[cayenne]

Hello all!

I'm quite a noob to the guitar, recording and the forum, but, I like jumping in and learning a bunch of stuff at once.

I was inspired by reading the thread about the FREE 16 track home recording studio, that was all MS based.

I dabbled in this once on a computer I lost to Katrina..and almost had it working, but, am going to try again soon.

This software is all truly free...and open source...runs on Linux. I use Gentoo Linux (www.gentoo.org). Although I have heard that there are tweaks and patches to the linux kernel developed expressedly for low latency...There's an article here (http://www.linuxdevcenter.com/pub/a/...w_latency.html) about this.

Anyway, the tools I'm looking at for this project are:

Ardour: Diginal Audio Workstation
http://ardour.org/

Rosegarden: audio and midi sequencer..etc
http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/

Hydrogen: Drum Machine
http://www.hydrogen-music.org/

Audacity: Recording/editing tool
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

JACK: Low latency audio server to tie it all together
http://jackaudio.org/

All of these are available for Linux...many can be run on mac's too....

Anyway, I just would prefer to go the open source route...for many reasons, but, at the end, I figure once I really learn what I'm doing and how this all works, I might be able to tweak this since I have the source at hand..and possibly contribute back to the community. But, that's a LONG way off...I've still gotta learn to play guitar.

:-)

Anyway, just thought I'd start off this thread to see if there were any others here that were using Linux...or even OSX, and had played with these open source applications, or were planning to give them a try. I'll try to report back as I get time to learn things and put a system together. I'm still trying to settle down and find a home post Katrina ...so, still a little scattered...but, I'm trying to find time for the guitar again!

Nice to meet ya'll,

cayenne

[twilli227]

Right now, I am running Ubuntu 6.06. I guess I will wipe it and install the newest because there are other apts I want to install, and I want to add more ram.
Might as well start over from scratch.

[Smurf42]

I will be watching this thread with GREAT interest........

[737blues]

Me too ........

[krissovo]

Well after a day I am enjoying the experience. The re-build was very easy and the apps so far so good. I used a app called Jokosher to record Love me 2 times here: dmusic.com | "Your Digital Music Oasis"

The interface is great and its very simple to use (easier than audacity)

I love the garageband feel to the interface. Ok its a bit hit and miss as there has been a minor issue with it where if you record a second track on play back nothing happens now and again but that is a issue as I am using my USB mixer as the output device for the app and my onboard sound card for the operating system. That should be easy to fix tonight.

My Zoom effects unit and my Alesis USB mixer are both found and installed correctly with no action from me......Happy with that!

Here is a great app sooperlooper http://essej.net/sooperlooper/, its based on a high end hardware looper and from playing with for an hour I think its very good. I have confirgured my midi output from Zoom G7.1 to control the looper so its now foot switchable. So good infact I shall test over the next few weeks and I might not use my Boss RC20 any more.


I am a very happy bunny so far

[fly135]

Maybe I'll try installing Ubuntu. I have some removable drive drawers that make it easy to swap OS's without setting up dual boot.

[krissovo]

Originally Posted by fly135

Maybe I'll try installing Ubuntu. I have some removable drive drawers that make it easy to swap OS's without setting up dual boot.

I ran mine for an hour from the cd only first for confidence. A bit slow but functional.

You might be very suprised!

[krissovo]

I am going to convert mine to studio tomorrow, here is a great guide:
Add Studio to an Existing Ubuntu Install ≡ THE UBUSTU FEED
Looks easy enough

[krissovo]

Originally Posted by twilli227

krissovo, where did you find the cd version, all I see is the dvd download. Unfortunately, I don't have a dvd rom yet.

And for those that want to check it out:
Ubuntu Studio - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This will help you
Install Ubuntu Studio without a DVD Burner ≡ THE UBUSTU FEED

[krissovo]

All my PC's are now installed with ubuntustudio, there is virtually zero latency when recording and I am finding some very cool tricks.

Basically my audio set up is now modular all controlled in a Master/slave/slave format so if i set the tempo in the master app all the rest follow suit. I going to take a while to use this to the full potential but for now i am very happy with near zero latency.

What i have chained together now is Ardour 2 (DAW) Creox (live guitar effects), sooperlooper and jackjack for my other effects. All virtually instant

[cayenne]

Originally Posted by krissovo

All my PC's are now installed with ubuntustudio, there is virtually zero latency when recording and I am finding some very cool tricks.

Basically my audio set up is now modular all controlled in a Master/slave/slave format so if i set the tempo in the master app all the rest follow suit. I going to take a while to use this to the full potential but for now i am very happy with near zero latency.

