Linux recording works for me - my first digital project

Gerald Pierce · Post by **Gerald Pierce** » 25 Feb 2009 11:00 am

I've spent "several" hours figuring out how to use ubuntustudio linux. I've recorded my first project and I'm very happy with the results (considering my limited engineering knowledge and cheap mics).

I managed to record, play back, mix it down and hear it back. That's about all I wanted to do, although the program offers a zillion capabilities I'll never use. I can't imagine wanting to do anything that ubuntustudio won't do.

There's an mp3 of my first project at>

http://www.unclestick.com/writing-on-the-wall.mp3

It's just me and Hydrogen (the wonderful drum program that comes with ubuntustudio) so don't expect any amazing picking.

I'm open to any opinions, suggestions or other commentary on the sound, mixing, playing, vocal etc.
gp

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 25 Feb 2009 12:17 pm

I love it, especially the opening line , it's brilliant , but we can expect this to be gone soon, sadly.

I think overall the recording was fine especially for a simple out of the box recording setup. Great job.

t

Joey Ace · Post by **Joey Ace** » 25 Feb 2009 3:13 pm

Nice recording GP, but where's the Steel?

Tony's comment comes from the "no political discussions" rule this Forum has.
I'll keep this open, until the first post about the song's message.

Keep the discussion on Recording.

Tell us about ubuntustudio .

It's free, right? What hardware are you using?

PS I love the guitar lick after the "over seas" line.

Jeff Hyman · Post by **Jeff Hyman** » 25 Feb 2009 4:05 pm

Great job.
I look forward to your answers to Joeys questions.

My question is: Who wrote that song? I found the arrangement and words impressive.

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 25 Feb 2009 4:29 pm

Gerald, what is your A/D converter (sound card)? And was it easy to find drivers and software to control it?

Ken Lang · Post by **Ken Lang** » 25 Feb 2009 6:20 pm

I liked it as well. I liked the drums too. Well done.

Steve Norman · Post by **Steve Norman** » 25 Feb 2009 6:25 pm

what audio interface are you using?
I need a linux friendly device to go between my instrument and computer.

I use linux for all but a few things...games and recording. I want to be free of my other operating system once and for all.

i

Gerald Pierce · Post by **Gerald Pierce** » 25 Feb 2009 9:03 pm

Thanks to all for your kind words and questions...and thanks Joey for leaving the post up. It's the only song I've done so far (. Otherwise, I'd have posted something a bit more docile).

I bought the program on ebay for about 5 bucks delivered to my door. I could have downloaded it for nothing, but I have a dialup connection and it would have taken forever. As it turns out, there were a few bugs that were immediately corrected when I did an update download (free, of course). That only took about 10 hours.

I spent lots of hours getting it together, but I'd have had a similar learning curve with any digital recording program. I messed around with protools free (the 8 track version) a few years back and never got very far. I had lots of crashes and gave up on it.

I've been waiting a few years for a program like ubuntustudio, but it's finally here. A top-notch recording program that operates on a very stable linux system.

For those of you who are much farther down the digital recording road than I, it's got one of everything I can imagine and a ton of features that are completely over my head.

If I can do it, anyone can. I did have a couple or so situations arise that required going to the ubuntu forum for help. As with any forum, I usually didn't have to post a question. Most of the answers were already there. I even learned things about linux that I should have learned years ago (I've been using linux on my online computer for about 5 years...just never learned much other than how to connect to the internet).

I use an M Audio Audiophile 24/96 pci card. The program found it and I had no problems at all. I have no idea how the USB versions might work, but if you do a search for "linux compatible hardware", you'll find sources for info about stuff that should work.

Other equipment I used:

I used an MXL990 mic (paid 50 bucks for it) for the vocal. The vocal might be a bit dry for some folks, but there's a smidgen of software reverb on it.

There's a classic guitar miked with an Electro-Voice stage condenser mic, I can't recall the model right now (hey, you use what you have).

The electric guitar is a MusicMan Stingray played through a fine little silverface champ I got from Jim Sliff. I miked it with an SM57. I used a Holy Grail reverb pedal that came with the champ.

Fender Precision Bass straight into the board (a Mackey CR1604-VLZ...overkill, but I'm pleased with the mic preamps in it). I could get by with a whole lot less, since I'm not using any outboard effects or recording more than a track at a time, and I'm using software to mix with.

Drums are by Hydrogen. It's a great program. I found it to be fairly easy to figure out and program.

Jeff - Thanks for the kind words. I wrote the song and did the vocal and instruments.

Thanks for keeping the commentary related to the music, production, equipment etc.

Thanks again for your comments, kind words and for listening to my first Micros**t-free digital music.
gp

Gerald Pierce · Post by **Gerald Pierce** » 25 Feb 2009 10:26 pm

Joey, there's no steel because I'm a much better steel guitar tinkerer than a steel guitar player. I played a track on my Fender 400 and couldn't get my intonation close enough to sound good to me (so I parted it out....even though it wasn't the guitar's fault). Maybe I'll try some non-pedal steel on my next song...after some serious woodshedding.
gp

Brian Kurlychek · Post by **Brian Kurlychek** » 25 Feb 2009 10:57 pm

damn good song. The style and phrasing is fantastic.

