Episode: 670
Title: HPR0670: Linux - A Jazz Musician's Viewpoint
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr0670/hpr0670.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-08 00:39:38

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Welcome to Hucka Public Radio. This is Tony Denton, also sometimes known as
Barryman with my first podcast in which I outline my experience as a jazz
musician using Linux.
I've been using Linux for about eight years now, although it's only within the
last three or so years that I've gone virtually to 100 percent Linux. My
experience as a jazz musician, however, goes much further back, having clocked
up just over 50 years of playing now. First, a bit of history. I start into
the world of computing began in 1982 with a BBC Microcomputer. The BBC
Micro had its own operating system and used a special form of basic. It was
quite innovative for the time in that you could add an expansion board, piggybacked
to the motherboard to take pre-recorded ROM chips with a variety of software
programs that could be bought. I supplemented that machine a year or so later
with an old X Business machine made in 1977 by real-time computer systems of
crew in the UK. This machine had Gary Kildall's CPM operating system. Does
anybody out there remember CPM? And the input and output to the machine was by
means of four seven-inch floppy disks, one for the operating system, one for the
application, and two for the data. These two machines, which I still have, served
me very well until about 1988 when I ventured into the world of the PC and with
hindsight became a reluctant Microsoft operating system user. The next
does not so years so me using the PC mainly for educational material and for
musical composition and arrangements for use in my playing. I used two main
pieces of software for the music, Sibelius and Band-In-A-Box, with the
occasional use of sound forage, cue bass and finale. I also delivered a web
designing and used Macromedia Dreamweaver. Sibelius, Band-In-A-Box and Dreamweaver
were the essentials then as far as I was concerned. I first became aware of
Linux as we moved into the new millennium and I began to read up as much as I
could find out about it. I suppose it was around 2003 that I downloaded my first
proper distro sous-illinux and I wound up with six CDs to do the install. How
things have come on since that time. Linux has not had a particularly good press
over the years and most of this originated from the days when Linux was seen to
be quote difficult and quote. There has been a great sea change since then, modern
distros offer close to the full solution and certainly do supply everything the
average user would need. The press hasn't kept up with that progress, however, and we
still hear reports of retailers telling customers that Linux is quote difficult
and quote and to avoid it at all costs.
Well for the next three to four years after installing Susie I tried most of the
available distros. Damn small Linux, Mandriva, Fedora, Debium, I even spelled a
fruitless weekend trying to install Slackware. All were interesting in their own
way but I wasn't able to make too much use in those early days. I was aware of
wine as a solution to using Windows-based software and after installing early
copies of Sibelius, Band-In-A-Box and Dreamweaver, I had some limited success. I
stuck with it though, believing in the concept of free and open source solutions
until I discovered Ubuntu 606. Dapper Drake had a range of applications that
suited me and it used the GNOME desktop which felt comfortable. That clinched
it for me, I decided to stick with Ubuntu. I installed it on my two
desktops and laptop although I still felt it necessary to maintain the laptop
as a dual boot machine with Windows XP to give me that comfort feeling. I quickly
found that I began increasingly to use Linux for all my work only very rarely
using the Windows petition. I briefly tried virtual box initially with not too
much success. My solution for my essential applications was to continue to use
wine. That took care of all my day-to-day requirements. I currently use Ubuntu
1010 on all my machines and have ditched the dual boot Microsoft Windows
petition for good. As I still need access to my essential software though, I
decided to look again at using virtual machine. The recent Hacker Public Radio
podcast by ARFAB, HBR0618, on installing XP in a virtual box, gave me the
inspiration to make them move and to give virtual box another try. Following
ARFAB's tutorial, I installed virtual box on all my machines and everything went
smoothly. I now run my essential software in virtual box on my desktop and
laptops. My present setup comprises the two desktops previously mentioned, one
is my daily workhorse and the other an experimental machine where I can try out
various things before making them permanent. I used two laptops, a big 17-inch
Sony vial for the heavy music-related activity and an ASUS triple EPC for
casual stuff, including some recording when I get around to it. That's where I am
up to date.
As a practical musician, I need to practice regularly using a variety of
improvisation techniques and patterns with scales and arpeggios. I make good
use of band in a box as a practice aid and to provide suitable backings for
songs, technical exercises and particularly improvisation practice. Most of the
tunes that come supplied with band in a box are not too much used to me and I
almost always have to either rewrite the chords or import new ones and then
select a different backing style to get anywhere near what I need for my
purposes. I maintain my practice material in a separate folder and I place all
my regular practice pieces including backings for scales and arpeggios into
that folder. Most backing tracks take the form of a simple piano-based drums
rhythm section and the following audio clip demonstrates the kind of thing I
mean.
Up until a few months I was teaching weekend music class to local music centre. The
students and I had about a dozen of them at any one time were all at
various stages of ability and played different instruments clarinet, saxophone
and flute. I used backing tracks prepared in band in a box and exported them to
a WAV or MP3 file to support each musical instrument in a musical ensemble. By
using the band in a box output with Sibelius I could prepare a score and pass
and tell of the parts of the different abilities within the group. Sibelius
itself also has an export function that produces output for burning to CD. So I
often write a piano part in Sibelius to accompany the solo part or ensemble
and I have collected quite a series of these accompaniments on CDs which
give me the added flexibility in my teaching. I am aware of current developments
within the Linux community in support of the musical requirement. For example
Rose Garden for MIDI and Lilipon for score writing. But I feel that there is a
way to go yet to get the input and output to be more intuitive. I feel that
the learning curve is still too great at the moment to be able to say to my
colleagues yes Linux is now the complete solution.
In my next podcast I'll explain how I record audio and how I use my Linux
setup to support my other activities. My website and blog can be found at
www.medenton.com and I own Twitter as Tony Denton. My identity can name is
Barryman and I am occasionally found on IOC also as Barryman.
Thank you for listening to HACCLE public radio. HPR is sponsored by Kero.net so head on over to