Linux-audio-user April 2014

linux-audio-user@lists.linuxaudio.org

101 participants
94 discussions

10 artists who used tech to make better music

by david

http://www.techrepublic.com/pictures/10-tech-savvy-musicians/ Note: May not work in Firefox. It didn't work in FF for Windows at work even after I allowed all scripts to run. Other folk complained in the comments about it not working in Firefox. Don't know if it works in Chrome or Konqueror. It works in Qupzilla but gives an SSL certificate error every time you click on it. -- David W. Jones gnome(a)hawaii.rr.com authenticity, honesty, community http://dancingtreefrog.com

10 years, 11 months

Re: [LAU] chord in trackers

by Kjetil Matheussen

On Wed, Apr 16, 2014 at 9:27 AM, Kjetil Matheussen <k.s.matheussen(a)gmail.com > wrote: > rosea grammostola: > >> > > >> > Hi, >> >> Playing with Radium a bit, so far so good. But how do you Tracker-guys add >> chords to your music? >> >> > Hi, I don't know whether you are only asking about trackers > in general, or if you are asking about Radium as well (which > may, or may not, be a tracker). > > But at least in Radium, you add polyphonic notes by holding > left shift while adding notes. > > But to be honest, I've never used this feature myself. I always > use several monophonic tracks instead. It's a nice feature > when importing midi files though. > > >

10 years, 11 months

Re: [LAU] Linux-audio-user Digest, Vol 86, Issue 12

by Kjetil Matheussen

rosea grammostola: > > Hi, > > Playing with Radium a bit, so far so good. But how do you Tracker-guys add > chords to your music? > > Hi, I don't know whether you are only asking about trackers in general, or if you are asking about Radium as well (which may, or may not, be a tracker). But at least in Radium, you add polyphonic notes by holding left shift while adding notes. But to be honest, I've never used this feature myself. I always use several monophonic tracks instead. It's a nice feature when importing midi files though.

10 years, 11 months

Super performance incl. low latency with zita-a2j

by Jonathan E. Brickman

I read about zita-ajbridge: http://kokkinizita.linuxaudio.org/linuxaudio/zita-ajbridge-doc/quickguide.h… Set Jack to use its dummy driver, and then (in background) run zita-a2j for output and/or zita-j2a for input, and then ignore the 'system' input and output ports and use the Zita ports. I went from 5.33ms to 1.33ms latency, and from occasional xruns to zero, and even with that my jackd usage percent is cut in half! Shocking. And that's three Yoshimis simultaneously. :-) I am tempted to giggle, but I am happier than that!!! The only partial catch was MIDI; without the ALSA driver for Jack, one does not have Jack MIDI :-) Unless, of course, one uses a2jmidid, so that's what I'm doing. With such a small Jack period, the extra period for a2jmidid is not an issue. Just had to report, and congratulate, and thank, everyone involved!!!!! Jonathan E. Brickman Ponderworthy Music | jeb(a)ponderworthy.com | (785)233-9977 | http://ponderworthy.com

10 years, 11 months

Mackie Control "Universal" vs. "Pro"

by Kevin Cosgrove

Hello, I have an opportunity to buy a used Mackie Control Universal. Info at these links. http://www.mackie.com/products/mcu/mcu_support.html http://www.zzounds.com/item--MACCONTROLUNI But, I'm wondering if the non-Pro version, Mackie Control Universal will work as well with Ardour as the Pro version. Does anyone know? Ardour's manual says that the Pro version works well. My main reason for wanting the unit is my presumption that it has the ability for me to "touch" edit automation. This is something which my BCF2000 can't do. I've been scouring the web for documentation to tell me if it has this ability. But, so far I haven't found anything, not even in the MCU manual. Anyone know that as well? Thanks folks.... -- Kevin

