Open Source Musician Podcast
Your guide to Open Source for musicians.

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This week is just an interview with Steve Baer who is a linux musician from Vancouver Canada. He also goes by the handle _guitarman_ on IRC and is the creator of our IRC channel freenode.net/#opensourcemusicians.

Steve's website:
    http://deadbeatguitarist.com

Email:
    osmp@pipemanmusic.com
Twitter:
    http://twitter.com/pipemanmusic
Identica:
    http://identi.ca/pipemanmusic
Skype:
    PipeManMusic
IRC:
    freenode.net/#opensourcemusicians
Direct download: OSMPEpisode18.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 9:40 PM
Comments[0]

This episode is just a farewell to Nick Wilbanks our favourite co-host.
Direct download: OSMPEpisode17.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 10:56 PM
Comments[0]

OSMP Episode #16


Intro: 0:00 - 1:27
SELF Promo

Banter: 1:27 - 11:18

Software Releases: 11:18 - 19:06

Audio Releases:
None
Tips: 19:06 - 21:54
Jammin internal routing
Rants:
None
Tech Segment:21:54 - 29:49
    Adding Guitars:
 
Listener Feedback:29:49 - 38:19

Contact Info:38:19 - 42:57
E-Mails:
dworth@pipemanmusic.com
Twitter and Identi.ca:
Blogs:
Skype and SIP:
pipemanmusic@ekiga.net
PipeManMusic
Forums:

Podcast Out!

Song:
New Theme with guitars 38:42:57 - 44:39
The Symmetry - Free As In Freedom 44:39 - 49:00
http://myspace.com/thesymmetry
http://www.soundclick.com/thesymmetry

Direct download: OSMPEpisode16.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 7:35 PM
Comments[0]

OSMP Episode #15


Intro: 0:0 - 1:16

Banter: 1:16 - 8:25
New bass drum mike mount:

Software Releases:  8:25 - 12:37
Rivendell v1.3.0:
Rivendell is a full-featured radio automation system targeted for use in professional broadcast environments. It is available under the GNU General Public License.
Featured Additions:
Podcast System Enhancements.(not sure what kind of podcasting system they have but should investigate.)
Website:

Guitarix 0.03.8-1:
guitarix is a simple Linux Rock Guitar amplifier for jack(Jack Audio Connektion Kit) with one input and two outputs. Designed to get nice thrash/metal/rock/blues guitar sounds. There are controls for bass, treble, gain, compressor, preamp, balance, overdrive, distortion, freeverb, impulse response (), crybaby(wah) and echo . A fixed resonator will be used when distortion is disabled. For 'pressure' in the sound you can use the feedback and feedforward sliders.
Website:
       http://sourceforge.net/projects/guitarix/


Rubber Band library 1.3:
Rubber Band is an audio time-stretching and pitch-shifting library and utility designed for musical applications. It allows you to change the tempo and pitch of an audio recording independently of one another.
Website:
Sonic Visualiser 1.5:
Sonic Visualiser is an application for inspecting and analysing the
contents of music audio files. It combines powerful waveform and
spectral visualisation tools with automated feature extraction plugins
and annotation capabilities.
Website:

Audio Releases: 12:37 - 13:17
None

Tips: 13:17 - 13:34
None
Rants: 13:17 - 18:52
    Don't jump to conclusions with out reading thoroughly - My Email mistake and segment on LMMS
 
Tech Segment: 18:52 - 29:57
    Adding Bass to the mix

Listener Feedback: 29:57 - 38:30
Larry Holish:

I would say that, yes, the podcast has definitely improved! You guys seem more organized and prepared with each episode. The levels of your voices seem to have stabilized and are more consistent. The recorded description of the show over the opening theme is a nice touch. It's helpful when you guys announce you're moving on to the next section of the podcast. It would be great if you could include the total running time of each podcast, and maybe a rough minute of when each section begins in the show notes.

In general, I would say that for me personally, I most appreciate when you go into detail about the technical aspects of a particular subject. Example from the latest podcast that was enlightening to me was the discussion of the right hand dominance of drummers. I'm not a drummer and hate the robotic nature of most drum machines, so I was always all over the "humanize" features of Hydrogen. I would also use "randomize velocity" from a drum's context menu in the pattern editor, anything for something a little more human. But your discussion made sense to me and I think I was probably over doing things a bit with the "humanize" pots. Hand editing of the velocity bars, keeping in mind a stronger right hand, and using the humanize features sparingly might lead to better overall results. That will be my new approach to Hydrogen.

