This book represents an increasing number of books that treat Linux as a serious contender in the battle among popular operating systems. Its open source policy, free application and utility software, and overall real computing ethos are very popular with a certain segment of computer users. The book is essentially an up-to-date (at least at the time of writing, presumably in 1999) summary of all the current work in music and sound on the Linux platform. It is written in a friendly, easy-to-read style, with plenty of screenshots to show the reader around. There are useful early chapters on the basics of sound and how to set up a simple computer system that will run the programs described later. Each chapter contains a wealth of information about a particular aspect of sound processing. Chapters 6 through 8, on the Musical Instrument Digital Interface (MIDI), MP3, and hard-disk recording, are especially good, since this is what most people will be looking for. The book comes with a CD-ROM that contains about 150 programs covering all the bases of sound and music, together with a set of general documents on sound and a good list of Web sites. The latter is especially useful, since much of the software will be available in new versions already, and readers will need to find the appropriate Web site for the updates.

Computer-based music and sound production has been transformed in the last ten years by the Moore’s law effect of cheaper, faster, and bigger computers. Whereas ten years ago, it was largely an academic exercise with command-based systems such as CSound, now professional studios run large computer-based facilities where all sound is handled in the digital domain. Traditionally, these studios ran Macintoshes, since one of the first companies to provide a turnkey solution (DigiDesign, with their ProTools system) chose that platform. Now, with the downturn in Apple’s fortunes, PC-based systems using ProTools, Cubase, Logic, and even Cakewalk (running on Windows) are as common as mud. Sound and music on Linux, as with many application areas, has been playing catch-up at a rapid rate. Catch-up often means second-rate, however, and the very best of the programs described in this book do not yet meet the standards of commercially produced software where, after sales, service is just as important as bug-free software. Linux still has an amateur, homebrew feel to it that prevents professionals from using it in their day-to-day work. However, this field has a burgeoning group of amateur and semiprofessional users crying out for cheap, effective software. There is a shareware market, almost exclusively for PCs, but Linux software is generally better than that and could well be a force in the near future if there is a sufficiently large core group of programmers willing to make it happen.

Music professionals will be interested in a snapshot of Linux development in their area; other musically-inclined computer users will get a lot of help from this book if they choose to dive into Linux. However, if you just want to record a voice-over for a Web page, or create MP3 CDs, or even make MIDI demos of your new song, then the better-supported platforms will do the job much better and easier, with cheap, easy-to-use software. The other major problem with a book like this is that it is always out-of-date as soon as you buy it. The author has done a lot to contend with this issue, but this book, and many others like it, would be better published in an electronic form that could be updated more easily.