What i have chained together now is Ardour 2 (DAW) Creox (live guitar effects), sooperlooper and jackjack for my other effects. All virtually instant

Can you list the hardware as detailed as possible, on your computer you did with unbuntu DAW?

Sound card? Motherboard? Processors...etc...

Just curious as to what you find best. Do you have a breakout box of some kind or just plug straight into the soundcard?

I've got a PodXT I'm gonna try to work with soon....it has USB, but, I've not tried to hook it to a Linux box yet....have had limited success connecting to an old Apple iBook using Audacity...

C

[krissovo]

Originally Posted by cayenne

Can you list the hardware as detailed as possible, on your computer you did with unbuntu DAW?

Sound card? Motherboard? Processors...etc...

Just curious as to what you find best. Do you have a breakout box of some kind or just plug straight into the soundcard?

I've got a PodXT I'm gonna try to work with soon....it has USB, but, I've not tried to hook it to a Linux box yet....have had limited success connecting to an old Apple iBook using Audacity...

C

No worries.
PC-1
Fujitsu Siemens Laptop S7010d
Processor Centrino 1.5 ghz
1gb ram
60gb HDD
Not sure of the rest

PC-2
AMD 1.8 ghz - not sure of mother board
2 gb ram
RIA raid array 2x 200gb ide and 2x160gb SCUSSI HDD
Radion 9700 graphics
Sounblaster live 5.1 digital sound card
Ralink wireless PCI card
some other on-board sound card

Additional connected hw
Alesis USB mixer
Zoom G7.21 usb out
USB midi hub

Both the ubove are plugged into my laptop, it took me a bit of time to get my head around the sound settings as there is 4 sound inputs but once they were set-up it was fairly easy. My zoom also controls the sooperlooper using the midi output, not quite fully functional just yet but i am slowly getting my head around it. A midi foot controller should be on my list of things to buy next.

In a week or so i should have my head around it all, my laptop now records live with about 2ms of delay and the desktop pc is around 1 ms using the usb input/output.

For a quick recording i use jokosher or audacity and for a full DAW i am using ardour 2. I would think your pod will be an easy add on for linux, I am using the ALSA drivers and so far every software has picked it up with no problems.

Good luck

[krissovo]

Just a quick update on this.

I have had a few problems namely around sound issues, once I built up 4 tracks the system was crashing and I pulled my hair out for a day. It was quite easy to fix in the end but it was not obvious and did take some tweeks. In the end it turned out that when configuring the sound I had the latency set far to low (.03ms) I changed it to .64ms and it works very well now. I found that the cause is running an external USB soundcard (Alesis USB mixer) if I used the internal soundcard I would have been fine.

There has also been a small issue with volume of recording, again its a minor but not very obvious tweek in that I had to fire up the mixer using extra software (ALSAmixer) as the volume were set very low. Once tweeked it is running fine.

My Settup:
Ardour 2 - This is the DAW software, I am getting on very well with it now I have resolved the sound issues. Its kind of complicated but to do the simple things its easy so I can record. Not to far away from using kristal but I now have nearly zero latency. I have a slight issue importing existing tracks but I now use audacity to convert the audio to WAV and then it imports in ok.
Jack- This is the sound Server, this was the software that I had the latency issues with and was causing the system to crash. Now its setup correctly and running its a great tool that I can link any software to each other so this enables me to use real time guitar effects like the looper and various plugin's.
Adacity- Never been a fan of it but there is features I like, I also convert audio using this now to import into other apps.
Creox - Real time sound processor, my live effects. This is a great piece of kit
Sooperlooper - Already described

Conclusion
I am now running a stable system and I am extreamly happy with the results. I would not reconmend this to anyone who has little knowledge problem solving IT problems as the documentation for a Linux box can be few and far between. If you have a spare machine and want a project then go for it.

For me the negatives are:
Linux needs tweeking compaired to the plug and play of windows
No Guitar Pro (there is alternatives that read gp files but no RISE)
No Kristal (my fav)
A lot of software has bugs and is often in beta stage, you need an open mind and low stress levels when using some of them

Positives:
ZERO latency (well very close) - This is a dream, I am running a real time kernal and it is a joy to record and not have slide the recording up and down trying to line them up.
Once tweeked my system is great, the amount of software available for any task is freely downloadable and its easyer to find and install than any windows software

[cayenne]

Wow..I've not been on here, nor seen this post for awhile. I was browsing around the ardour website (http://ardour.org/) and it looks like a major release has been put out recently...and that there is a native OSX version coming now.

I'm still moving around a lot post Katrina...so, haven't had time to build a dedicated DAW box...but, it is still in the works. I've not used Unbuntu before (I've been with Gentoo a long time), so, this might be the time for me to try. You recommend the 'live' cd of it that installs a sound workstation version still?

C