The tight policy of the big names, very often combined with the "hearsay" typical of those far from the world of information technology, have long led to thinking about Linux operating system as something complex, unsuitable and distant from the musician.
If until some time ago this statement could have turned out to be true, today thanks to the increasing effort of the “penguin” community, it seems there has been a real approach to ordinary users, not very accustomed to the use of strings and terminals. There are also different realities in our country, where Linux helps the musician in all stages of production, from designing the song to mastering. However, being a constantly updated world, it is easy for those who want to produce music to get lost in the vast amount of topics. So let's see simply how to get to the set goal together with Lello Cardone, president of the cultural association that deals with open source music e-learning through the site www.studiaremusica.com

The "Distros": that is the linux distributions.

It is not easy for a Windows or Mac user to imagine their beloved operating system rebuilt according to specific needs (also because this would not be legally possible). Here is the first difference between Linux (fig.1) and “closed” systems. In the latter it is not possible to change the heart of the operating system, much less adapt it or improve it. The Linux world, on the other hand, is this, giving everyone the opportunity to contribute to the improvement of the system by adding pieces, rewriting lines of code, optimizing certain functions etc ... This happens according to the canons of the GNU / GPL License, any modification to the heart of the system is possible thanks to the possibility of freely accessing the source code. The "sources" of the applications, appropriately modified, will then be recompiled to create a new distribution. Obviously the risk is that the neophyte ends up getting lost among the hundreds of variants and versions of Linux that are made publicly available for download every day. As mentioned, the name by which these ISOs to burn on DVD or CD are identified is "Distribution" (in jargon Distro). If you want to be updated on new releases, you can connect to the site www.distrowatch.org in which you will find in addition to a ranking of the most used Distros, a summary of the main “propensities” of the distributions offered. The protagonists are: Ubuntu (a variant of Debian in continuous evolution, thanks to the commitment of Canonical), SUSE, Mandriva, Knoppix, Fedora, Slackware, Gentoo, Mepis, Studio64, Dyne: bolic. Our choice fell on Ubuntu (fig. 2), which has a simple interface and excellent support.
I want to add that while almost all closed operating systems must necessarily be installed, it is possible to run Linux even without installing anything on the HD, obviously with the necessary limitations. Just get a "Live" distribution to get a "skin" impression of the potential offered, without risking to corrupt an operating system already resident. Personally I recommend the installation of a virtual machine (an operating system in the operating system), Linux will thus run at full functionality, without affecting in any way the "OS" that hosts it (for details see the site www.vmware.com , or Parallels Desktop to link www.parallels.com or, for those with Mac computers with PowerPC CPUs, Virtual Pc from Microsoft or Guest PCs ). On the other hand, modern PCs, being able to benefit from considerable computing capacity and large quantities of low-cost Ram, are well suited to this type of solution. It will then be up to you to choose what will be the definitive companion of "games". We are now far from the times when putting on a "Distro" was synonymous with declaring war on system drivers: Knoppix and Ubuntu for example (in DVD version), as well as containing thousands of applications, natively recognize many peripherals. Even Ubuntu, the distro of our choice, has live mode by default. It is also useful for checking if all the system hardware is seen correctly before any installation.

The kernel

The "core" of the operating system is the Kernel. Created in 1991 by Linus Benedict Torvalds (fig. 3) and distributed with the GNU licensing system (the GNU system, created by Stallman in 1983, allows software management free from the constraints of copyright), it to what we now call Linux. The kernel contains all the functions necessary for the correct functioning of the system: the management of resources, memory, peripherals, etc ... It manages the processes and at any time it is possible to check down to the smallest detail what is happening. All the system functions are accessed from the Shell, a textual terminal that represents the user interface with which it is possible to modify its parameters. The programs access the hardware through calls to the Kernel (system call) which evaluates the priorities and activates them by redistributing the calculation, the arrangement in ram and the management of the connected hardware (scheduling). It also manages multitasking and multi-user with different permissions, this means that different users can start different processes, with different degree of privileges, simultaneously from the same machine. Finally, the Kernel is constantly and very rapidly evolving to support new hardware, functions and modules. You can install a Linux Kernel on many hardware, from mobile phones to consoles, from routers to video recorders and obviously on PC (32 and 64bit), SPARC, Power PC platforms. Being modular (fig. 4) you can eliminate unnecessary lines of code by making it flexible, tiny and solid. This is unthinkable in the world of closed systems which end up swallowing up enormous resources in order to make the environment ready for a "generic" use. Obviously, the Linux Kernel can also become very large and thus perform billions of functions, including support for 3D graphics and the most advanced multimedia. In May 2007 Ubuntu Studio (www.ubuntustudio.org ) an Ubuntu Linux distribution totally dedicated to multimedia. This Linux has the Kernel in real time, fundamental for audio applications; in fact, it reduces latency in system management and natively includes many professional applications for film dubbing, sequencing and audio / midi editing as well as numerous plug-ins and mastering and notation software. The stability and customization of the system allow Linux to compete and be a winner even on the server side. And that's where the competitors envy him most.

Operating mode (administrator and user) and audio driver.