Steve Norman · Post by **Steve Norman** » 26 Feb 2009 1:15 am

thanks for the info, I really speed up ubuntu by using fluxbox instead of gnome and kde, if you havnt done that already.

http://www.techradar.com/news/computing ... ?artc_pg=1

Have you rebuilt the kernal to get rid of bloat? my one and only complaint about ubuntu are the swarms of modules that come with it, especially during updates.

So you went instrument into a mic then mic into your sound card? If so that sounds better than what I thought I have to do.

Congratulations on being a free-er person. Im about 98% proprietary free my self, and the 100% mark is rapidly approaching. You should post that song on the ubuntu forums, they would love it!

Michael Maddex · Post by **Michael Maddex** » 26 Feb 2009 8:59 am

Steve Norman wrote:what audio interface are you using?
I need a linux friendly device to go between my instrument and computer.
...

Steve, we've had some earlier discussions on this so I'll recap what I've said before: If you already own a mixer, then you don't need to spend money on a digital interface.

I use Audacity with Linux and I plug instruments and/or mics into a mixer and feed the mixer line-out into the sound card line-in. Obviously, there are lots of tone and level control possibilities here. I've had good success with both powered (Kustom PA) and non-powered (Behringer) mixers. A set-up like this is limited to two tracks at a time, but that works for me.

Good luck. As usual, YMMV. HTH.

Steve Norman · Post by **Steve Norman** » 26 Feb 2009 10:07 am

I remember Michael, its just so rare to find someone else doing it 100% open source that I always try to get as many options possible logged for the enevitable configuration party that happens, seems from what you both are saying its better to go mixer into the card versus bypassing the card with a USB device. Hopefully in a few months I will get the cash together to build a dedicated recording computer out of an old compaq I have sitting around. Mine now is really configured for gaming and experimenting with distros, programming etc, so there a lot of crashes, and distro hosing going on right now.

Gerald Pierce · Post by **Gerald Pierce** » 26 Feb 2009 11:51 am

Steve, I agree about the tons of apps that come with ubuntu. The version I have didn't come with open office, so that eliminates a lot of unnecessary baggage (I have open office on my Simplymepis linux on my main computer).

Ubuntustudio also came with a Video Production software which I chose not to install since I won't use it. The only apps I use so far are Jack (the heart of controlling and syncing the apps) Ardour, Audacity, Hydrogen and the controller for the sound card. I'm not using any midi other than the drums (Hydrogen) so I never use the included Rosegarden midi program.

By the way, I can control the sound card with either of 2 control panels in the program. I've just scratched the surface of what's possible with ubuntustudio, but that might be as far as I go with it, as long as I can produce music that sounds good enough to me, I'm happy.

I'm using a dell 530 n that came with ubuntu installed (the normal version without ubuntustudio). I immediately installed my ubuntustudio version of linux. It's a dedicated recording computer. If I didn't need to do online updates, I wouldn't even have a modem in it.

I paid just under 300 bucks for the computer, delivered from dell to my door (2.2 gig, dual-core -2 gigs of ram). It's performed wonderfully and it's the first computer I've had that's REALLY QUIET. The cooling fan comes on for a couple of seconds when it's turned on, then shuts off until the computer gets hot enough to need it. So far, the fan has NEVER had to kick in (I think that means there's lots of "headroom" left).

Linux will install on a drive that already has windows on it. It will partition the disc and install linux, offering you the option of booting to windows or linux. I've done this installation many times in the past and have never lost any of my windows stuff (now I can loose it all...for good).

My point about the USB interface was that it might not be as easy to set up under linux as a pci sound card (or it might be a piece of cake). I could have run everything straight into the card except the condenser mics, but had to have a preamp, of course.

When I was experimenting with "protools free", I had a yamaha MG 10/2 mixer (inexpensive) that had what I thought were really good preamps for the price. I wish I still had it. It would save a lot of space on my desk (a folding table).

If you want to be free of micros**t, ubuntustudio is it. If you're a gamer, do the dual-boot, or get a dedicated recording computer.

Like I said, if I can do it, anyone can. So go do it!

Thanks again for all the compliments and kind words!

Earnest Bovine · Post by **Earnest Bovine** » 26 Feb 2009 12:22 pm

Gerald Pierce wrote: My point about the USB interface was that it might not be as easy to set up under linux as a pci sound card (or it might be a piece of cake).

Whether it's a PCI card or USB box, it all depends on whether anybody has written drivers for it.
For example, I have an E-Mu PCI card, and even tho it has been out for 5 years or so, there were no Linux drivers until a few months ago. Even now, all I can do is play (it does not show up as an input in Audacity etc.)

Gerald Pierce · Post by **Gerald Pierce** » 26 Feb 2009 1:08 pm

Earnest, I tried using audacity while I had ardour and jack open. It wouldn't find the sound card (I guess because it was busy with Ardour???), so it defaulted to the motherboard's onboard sound.
When I closed jack and ardour, it found the m-audio card.

Even though I've used linux on my online computers for a few years, I never learned much about it until I got ubuntustudio. I'll continue trying to learn as my needs require it (thanks to all sorts of friendly, helpful forums like this one).

I already had the card and the program liked it, so I got off easy.
gp

Steve Norman · Post by **Steve Norman** » 27 Feb 2009 3:40 pm

ahh I see,, the slow is your internet not your computer, sorry