A Composer/Sound Artist’s Open-Source Toolkit
Why Open-Source software?
There are a number of other reasons you should maybe switch to an open-source piece of software.
The best example in my case was that I had a copy of Logic, Final Cut Pro, and Photoshop. All of them were purchased by the school I worked for at the time luckily and I used those for ages. Then my laptop broke and I had to get a new one. Suddenly I had to reinstall these programs and, unfortunately, I had no access to the license anymore since I had recently moved on to another school. I figured it was time to finally get my own copy and then I had to deal with the app store. Sadly, all that was available was the latest version of Logic and Final Cut Pro, both of which are pretty terrible (it is really odd that Apple decided to move Logic in a more consumer and less pro direction by making it more like Garageband). That is, of course, my opinion but I assume most have had a similar issue with other software in the past.
Ok, so I buy software that I don’t want and I’ll have to buy again when apple forces me to upgrade my operating system OR I just get a program that doesn’t have those sorts of issues.
Some good reasons for going with Open-Source solutions from an artist’s perspective:
You can transfer your software from computer to computer when you upgrade
The cost is usually either free or very low AND your money most likely goes directly to the person who is doing all the work writing the program (Ardour is a great example of that)
You have more control over your software. There are generally no arbitrary or financially-motivated limitations placed on your software’s capabilities (I’m looking at you ProTools).
Politics… OK, there are a lot more political/ethical reasons to empower people with the ability to create independent of whether they come from wealth but that is a much larger subject. I am an educator so it is very apparent to me on a daily basis how much of a difference it makes when someone has access to information and resources to be productive (whatever productive might mean). I’ll leave it at that but chew on it or search around the internet if you are curious.
So in this process I’ve discovered some gems that work well for me. This can be hard, there are too many options out there and one either has to try a whole bunch of them or get some advice from people who have done that. So here is what worked for me:
Sound Editing, Sequencing, Recording, Mixing
Ardour
http://ardour.org/
I am still shocked at how amazing Ardour is in comparison to everything else out there. I completely replaced ProTools and Logic Pro with Ardour and am super happy with it. It has all the professional features one might need for professional multi-track mixing, editing, mastering and fixed-media composition. Kudos to Paul Davis for maintaining this software for so long.
The secret to this software is that you should not install it from the Ubuntu Software Center (or via apt-get). That is a very old version. The newest version (with a whole lotta improvements) can be obtained from the above linked main website. While technically this software is not free (it IS open-source) you CAN pay $1 to get it. That being said, the developer(s) could use some cash to keep this going so go ahead and pay a little more if you like it and subscribe if you can. IT IS STILL EXTREMELY CHEAP AND MAYBE THE CHEAPEST AND IS REALLY GREAT.
Audacity
http://audacityteam.org/
You might use Audacity already. It is simple and highly effective for basic editing of sound files. I used to use SoundForge when I was on Windows and I used to use BIAS Peak when I used a Mac. Now I use Audacity and I think most people on Mac found this to be their new alternative for PEAK or SoundForge.
Jack Audio Connection Kit
http://jackaudio.org/
Jack allows you to connect one application’s audio output to another and generally route audio and midi around easily. This is invaluable if you are recording a software synth or any other sort of sound generating software and need to get it into your recording software. It can also record the output of your sound card directly to a sound file on your disk.
Sound Design and Electronic Music Tools
Pure Data (PD)
http://puredata.info/
Pure-Data (PD) is patching software much like Max/MSP from the original inventor of Max/MSP. One of the coolest things about PD is that it runs on nearly every system (Mac, PC, Linux, Raspberry Pi, Android, iOS. Technically the last two are through some extra programs you download). What is great about that is that if you want to run your patch on someone else’s machine or give it to someone else, you can… without issue. I’ve seen how effective that is on many occasions.
I’ve also seen many students pickup PD before Max/MSP without problems. It really isn’t necessarily “harder” to learn as much as it just has some different ways of doing things. I can’t say ALL good things about PD though. The documentation is not nearly as good as Max/MSP and I think that is really Max’s strong point.
