Diodow 32/64-bit Linux Standalone

[HrastProgrammer]

During the last couple of weeks I’ve been working very hard to bring my virtual software synthesizers to Linux

Starting with build 16.08.2016/1, both Tranzistow and Diodow are available on Linux in the form of 32-bit and 64-bit standalone audio applications.

I will now start with a free Diodow synthesizer and release Tranzistow in a few days ...

You can download 32/64-bit Diodow Linux standalone versions here:

http://hrastprogrammer.com/hrastwerk/download/DiodowLinux.zip

More info about Diodow here:

http://www.hrastprogrammer.com/hrastwerk/diodow.htm

In order to use Diodow you need 32-bit or 64-bit Linux with at least GTK2 version 2.8 installed (GTK3+ is not supported yet). I recommend 64-bit Ubuntu Studio distribution as the best one currently available, IMHO. There is no Diodow installation per se - just unpack the ZIP archive into some folder and that's it. Diodow use ALSA or Jack to communicate with audio and MIDI hardware, so you must have correct ALSA driver and firmware installed for the sound card you intend to use. You need libasound2 as well, although I suspect it is already installed together with ALSA. By default, Diodow will connect to "hw:0,0" audio device and "hw:0,0" MIDI device, but this can be changed through configuration/INI files. If you intend to use Jack then you must have Jack installed and configured properly, of course.

Diodow will search for Diodow.ini configuration file in /home/<UserName>/.config/ Diodow folder (replace <UserName> with your Linux user name). If it doesn't find one there, it will search in a folder where Diodow application has been copied and run from. You can open Diodow.ini using a regular text editor and configure the following sections/options:

[Audio]
Driver=ALSA | Jack ; Audio driver to use (default: ALSA)
Device=... ; ALSA audio device to use with Diodow (ALSA only, default: hw:0,0)
SampleRate=... ; Sample rate to use (ALSA only, default: 44100)
BufferTime=... ; Size of cyclic audio buffer in milliseconds (ALSA only, default: 20)
FrameTime=... ; Size of one audio frame in milliseconds (ALSA only, default: 10)
Resample=0 | 1 ; Turn automatic ALSA resampling on/off (ALSA only, default: 0)
Format=16 | 24 | 32 ; Set the format / number of bits for audio data (ALSA only, default: 16)
Oversample=0 | 1 ; Turn internal Diodow 2x oversampling on/off (default: 0)

[MIDI]
Device=... ; ALSA MIDI device to use with Diodow (ALSA only, default: hw:0,0)
Tempo=... ; Fixed tempo in BPM or 0 for automatic synchronization to incoming MIDI clock (default: 125)
TempoSmooth= ... ; Smooths out tempo changes when synchronizing to incoming MIDI clock (default: 0)

[Jack]
ClientName=... ; The name of Jack client (Jack only, default: Diodow)
ServerName=... ; The name of Jack server (Jack only, default: None)

Other configuration options are the same as described in previous sections.

To avoid unnecessary ALSA resampling, it is much better to match the requested sample rate to be the same as driver-supported one. Additional internal 2x oversampling can be turned on to achieve 88.2/96kHz quality on systems where higher sample rates are not available. Of course, CPU usage will be doubled in this case.

Configuration example:

[Audio]
Device=hw:1,0
SampleRate=48000
BufferTime=10
FrameTime=5
Oversample=1

[MIDI]
Device=hw:2,0,0
Tempo=0
TempoSmooth=0.5

[Editor]
Scale=125

Note #1: Upper/lower cases are important in all file names and paths because I am not really a fan of lowercase-only names. If an operating system has been designed with case sensitivity in mind then both upper and lower case should be used in my opinion.

Note #2: Configuration file should be writeable because Diodow will use it to store various data like window position, patch names/paths and MIDI channels for all parts, etc.

Linux version will sound, look and work more-or-less exactly like the Windows one, with the following exception:

(*) No parameter automation.

Everything else is the same and almost everything written in this document applies to Linux version as well. All patches are interchangeable between versions too. BTW, despite the equal look and functionality on Linux and Windows, both Tranzistow and Diodow are native Linux GTK2 application which doesn't use Wine or WineLib at all.

I didn’t have much chance to test it on various Linux installations yet, so all feedback would be greatly welcomed. On my 64-bit Ubuntu Studio 16.04.1 test system with 9 years old 3.2GHz quad-core Intel CPU and 4GB RAM everything worked flawlessly with E-MU 1212M PCI audio/MIDI card and E-MU XMidi 1x1 USB MIDI interface.