................................................................................................................26 3.12. JAMin......................................................................................................................................27 3.13. Jack Timemachine...................................................................................................................28 3.14. Rezound..................................................................................................................................28 3.15. Lame........................................................................................................................................28 4. Soundfonts............................................................................................................................................31 4.1. Getting soundfonts....................................................................................................................31 4.2. Using soundfonts.......................................................................................................................31 4.2.1. With Soundblaster soundcard.......................................................................................31 4.2.2. With other soundcards..................................................................................................32 4.2.2.1. Testing with DSSI plugins...............................................................................32 4.2.2.2. Testing with QSynth........................................................................................33 iv 5. Create music.........................................................................................................................................34 5.1. Execute Jack at first...................................................................................................................34 5.2. Playing with ZynAddSubFX.....................................................................................................35 5.3. Playing with Hydrogen.............................................................................................................38 5.4. Playing with Rosegarden...........................................................................................................38 5.4.1. Rosegarden settings......................................................................................................39 5.4.2. Using soft synthetizers.................................................................................................40 5.4.3. Recording audio tracks.................................................................................................40 5.5. Playing with Ardour..................................................................................................................41 5.6. Playing with JAMin..................................................................................................................41 6. Capturing and encoding......................................................................................................................44 6.1. Playing with Timemachine........................................................................................................44 6.2. Playing with Rezound...............................................................................................................45 6.3. Share your work........................................................................................................................48 A. Useful Audio Links.............................................................................................................................53 A.1. Mailing-lists.............................................................................................................................53 A.2. Web sites..................................................................................................................................53