speaking of csound. i am using it as a ladspa plugin. csoundsladspa pretty much eases the development of weird csound fx (it is also less of a hassle than the csoundvst-stuff for windows) and integrating them into your session. although i realized it eats surprisingly much cpu-time. roughly around 80% (renoise) for some pvoc-based patch of mid-sized complexity (on a 2ghz E3553 xeon box).
yes it is, i have it. seems pretty good so far too, the main obvious advantage being ALT+click to bring up instant tutorial windows on any object. unless you know how to do everything in max this is pretty darn useful. now if only i could rewire renoise with max/msp i think i would probably be in a total and perpetual state of ecstasy. 
I was learning pd until I upgraded my linux kernel and I couldn’t get it to compile again. I definitely want to learn it, though. Maybe I’ll try again next time I upgrade.
Kind of along the same line as Csound, I’ve been using ChucK, particularly with processing things thought the mic in. It’s pretty easy to pick up, especially if you already know C/C++
been toying around abit wit plogue bidule …awesome …astonishing …insert superlative here … 
easy to use yet verry deep and flexible …the option to link any parameter to any other parameter …stepsequencing …etc…For me it’s the perfect environment for experimental midi duties …record the midi sequence in bidule ( vst’s … )…import in renoise …et voila …
Perfect combo
pd is fun and intimidating… i’ve built a couple of “synth” patches…really just noise foolin around stuff. the more time i spend with pd, the more sense it makes… it feels like peeking in on a vast universe through a small pinhole, just seeing a minute portion of black hole… or somethin
i’d love to get my usb gamepad set up as a midi controller… jack pd to renoise and joypad to town. the [hid] and [joystick] patches recognize my controller and receive input and such, but i have no clue how to start building a patch to use the gamepad for midi control… any of you folks have experience doing this kind of thing? i gotta keep on playin around and doing tutorials and such…i’m sure midi control type stuff is simple…just need more experience…
have fun
http://crca.ucsd.edu/~jsarlo/pdvst/ -its not as easy as u think to use as a vst but a little effort and its done.check out this artist…hes a friend of mine and a wizard at pd,max/msp,supercollider,reaktor and ableton.
pd is great if
- you re after generative/randomised stuff
or/and - you want to make odd things which are playable or steerable from control surfaces.
i just downloaded blue,its a java program for use with Csound,havent tried it yet,but it looks cool
blue is brilliant, i’ve been using it for years (i wrote ‘tabloid’, a wavetable synth you can grab from blueshare). if you’re unfamiliar with csound, i’d recommend picking up the csound book by richard boulanger, who’s the guy who wrote csound in the first place.
Dr. Hernandez. the videos are really helpful ( ~ 25 vids and counting).
i should add this link http://www.youtube.com/user/cheetomoskeeto (look under uploads and scroll down to number 01).
i made this video last month, nothing musical, it’s just to show that it works 
basskick = background
high hat = object rotation
snare = object color
this is a nice threat, I’m reading a lot in this forum and love it.
I’m still a beginner -especially with pd- and read a lot about making music with linux. So what i discovered is algoscore.
It’s a “graphical environment for algorithmic composition” and runs with JACK in Linux and OS X.
Searching in this forum didn’t matched anything, so i thought i post it here. Can’t compare it to pd, because i’m not able to use both of them in an efficient way, but perhaps it’s interesting for somebody.
If your interest is more to find an alternative to sequencer and find new ways of making music you should look to Impromptu ( based on lisp language ).
Take a look at this
Pure data (or max/msp) is a great complement to Renoise or another sequencer. First , you will learn about sound, electronic music, etc. And besides that, you can, for example, control parameters in Renoise in very original ways.
I think this is correct.
To use PD or Csound or whatever for normal sequencing and sound generation seems to me masochistic, unless you are really interested in the internal logic behind sequencers.
Learning the Lua API would be more worthwhile as far as the music is concerned.
The easiest way to use PD would be to record its output and load it into renoise as a sample.