[Freewheeling-user] Feedback

[JP M. <sw...@vc...>]

Hi Dan,

Thanks for your feedback. I've forwarded this to the Freewheeling list- 
a great place to ask your questions.

- You could potentially run Freewheeling without X, yes. You'd have to 
hack the code a bit, though. There is already a project in the idea 
stage to make a portable Freewheeling box based on Linutop 
(http://www.linutop.com/), a small soundcard such as a UA-25, a hacked 
USB keyboard with foot or hand switches, and potentially a small LCD 
screen (http://www.crystalfontz.com/products/634usb/).

Here is a webpage:
http://www.mattvenn.net/display/public/custom+looping+hardware

One of the advantages of Open Source Linux audio software is that you 
can embed it. Muse Research's Receptor VST player is a good example. 
There's probably a market for an embedded looping device. Look at the 
huge community on Looper's-Delight!

As for your Linux sound card woes, that's part of the adventure of using 
Linux! While Windows music is based around buying locked-down 
proprietary music tools, Linux gets you diving under the hood and 
working with core concepts. You learn a lot and you get to make choices 
about what kind of setup you want.

I know it can be discouraging when you first get a new system and you 
want to get the audio working. When I first got this laptop, I was beta 
testing the audio driver for the Echo Indigo IO. At the time it was the 
only small audio card that would work in the laptop, and I had a real 
adventure getting it to work right! .. back and forth emails with the 
driver developers and Echo Corp.. but there are people out there who can 
help-- the ALSA website and the Linux Audio User list are great resources!

http://bugtrack.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Main
http://music.columbia.edu/mailman/listinfo/linux-audio-user/

Thanks for your feature suggestion (to record a loop and not play it 
immediately). You can't do this right now, but it's an easy feature to 
implement. Look for it in an upcoming release, and please keep us posted 
on your progress.

Cheers,
-JP Mercury

>Hi Jan,
>
>I'm a musician here in the States and I've been looking into looping 
>applications and pedals for my music arrangements to play live. After 
>watching the videos (which I'm hugely grateful for!! Pro level 
>software sometimes doesn't even have a screenshot!) I am obsessed 
>with getting a freewheeling rig as the core of my setup, hopefully 
>with nothing more than a control surface and a hidden box running the 
>software. Is it possible to run freewheeling without an X server? 
>have you ever done so? Hopefully you can get a windows version off 
>the ground as I'm only interested in using linux to get 
>freewheeling's power. I've run into huge problems with my sound card 
>which has prevented me from getting freewheeling to a ready state, 
>linux handles sound card levels with bizarre names like C103-1, which 
>I don't know if that's my output, input or anything. Also I get huge 
>x-runs with JACK. Maybe paying for a new card will fix it, but since 
>it Just Works on windows, it's very discouraging.
>
>Anyway, just wanted to give you my thanks for making something for 
>all us live loopers, and to suggest that you make the option to 
>record a loop and then not play it upon completion. The way you have 
>it auto-start the loop after you've recorded is not always 
>desireable, sometimes I want to snag a sample from the rhythm, break 
>into a solo, then have my pre-sampled rhythm come in halfway through. 
>Can freewheeling not already do that? If not, maybe CTRL+(input) 
>could end recording without playing that slot?
>
>Many thanks again,
>Dan.
>