[CentOS] Multimedia Workstation using Centos 6.3

[Lamar Owen]

On Sunday, October 14, 2012 04:26:14 AM Rajagopal Swaminathan wrote:
> Greetings,
> 
> [sheepish query]
> 
> Are there repositories which will help a centos die-hard nerd to run
> 64 studio like workstation (of course bomus will be to pointers to HPC
> with desktops for rendering and the such)?
> 
> [/sheepish query]

I personally would find a CentOS-equivalent to AV/Linux ( 
www.bandshed.net/AVLinux.html ) to be nice.  It doesn't really take that long 
to get used to LXDE (which AV/Linux uses as the only desktop) and it's already 
tuned for multimedia.  It is, however, like the defunct 64studio, Debian-
based.  And the version 6 release is the last one, according to its developer.  
But AV/Linux is fast, light, and fully supports the sort of setup you need for 
a non-annoying multimedia-creating experience.  I'm using in in a few places, 
and it has been solid.  But it is different.

The biggest problem I've had with EL6 for multimedia is summed up in two 
words: PulseAudio (counting that as two words).  Good PA/JACK integration, and 
preferrably an RT kernel, are pretty much required for any pro audio tools 
(such as the commercial Ardour++ known as Harrison Mixbus).

Now, I am running Harrison Mixbus on a C6.3 laptop, but it wasn't the easiest 
thing in the world to get running.  Not the hardest, mind you, but not the 
easiest, either.  And I'm not using it for really high track counts with lots 
of overdubs; to do that, I go to the Mac and use it with Mixbus.  Low-latency 
audio and support of pro audio interfaces is required, and some of that 
support is sorely lacking in EL6.  I use the laptop when I have a project in 
the state for final mixdown and I want to work on the mixdown on the road.... 
but even then I miss some of the things I have on the Mac, like iZotope's 
Ozone and Alloy.  Or Celemony Melodyne.   But I really need the studio monitor 
setup to hear well enough to do the work when I get to needing the tools in 
those programs, so the lack of them on the laptop isn't that big of a deal.

Other things necessary for multimedia would be Kdenlive and/or Cinelerra.  
Both are 'unique' in their build requirements.

Now, John Stanley knows a thing or two about this, being that he's active with 
the Rivendell radio station automation software, and his advice (the list of 
packages for one) is good for these things.

The LinuxTech repo has some of the things you need; what would be, IMO, ideal 
would be something akin to the Fedora 'Jam' spin, but backported to EL6.

I've run PlanetCCRMA stuff before, and Fernando does a great job, but they're 
not EL6 as yet.  It may be that the Fedora *12* or *13* CCRMA packages (and 
there are things only CCRMA packages) will install cleanly; or perhaps the 
source RPM might rebuild cleanly enough to work on EL6.

The biggest issue with an EL6 for multimedia is simply keeping up with the 
dependencies, since many of the really good multimedia tools have really 
specific requirements (look at Ardour3 for something of that nature) that may 
be too new to build easily on EL6.