Musician interested in Pandora - noob questions please.

[mckenic]

Sorry if this has all been covered before.


I initially signed-up for the newsletter years ago and forgot. Interest piqued after the latest newsletter.


I have a few questions please if folks have the time...


I'd like to use the Pandora as a mini music laptop (it would fit nicely in my gig-bag!) -


Firstly, has anyone used their Pandora for making music?


Can it run VST instruments with wine or somesuch? Or Linux built VSTs (LADSP I believe - http://sound.condorow.net/plugins.html)?


Has anyone run Renoise on it? It is a tracker that has a Linux build. (http://www.renoise.com/download/renoise/)


Renoise has VST and OSC support - anyone get OSC working on the Pandora?


The reason I ask is I'd like to use my Arduinome (Monome clone - http://monome.org/) with Pandora.


I know Max/MSP wont work on Linux but has anyone tried PureData (PD - http://puredata.info/) please?


Anyone tried USB audio interfaces/midi controller keyboards please?


Now about games & TV out -


Can I hook-up two USB joysticks and play my brother if the game/emulator supports 2 player?


Is TV out over USB or an expansion port please?


Thanks very much folks?


Dave


[Edit] I know Flash support is in the pipeline so to speak - but as it stands, can I watch Veetle.com/Justin.tv videos or stream web radio like soma fm etc please? I have to have something on in the background to get to sleep these days - it would be nice to turn my laptop off once in awhile! [/Edit]

 

[gruso]

Welcome Always good to have more people interested in the music side of things.


Most existing music apps & VSTs, even if they're open source and/or released for Linux, are built for x86 architecture. So, they need to be ported to the Pandora's ARM architecture, assuming they're open source. For the same reason WINE is no use, as it's intended to run on an x86 Linux machine.


There is lots to look forward to though - hopefully. I've compiled Seq24 for the Pandora and will release it soon. Then I'll be on the prowl for more easy ports to do (I'm no developer!). Another user, Torpor, is heavily into this stuff and far more capable than me. He's mentioned looking at Puredata and a whooole heap of other things. I think I need to prod him back into action if I can.


USB MIDI is all good, most standard interfaces and controllers should just work. Some of the cooler stuff we've toyed with so far has involved running old Atari ST music programs in the Hatari emulator, driving some toys via USB MIDI.


We already have a couple of trackers in the app archive - Schism Tracker and Milky tracker.


Long story short, there's not a ton available now but there are a ton of possibilities. The more of us who want this stuff, the more will happen, but it could be slow going.


On to your other questions, yep, you can plug in a USB hub and use multiple controllers if the software supports it. I believe MAME and Picodrive (Megadrive) support it, there may be more. TV out is S-video, taken from the EXT port on the rear. We're still waiting on these cables to be manufactured and sent out.

 

[Yannick]

Renoize is closed source and x86 only, altough if you could promise those guys 100+ sales on the pandora they prolly port it they did it for PPC mac


Now what i need to find / hack togheter is a gameboy emulator with GameBoy Midi IO Mod (for LSDj) with routing to jack (or alsa if it has to be)


EDIT: this => http://www.firestarter-music.de/lsdj/lsdjmc2_v1_1_1.jpg

 

[ibisum]

USB MIDI works great, just plug and play for the most part - I have the Akai nano-controller thingies (also Korg) working with my Pandora just fine, and as mentioned there are already trackers available for the Pandora, which are awesome. Gruso's port of seq24 runs very well, and you can definitely use the Pandora right now to drive external MIDI gear pretty well ..


I'm working on Puredata .. I put it on hold a while ago until there were some changes in the OS to support USB MIDI devices a bit more standardly - Gruso's seq24 port in the meantime has proven that this is all stable and solid now, so I'll dig out the Puredata project and get back on it one of these days .. I personally have about 30 PD patches I can't wait to use with my Pandora, so this will happen pretty soon.


Also there is the possibility of porting things like XSynth (DSSI plugin) as soon as we get a DSSI host environment happening .. there isn't really much hope for VST's and so on, though. Being on ARM means we have to build our own suite of synths and plugins from source and move from there, but rest assured that there is definitely a group of musicians working on this for Pandora in the scene these days.

 

[Bosbeetle]

I'm working on Puredata .. I put it on hold a while ago until there were some changes in the OS to support USB MIDI devices a bit more standardly - Gruso's seq24 port in the meantime has proven that this is all stable and solid now, so I'll dig out the Puredata project and get back on it one of these days .. I personally have about 30 PD patches I can't wait to use with my Pandora, so this will happen pretty soon.

