MusE, the MIDI/Audio Sequencer [LWN.net]

After many months of continuous development work, version 0.7.0 of MusE, a GPL licensed multi-track virtual studio has been released.

[MusE] "This release has been in development for over half a year and the list of changes is huge. This milestone release has internal as well as external redesigns resulting in much improved stability. MusE 0.7 has also improved usability as well as plenty new and improved features."

Some of the MusE features include:

Real-time and step-mode MIDI recording.
Audio recording, playback, and sequencing capabilities.
Synchronization with the internal real time clock, external MIDI Time Code, MIDI clock, and JACK.
Master and slave synchronization capabilities.
Support for an unlimited number of inputs, outputs, auxilliary devices, and tracks.
Integrated support for software synthesizers.
Support for pre and post-fader LADSPA audio effects.
Support for the Jack Audio Connection Kit (JACK) for audio routing.
Support for the ALSA sound and MIDI drivers.
A Midi and audio automation architecture.
An integrated audio mixer console.
Real-time editors for piano rolls, musical scores, drums, controllers, lists, shortcuts, and master tracks.
Unlimited undo/redo.
A MIDI mixer, transformator, device configurator, sync configurator, and input filter.
XML formatted project and configuration files.
Midi instrument definition files.

The online documentation has more information on installation and use of the software.

MusE has a certain eye-candy appeal, take a look at the various Screen Shots to see it in action. The software is available for download here.

The build prerequsites for MusE are quite lengthy, and are probably well beyond the grasp of most casual Linux users. They include Qt 3.2, gcc 2.95.2, glibc 2.1, the 2.4 kernel with low latency patches applied or the 2.6 kernel with the realtime-lsm module, kernel /dev/rtc support, ALSA, JACK, and libcap-dev 1.10. MusE currently compiles on both x86 and PPC-based Linux systems. One might save a lot of time getting the software up and running by working with an audio meta-distribution such as Planet CCRMA.

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