Rosegarden - An open source MIDI / audio multi-tracker (The H) [LWN.net]

The H has a lengthy review of Rosegarden. "If access to computers and networks have given us the means to copy and distribute recorded works, they have also given us the means to create our own music. If computers and networks have made it possible to take the programming art into the home, they have also taken the black arts of the recording studio closer to the back bedroom, and in so doing, have made the making of music more accessible to greater numbers of people - much as free software has made it easier for 'hobbyist' programmers to join in and test their skills and make a difference. Tools for GNU / Linux and free software have played their part in this evolution, and Rosegarden is a significant part of the canon, a well structured MIDI / audio sequencer and musical notation editor with a well thought out user interface which has put usability and ease of learning to the fore."

(Log in to post comments)

Music Notation

Posted Oct 27, 2010 22:40 UTC (Wed) by daglwn (subscriber, #65432) [Link]

I tried to use Rosegarden for music notation several years ago and it was just not up to the task. Perhaps that's improved but I found LilyPond to be a much more productive environment for that, in exactly the same way LaTeX is a more productive environment that MS Word for technical documentation.

I've never tried Rosegarden's MIDI capabilities. What I'm really looking for is a simple multitrack recording program that avoids most of the complexity of Ardour. Just something that can record a few tracks and do some simple mixing.

Music Notation

Posted Oct 28, 2010 12:25 UTC (Thu) by shadow-penguin (guest, #38135) [Link]

"Perhaps that's improved but I found LilyPond to be a much more productive environment for that" ...

But Lilypond's only target is (traditional western) music notation while
Rosegarden is a digital audio workstation. Notation is just a nice little
goody. You are comparing apples with oranges.
BTW, Rosegarden uses LilyPond to render/print notation an you can export
to Lilypond, so one possible workflow would be to enter/edit the music in
Rosegarden and then to export a LilyPond file that you can tweak to your
heart's content.

Cheers Ralf Mattes

Music Notation

Posted Oct 28, 2010 20:51 UTC (Thu) by daglwn (subscriber, #65432) [Link]

Oh, I know that Rosegarden does more than notation. The problem with a graphical notation editor is that it's graphical. It takes far longer for me to notate something in Rosegarden than in Lilypond. And Lilypond can target more than traditional Western music. It's quite flexible.

Music Notation

Posted Oct 29, 2010 8:08 UTC (Fri) by teknohog (guest, #70891) [Link]

What I'm really looking for is a simple multitrack recording program that avoids most of the complexity of Ardour. Just something that can record a few tracks and do some simple mixing.

Have you tried Ecasound or Audacity? Both of them may appear simplistic (and compared to Rosegarden they probably are), but they are surprisingly capable under the hood. They are focused on multitrack work, but take very different approaches.