10 years, 11 months

Advice needed: hardware vendors

by Chris Metzler

In the past, I've sorta DIY'd my home machines -- sorta because it's been more integration than building. Most of the parts would come from some vendor like Newegg; but the processor+cooling/motherboard/memory would come from the now long-departed Monarch Computer. The part of building that scared me was doing a good job coupling the heatsink to the processor; Monarch sold processor/motherboard combos where they'd taken care of that, and tested the combo to make sure it was happy before sending it to you. And their prices were good and they were reliable. So, I'd do a little research on motherboards, pick a couple of candidates, then google to see whether other folks were using those motherboards with Linux and what experiences they were having. And if it all looked good, I'd order it all and do the final integration, and I've never had any problems, including with Linux/hardware compatibility. However, it's been quite a while since I did this the last time, mainly because the machine I have now has done me pretty good. But I'm ready to replace my machine, and apparently two things have happened since the last time: - Monarch became an unreliable company, then went bust; - I became insanely busy all the time, and less motivated (but not completely unmotivated) to build. So, I'm looking to find out about hardware vendors. Specifically, I want to know about: 1. folks selling fully-built machines with Linux in mind, so that there'll be no real worries about any hardware compatibility issues; 2. folks selling motherboard/processor combos that they test before shipping to the customer, like Monarch did back when they were still around and reliable. In case it matters, I tend to go for as souped-up a home machine as I can, and then ride it for a long time. The machine I end up with will be used for Linux audio, with an Audiofire 8 interface that'll connect to the machine by Firewire. So obviously it's going to need to have low latencies in mind. It'll also get used for gaming, and for code development for scientific computing. I dunno whether it's even an option anymore, but having one legacy PCI slot around would be nice, but isn't a dealbreaker if that's just too obsolete. Any suggestions on vendors to look at, or sources of information on build options (I used to start at Tom's Hardware and Anandtech years ago; dunno if they're still the best choices), would all be greatly appreciated. Thanks much! -c -- Chris Metzler cmetzler(a)speakeasy.snip-me.net (remove "snip-me." to email) "As a child I understood how to give; I have forgotten this grace since I have become civilized." - Chief Luther Standing Bear

10 years, 11 months

Announcing Nama release v1.113 - "Claassen's Crucible"

