5 ms·

The design doc looks promising. I like the limits set on the scope, as a contemporary DAW is a monstrous program and it's impossible to implement all the bits s

The design doc looks promising. I like the limits set on the scope, as a contemporary DAW is a monstrous program and it's impossible to implement all the bits simultaneously. I wish the project flourishes and attracts both users and developers. Reaper desperately needs a Free Software competitor, even an aspiring one! - Are there any plans to have some user-facing API for plugins/scripting? Professional workflows vary widely and automation helps a lot. - How flexible the UI is going to be? Multi-monitor setups of different configurations are very frequent in studios, free docks and/or floating windows are very important. - I see you mention sidechain routing, but it's unclear what are the plans on multichannel audio and, more importantly, the routing possibilities. I'd love to see some kind of node editor for this where you can visualize and manage complex routing schemes for your projects just dragging nodes and noodles.

bambax 5y ago
> Reaper desperately needs a Free Software competitor But why? And why "desperately"? Yes Reaper isn't free (neither beer nor freedom) but it is cheap and extremely customizable, extensible, scriptable, and it works well on Linux (even on a Pi). It also has many non-free competitors and isn't dominant in its space in any sense of the word.
- ZoomZoomZoom 5y ago
  Of course it's not dominant by the market share, but it's the most powerful tool and it would be cool to have a healthy competition there. Reaper also has a vibrant community of scripters and their skills would be of some help for any free software DAW. The reasons are the risk of it being sold (unlikely) or, y'know, a "bus factor". I have a huge respect for Ardour and its devs a lot, but unfortunately it's not even close. I suppose, Harrison income is minuscule. Thank god the development didn't cease some years ago when Davis wanted to step down, that would be a loss.
  - PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
    Ardour currently makes more than $200k per year. Harrison Mixbus is a distinct product from that. I never wanted to step down. There was a brief interval when it looked as if I would have to, in order to make a living. That has not been the case for more than a decade now. We have many users who have used many other DAWs, including Reaper. A good chunk of them strongly prefer Ardour to Reaper. Another good chunk do not. Reaper is not the most powerful tool. There are dozens of things you can easily do in Ardour that you cannot do in Reaper, and just as many for which the opposite is true. Reaper has no clip launching model / session view, which is what allowed Live to change the entire zeitgeist of computer-based music production (now copied into Bitwig, Logic, DP and right about now, Ardour). It doesn't even get into the modulation ballpark that Bitwig is playing in, and completely lacks the freeform flow that FL Studio allows. The reality remains that there is no "best" DAW for anyone. Plenty of people think that Ardour sucks, and for their workflow, you just have to respect their verdict. Just as many people try Reaper and find it impossible to use. Fortunately these days there's a DAW for everyone, and Meadowlark will only make that more true.
    - bambax 5y ago
      > It doesn't even get into the modulation ballpark that Bitwig is playing in I don't know if that's true. You can do a lot of modulation in Reaper directly, by chaining native LFOs or other modulation sources. Bitwig's UI is incredibly sexy and beautiful, and Reaper is kind of ugly and crude, yes. That makes it easier in Bitwig to just see what's happening, whereas in Reaper you have to hunt down inside effects' parameters. I think that's the main difference. But I don't think there are things you can do in Bitwig that you can't do in Reaper for a comparable amount of work. I'm not proficient in Bitwig, though. I would enjoy to see some comparisons.
      - PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
        You can't do clip launching in Reaper. In Bitwig, almost any parameter of anything is both a modulation source and destination. This is not true in Reaper.
    - ZoomZoomZoom 5y ago
gmueckl 5y ago
Well, if you want an open source DAW, there's Ardour. I don't use it, but it is fairly complete.
nitrogen 5y ago
manage complex routing schemes for your projects just dragging nodes and noodles. 100%. I want something that combines the multitrack timeline of ACID with the MIDI, control, and audio routing of a virtual modular synth or console.jp (sadly not updated since 2008). I would work for a significant pay cut on such a project if someone's hiring. But also a tangent: anyone developing node-based software please give me schematic-style straight lines and angles to route connections! Noodles that look like real cables definitely take the skeuomorphism to 11, and plain straight lines without routing are really easy to implement, but they're both very impractical for more than just a few connections. I'll open source my old startup's Qt implementation of a node canvas if it helps.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
  > 100%. I want something that combines the multitrack timeline of ACID with the MIDI, control, and audio routing of a virtual modular synth or console.jp (sadly not updated since 2008). I would work for a significant pay cut on such a project if someone's hiring. ardour.org has money in the bank right now. Make a proposal!
BillyDM 5y ago
"- Are there any plans to have some user-facing API for plugins/scripting? Professional workflows vary widely and automation helps a lot." Yes, a scripting API is planned. The GUI is being designed from the ground-up to where every action will go through an event system, so script will be able to do pretty much anything the GUI can do. A lot of the backend components will also be separated into a separate repo under the RustyDAW project, allowing someone else to create their own DAW with their own GUI if they wish. "- How flexible the UI is going to be? Multi-monitor setups of different configurations are very frequent in studios, free docks and/or floating windows are very important." We're not too sure on this one yet, it mostly depends on how many features the GUI library we are using will get. We hope to have a GUI that is as flexible as possible. "- I see you mention sidechain routing, but it's unclear what are the plans on multichannel audio and, more importantly, the routing possibilities. I'd love to see some kind of node editor for this where you can visualize and manage complex routing schemes for your projects just dragging nodes and noodles." We are currently working on a complex audio graph in the https://github.com/RustyDAW/rusty-daw-audio-graph https://github.com/RustyDAW/rusty-daw-audio-graph repo. This will hopefully allow us to support any kind of complex audio graph structure. So far this audio graph only supports mono and stereo audio, but we can easily add more ports for multichannel audio in the future. Beyond MVP we will likely add either a Live/Bitwig style horizontal rack, or a FL Studio Patcher style plugin for advance routing. It's still being decided on which one we will go with. * edit - fix typo

bambax 5y ago

> Reaper desperately needs a Free Software competitor But why? And why "desperately"? Yes Reaper isn't free (neither beer nor freedom) but it is cheap and extremely customizable, extensible, scriptable, and it works well on Linux (even on a Pi). It also has many non-free competitors and isn't dominant in its space in any sense of the word.

