MIDI Sequencing

There are a number of GPL'ed MIDI sequencing software packages. A search on www. freshmeat .net for MIDI will produce a moderately sized list of applications, such as:

· Anthem

· Brahms

· Gseq

· Jazz++

· Rosegarden

· Melys

· MusE

The specifics of each program would be too much to write about, and most aren't even at release 1.0 yet. Instead I will be writing about a program that I've used over the years, Jazz++. Recently GPL'ed, Jazz++ has been a cornerstone of the Linux MIDI sequencing scene for years. What scene? Okay, no scene. However, I remember using Jazz+ years ago and then discovering Jazz++ and wanting to buy it. But I could never get Jazz+ to work with my Creative Sound Blaster AWE32. Of course, a lot has changed since then, like better driver support and Jazz++ going GPL! During this time, I had a brief lapse in judgment and purchased, along with my Roland XP-30, Steinberg CuBase VST, a MIDI/audio sequencing application for Windows. Once I regained my senses, I realized that I'd wasted over $300 for a product I will never use. Why? Because I'm 100% Linux!

Now, don't get me wrong. I think Microsoft Windows is okay for my mother-in-law and my wife. But for me, "Just Linux" is the motto. Interestingly, Brahms' claim to fame is that it intends to be the Steinberg CuBase VST for Linux. CuBase VST is really good. (For what I paid for it, it better be good!) This is why I like GPL'ed software. If you make a mistake and choose an application that's not right for you, you're only out the time you spent learning the product. Knowledge is never wasted, however. Whatever you learn will be applied somehow, sometime. Money, on the other hand, can be wasted. We'll have to wait and see if Brahms lives up to its claim, because as I write this, Brahms is not even at a 1.0 release and will probably be at release 4.0 when it finally comes close to CuBase VST. But this is okay. The effort is appreciated and encouraged. The best thing about software is that there are plenty of people who will use one product over another, for whatever reason, and will always fuel the need for new applications of the same genre. Speaking of genre, my musical genre preference is techno, so using synthesizers to create music is right up my alley. Enough talk about hardware and software. Let's get started creating our next big chart buster.