by Joel Roth

Nama is a multitrack recording application based on Kai Vehmanen's Ecasound with text and graphic interfaces. It can work with ALSA or JACK. Although many Nama users end up building from github,[1] this release to CPAN[2] allows prospective users to install it with a simple incantation[3]. We're naming this release to honor our brother Julien,[4] whose tireless testing, bug reports, feature requests and documentation-writing have helped make Nama what it is today. :-) I'd also like to shout a thanks to newer users who've contributed, especially Raphaël Mouneyres, who suggested improvements to the track record/play settings and text-mode display, along with many reports and suggestions. The following are recent features, new and improved: ## Hyphens in Commands Nama now accepts hyphens in command names: Both "find_effect" and "find-effect" are acceptable (in addition to the usual shortcut "fe".) ## Hot keys The hotkey mode supports arbitrary bindings. The default mapping provides for changing the selected track, effect, parameter, stepsize and increment/decrement. You switch from command mode to hotkey mode with "#" and back to command mode with ESC. ## Sequences Sequences have been implemented as a special type of bus that plays its member clips (tracks) one after another, and allows for spacing or overlap between clips. ## Submixes These can be used to provide each musician with her own mix for live monitoring, and can use either the raw track source or the effects-processed track output. ## Track Modes Track modes have been revised to REC/MON/PLAY/OFF, set by the corresponding commands (in lower case). Note that "off" (do not route track audio streams) is distinct from "mute" (silence track audio output.) MON: + use track source setting as track input REC: + use track source setting as track input + record audio file to disk PLAY: + use audio file from disk as track input OFF: + do not route track audio I/O By default, REC, PLAY and MON settings route track audio output for monitoring. ## Improved Track Listing The example below shows a simple setup for recording two audio files: sax_1.wav and synth_1.wav. The signals are routed to the Main bus (the default), which outputs to soundcard channels 1/2. All files recorded in the same take get the same version number. No. Name Status Source Destination Vol Pan ========================================================================= 1 Master MON Main bus 1/2 0 50 2 Mixdown OFF -- -- -- -- 3 sax REC v1 1 Main 0 50 4 synth REC v1 bristol Main 0 50 ## Project management using Git Each project has a git repository in which Nama stores the entire project history.[5] Nama automatically promotes each named snapshot into a branch. This allows users to follow multiple approaches to a project and return to any previous version. Within each project we use a save <name> / get <name> pattern similar to managing project state as files or snapshots. Users benefit from version control technology without having to study git or learn special commands. ## GUI Amazingly, the plain-jane Tk GUI still works, providing functions of a basic harddisk recorder. Since all diagnostics appear on the terminal (which is also available for commands), the user is never slowed down by having to close an information window or dialog box. ## MIDI Nama provides rudimentary MIDI support via Midish, starting a Midish process when configured with midish_enable: 1 in .namarc. Midish commands can be issued at any time. For convenience, Nama issues a save-to-file command to Midish on exit. ## Preliminary OSC Support This is a thin wrapper that accepts Nama commands as OSC packets, and returns the results. ## Underlying Code There have been many improvements. Support for multiples engines has been added, which will in future allow for monitor outputs to be kept "live" continuously. (Currently Ecasound must be reconfigured when changing routes for playing or recording audio.) Effects code has been coverted to OO style, which is easier to read and will allow for a change in underlying data structure in future. Effects support was one of the first parts of Nama to be written and was the last still written in procedural style. ## Future Live monitoring support was mentioned above. Latency compensation is awaiting improvements the underlying JACK interface library.[6] MIDI tracks are planned. Thanks to the Linux audio community and Nama users for your support. Cheers, Joel 1. http://github.com/bolangi/nama 2. A distributed hosting system for perl libraries, and acronym for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network http://cpan.org Perl was/is a hotbed for testing culture. Modules I upload get built (smoke-tested) on many different architectures, and are provided a bug-tracking system. 3. cpanm Audio::Nama + Installs into $HOME/perl5 by default with no special permissions required + However, you may need to install cpanm (c.f. App::cpanminus) sudo cpan Audio::Nama + Installs under /usr/local/perl5 by default 4. http://juliencoder.de 5. All information relating to sound of the project except for the audio files is stored in the file State.json. Project data *not* under version control such as track or version comments, effect chains, and effect profiles is stored in Aux.json, which can be blown away without affecting the audio output. 6. https://github.com/navicore/Jacks -- Joel Roth, Nama Animator

10 years, 11 months

by Ralf Mardorf

Since the Bitwig thread moved from a software to musical point of view debate, every Rock musician of my age (born in 1966) in Germany knows Radio Birdman, but too funny, in Australia it seems to be a less known band. Musicians note: A prophet has no honor in his own country! :D

10 years, 11 months

Anyone has any experience using Presonus 1818VSL Audiobox?

by Ivica Ico Bukvic

If so, any feedback on its quality/durability/Linux support would be most appreciated. Many thanks! ico

10 years, 11 months

A port of Obxd to Linux

by Vytautas Jancauskas

I have ported Obxd ( http://www.kvraudio.com/product/obxd---virtual-analog-synthesizer-by-datsou…) to Linux, I will release proper binaries for x86 and amd64 later but if you are very eager you can get it here https://github.com/orbitfold/Obxd and compile by going to Builds/Linux and running make CONFIG=Release then copy the .so from Builds/Linux/build to your vst folder. It's a pretty fucking sweet synth although very inefficient, but maybe we can do something about that. -- "Cheshire-Puss," she began, "would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?" "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to," said the Cat. "I don't care much where--" said Alice. "Then it doesn't matter which way you go," said the Cat.

10 years, 12 months

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Linux-audio-user April 2014