Howzit everyone,
Thought I'd let you know that EarMaster Pro5 (evaluation) seems to be working fine on Ubuntu 10.04.
I'm running:
--Plain old wine from the repository (sudo apt-get install wine)
--Jack(d) + FluidSynth + QSynth to run midi
Launch Jack and QSynth. Launch Earmaster and it appears to be working well (although it doesnt like being minimized on my system). Otherwise it seems unaffected by compiz etc...
Let me know if anyone needs more detailed instructions.
ric
EarMaster on Linux?
Moderator: Quentin
-
torturedutopian
- Rhythm ninja
- Posts: 36
- Joined: 08 Sep 2010, 09:55
- Location: France
Hi !
As my piano teacher told me about EarMaster, I tried to install it with Wine under Ubuntu Linux (using Ubuntu 10.10 beta ATM with Wine 1.2).
It does work "out of the box" with my MIDI keyboard, nothing to tweak. Some exercises do work properly, however, some don't.
Please have a look at this screenshot : http://mahen.free.fr/Earmaster_bug.jpg ; as you can see, the rhythm is not displayed, thus this exercise cannot be completed.
A native Linux support would be amazing -- especially now that Canonical is about to include an "Ubuntu store" which will give some good exposure to proprietary pieces of software.
Cheers !
As my piano teacher told me about EarMaster, I tried to install it with Wine under Ubuntu Linux (using Ubuntu 10.10 beta ATM with Wine 1.2).
It does work "out of the box" with my MIDI keyboard, nothing to tweak. Some exercises do work properly, however, some don't.
Please have a look at this screenshot : http://mahen.free.fr/Earmaster_bug.jpg ; as you can see, the rhythm is not displayed, thus this exercise cannot be completed.
A native Linux support would be amazing -- especially now that Canonical is about to include an "Ubuntu store" which will give some good exposure to proprietary pieces of software.
Cheers !
Earmaster + ArchLinux 64
Thanks for your feedback.
Deciding to make a native Linux version is a complicated, uncertain and rather risky move for a software company of relatively small size comparing to industry giants, and who doesn't wish to leave its fate to "maybes" and "I guess". There are parameters that are to be taken into account by developers:
Deciding to make a native Linux version is a complicated, uncertain and rather risky move for a software company of relatively small size comparing to industry giants, and who doesn't wish to leave its fate to "maybes" and "I guess". There are parameters that are to be taken into account by developers:
- Linux comes in many shapes and sizes which is maybe problematic for software development (I don't know, I am not a developer).
Is the paying user base big enough to cover at least development costs for such a niche product?
Will Linux users, who are used to using free, mostly open source, software be willing to pay for proprietary software?
Some influential Linux users are fundamentally against proprietary software and copyrights, which our company is living of.
- Because in Music, We're All Ears... -
-
torturedutopian
- Rhythm ninja
- Posts: 36
- Joined: 08 Sep 2010, 09:55
- Location: France
Hi Quentin, thanks for your reply !
You definitely make a point. It is not obvious there would be enough demand for such a specific piece of software. (I have no idea what kind of sales you make on other platforms)
It clearly depends on how difficult a port would be, but I guess it would have a cost for such a small company except if you are using some cross-platform toolkits like QT, standard libraries like OpenAL etc.
Just a few remarks though
- I think you could just focus on a single major distro (Ubuntu), distribute your piece of software through the Ubuntu store. The community would bring the support for the other distros. And maybe support a few more major distros if it turns out sales are satisfying.
- There are also Linux users that are willing to pay to support the OSS ecosystem. (donations etc) Also, recently, we could see that some independant gaming companies made some significant sales with their Linux port (but it was probably easier to port, if they were already using OpenGL, SDL etc.).
See for instance : http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/05/Linux-u ... dows-users ; final results here : http://www.wolfire.com/humble ; or http://2dboy.com/2009/10/26/pay-what-yo ... e-wrap-up/
Or course, those games were quite cheap and games may appeal to anyone.
- I think most average Linux users are not advocates of "every piece of software has to be OSS". For instance, buying indy games is like supporting an independant artist ; buying from a small company a specific piece of software is not an issue, in my opinion ; it's like supporting your local craftsman. It's different from a compulsory "office" or OS fee, for instance. In your case, it would be difficult to find an open source business model because the "service" is the tutor that is built into the program (if we distinguish the "product" and the "service".
