FOSSPicks
FOSSPicks
This month Graham reviews Bela, Quickemu, GPU-Viewer, Maestral, Termux and AnLinux, Space Cadet, and more!
Realtime audio platform
Bela
Bela is a programmable audio platform with incredible performance, an integrated development environment, a large active community, and virtually no limits. But it's also a slightly unusual project because you need some extra hardware to make it properly work. That hardware is a BeagleBone Black with an optional shield that adds multiple digital, analog, and audio inputs and outputs. This setup, when combined with the Linux-based software stack, promises a 0.5ms (half) delay between when a sound is triggered by the software to when the audio exits the hardware. For comparison, a Mac can manage a few milliseconds with the very best expensive hardware, desktop Linux with a realtime kernel adds a few more milliseconds to this, an Arduino is in the 10ms range, and a Raspberry Pi the 20ms range. All these delay times are much quicker than what you'd get from a default PulseAudio configuration without specialist hardware, which may typically operate with a delay of 100ms.
An ultra-low audio delay makes a big difference because it enables Bela to do all kinds of things transparently, before delays and their associated latency would start to break the immersion. A good example might be if you were to use Bela to create a software-generated drum kit with a DIY hardware trigger. The ultra-low response time would allow you to hit the trigger and hear the sound almost instantaneously, just as you would with real drums. It's this lack of delay that most differentiates digital instruments from their analog counterparts, and the low delay values seen on the Bela platform with the BeagleBone Black and the audio shield really are game changing.
None of this would be worth mentioning if there weren't an accessible and easy-to-use software stack that's both ready to take advantage of this power and easy to use when you want to build your own hardware or software experiments. High performance comes from Xenomai real-time Linux extensions, and the flexibility comes from an integrated web-hosted development environment that becomes accessible as soon as you connect the device to your Linux computer. You can use this Integrated Development Environment (IDE) to code in SuperCollider, Csound, or C++, and even to upload Pure Data patches with graphical previews of C++. All of this software can of course be run on your Linux desktop, where patches can be developed and tested before being transferred to the onboard IDE. But developing with the IDE is also perfectly feasible, and you'll get an immediate response from the hardware when you do press play. It may sound complicated, but there's enough here for even beginners to get started.
A fresh install includes many working examples, plus a community library from which you can simply copy and paste. Much like the Norns platform we've looked at previously, you can get a lot out of the Bela platform without ever writing a line of your own code. Copying and pasting patches, modifying variables to better suit your use cases, and building your own solutions are all possible without any programming know-how. Examples include complex digital signal processing, such as reverb, delay, and convolution effects, plus lots of synthesizer and sequencer patches, alongside many more esoteric examples that often sit alongside a hardware input project. It's creative and educational, practical and ephemeral, and one of the best (and cheapest) ways to get into high-performance experimental audio design.
Project Website
Virtual machine launcher
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.
News
-
Canonical Bumps LTS Support to 12 years
If you're worried that your Ubuntu LTS release won't be supported long enough to last, Canonical has a surprise for you in the form of 12 years of security coverage.
-
Fedora 40 Beta Released Soon
With the official release of Fedora 40 coming in April, it's almost time to download the beta and see what's new.
-
New Pentesting Distribution to Compete with Kali Linux
SnoopGod is now available for your testing needs
-
Juno Computers Launches Another Linux Laptop
If you're looking for a powerhouse laptop that runs Ubuntu, the Juno Computers Neptune 17 v6 should be on your radar.
-
ZorinOS 17.1 Released, Includes Improved Windows App Support
If you need or desire to run Windows applications on Linux, there's one distribution intent on making that easier for you and its new release further improves that feature.
-
Linux Market Share Surpasses 4% for the First Time
Look out Windows and macOS, Linux is on the rise and has even topped ChromeOS to become the fourth most widely used OS around the globe.
-
KDE’s Plasma 6 Officially Available
KDE’s Plasma 6.0 "Megarelease" has happened, and it's brimming with new features, polish, and performance.
-
Latest Version of Tails Unleashed
Tails 6.0 is based on Debian 12 and includes GNOME 43.
-
KDE Announces New Slimbook V with Plenty of Power and KDE’s Plasma 6
If you're a fan of KDE Plasma, you'll be thrilled to hear they've announced a new Slimbook with an AMD CPU and the latest version of KDE Plasma desktop.
-
Monthly Sponsorship Includes Early Access to elementary OS 8
If you want to get a glimpse of what's in the pipeline for elementary OS 8, just set up a monthly sponsorship to help fund its continued existence.