Best distro for musicians

[raspnoobie]

I am trying to set up the Pi (a 3b) with a small LCD and a midi keyboard; as portable synth.

Not sure exactly where to start, since I am looking for a minimalist distro, which is aimed at decreasing latency.

To be clear, I don't want to hook up a mouse and keyboard and use the Pi as DAW; I want to use it more like a realtime instrument, and eventually to record something.

What would you suggest as starting point? I have a small 4'' touchscreen to use with the pi; so anything that would look decently on that small screen would be a great start.

[RaTTuS]

https://sonic-pi.net/

[raspnoobie]

Thanks; that looks interesting but I am not sure how usable it is on a system without keyboard and mouse; considering that it seems aimed at teaching music and typing code.

Maybe I can make constructs that I can use later on on the stand-alone midi keyboard+PI setup, but I am not sure, until I actually read more about what that distro does.

[raspnoobie]

Considering that only one reply was made on this thread; I assume that the Pi is not really used for any sort of usage like the one I had in mind.

Not sure if it is because it is not convenient to use a Pi as synth for a midi keyboard, or because it cost less and it is easier to get a midi keyboard with onboard synth.

That would probably explain why I can't find much on the topic

[fruitoftheloom]

Considering that only one reply was made on this thread; I assume that the Pi is not really used for any sort of usage like the one I had in mind.

Not sure if it is because it is not convenient to use a Pi as synth for a midi keyboard, or because it cost less and it is easier to get a midi keyboard with onboard synth.

That would probably explain why I can't find much on the topic

There are many posts regards using Midi in these forums, but as this forum is run entirely voluntarily the pool of people who may respond can be limited:

https://www.google.com/search?q=raspber ... e&ie=UTF-8

[tpylkko]

It's hard to answer this question because it is so vague and broad. On some level you can use any operating system for midi processing. Of course, as you say, low latency matters in a project like this and there are low latency and real time kernel s for this purpose.

viewtopic.php?t=206747

As it is possible to use any Linux running computer remotely, it doesn't perhaps matter if the program is designed to be used with a keyboard and mouse.

If all you want to do is make the pi into a standalone synth, then you may want to build your own system. Perhaps using a the real time kernel version of raspbian with a synth program. You can even script a gpio button for recording and playback


https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/pi-synthesisers/