[GTALUG] Seeking help with a unique Linux project?

[Blaise Alleyne]

On 15/12/15 01:11 AM, Karen Lewellen wrote:
> I was more of a singer / arranger than a songwriter until the past few years. 
> Now I have all this music I desire moving from the studio in my head and heart 
> onto sheet music, into performing form, as I am sure you can understand.
>  Since I am writing full arrangements, all the parts with my lyrics, I want to 
> play all of the parts, piano, strings, guitar etc.,  that are in my head and then
>  get the completed work into sheet certainly both audio and sheet possibly.

Are you looking to create audio recordings and sheet music? Or just sheet music?

That is, are you looking to play the parts just to capture the notes for sheet
music? Or to play the parts because you're interested in creating audio
recordings in addition to the sheet music?

Also, are you looking to play all of the parts for the different instruments on
your keyboard, or on different instruments?



> How I imagine doing this, is with a quality   piano / keyboard that also has
> several additional instrument options to simulate sound wise for composition
> only for now at least, the other instrument's for which I am writing.

I spent a lot of time looking into keyboard last year. That's one of the reasons
I dove deeper into GNU/Linux audio. I decided to go with a MIDI keyboard, and
software-based tools, for more flexibility and freedom to re-purpose the
keyboard in different ways.

Do you have a keyboard already, or are you looking for one still? I imagine you
want a MIDI keyboard, and the right software synths or software samplers to
voice different instruments.



> I imagine connecting said piano / keyboard  to the m-audio audiophile 2496 sound
> card I have in mind

I decided to get a USB MIDI keyboard myself. As long as it's USB class
compliant, it'll work in GNU/Linux. Then, the sound card is still useful for
playback (or recording audio), but you don't actually need a traditional MIDI
input port from the soundcard if you have a USB MIDI keyboard.

(There are plenty of USB MIDI keyboards without touchscreens.)

Also, are you hoping to record audio from the Audiophile 2496? It doesn't look
like it has the quarter inch or XLR inputs you'd need for that.


> There may be another way that I have not considered, I mean besides the
> traditional way  of doing the recording...

You could sequence the parts in MIDI (or abc notation or something), instead of
performing them? That might be better for certain instruments too.

For example, if you're playing a piano part on a MIDI keyboard, that could work
to capture MIDI notes which you could then edit and polish for sheet music. But
if you're trying to capture a guitar part with a MIDI keyboard, I imagine it'd
be better to enter the notes manually in a MIDI sequencer (or abc notation or
something that can be converted to MIDI), as opposed to trying to get the feel
of a guitar by playing a keyboard.