[ardour-users] shall we wait for VST or go with libfst?

[Geoff Beasley]

G'day folks; I have to chime in  here...

Look, properly installed these applications all work NOW. Right here,
right now ! Sure things could be better; sure they could be easier; sure
they could be more.... everything, but this stuff works NOW ! You just
have to KNOW how to survive in your (particular) computer environment. 

It seems to me that the main point of difference between "professional"
music applications and open source, is the inherent instability of core
functions are hidden and often denied in the professional ones. If an
issue crops up with commercial software, the first point of reference
for the user is check EVERYTHING else in the machine before the app in
question even gets a look in. In LINUX, these of course get a mention
(as they can indeed be the issue) but the focus is always on getting to
the real heart of the problem and if it is indeed a coding issue, it
gets FIXED. Hmmm, fixed; heard the word, not often seen the action! 

I have Ardour and VST/VSTi working BEAUTIFULLY and RELIABLY
as a constant in my studio 6 days a week. IT WORKS. IT REALLY DOES WORK.
IT DOES WORK NOW! As you would expect, some VST's just don't
work...maybe missing a .dll, maybe not well written  or something; you
get no error message to tell you, so those you just don't use.But most
of mine work fine. Look at Tim Orford's great page to see what is
working and how well. It's not perfect I know but compared to Windoze I
consider myself better off using Linux and learning to survive in the OS
of the future and giving what little help and encouragement I am able
along the way than enduring the poor(total crap?) support and lousy
engineering of the commercial world. A case in point, I have never seen
anything like the SMPTE/MTC accuracy I'm getting Ardour to Ardour. It's
amazing. Windoze CAN'T compare to it. 

I love linux, I admire the extraordinary people who have made it all
possible and making music has never been so rewarding in 18 years of
composing/recording/producing. I have even made some great new friends !
Even thought at the moment I'm having hassles with x-runs and occasional
clicks ( I read that jack issue thread this morning and I have exactly
this problem myself ! ) I consider most of these problems to be my
ignorance rather than the systems incompetence. Time to roll up my
sleeves and get working... the rewards speak for themselves.

2c ? more like ten bucks....

Best,
Geoff