I just made my first 3 pd patches so I hope this will be possible. Would be fun to fiddle with patches on the train

 

[relapse808]

Even if you could get a VST to load on pandora I doubt its sound chip has the ability to run it with any decent latency.

 

[WizardStan]

Actually, the DSP built into the OMAP was practically designed with this kind of stuff in mind. An off the shelf program might struggle some, but one made to use the DSP will absolutely fly and sound awesome, I'm quite certain.

 

[sverm]

What would get me excited is being able to use the Pandora as a sound module controlled by a MIDI keyboard for live performance.

 

[CPUnltd]

Pretty much all questions have been addressed, but I wanted to toss in a shameless plug for a resident pandora-based business... over at Panda-USB, they sell a 2 - 1 usb controller set (2 controllers to 1 USB port) that I picked up during the Free Pandora promotion not long ago... I haven't gotten it in the mail just yet, but I'm sure it will be here in a few more days.... just gotta make it through customs ... Not sure how well it stores, but it DEFINITELY makes your 2-player options much simpler for the Pnd...

 

[mckenic]

Sorry for the late reply folks - I have to check my setting to make sure Im getting notifications.


Thank you VERY, VERY much for the replies! Of course as soon as you mentioned ARM Gruso the 'Doh' button in my head went off! Of course x86 stuff wont currently work! Sorry for being silly and thanks for the patience! The Seq24 port sounds right up my street! Keeping a close eye on this


I must take a closer look at Schism & Milky trackers!


Nanoloop or LSDj would be VERY sweet indeed! I actually have a FireStarter midi interface around here somewhere! Sequencing Mssiah (over midi) would be cool too!


torpor - I doff my cap to you! PD scares the crap out of me but Im an advanced 'basic' Max/MSP user - just finished my thesis using motion tracking and sample triggering with a USB microscope and Max/MSP. Messing with Max4Live too!


Of course, gaming is very important but my imagination just ran riot watching some of the Youtube videos. Currently I play live guitar with a bass player and we have backing tracks of synth sequences, percussion audio files. Pandora looks like it could handle this job very well in a teeny, tiny package. If I could add a Pandora for Monome use - I think I'd wet myself. Im sure I could ask on the monome forums about the possibility of compiling the serial router to support the ARM...


The more you guys encourage me - the more excited Im getting!


Seriously, thank you all very much for taking the time!


Dave

 

[gruso]

Oooh, MSSIAH owner Here's a little test I did driving MSSIAH from Cubase 2.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/TFpfoY_No8U?feature=oembed

 

[ibisum]

I used my Pandora in a jam session last night, running Gruso's seq24 port with a very simple USB2 (non-powered) hub and a very cheap USB-MIDI cable I got from Amazon .. very smooth setup - everything just plain worked from the get-go.


Now we need some synths, and yes .. I too would love to be able to plug in my Akai controllers and treat the Pandora like a sound machine. Working on it ..

 

[gruso]

Awesome As soon as my Pandora comes back I'll get that released. Today I was poking around Sourceforge for MIDI stuff, found a few things that let you map input devices (joypads, tablets etc) as MIDI controllers. I think they'll be the next things I'll look at porting (as long as they're relatively straightforward compiles).


In not-quite-as-portable news, Mr Fedex knocked on my door this morning:

Spoiler

Teeehehehe.

 

[ibisum]

Sexy, Gruso! I still have my Yamaha A5000 .. in spite of the fact that laptop based samplers kick ass these days, I still love my A5k. Hope we hear what you get up to with that old beast of yours some time soon!

 

[sverm]

In not-quite-as-portable news, Mr Fedex knocked on my door this morning:

Spoiler

Teeehehehe.

Dude.


/tips hat.

 

[mckenic]

Awesome As soon as my Pandora comes back I'll get that released. Today I was poking around Sourceforge for MIDI stuff, found a few things that let you map input devices (joypads, tablets etc) as MIDI controllers. I think they'll be the next things I'll look at porting (as long as they're relatively straightforward compiles).


In not-quite-as-portable news, Mr Fedex knocked on my door this morning:

Spoiler

Teeehehehe.

WOW! Just WOW!


I have the exact same midi interface too! Looks like I found the right place here B)


Cubase 2 is running on Pandora? woah!


Had an A3000 years ago but these days besides Kontakt, I use an Electribe ESX-1 - MPC 1000 and Roland SP 808... love my little gadgets