[Fedora-music-list] Call to arms - Fedora Audio Spin

[Brendan Jones]

On 02/21/2012 09:07 PM, Kyrian wrote:
> Just been taking a metaphorical chainsaw to my inbox and got through to
> the Fedora Music list at long last.
>
> I've packaged up some bits and bobs and assisted with Fedora myself, for
> better or for worse. Anyway, this thread makes me think a couple of
> things that I'd like to throw in for the masses (nor not, as the case
> may be) to chew over.
>
> - Couldn't this lot be done as a yum 'Group' or several? With that then
> incorporated into the standard installer environment?

Absolutely, that's been something I proposed a little earlier. I'm not 
sure exactly what this entails, but I envision that once the default set 
of audio packages have been decided we will submit something to be 
included in the comps file [1]
>
> - Then I think, ah, wrong kernel, and pulseaudio? But that could be
> grouped too, no? Have, say, Jack and have it conflict with pulseaudio
> somehow?

Pulseaudio is proving to be a pain. Its now an implicit dependency of 
the default desktop (GNOME) which is unfortunate. Having said all that, 
I think its a great piece of software, but creates unnecessary 
complications when all you want to do is create/produce and edit music. 
There are some applications which refuse to play with anything else now 
(skype anyone?) that mean people like me have no choice but to coexist 
with it. I'm still not happy with my setup - other users on this list 
have also posted their solutions [2]. I think we should aim to ship a 
pulseaudio-less solution. This means we need to decide on a desktop 
that's not Gnome - of course that won't make everyone happy, but if we 
have the comps group like you suggest, those gnome users can still pull 
in the audio packages with ease.

>
> - Then it all sounds a bit complicated, and I can't help think that
> maybe a respin is a valid and sane way forward.

I think most pro/semi-pro audio users in Fedora probably can get a 
Fedora installation from scratch to a fully workable installation with 
little effort. The main focus of the spin should be to cement the 
community around Fedora audio by attracting new users and give us a 
stronger sounding voice moving forward.

>
> - But still, it might be nice to give the non-pro users a leg-up to that
> sort of stuff with package groups in Yum anyway? Surely you don't need
> an RT kernel unless you're really hammering at the audio?
>
> - Having better documentation would be really good, and I've noted the
> "Musicians Guide" on my travels, which I fully intend to real real soon
> now(tm).

I'm extremely impressed with this documentation thus far - its a real 
strength that we need to capitalize on.

>
> - Every person who's into pro audio that I mention about Linux audio
> says "ah, but will it accomodate my XYZ plugins/filters from a.n.other
> windows app"? As far as I know the answer is usually "yes", but I hope
> that's documented in wherever the docs are.

Look there's some really exciting plugins, opensource and commercial 
alike which run really well on Linux. I'd like to get the TAL audio 
NATIVE linux VST plugins packaged at some stage for example. Hopefully 
Ardour3 will be realized in the next cycle which will give us another 
viable host.

>
> I'll gladly put in such time as I can find to make this happen, and if
> necessary to get it documented as well, because I want to start using
> all my kit properly through Linux, with the minimum of fuss (there was a
> lot of fuss the last time I had a go, in spite of PlanetCCRMA and
> other's best efforts...), help other people at the same time, but
> perhaps mainly, get some distractions from my day job which involves
> Linux too.
For those packagers out there I need help getting my stuff reviewed. Any 
packager can review - if you're not a packager and are keen, there's 
plenty of packages in CCRMA that can be moved over. Fernando's done all 
the hard work, just need minor adjustments to Fedora's latest 
(ever-changing) package policies. My stuff awaiting review here [3]
>
> Another thing it would be nice to have is a way to use my laptop running
> Linux for dj-ing if I'm feeling extremely lazy on a given night (I'm not
> a laptop DJ when I do so, but others are, and, hell, CD's are heavy,
> physically as well as at times musically), but I could not find a
> suitable app for that. Rhythmbox has a cross-fade feature, but it's a
> bit "brute force" and not very nuanced.

Mixxx is available on rpmfusion only at this stage - another libmame 
(MP3) dependancy. I'm not sure  how big an audience it would have 
without MP3 support though. Perhaps someone else can comment here [4]
>
> If this helps, or provokes discussion in any way, then that's great, and
> if someone can help me with any of the above questions, that's perhaps
> even better.

Thanks for the interest!

>
> Yours,
>
> Kev "Kyrian" Green.
>
>
>
>
[1] 
http://fedoraproject.org/wiki/How_to_use_and_edit_comps.xml_for_package_groups
[2] http://lists.fedoraproject.org/pipermail/music/2011-December/000890.html
[3] 
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/buglist.cgi?query_format=advanced&classification=Fedora&product=Fedora&component=Package%20Review&bug_status=NEW&emailreporter1=1&emailtype1=substring&email1=brendan.jones.it%40gmail.com
[4] http://www.mixxx.org/