SuperCollider
http://supercollider.github.io/
If you code already, then SuperCollider is your best bet. It is actively maintained and has a very large community of users. The language itself is finely tuned for live coding and interactively designing sounds and the compositional tools are quite nice as well.
If you don’t code already, it’s still a good choice but there is a steep learning curve and if you don’t want to do sound design via code then opt for the prior-mentioned Pure Data.
Ultimately there are too many to mention here and it really comes down to what you like to use. For that reason I’ll just point out the two main ones above. This is a case where trying out a variety of different things will benefit you and will come down to personal taste.
LilyPond
http://lilypond.org/
If you are doing music scores, LilyPond is your best choice for producing professional looking scores. And I mean that. Sibelius and Finale don’t quite pay enough attention to the way the scores look and you can always tell when someone has used one of those programs.
Some people are scared off by the fact that LilyPond works by entering “code” into an editor to produce the scores but if you try it you’ll realize it’s actually much much easier than you think. I can’t tell you how many years I struggled with positioning elements in Sibelius that were rather simple to do in LilyPond. Oh! and PARTS! Cripes… parts are SO MUCH easier in LilyPond than in Sibelius or Finale.
BUT… there are also a lot of helpful GUI frontends to LilyPond.
See here for info on that.
I should also mention the list at the bottom of that link which points to a variety of editors that can also export to LilyPond format.
MuseScore
https://musescore.org/
I got a lot of comments about MuseScore not being on this list so I’ve decided to add it. It seems quite nice and it would seem that a lot of people use it. Definitely worth checking out and it looks well supported and maintained. Also seems to be a solid competitor to more expensive software notation packages.
Scribus
http://www.scribus.net/
I used to use Photoshop mixed with graphic exports of score snippets to write text scores. These days I use Scribus to lay out my pages for print, add text, integrate graphics, etc.. If you are writing text scores and still doing it in Microsoft Word then you should really try something like Scribus to lay out your pages in a much more specific and controllable way.
It’s pretty simple to use and works great! All my scores have a pass through Scribus.
Image and Document Editing
GIMP
http://www.gimp.org/
Gimp is always mentioned in articles like these and for good reason. It is fantastic. If you are used to Photoshop then you will have some adjustments to make. It IS different and works different and I would say that is because it is not a Photoshop clone. It is meant to standalone and it works very well. But for that reason you can expect to learn some new keyboard shortcuts.
Inkscape
https://inkscape.org
A vector graphics program that stands up well against Adobe Illustrator. Again, it stands on its own and is not a clone but when comparisons are made Inkscape certainly has features that Illustrator does not and vice versa. The best choice in open-source vector graphic drawing programs.
Word Processing, Spreadsheets, etc.
LibreOffice
https://www.libreoffice.org/
I’ve used LibreOffice for awhile now and it is really fantastic. I actually switched to it way before switching to full open-source programs since it worked in a lot of ways that I preferred over Microsoft’s offering.
If you are a working artist you need to have video documentation of your works (even composers unfortunately) and so we often find ourselves needing to become video editors and throw together something for applications, grants, website, etc. Here are a few choices including the one I use, Blender.
Lightworks
http://www.lwks.com/
A professional-grade video editor. I have yet to try it as it just recently came out for Linux in a more stable form but I’m going to try to switch to it briefly for my next project to try it out. I will point out that this is an editor that is used in “the industry” apparently.
OpenShot
http://openshot.org/
Seems very intuitive and simple and looks like a good alternative to something like iMovie on the Mac.
Blender
http://www.blender.org/
Blender is actually 3D modeling software but it contains a very powerful video editor. It sorta makes sense when you think about it given that animating and sequencing video is a logical other step for 3D modelers.
Admittedly Blender has a pretty steep learning curve but as someone with an interest in doing more 3D modeling for various projects, it makes sense to learn a single tool for both.
That’s all I really use at this point. These tools have completely replaced everything I had on my Mac and everything that I ever had to purchase from some kind of app store in the past.
If you are moving to more open-source software then these are good choices. They aren’t just “alternatives,” in many cases they are better choices then what you might find for higher prices.
I hope it helps and would love to hear more about other people’s experiences.
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