GNU Gets In The Music Production Business

[ninez]

Quality. Sure to impress people using VST instruments with polished and intuitive GUIs.

lolz. Yeah, the gui on this synth certainly isn't going to turn any heads... That being said - as a musician, i am less concerned with the look of a synth, than i am with how it sounds/performs. Cursynth doesn't offer any overly compelling, modern features but even considering that, it is at least possible that it has an interesting sound/quirk to it [as many more constrained synths can & do], but i wasn't able to even test that.

it definitely needs some work;

- When built with Alsa + Jack, it tries to grab alsa, rather than use jack [even when jack is running];

RtApiAlsa::getDeviceInfo: snd_pcm_open error for device (hw:0,3), Device or resource busy.
RtApiAlsa::probeDeviceOpen: pcm device (hw:0,3) won't open for output.

then if i build without alsa [and just jack], i get;

RtApiJack::probeDeviceOpen: the requested sample rate (44100) is different than the JACK server rate (96000).

I'm not really interested enough to figure it out, as I tend to use my VSTs on my linux box anyway. Which work just fine ~ N.I: Komplete 9 , U-he, Audio Damage + the odd freebie, etc... afaict, without hearing it; Cursynth is likely not competitive with [regardless of gui] with any of the synths that i tend to use. [many of which i tend to disable the gui's for anyway.

regardless, it is nice to see someone working on a music related project for linux [which could use many, many, many more - as there are areas where linux is still extremely lacking]....

[marmis85]

lolz. Yeah, the gui on this synth certainly isn't going to turn any heads... That being said - as a musician, i am less concerned with the look of a synth, than i am with how it sounds/performs. Cursynth doesn't offer any overly compelling, modern features but even considering that, it is at least possible that it has an interesting sound/quirk to it [as many more constrained synths can & do], but i wasn't able to even test that.

it definitely needs some work;

- When built with Alsa + Jack, it tries to grab alsa, rather than use jack [even when jack is running];

RtApiAlsa::getDeviceInfo: snd_pcm_open error for device (hw:0,3), Device or resource busy.
RtApiAlsa::probeDeviceOpen: pcm device (hw:0,3) won't open for output.

then if i build without alsa [and just jack], i get;

RtApiJack::probeDeviceOpen: the requested sample rate (44100) is different than the JACK server rate (96000).

I'm not really interested enough to figure it out, as I tend to use my VSTs on my linux box anyway. Which work just fine ~ N.I: Komplete 9 , U-he, Audio Damage + the odd freebie, etc... afaict, without hearing it; Cursynth is likely not competitive with [regardless of gui] with any of the synths that i tend to use. [many of which i tend to disable the gui's for anyway.

regardless, it is nice to see someone working on a music related project for linux [which could use many, many, many more - as there are areas where linux is still extremely lacking]....

Hello fellow Phoronix lurkers,

I've been a long time reader but this is my first post here.
I'm not a pro audio guru, but I'm a software developer and this thingy got my interest, so yesterday evening I tried to mess a bit with it and I'm here to share my experience.

Being a very new piece of software, sadly it isn't configurable yet, so it will try to grab ALL hardware audio devices exposed by RTAudio, failing miserably if the alsa hardware devices are already busy.
to eneable jack support you have to

./configure --with-jack

but then probably you will find the error:

RtApiJack::probeDeviceOpen: the requested sample rate (44100) is different than the JACK server rate (XXXXX).

that's because the sample rate is and buffer size are hardcoded (in src/cursynth.cpp), so you can either:
- adjust your server settings to match the hardcoded ones (44100 sample rate, 65 buffer size)
- change the hardcode value in the sources and rebuild.

If you don't set a buffer size equal to the harcoded one you will heard some crazy noise getting out from the jack sink so pay attention

Sadly after a bit of playing the synth engine get's funky and the sound get's distorted, but being not a pro audio guru I don't know if that's related to sample rate/buffer sizes
For now it's not even close to being "ready" but I think it's a project worth keeping an eye on.
The most interesting feature IMHO is midi learn: most of the open source synths around don't support that, and if done right that can be game changing, no one likes to take their hands off their instruments!