ZoomZoomZoom 5y ago
Of course it's not dominant by the market share, but it's the most powerful tool and it would be cool to have a healthy competition there. Reaper also has a vibrant community of scripters and their skills would be of some help for any free software DAW. The reasons are the risk of it being sold (unlikely) or, y'know, a "bus factor". I have a huge respect for Ardour and its devs a lot, but unfortunately it's not even close. I suppose, Harrison income is minuscule. Thank god the development didn't cease some years ago when Davis wanted to step down, that would be a loss.
- PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
  Ardour currently makes more than $200k per year. Harrison Mixbus is a distinct product from that. I never wanted to step down. There was a brief interval when it looked as if I would have to, in order to make a living. That has not been the case for more than a decade now. We have many users who have used many other DAWs, including Reaper. A good chunk of them strongly prefer Ardour to Reaper. Another good chunk do not. Reaper is not the most powerful tool. There are dozens of things you can easily do in Ardour that you cannot do in Reaper, and just as many for which the opposite is true. Reaper has no clip launching model / session view, which is what allowed Live to change the entire zeitgeist of computer-based music production (now copied into Bitwig, Logic, DP and right about now, Ardour). It doesn't even get into the modulation ballpark that Bitwig is playing in, and completely lacks the freeform flow that FL Studio allows. The reality remains that there is no "best" DAW for anyone. Plenty of people think that Ardour sucks, and for their workflow, you just have to respect their verdict. Just as many people try Reaper and find it impossible to use. Fortunately these days there's a DAW for everyone, and Meadowlark will only make that more true.
  - bambax 5y ago
    > It doesn't even get into the modulation ballpark that Bitwig is playing in I don't know if that's true. You can do a lot of modulation in Reaper directly, by chaining native LFOs or other modulation sources. Bitwig's UI is incredibly sexy and beautiful, and Reaper is kind of ugly and crude, yes. That makes it easier in Bitwig to just see what's happening, whereas in Reaper you have to hunt down inside effects' parameters. I think that's the main difference. But I don't think there are things you can do in Bitwig that you can't do in Reaper for a comparable amount of work. I'm not proficient in Bitwig, though. I would enjoy to see some comparisons.
    - PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
      You can't do clip launching in Reaper. In Bitwig, almost any parameter of anything is both a modulation source and destination. This is not true in Reaper.
  - ZoomZoomZoom 5y ago

gmueckl 5y ago

Well, if you want an open source DAW, there's Ardour. I don't use it, but it is fairly complete.

nitrogen 5y ago

manage complex routing schemes for your projects just dragging nodes and noodles. 100%. I want something that combines the multitrack timeline of ACID with the MIDI, control, and audio routing of a virtual modular synth or console.jp (sadly not updated since 2008). I would work for a significant pay cut on such a project if someone's hiring. But also a tangent: anyone developing node-based software please give me schematic-style straight lines and angles to route connections! Noodles that look like real cables definitely take the skeuomorphism to 11, and plain straight lines without routing are really easy to implement, but they're both very impractical for more than just a few connections. I'll open source my old startup's Qt implementation of a node canvas if it helps.

PaulDavisThe1st 5y ago
> 100%. I want something that combines the multitrack timeline of ACID with the MIDI, control, and audio routing of a virtual modular synth or console.jp (sadly not updated since 2008). I would work for a significant pay cut on such a project if someone's hiring. ardour.org has money in the bank right now. Make a proposal!

BillyDM 5y ago

"- Are there any plans to have some user-facing API for plugins/scripting? Professional workflows vary widely and automation helps a lot." Yes, a scripting API is planned. The GUI is being designed from the ground-up to where every action will go through an event system, so script will be able to do pretty much anything the GUI can do. A lot of the backend components will also be separated into a separate repo under the RustyDAW project, allowing someone else to create their own DAW with their own GUI if they wish. "- How flexible the UI is going to be? Multi-monitor setups of different configurations are very frequent in studios, free docks and/or floating windows are very important." We're not too sure on this one yet, it mostly depends on how many features the GUI library we are using will get. We hope to have a GUI that is as flexible as possible. "- I see you mention sidechain routing, but it's unclear what are the plans on multichannel audio and, more importantly, the routing possibilities. I'd love to see some kind of node editor for this where you can visualize and manage complex routing schemes for your projects just dragging nodes and noodles." We are currently working on a complex audio graph in the https://github.com/RustyDAW/rusty-daw-audio-graph https://github.com/RustyDAW/rusty-daw-audio-graph repo. This will hopefully allow us to support any kind of complex audio graph structure. So far this audio graph only supports mono and stereo audio, but we can easily add more ports for multichannel audio in the future. Beyond MVP we will likely add either a Live/Bitwig style horizontal rack, or a FL Studio Patcher style plugin for advance routing. It's still being decided on which one we will go with. * edit - fix typo