Cheers & thanks again for the kind & open answer.
You definitely make a point. It is not obvious there would be enough demand for such a specific piece of software. (I have no idea what kind of sales you make on other platforms)
It clearly depends on how difficult a port would be, but I guess it would have a cost for such a small company except if you are using some cross-platform toolkits like QT, standard libraries like OpenAL etc.
Just a few remarks though
- I think you could just focus on a single major distro (Ubuntu), distribute your piece of software through the Ubuntu store. The community would bring the support for the other distros. And maybe support a few more major distros if it turns out sales are satisfying.
- There are also Linux users that are willing to pay to support the OSS ecosystem. (donations etc) Also, recently, we could see that some independant gaming companies made some significant sales with their Linux port (but it was probably easier to port, if they were already using OpenGL, SDL etc.).
See for instance : http://blog.wolfire.com/2010/05/Linux-u ... dows-users ; final results here : http://www.wolfire.com/humble ; or http://2dboy.com/2009/10/26/pay-what-yo ... e-wrap-up/
Or course, those games were quite cheap and games may appeal to anyone.
- I think most average Linux users are not advocates of "every piece of software has to be OSS". For instance, buying indy games is like supporting an independant artist ; buying from a small company a specific piece of software is not an issue, in my opinion ; it's like supporting your local craftsman. It's different from a compulsory "office" or OS fee, for instance. In your case, it would be difficult to find an open source business model because the "service" is the tutor that is built into the program (if we distinguish the "product" and the "service".
Cheers & thanks again for the kind & open answer.
Earmaster + ArchLinux 64
-
torturedutopian
- Rhythm ninja
- Posts: 36
- Joined: 08 Sep 2010, 09:55
- Location: France
Oh BTW, one more remark
- Some companies, like Codeweavers, do sell some open source pieces of software, while bringing some additional services ("bottles", tweaked & stable wine builds, support, better GUI).
Some users (like myself) do appreciate to contribute to an OSS piece of software while helping pay some wages.
I don't know to what extent this model can be used for other kinds of software.
Okay, I stop this offtopic
Out of curiosity, I tried EarMaster with (unstable) Wine 1.3.2 : it makes no difference, still the black area with about 4 or 5 exercises.
- Some companies, like Codeweavers, do sell some open source pieces of software, while bringing some additional services ("bottles", tweaked & stable wine builds, support, better GUI).
Some users (like myself) do appreciate to contribute to an OSS piece of software while helping pay some wages.
I don't know to what extent this model can be used for other kinds of software.
Okay, I stop this offtopic
Out of curiosity, I tried EarMaster with (unstable) Wine 1.3.2 : it makes no difference, still the black area with about 4 or 5 exercises.
Earmaster + ArchLinux 64
You are welcome
Indeed, the service/support business model can't really apply in our case.
Technically, the biggest challenge is that you can't just release a Linux version that works out of the box. Users have to download additional libraries and experiment to have the program running perfectly, etc. I read on a forum about the aforementioned program that experienced users were discussing how to make it work the best way. I can't imagine how much highly technical support e-mails we would receive. But who knows, maybe Linux will evolve into a more simple solution with the success of Android? I know Ubuntu is quite user friendly, but it is still, in my opinion, not "idiot-proof" yet.
Indeed, the service/support business model can't really apply in our case.
Technically, the biggest challenge is that you can't just release a Linux version that works out of the box. Users have to download additional libraries and experiment to have the program running perfectly, etc. I read on a forum about the aforementioned program that experienced users were discussing how to make it work the best way. I can't imagine how much highly technical support e-mails we would receive. But who knows, maybe Linux will evolve into a more simple solution with the success of Android? I know Ubuntu is quite user friendly, but it is still, in my opinion, not "idiot-proof" yet.
- Because in Music, We're All Ears... -
-
torturedutopian
- Rhythm ninja
- Posts: 36
- Joined: 08 Sep 2010, 09:55
- Location: France
Yep, I do agree with all your above points.
That is why I refered to the "Ubuntu store" : if your software was in the Ubuntu repositories, there would be no dependencies issues, as the software would be built against the libraries that already are in the central Ubuntu repository. (when you download a program from the repository, it automatically downloads all dependencies)
Well, we'll see, one day maybe. Meanwhile, I made a bug report on winehq.org ; I wish I could purchase the windows version and use it anyway.
