Open Music has been developed for the Mac. Which means that the latest version, 6.x, is only available for Macs. Since I am a Windows guy (no, I am not a PC), this puts me immediately in a disadvantaged position. But I am not going to buy a Mac just for trying out some cool software, so I have to find a way to make Open Music work on my Windows laptop.
There are a few versions of the earlier OM releases available as downloads for Windows, for example a 4.7.2 and a 5.2.1. However, these appear to be source code files, for somewhat obscure compilers, and I figured I should just to get the very latest version 6.0.6 to work on my system.
There is a scary statement on the portal for the OpenMusic software:
The current OM sources allow to compile and run OM on MacOS X PPC/Intel with LispWorks 5.1 compiler.
Nevertheless, there is Windows support available, when following the instructions for setting up OM 6.
First one needs to install MidiShare. I get the zipped version with the executables and dump all ini, exe, dll files in /Windows/System32.
Next is the LibAudioStream: I also dump these two dlls from there into /Windows/System32.
Finally trying the same procedure withSDIF: however, this is only available as source... Fortunately there is a .dsw file for Visual Studio 6, so the compilation should be no problem... Well, several of the included .dsp files appear to be corrupt - at least this is what my Visual Studio 8 converter tells me. And when trying to compile the other intact projects within this solution, then I get the following error: "Command line error D8038 : invalid argument '_SdifTypesFileName %SDIFTYPES%'"... what the hell is that?
I see that this installation of Open Music on Windows would be quite a hazzle... why is that? Windows has 88 - 93 % market share, so why is this large community being excluded by an elitist approach which only takes Mac and Linux seriously?
I will have to dig deeper in this... this quest will be continued.
Hi, IRCAM is a MAC development mecca, with some limited Linux development, but by and large it is always going to be MAC, and unfortunately this will not change. Why? Perhaps longstanding residual belief that MAC is still the ideal platform for serious music/DSP, but most likely it is because of history: they have been Mac-centric in their development for so long, why change. I am a content Windows-based composer, but decided to build one of my PCs into a Hackintosh. I recently purchased IRCAM forum software, and well... these are not really commercial releases, the installation process is simply Bysantine, OM6 is interdependent on a great number of smaller programs, and can interact with programs such as Max/MSP (which I have also), or IRCAM Modalys. At present, only can only get Audiosculpt (a self-contained program) to work, the interdependencies of all of these free-standing software titles is not made clear, and for a noob like me, I am sensing there is a lot of assumed knowledge on the part of the user in their installation literature.
ReplyDeleteOM on PC is lame, I got it to work for a while, but you needed to get a LISP compiler, and the free version has a serious stack limit, and the full version is SUPER expensive! Also, its kind of like the Linux dev community in that previous versions are not supported, so a fully stable version of CLOS is outdated, and the most up to date version is constantly in flux
Oh well, if you are curious about a HackinMac, drop me a line, its a fun hobby, and 100% stable.
Cheers!
J
Hi Jason,
ReplyDeletethanks for your enlightning comments!
is a pity that the OM is so MAC-centric - I think there would be great potential for this software inthe Windows environment.
I am NOT a professional programmer, but I do occasional write software, and despite the limitations about which many programmers complain, I can appreciate the thorough work that has gone into some of the Windows frameworks, e.g. DirectX, or .NET. These are in my opinion quite above anything that Linux would be able to offer, and the commercial success of Windows is just a kind of proof for this. Much of the potential of those frameworks is not yet fully utilised by much of the software out there, and I think that for a software like OM this would be a great opportunity to get a more widespread dissemination of those algorithms. Software like Sonar, Kontact, and from several other vendors show that Windows does have great potential for music software, if doen right. It really is a pity that the IRCAM talent is mostly focused on MAC, as you wrote - I think the wide dissemination of Windows (95% or so?) would be a great argument for creating something with a wide impact, for use by many people with those standard Windows PCs.
I am just in the process of setting up a new Windows 7 64 bit PC, and I think the performance parameters of this system will blow away any MAC or Linux based system.
But again, I am not a professional programmer, just on a few occasions I dive into the Microsoft Visual Studio Debugger (in my opinion also unsurpassed in terms of its source code debugging methodology.
In any case, I appreciate your reply - and I apologise for the delay in my reply. I have just noticed your comment, as I had not much taken care of this blog. Hopefully I will have more opportunity to write in the blog in 2010!
Many greetings, Reinhold
PS:
ReplyDeleteIf I would have A LOT of time, I would dare to offer re-writing OM completely in Windows. I think it may be possible, with new additional functionalities not yet envisioned in the original conception of OM.
that would be a fantastic idea: I use a very old version of OM on windows and it truly sucks: no sound, ETF export to finale crashes, I had to ask a programmer-friend to clean the workspace folders etc. But what I find most painful is that OM's website claims it'd be possible to compile it, while it isn't. It is not open-source software, they claim it is, but I haven't encountered any well-functioning non-osx version of it that wasn't bought from the forum-website. So, I support this rewrite very strongly! Would you need money to do that? Or as a personal project?
ReplyDeleteGreetings from Belgium, Joost, composer