this post was submitted on 10 Apr 2024
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It seems like the FOSS community is continuing to grow, and FOSS apps keep getting better (Immich reallh blew my mind recently), which is a big win ๐Ÿ˜Ž but there are still many apps I use that I would kill for an open source alternative. I am curious what you guys think? Are there any apps you'd love alternatives for?

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[โ€“] [email protected] 16 points 8 months ago (3 children)

Software for the production of music and audio, like Ardour but for more platforms which more typical people could use more easily, plus plug-ins for that ecosystem. It's a major sticking point how corporate that field is for me.

[โ€“] [email protected] 7 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)
[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I've looked at these, especially LMMS, but in my view they aren't enough (or good enough) to completely escape non-FOSS.

Sample Library plugins, my area of interest, are under two or three banners: Kontakt, Decent Sampler and SF. None of these are appropriately free, although Decent Sampler shows the most promise of breaking down the class divide in this area.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Well, for free, community driven, you can test also this one. It works online and include royalty free samplers

https://www.audiotool.com

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

This is about FOSS and I can't see that Audiotool is FOSS, and Samplers are not Sample Libraries. Sample Libraries are ubiquitous among producers who want a good sounding recreation of a real instrument but cannot afford (or morally support), for example, Pianoteq's modelling algorithms or Spitfire's premium libraries, neither of which are FOSS, or the instrument itself or a session player.

As I said, the most promising multi-sampler or sample library software with an active community was Decent Sampler, which isn't open-source and now supports DRM.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

It's clear that Audiotool isn't FOSS, but I put it in because obviously there isn't FOSS which fits your needs, and the next best option is a free community driven app with own samples made by the community, apart of those by default.

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago

Decent Sampler (and the attached Pianobook community) fits my needs perfectly well, with the exception that it's not FOSS.

[โ€“] [email protected] 6 points 8 months ago (1 children)

At least Reaper has Linux ports, better than nothing.

[โ€“] [email protected] 3 points 8 months ago

Bitwig is probably the best available closed source daw on linux

[โ€“] [email protected] 2 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Live production stuff as well.

So much of the available "industry standard" software is fully proprietary and Apple only.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

What do you mean the "live production stuff" exactly?

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Most of the apps to interface with pro level mixing consoles and lighting boards are Mac / iPad . Very few for Android, limited Windows options and pretty much nothing for Linux.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

You're correct but in my experience everything I've used at a venue is analog, running almost entirely off of the mixing desk, without an external computer running Win/Mac/Linux. And half of these consoles I've used had a USB port which was used for, among other things, storing templates. This allowed for our front-of-house mix engineers and monitor mix engineers to cruise along because most of the work was done at home or in other venues. The software for writing those was Windows/Mac at the least, I don't know if any used Linux and I'm not sure if they were "human-readable" text formats.

At that price point I'm not so motivated to work on something FOSS, I care more for working with the hand-to-mouth musicians than the large institutions.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago* (last edited 8 months ago) (1 children)

Before I retired I was also almost entirely analog.

But these days it appears that even the gear targeted at small bar bands is leaning heavily toward a fully digital workflow.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Yeah, there's a Behringer desk that is ubiquitous...

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Being super cheap does make the X32 family pretty popular at the entry level.

[โ€“] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

I've seen it above that level, again because of the USB port. Definitely not arena sized, but definitely large venue sized.