While in a Windows system from installation onwards it is normally "administrator", or users with permission to do whatever you want with the operating system, with Linux by default it is "user". This substantial difference allows Linux not to take viruses because changes to system files can only be made if you are in root mode, or administrator. Normally every user has one "Home" that is a folder where you can install your applications with the relative folders, documents, themes etc ... The libraries that contain the instructions to be read by the program are safe in the file system, often in usr / bin which is protected, while in the home folder live two categories of subfolders and files: the visible ones and the hidden ones. Hidden folders start with a dot (.wine or .amule for example) and often contain other files and folders that allow high customization. The visible folders are instead in clear text. Now the new Windows Vista seems to have learned a lot from Linux systems because it is protecting installation and manipulation of system files in a very similar way to linux. The Unix core of Mac OS on the other hand has the same protection concept as Linux and the same user / root management.

ALSA audio hardware and drivers and JACK audio server

While integrated sound cards are optimally supported by Linux also due to excellent projects such as OSS, ALSA, JACK, professional sound cards suffer from a blatant hostility towards Linux.
The drivers Health Care (Open Sound System) created in 1992 by Hannu Savolainen are considered by many to be outdated. They had a great time because they were "portable" on major versions of Unix.
Actually functions that today appear obvious for a complete audio management, for this type of driver they are not, and you could encounter various problems during use. We are not talking about complex things but about:

• Full duplex, or the ability to record and listen to the same number of bits at the same time (who remembers the first drivers for Windows that managed sound cards in half duplex with 16-bit recording and 8-reading, in the best case, knows what I mean !);
• wavetable software (the first sound cards had at best an eprom on which a basic sound library was imprinted, usually GM, even if not infrequently there have been solid examples of cards able to customize the wavetable with their own samples)
• Limited multi-channel hardware mixing.

The OSS project has evolved into opensound but has become closed while the drivers were born from one of its ribs ALSA (fig. 5).

ALSA (www.alsa-project.org ) which stands for Advanced Linux Sound Architecture, these can excellently emulate the old OSS.
The drivers ALSA, (born in 1998 thanks to Jaroslav Kisela) were implemented in the kernel only after 2002. They manage several simultaneous processes, are able to detect and configure many sound cards and, combined with Jacks, they are able to optimally manage all the audio signal flow under Linux.

In reality at this point we should stop for a moment and think: but the houses of professional sound cards? Shouldn't they be interested in developing drivers for this operating system as well? Why do they leave us alone? Is there just the desire to underestimate a great operating system or something else? In fact, there are few houses that actively support open source. This happens both because of economic agreements with the manufacturers of closed software, and because they are themselves often producers of proprietary software and fear free software. In fact, the driver sources are not released, which is why programmers are forced to the reverse engineering we mentioned earlier (with MOTU and Digidesign - fig. 6 - for example, we are also working through the analysis of protocols). The FreeBob project (freebob.sourceforge.net) which produces a generic low latency driver for firewire sound cards is interested in this gap (on the site there is a complete and updated list of hardware).
Installation under Ubuntu is very simple. After installing the entire system and related updates, simply enter the following address in the software sources "deb http://ftp.debian.org/debian". It must be said that under Linux many commercial software such as Acrobat Reader, Flash, or even libraries to read mp3 or Skype can still be installed from "repositories", ie server addresses that contain the same programs. By choosing Add / Remove and updating the list, you can also see the new software. You can also get there from System / Administration / Synaptic Package Manager.
It is good to shed some light on the audio server Jacks, shown in figure 7 (this is how Linux identifies some drivers that are particularly customizable in interconnections and with very low latency), which allows, like a powerful ASIO system, to connect hardware inputs and outputs with real (sound card) and virtual line in / out (virtual instruments and sequencers). Jack, written for POSIX and fully compatible with GNU / Linux and OS X has arrived at version 0.102.20 and from this version also supports the midi protocol. The port on Windows is nearing completion. JACK it's very powerful (I got 0.2ms latency with my 48khz 16bit notebook integrated card) and there are a lot of supported programs.

The first audio “killer application”: Ardor

By "killer application" we mean that software that outperforms the competition and imposes a professional way of working. In fact it is a program that, developed with great professionalism, also allows you to pull an operating system. In the old Atari ST the killer applications were Notator (later become Logic) and Cubase (called in the first version Cubit and then changed due to copyright problems). The midi integrated into the computer and the great shrewdness of the software houses that produced these applications allowed the musician to approach the world of computing as no one has been able to do before.
In the Linux environment the killer application is without doubt Ardor (fig.8); Powerful audio sequencer that through a serious management of the Jack audio server allows audio peripherals to communicate with the kernel software modules with great precision and speed. All professional sample rates are supported and the signal is handled with care and low latency.
In fact Ardor is a complete DAW with multitrack and multichannel recording, with non-linear and non-destructive editing, complex region management, infinite undo / redo, software mixer capable of rivaling, in routing management with major hardware equivalents, support for professional midi controllers, support of LADSPA plug-ins (of this format that gathers countless plug-ins we will talk about later) and multioutput.
Being POSIX-like, this sequencer is cross-platform and can also be installed under MAC OSX.
Regarding the minimum hardware requirements of Ardor, this also runs under 200 Mhz with 64mb of RAM. Considering that today everyone has a fat computer, given the high demands of closed operating systems (boasted as the only installable operating system), any machine is fine.
Obviously it is one thing to play 5 audio tracks without a load of plug-ins and quite another story is to say "I want to record 78 audio tracks with 56 plug ins on each track!" The manufacturer recommends a dual processor with as much ram as possible, as well as obviously a fast hd for access times and rpm, perhaps SCSI or firewire, if external. AMD is the recommended processor manufacturer. The recommended sound cards are: RME Hammerfall (fig. 9) and M-Audio Delta series, fully supported by Linux.

