Ubuntu Studio (installation and facilities) and Lilypond

Edited + compiled by Anthony from the mailing list 2010-01-14, with thanks to Jan, Alan, John, LL and Dave P.


> The fresh install Ubuntu Studio is a downloadable DVD image only.
> http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/9.10/release/
> http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/8.04.1/release/

Ubuntu User Magazine (No 4) has a dual sided DVD.  One side is dedicated to the DVD version of 9.10.  The other side has the 32 bit CD versions of Kubuntu, Xubuntu, Edubuntu, Ubuntu Studio, Linbuntu & Netbook remix.

> I've tried to install the latest Karmic-based Studio from the
> downloadable DVD image, but there seems to be a problem with the ISO image
> itself. The way to get past this is to install a stock Ubuntu Karmic, and
> then load the realtime kernel package and the Studio metapackages via APT.


> there is a way to install Studio by upgrading from standard Ubuntu (Studio
> is an official Ubuntu variant) by following these instructions:
> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Ubuntu%20Studio%20Upgrade%20from%20Ubuntu


"Does Ubuntu Studio have a Live CD?  No it doesn't."
An alternative option would be for you to download the alternate CD,
buy a large-ish (8GB+) USB stick, boot from the CD and install onto
the USB stick.
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/LiveUsbPendrivePersistent#Method 1: Installing
Ubuntu directly to USB drive from installer CD
Short version of that url: http://bit.ly/7mg8OY


> anyone know which of the offered programmes (or
> alternatives) are cross platform; MS/Linux?
Google + list of packages ubuntu studio + "I'm feeling lucky" =
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuStudio/PackageList which links to
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuStudio/Applications which
lists the apps installed which has links to the home/project pages for
each application where you can ascertain their cross-platform-ness :)


The following programs on Studio would
> be of interest from a strict classical music perspective:
>
> Aeolus - pipe organ synth (Linux only)
> Ardour - digital audio studio (Linux and Mac only)
> Audacity - Audio editor (Linux Mac and Windows)
> GENPO - Pipe-organ synth (Linux only)
> Denemo and Lilypond - music notation "typesetting" (Linux Mac and Windows)
> GTick - metronome program (Linux OSS/Alsa)
> LMMS - Music sample editor (Linux and Windows)
> Muse - Powerful sequencer (Linux only)
> MuseScore - WYSIWYG music notator (Windows Mac and Linux)
> RoseGarden - General purpose sequencer midi and note editor (Linux only)
> Virtual MIDI keyboard - simple on-screen MIDI keyboard (Linux only)
> ZynAddSubFX - A versatile software polyphonic synthesizer


> There are of course a hell of a lot more about Studio than the above (and
> that is putting it very mildly...). Still, the list above should contain
> enough cross-platform goodness for a classical music person to get going,
> even though it's still only a "taster". When it comes to audio software,
> people on other platforms have a lot to be jealous about! :-)
> PSS: My wife used to be a staunch Sibelius (excellent proprietry notation
> program) fan, but when I put her on to MuseScore, she dropped Sibelius so
> quickly it made my head spin. She does all her music arrangements with
> MuseScore on Linux now, and won't go back to Windows any time soon as a
> result.


I suspect Lilypond is to music
> scores what TeX is to word processing, ultra-powerful but not for
> everyone.  Perhaps MuseScore is the answer.

Denemo is a great little Lilypond frontend, kind of like LyX is to TeX.
MuseScore is a leightweight in comparison to Sibelius, but it does have
some nice little features and it's possible to churn out music sheets at
quite a clip. Yes, Lilypond is the TeX equivalent of the music world,
even if there is such a thing as MusiXTeX (seems not under active
development anymore though).

> Are there any tools for converting Sibelius scores, and if so, how
> successful are they?

Not very successful, I'm afraid. Some stuff seems to be happening here:
http://is.gd/6jXBf
A chap is busy developing a tool called sib2ly that is supposed to
convert Sibelius into Lilypond docs. Still early days though (version is
0.0.1). Other than that it seems that the only way doing this is to
convert to MIDI files and then importing it into MuseScore or similar.
Also not terribly successful, since you lose most of the meta info like
dynamics,  signatures, tempo changes and such important stuff.