11 Mar
2005
11 Mar
'05
1:15 a.m.
--- ben racher <bracher(a)iupui.edu> wrote:
Hello,
I'm starting a student radio station at IUPUI in
Indianapolis, Indiana
and I want our entire audio infrastructure to be
based on Linux. I've
got a rough sense of all the apps we need and what
apps to setup on
which computers, but I thought I'd run the
blueprints by you guys to see
if you could give me any feedback.
Streaming/Web Server: Runs apache and icecast or the
icecast mod for Apache.
During the last week or two I've been running
icecast/oddcastv3-jack with Ardour and Ardour/JAMin
and streaming my DM-24 mixing consol over a DSL line.
It has been reliable. I suppose something like this
could work in the radio both and would allow a live
talkback microphone for the DJ. I suppose there's some
non-jack based solution for the live mic.
Automation Computer: Runs some sort of playback
program, I've been
keeping my eyes on LiveSupport
http://www.campware.org/ to schedule and
automate the station when DJs aren't present.
Audio Archive: File Server for our digital library,
probably all FLAC
files, maybe Ogg, but I think we want FLAC in case
we want to burn CDs.
And this is the part that I need help on...
Production Computer... so I've been tooling around
with JACK and Ardour
and MusE (not to be confused with MuSE) and other
JACK apps and its all
really cool and exciting. I never got the sound
input to even really
work in linux until a couple weeks ago. Yay for the
2.6.8+ kernels. So
here are my thoughts on setting up a workstation,
and I don't even know
if this is possible, but that's why I'm mailing you
guys. One department
has kindly donated a brand new Dell Poweredge Dual
Xeon 2.4 ghz somethin
or other.
Sounds like an excellent production machine. I'm
running a single AMD 2600+ on a dual capable board.
The rest of our computers are from the
university junkyard of
midgrade PowerPC G4s and Pentium 3s. So the
Poweredge is our gem
computer out of all the other crappy computers. Is
there any way for me
to set up the speedy new poweredge as some kind of
audio production
renderfarm, and get the PPCs and the Pentium 3s to
connect to it as
production terminals? Cause, although multi-tracking
on the G4s and
Pentium 3s is possible, doing extensive work with FX
plugins is probably
out of the question.
I don't know if rendering effects on a farm is going
to work because of latent returns. Or maybe that
asumption is completely wrong. There is jack_upd and
jack_rtp which can be used to connect the ends of
localhost ports together. Then you could experiment
with running jack-rack or whatever on one machine,
JAMin on another, etc. That would be pretty fun.
However, I suspect the production of requirements of
most Radio stations to be pretty well handled without
assembling this type of system. I'd probably try to
inch my way in and maybe you'll discover none of that
is needed.
Although, JAMin has a pretty hefty appetite and it's
suitable for what you're doing. It seems like a
perfect candidate for the UDP or RTP stuff.
See what I'm getting at? Also, the Poweredge also
has about a 500gb raid
system with it, which would be nice to use for
storing our audio on and
maybe even using as our digital archive as well, but
that might be
pushing it if we are doing audio production work on
it as well?
Actually, that's worth experimenting with too. I have
an ICP vortex four channel hardware raid controler. I
used to run the studio machine as a dual 2600+. I'd
test with rsync over lan, compiling ardour or kernels,
printing a dozen tracks in an Ardour session, and
mastering in another control room at the same time.
Oh, I'd check email and copy files around locally.
Basically I'd just start as many tasks as I could.
Performance was awesome!
I'd
imagine this might be the case, but I don't see
why
ftping flac files on
a local network would be too much of a burden on the
raid drive or dual
processors.
The raid controler handles all the disk i/o overhead.
During disk i/o the CPUs are eating donuts and
drinking coffee.
Another reason why it would be nice to
be able to connect to
a poweredge remotely to do audio work, is that it
the poweredge makes
about as much noise as a 747. So... its not exactly
an audio production
friendly unit.
I've got my server in one of those big old Digital
rack cases that's about the size of a fridge. I keep
it in a bathroom on the end of a 50ft keyboard, mouse,
monitor, ADAT, USB, wordclock snake/leash. It's so
noisey and physically imposing that it's difficult to
relax while taking care of business.
So these are my thoughts. Am I crazy... or is there
some magical way to
make this happen?
I don't think you're crazy. I know you are! Seriously,
it sounds like lots of fun and I think you have plenty
of very usable gear.
ron
- Ben Racher
bracher(a)iupui.edu
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