How is it installed?

Often those who approach Linux run away because they are used to not working with the shell (text console) and just want to click to get the result, in short, “forward, forward, end”. This way of doing, perhaps intended for users of closed systems, has often led computers to become, in addition to being a collector of often useless software, a real breeding ground for spyware, viruses (fig. 10), malware, and other computer pestilences .
A particular belief of mine is that if a system is unstable it is also the fault of the choices of the user who uses it. Returning to Linux and Ardor there are several ways to install it. Or you download a repository (the address of a server that contains all the libraries and automatically satisfies the dependencies by installing everything you need) from where you can get the software just by writing the name among the packages to be installed (often it is already under the menu multimedia) or by text. Let's see how:

• we open the terminal (shell or console as you prefer) which is under the heading accessories and type without quotes, and after being connected to the internet of course, "apt-get install ardor”And press enter. Done!

Warning this command installs all dependencies and software automatically, so you must be in administrator mode. To become an administrator from the terminal type "su" and press enter, you just need to enter the administrative password. This practice works on all Linux that have the APT tools. Other "facilitators" of the installations are Emerge and Yum (the practice is almost similar: "yum install packagename
However, there are still other installation systems, the manual one, ie installing all the required libraries and satisfying all the console dependencies, and the one from precompiled RPM and DEB packages. They are found on different sites including rpm.pbone.net .

Linux vs. Vista

More and more musicians are using Linux and more and more companies are looking for alternative solutions to closed and overly armored systems. Just in these days the president Raffaele Cardone of the Studiare Musica association bought a basic version of Windows Vista (fig.11), to make a comparison with the Linux systems installed on the computers on which they carry out the music computer courses. Students accustomed to Ubuntu, Fedora, Mandriva, Dine: Bolyc and Knoppix, were amazed at the high number of crashes, even of the same Windows kernel, in a machine declared "Vista capable" and marveled at how the peripheral drivers were badly handled (think we could not install a firewire controller, nor a simple HP laserjet printer.). Fortunately, the drivers for Vista have appeared on the MOTU website for some time. As you can see, economic power dominates everything and while Linux programmers write the control drivers for Motu peripherals from scratch, often resorting to intricate reverse engineering steps (freebob for example), Microsoft users have the same drivers for Vista in very fast times. But a solid Linux Ubuntu - Windows Vista comparison we'll talk about in the next issues.

Conclusions

Many of you will be wondering but if Linux is so powerful and free why is it not as widespread as closed systems?
Because the belief that it is an operating system suitable only for geeks and difficult to maintain is now rooted. Although sometimes it can be frustrating to have to deal with a myriad of dependencies to install a single software it must be said that compared to years ago, the situation has improved considerably and today's distributions are much more "user friendly". Furthermore, one wonders why sound card manufacturers do not release native Linux drivers. The problem is that one would have to shift the workforce from economically "productive" projects to something that would bring no other income. Needless to say, it would be utopian to hope that the houses release the specifications to allow the community to develop the aforementioned drivers on their own. Why so much hostility?
Simple, closed systems bring money to many people from the shopkeeper who places them, to the pirate who sells it under the counter. Linux no. Linux doesn't spend billions of € for advertising and neither inculcates in people's heads that to use a word processor you need 15GB of hard disk space and at least 2GB of ram with a latest generation processor. Excellent office tools (openoffice.org) perfectly replace proprietary software and are fully compatible with them. As for the piracy, Linux cancels it a priori, since everything is free. If you want to make a donation to the authors they will be grateful to you by working even better and no one will stop you from making your record just because you have no money available. In addition, the graphics of these systems are of considerable power and the 3D of the Vista windows makes you smile in front of Linux multipolygonal 3D video servers. Try to observe Compiz or the graphic themes of Beryl or the various 3D GNOME and KDE desktops (fig.12) to realize. In addition, having free sequencers that can compete with the best for Windows and OS X is no longer a dream. Of course, if professional audio hardware houses were less tied to proprietary systems by releasing drivers for Linux, they would make a great contribution by allowing those who do not want to spend tens of thousands of euros for the operating system and software to buy sound cards with converters. and superior features. With this modest letter of mine, I invite hardware manufacturers to realize that Linux is now a reality and that it is becoming commonplace among professionals as well. But will it hold up to comparison with platforms that have now become standard for several decades? The battle has just begun and the contenders will compete in single combat, some to gain access to the podium, some to defend the position earned over the years as the ultimate platform for professional audio.