Buzztard

Infobox Software


developer = Stefan Kost and others
latest release version = 0.3.1
latest release date = 12 April 2008
operating system = Linux
genre = Tracker
license = GNU Lesser General Public License
website = http://www.buzztard.org/

Buzztard is a free software project to create a clone of the Buzz music composer. The driving motivation is to preserve the playability of the compositions made with Buzz. Songs are made by adding virtual sound generators and effects, connecting them, recording short musical phrases and arranging them in the sequencer. For distribution songs can be mixed down to a sample (in OGG, MP3, WAV and many other formats).

History

In the middle of 2002 the main-developers lost a song during a buzz session as the result of a software-error. As the sources of Buzz where known to be lost, they decided to start a new project. The project name Buzztard was chosen to link to its origin and also underline that the software is based on a mix of concepts. Development started between 2003-2004. A first version was released in October 2006. A demo was presented at LAC 2007 [http://www.kgw.tu-berlin.de/~lac2007/presentations/lac07_slides_kost_wabner.pdf Buzztard Music Production Environment] - Presentation at Linux Audio Conference 2007] . Several releases have followed since.

Features

The software is based on the GStreamer media frame-work. As its the only music composer built on GStreamer it serves as a test-bed for related features. [http://gnomejournal.org/article/58/fun-with-gstreamer-audio-effects Gnome Journal Article] - Fun with GStreamer Audio Effects] . The graphical editor uses Gtk for its GUI. It integrated with the GNOME desktop, but does not require it. Buzz users like the modernised look, but familiar layout [http://www.buzzchurch.com/viewtopic.php?t=2205 Buzzchurch user forum] - Buzz releated user discussion forum]

The component-architecture supports song import modules. Besides the own native format, Buzz songs can be loaded already. A wrapper-component allows to use the existing buzz-machine binaries under x86 linux and opensource buzz-machines on all platforms. A GStreamer bridge plugin makes them available to all GStreamer applications. A controller framework allows to use midi-devices and any input devices (such as joysticks) to be used to control sounds in realtime.

ee also

*Free audio software
*Linux audio software

References

External links

* [http://www.buzztard.org Project wiki page]
* [http://www.sf.net/projects/buzztard Sourceforge project resources]
* [http://www.ohloh.net/projects/buzztard Activity and news]