Buzz Tracker On Linux

[UPDATE: To get sound working under Ubuntu Gutsy, I ran wineconfig from the command line (after installing the version of wine mentioned below), and under the audio tab chose Alsa.]
[UPDATE: Fixed urls.]

I finally got Buzz Tracker working well on Linux. I have a pretty powerful machine, so YMMV (I know that when I tried it on my old 400Mhz pentium, it was pathetically laggish.)

I am running Ubuntu 5.10 (Breezy Badger); Wine version 20050725 (which is in the Ubuntu stable); KDE 3.4.2; alsa 1.0.9b-4. [UPDATE - the most recent version of Wine (0.9.30) somehow breaks buzz.
Version 0.9.19
(mirror) is verified to work.]

I followed the instructions here. Below is an abbreviated step by step, with locally mirrored resources:

  • Download buzz (alternate mirror). Note that this is one of the only binaries which actually work. Updated versions may have problems.
  • Run: wine buzz_base_install.exe
  • cd ~/.wine/drive_c/Program Files/Buzz
  • wine buzz.exe

Once you have run this the first time, KDE will add “buzz” to the wine menu.

Do not futz with the sound settings (if they work.) If they don’t, and you manage to get them working, please leave a comment describing how.

I made a tar.bz2 containing 100s of machines – samplers, synths, reverbs, choruses, … Download it here.

Be sure to save early and safe often. Sometimes adding a machine to your song will crash Buzz. (GRR) Please leave a comment in this thread if you find a machine which does so.

Here & here are sample loops which I made to demonstrate how everything fits together. Mix out some of the channels to get a feel for how you could use this live.

Resources:
Manual
More Machines
Buzz Wiki
Buggy Machines

UPDATE – I had problems getting Buzz working on Ubuntu Feisty. I reverted to the wine linked to above; blew away ~/.wine completely (NB only do this if you have no other windows apps), reinstalled Buzz, but still I was getting a “wave out open failed” dialog popping up behind the splash screen and freezing startup. I managed to alt-tab to the dialog and press enter (it didn’t become visible) which at least got me into Buzz. Once in, I cycled through the sound output options, applying each (none worked), before reverting to Windows Waveform Audio. I closed Buzz, and restarted it, and this time sound worked. Roll on Buzztard.
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Comments (20)

  1. syncat wrote::

    are you able to use midi-keyboard with buzz on linux?

    Sunday, December 4, 2005 at 5:12 pm #
  2. Reuben wrote::

    Hello, actually I haven’t tried. Try posting to the linux-audio mailing list — they may be able to help you debug it.

    Sunday, December 4, 2005 at 5:40 pm #
  3. dave phillips wrote::

    Thank you for this informative resource. :) Alas, your flavor8 links are broken. Please advise if the Gears tarball is available anywhere else.

    Thursday, November 23, 2006 at 7:21 am #
  4. Reuben wrote::

    Thanks for letting me know. I just fixed the links.

    Thursday, November 23, 2006 at 10:08 am #
  5. harald gutmann wrote::

    people, no need to emulate buzz.
    because there are some projects out there, which aim to be a 1:1 copy of buzz.

    buzztard.org – buzztard
    trac.zeitherrschaft.org/aldrin – aldrin
    http://www.leonard-ritter.com/current_mute_progress – mute

    have fun!

    Friday, April 20, 2007 at 9:20 am #
  6. Reuben wrote::

    Thanks, I’m tracking these. None of them quite cut the mustard yet, but there’s definite potential.

    Friday, April 20, 2007 at 9:31 am #
  7. a33e wrote::

    I got it running with wine, though it was so sticky that i couldnt actually use it -no direct-x, no ASIO, and everything had too much delay, like using its interface etc.

    P4 2.4Ghz
    3GT DDR400
    &
    kubuntu-7.04-desktop-i386.iso + latest wine

    –

    I think Aldrin is the thing in Linux. At least in future..

    http://www.linuxjournal.com/node/1000156

    Tuesday, October 9, 2007 at 11:33 am #
  8. Reuben wrote::

    Yeah, Aldrin is nice (an improvement, even, in UI terms)! Now we just need more machines for it.

    Sunday, November 11, 2007 at 10:46 am #
  9. naisioxerloro wrote::

    Hi.
    Good design, who make it?

    Wednesday, November 28, 2007 at 3:13 pm #
  10. skeptisk wrote::

    wine 0.9.50 on ubuntu 7.10, installed without a problem and worked right out of the box. haven’t tried with the machine pack yet, but anyway. great stuff. now maybe I can get all my buzzing friends to switch over from windows. :D

    Thursday, December 6, 2007 at 8:38 am #
  11. Chris wrote::

    Cool, I got it running, and then I was able to update to the latest wine and it continued to work.

    However, this time (I’ve had Buzz under Wine about a year ago) it is choppy and the audio and graphics skip a lot (before and after upgrading wine.) It use to only do that when I was scrolling in the pattern editor or song view. I have the same choppiness when I try and play Flash or mp3 or movies files in Firefox, so I think it may be an audio problem with Gutsy.

    When I upgraded from Feisty, I also lost about 70% of my volume output. I need to crank my speakers just to hear anything. Is anyone else having major problems with audio + Gutsy?

    Sunday, January 20, 2008 at 11:12 pm #
  12. توبيكات wrote::

    wine 0.9.50 on ubuntu 7.10, installed without a problem and worked right out of the box. haven’t tried with the machine pack yet, but anyway. great stuff. now maybe I can get all my buzzing friends to switch over from windows. :D

    Sunday, August 17, 2008 at 11:28 pm #
  13. b4rd3 wrote::

    Runs absolutely fine under Gentoo and Wine-1.1.5!

    Sunday, October 5, 2008 at 1:17 pm #
  14. منتديات wrote::

    Hi.
    Good design, who make it?

    Thursday, January 1, 2009 at 8:23 am #
  15. زفات wrote::

    Runs absolutely fine under Gentoo and Wine-1.1.5!

    Monday, October 26, 2009 at 4:59 pm #
  16. منتدى wrote::

    Runs absolutely fine under Gentoo and Wine-1.1.5!

    Saturday, January 2, 2010 at 4:31 pm #
  17. seviyeli sohbet wrote::

    I got it running with wine, though it was so sticky that i couldnt actually use it -no direct-x, no ASIO, and everything had too much delay, like using its interface etc.

    P4 2.4Ghz
    3GT DDR400
    &
    kubuntu-7.04-desktop-i386.iso + latest wine

    Tuesday, February 9, 2010 at 2:40 pm #
  18. köpek wrote::

    thank you When I upgraded from Feisty, I also lost about 70% of my volume output. I need to crank my speakers just to hear anything. Is anyone else having major problems with audio + Gutsy?

    Tuesday, March 23, 2010 at 1:03 pm #
  19. tim wrote::

    Welcome to http://www.nfljerseyshare.com jerseys store.

    Saturday, June 26, 2010 at 6:45 pm #
  20. mahmudin ashar wrote::

    i have same problem before when i use ubuntu gutsy, now ubuntu just get better with 10.04 version

    Monday, July 12, 2010 at 7:17 am #

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