Bye & thanks again !
That is why I refered to the "Ubuntu store" : if your software was in the Ubuntu repositories, there would be no dependencies issues, as the software would be built against the libraries that already are in the central Ubuntu repository. (when you download a program from the repository, it automatically downloads all dependencies)
Well, we'll see, one day maybe. Meanwhile, I made a bug report on winehq.org ; I wish I could purchase the windows version and use it anyway.
Bye & thanks again !
Earmaster + ArchLinux 64
-
torturedutopian
- Rhythm ninja
- Posts: 36
- Joined: 08 Sep 2010, 09:55
- Location: France
Nice to hear
BTW, I just stumbled upon a mail from one of the Guitar Pro developers.
He said that 2 out of the 7 developers were Linux users and that they were developing Guitar Pro on their Linux machine. They probably used multi-platform components from the beginning.
They sold the Linux version not because they thought they could make a lot of money with it, but because it was easy to do so and because they were Linux users anyway.
That clearly depends on the framework / libraries / toolkit etc. I'm sure it's more complicated in your case. BTW, they also chose to only officially support Ubuntu though it can work on other distros by tweaking.
--
I would be interested to know if other users managed to get EM5 to work properly with Wine ! Do you know what components play a role in the rendering of rhythmic reading ?
Bye !
BTW, I just stumbled upon a mail from one of the Guitar Pro developers.
He said that 2 out of the 7 developers were Linux users and that they were developing Guitar Pro on their Linux machine. They probably used multi-platform components from the beginning.
They sold the Linux version not because they thought they could make a lot of money with it, but because it was easy to do so and because they were Linux users anyway.
That clearly depends on the framework / libraries / toolkit etc. I'm sure it's more complicated in your case. BTW, they also chose to only officially support Ubuntu though it can work on other distros by tweaking.
--
I would be interested to know if other users managed to get EM5 to work properly with Wine ! Do you know what components play a role in the rendering of rhythmic reading ?
Bye !
Earmaster + ArchLinux 64
-
torturedutopian
- Rhythm ninja
- Posts: 36
- Joined: 08 Sep 2010, 09:55
- Location: France
-
torturedutopian
- Rhythm ninja
- Posts: 36
- Joined: 08 Sep 2010, 09:55
- Location: France
Yes, both do work perfectly (no delay) with my USB->MIDI adapter. (Xmidi)
I use no software synthesizer because this would require to install an additional piece of software (timidity or qsynth, even if it's just a matter of ticking a box in Synaptic) and because I guess it may add a little delay.
Also sound is better
I use no software synthesizer because this would require to install an additional piece of software (timidity or qsynth, even if it's just a matter of ticking a box in Synaptic) and because I guess it may add a little delay.
Also sound is better
Earmaster + ArchLinux 64
-
torturedutopian
- Rhythm ninja
- Posts: 36
- Joined: 08 Sep 2010, 09:55
- Location: France
Quentin,
I just figured out there was only one thing that didn't work when using EarMaster under Linux with the WINE emulation layer : microphone input.
What is disturbing is that : I can go through the whole microphone setup process, but after applying it, the EarMaster GUI locks. Also, if I go 1 step backwards when I am at the last step of the microphone configuration wizard, it hangs too. Any idea ?
Ain't that crucial, but it would be nice if it worked
I just figured out there was only one thing that didn't work when using EarMaster under Linux with the WINE emulation layer : microphone input.
What is disturbing is that : I can go through the whole microphone setup process, but after applying it, the EarMaster GUI locks. Also, if I go 1 step backwards when I am at the last step of the microphone configuration wizard, it hangs too. Any idea ?
Ain't that crucial, but it would be nice if it worked
Earmaster + ArchLinux 64
Ear Master Pro 6 + wine on xubuntu
Recently I installed Ear Master Pro 6 with wine on an xubuntu powered Asus EEEPC.
I have other midi related software installed under wine and they all work fine, but for some reason the notes played with Ear Master Pro 6 sound as if you hear them with a speaker with torn cone/diaphragm.
If someone knows what could be the issue, please share your thoughts.
I have other midi related software installed under wine and they all work fine, but for some reason the notes played with Ear Master Pro 6 sound as if you hear them with a speaker with torn cone/diaphragm.
If someone knows what could be the issue, please share your thoughts.