[marmis85]

lolz. Yeah, the gui on this synth certainly isn't going to turn any heads... That being said - as a musician, i am less concerned with the look of a synth, than i am with how it sounds/performs. Cursynth doesn't offer any overly compelling, modern features but even considering that, it is at least possible that it has an interesting sound/quirk to it [as many more constrained synths can & do], but i wasn't able to even test that.

it definitely needs some work;

- When built with Alsa + Jack, it tries to grab alsa, rather than use jack [even when jack is running];

RtApiAlsa::getDeviceInfo: snd_pcm_open error for device (hw:0,3), Device or resource busy.
RtApiAlsa::probeDeviceOpen: pcm device (hw:0,3) won't open for output.

then if i build without alsa [and just jack], i get;

RtApiJack::probeDeviceOpen: the requested sample rate (44100) is different than the JACK server rate (96000).

I'm not really interested enough to figure it out, as I tend to use my VSTs on my linux box anyway. Which work just fine ~ N.I: Komplete 9 , U-he, Audio Damage + the odd freebie, etc... afaict, without hearing it; Cursynth is likely not competitive with [regardless of gui] with any of the synths that i tend to use. [many of which i tend to disable the gui's for anyway.

regardless, it is nice to see someone working on a music related project for linux [which could use many, many, many more - as there are areas where linux is still extremely lacking]....

Hello forums,

I've been a long time reader, but that's my first post.
Yesterday I saw the news, and this thingy got my interest. I'm not a pro audio guru, but I'm a software developer so I tried messing a bit with it.

This piece of software is very fresh, and sadly it lacks configuration for now.
To enable jack support you have to

./configure --with-jack

but then you will probrably find this error:

RtApiJack::probeDeviceOpen: the requested sample rate (44100) is different than the JACK server rate (XXXXX).

that's because sample rate and buffer size are hardcode (in the file src/cursynth.cpp), so you can either:
- adjust your jack server settings to the hardcoded ones (44100 sample rate, 65 buffer size)
- edit the hardcoded values to match your server settings

if the buffer size doesn't match the server settings it will run but some crazy noise will come out from the system jack sink, so pay attention to the volume level..

Sadly after a bit of playng the synth engine gets funky and sound gets distorted, and there is some weirdness with midi events

For now it's not even close to be "ready for use", but I thinks it's a project worth keeping an eye on!
The most interesting feature IMHO is midi learn: I don't recall any other open source synth supporting that, and if done right it can be game changing! no one likes to take their hands off the intruments!

[ninez]

but then you will probrably find this error:

RtApiJack::probeDeviceOpen: the requested sample rate (44100) is different than the JACK server rate (XXXXX).

that's because sample rate and buffer size are hardcode (in the file src/cursynth.cpp), so you can either:
- adjust your jack server settings to the hardcoded ones (44100 sample rate, 65 buffer size)
- edit the hardcoded values to match your server settings

if the buffer size doesn't match the server settings it will run but some crazy noise will come out from the system jack sink, so pay attention to the volume level..

Sadly after a bit of playng the synth engine gets funky and sound gets distorted, and there is some weirdness with midi events

For now it's not even close to be "ready for use", but I thinks it's a project worth keeping an eye on!
The most interesting feature IMHO is midi learn: I don't recall any other open source synth supporting that, and if done right it can be game changing! no one likes to take their hands off the intruments!

yeah, i was too lazy yesterday to find the hardcoded value (or what possibly could have been an rc type config file), but seeing as you pointed out exactly where the code was, i went and tested again... @ 96khz regardless of buffer size you still get a sustaining buzz/tone [not ear-piercing, but unusable still]. Lowering to 48khz got rid of it. Maybe I'll have a better look another day / try it out in the future, as i do like cheezy, retro synth sounds... but definitely a very young project at this point.