Notices

I am still searching for ANY useful application for OS2007/08 which allows us to create some music, or control musical devices (via bluetooth or network) from my N800.
There are quite a lot music apps for general Linux out there, but no one is ported to MAEMO. the closest thing I found so far is PDPDA:
http://gige.xdv.org/pda/release/maemo/
http://gige.xdv.org/pda/index.php

This should emulate the popular app Pure Data to maemo, but is unfortunately unusable for me (the screen objects do not allow text input, are much too small, and none of the included patches works for me...).

I just got VERY jealous on the iPhone/Touch after seeing those two projects:
http://thrill.artificialeyes.tv/i3L
http://poly.share.dj/wiki/index.php/Mrmr

Can anyone help me find anything to compose/mangle audio/send MIDI/send OSC commands from the N800?

thanks and musical greetings,
karl.

I haven't come across anything other than PD (haven't checked it - I skipped the N800 and am waiting for the N810). I've been chugging away on moving some of Audacity to Maemo, but so far there have been too many roadblocks along the way. Getting audio into the device (meaning recording, not adding files) isn't possible at any decent resolution, and there seems to be little support for using the DSP. If the DSP was involved, I suspect editing audio would be entirely possible on the IT.

Could you use PD (if it's working properly) to control something like an i-Cube?

See http://www.infusionsystems.com/

It's got a BT option, and can be used for funky MIDI control and experimental music. Depending on your needs, it might work...

Tenspeed,

thank you for your follow-up. Yes, if PD worked I could use it to control the I-Cube, and also plenty of nice stuff I have on my Laptop and on my studio desk..--)))

I also looked into the DSP (coded some DSP assembler some years ago myself), but did not find any concrete handle on this one. I do agree that audio recording is not really possible with good resolution, this is why I still hope for some MIDI or OSC transmitting environment (those protocols need very little bandwith and processing ressources).

I play live electronics along a modern jazz ensemble, and it would just be too cool to come out behind my racks for the solos and jam wirelessly center stage.---)))

cheers,
karl.

Did PDa run/compile for you at all on OS2008? I've been using Pd on Debian for a few years now, so naturally I'm interested in running it on the n810 that I'm going to pick up soon.

Regarding the patching, it's really recommended that you create your patches on a normal Pd vanilla install, and then maybe test them in the Maemo SDK. Much easier = )

Is the audio resolution a problem with the hardware, or the software? What would prevent someone from just plugging in something like a Behringer UCA202 using an adapter? This is what I was planning to try, and I'm just wondering if anyone has gotten it to work.

As far as controlling another box/synth goes, you could use flosc (http://benchun.net/flosc/). Build an interface in flash and send that over to a Mac Mini.

Ideas?

Anyone using PDa in OS2008?

I got giddy when I heard that it exists for Maemo. I used to do some work with Max/MSP, which is kind of PD's commercial brother (also a little more capable).

I don't envy those iPod apps. Those are the types of apps you should be able to construct with PD if it's not too crippled on tablets.

Now, it runs for me in OS2008 but I want to see if my experience is the same as it was in 2007. Off the bat I notice that it doesn't let me go fullscreen and shows a big, empty menubar at the bottom of the screen. Has that just always been the case?

Wow, try out the step sequencer and drum machine patch:

http://gige.xdv.org/pda/patches.php

There's some serious problems with the rendering of some objects, but it seems to function pretty well.

TI released the free-use (but closed-source) OMAP DSP toolchain back in November so it should be possible with some good hacking to port/develop serious audio apps to the N series.

Article is here. At the end of the article is a link to the TI download site to grab the toolchain.

http://www.linuxdevices.com/news/NS4338556106.html

Well just for fun I decided to try porting Jokosher to the Scratchbox Chinook environment. With some recompiling and tweaking and the necessary addition of Glade, it comes up. It doesn't do very much except look nice.

Although the software talks to ALSA, I don't know how to "enable" emulation in the SDK for it to talk to the actual box to at least test audio. I'm guessing it would probably work in the actual device, though.

The programs make heavy use of Glade, and as I understand Glade isn't part of Maemo, I'm not sure how useful this effort might be in the first place. Is this the case?

Good info, Securix. That screenshot is hot. I hope there's potential for that port or some other simple mixer.

Has anyone tried audio apps in KDE on the tablet?

Something like Audacity and Audiomulch would be great.

This is really good fun. I need to learn some more about Pure Data. I couldn't get any drum sounds working but the 303 style synth sounds are very enjoyable.
-John