Music Production and FreeBSD

PetrusValidus

PetrusValidus

Hi All,

My friend and I are looking to build a digital audio workstation but we currently do not have the resources available for either a Mac or Windows with the current DAW software (Cubase, Pro-Tools, Ableton Live, etc.) Both he and I are quite familiar with Linux, but would also like to investigate FreeBSD for this task.

Is this something that is doable with FreeBSD, or are we better off using Linux?

Thanks.
 
You can't get around spending money for quality output in this area.
Software alone won't give you studio quality.

If you want studio quality output, you will need a professional sound card and speakers.
Sound Blaster x whatever is not up to studio quality.

For the sound card check out M-Audio's line, the Mobile Pre USB would be a minimum. Around $100 on sale. The more inputs the more expensive.
The Firewire 410 is ideal for a small studio.

Most professional microphones are powered by what they are connected to, phantom power. That means the sound card must have a pre-amplifier. Stay away from the pci card add ins stick to M-Audio external units.

Type of speakers are not crucial for creation but are absolutely critical for mix down. You'll never be able to balance the different tracks with PC speakers or home audio speakers.
You can do OK mixing with Sony Studio Monitor Headphones MDR v600.

The Speakers to shoot for, Yamaha HS80.

As for DAW software on FreeBSD, try Linux Alternatives to Windows.
Find the software that you know, check the alternatives websites to see if they support FreeBSD.
 
There's csound in ports (audio/csound), the port is not completely up-to-date and is missing some options (Most notably 64-bit float support), but in general csound runs pretty good on FreeBSD.

Both the update and more extensive OPTIONS support are in the pipeline, I just haven't had the time to finish/test all the changes.

(csound maintainer)
 
MIDI support is going to be a problem. I've been looking for a way to get MIDI working myself but I haven't had much luck.
 
Yes, I tried setting up MIDI for OpenTTD, I've heard that some people managed to get it working, but I never managed to get it working ... If someone did, please let me know how!
 
knotabot said:
You can't get around spending money for quality output in this area.
Software alone won't give you studio quality.

If you want studio quality output, you will need a professional sound card and speakers.
Sound Blaster x whatever is not up to studio quality.

For the sound card check out M-Audio's line, the Mobile Pre USB would be a minimum. Around $100 on sale. The more inputs the more expensive.
The Firewire 410 is ideal for a small studio.

Most professional microphones are powered by what they are connected to, phantom power. That means the sound card must have a pre-amplifier. Stay away from the pci card add ins stick to M-Audio external units.
Click to expand...

Well, the hardware interface I know we'll have to use. There is no way around that. It is probably more likely that some audio/music recording software is available for FreeBSD than drivers for the hardware. While I don't *know* this, I've heard that support for M-Audio units under Linux is really hit or miss. Do you have any previous experience of music production (on *nix)? Just wondering...

I've seen the the Firewire 410 before, I was actually planning on picking one up to build my own DAW. Judging from the responses from other users here it looks like we'd have better luck with Linux for this dilemma.

Thanks for all your help, everyone.
 
I know of Ardour - I have not used it myself but it looks very interesting. LMMS on the other hand I have used (albeit briefly) i recognized it immediately as something which would function similar to FL Studio, which I do use. I didn't know they were also available for FreeBSD.

It looks like recording audio isn't a problem here, but MIDI is questionable, as we'll be wanting to use a controller and softsynths.
 
I used LMMS on linux don't know if there is a port on bsd but it's pretty cool kinda like logic easy to map midi keyboard also and it includes lots of instruments
 
Code: 
audio/lmms                An all-in-one sequencer, drum machine, sampler and more
 
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