Another example: the episode on reverb. I'll say that a lot of this discussion went over my head a bit, but that's OK. I had no idea that using two reverbs on each instrument, a short and a long, was the way to add depth to a stereo image. I really appreciated the level of detail here. I haven't had a chance to really test this out yet and I'm planning on going back and revisiting this episode (thus my request about publishing times so that I can quickly find a particular tech segment).

I'm enjoying your soup-to-nuts new show theme project. I would encourage you to post your "working" files/tracks during the process, like you've mentioned doing. As the track progresses, I would also like to know more about how you set your recording levels in Ardour for both Hydrogen and the other scratch tracks. Maybe some more discussion about headroom, your approach to mixing and mastering, and when to use plugins pre-fader vs. post-fader. Details are good.

Finally, one other suggestion for a future show topic. Dave Phillips just did an interesting article in the Linux Journal about his studio and gear. I know you've mentioned some of your gear here and there, and also your plans for sound treatment. I think an entire segment (maybe some pics, too?) about Pipeman studios, your instruments and gear, would be cool.

You'll be happy to know that you convinced me to make a donation to the Ardour project. Thanks for your efforts and keep up the good work!

Contact Info: 38:30 -
E-Mails:
pipemanmusic@gmail.com
nickishappy@gmail.com
Twitter and Identi.ca:
Blogs:
Skype and SIP:
pipemanmusic@ekiga.net
PipeManMusic
ruderobot
Forums:
Podcast Out!

Song: 42:35 - 44:20
    Greetings From Lincolnwood - Larry Holish


Direct download: OSMPEpisode15.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 9:23 AM
Comments[0]

OSMP Episode #14

Software Releases:
LMMS 0.4.3:
This version is a maintainance release of the 0.4.x series. It fixes most of the bugs found in version 0.4.2 and brings in improvements on performance and stability.
http://lmms.sourceforge.net/


Rants: Supporting Ardour v2.0

Tech Segment:
Adding Drums to the Mix:
Contact Info:
E-Mails:
pipemanmusic@gmail.com
nickishappy@gmail.com
Twitter and Identi.ca:
Blogs:
Skype:
PipeManMusic
ruderobot
Forums:
Podcast Out!

Song:
Direct download: OSMPEpisode14.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 7:36 PM
Comments[0]

Tech Segment: Scratch Tracks

Contact Info:
E-Mails:
pipemanmusic@gmail.com
nickishappy@gmail.com
Twitter and Identi.ca:
Blogs:
Skype:
PipeManMusic
ruderobot
Forums:

Podcast Out!

Song: Scratch Track
Direct download: OSMPEpisode13.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 8:26 PM
Comments[0]

Banter:
Mentions of our show on other shows

Software Releases:

QJackMMC / JackCtlMMC:

If you have a MIDI device capable of sending Midi

Machine Code commands, you can use QJackMMC / JackCtlMMC to control

all your JACK-based programs with your external hardware, or even

internal ALSA programs that emit MMC.


The website is here: http://jackctlmmc.sourceforge.net/


The new features include:

- Added device ID support (formerly listened to ID 7f only)

- Added Help->About and Help->What's This

- Made the makefile more robust for easier building

- Fixed Lash startup bug

- Fixed Jack disconnect bug


Invada LADSP Plug-ins:
Utility Plugins
* Input Module (Stereo only)
Alter gain, balance, width, phase on a stereo signal

Filter Plugins
* Low Pass (Mono and Stereo version)
* High Pass (Mono and Stereo version)
Gentle high pass and low pass filters

Simulation Plugins
* Tube - (Mono and Stereo version)
Valve warmth/distortion simulation

Dynamics Plugins
* Compressor - (Mono and Stereo version)
Peak/RMS soft-clipping compressor
The 'tight/sloppy' control modifies the envelope sensor - from peak (one
sample) to rms (50ms worth of samples). Having the envelope 'sloppy'
causes the compressor not to see transients at all, which allows for more
severe compression on sounds like vocals & bass.

Reverb Plugins
* ER Reverb - (Mono and Stereo summing In)
Early reflection based reverb. Really more of a room simulator than a
reverb. Use this to add simulated room ambiance to sounds that have none -
particularly useful when combining mic'd & electronic instruments as you
can add room ambiance absent in the electronic signals to help blend in.
Don't expect to get big washing reverbs with large room sizes -  Large
room sizes cause the early reflections to be individually discernible and
you end up with a series of echos.
Another use of this plugin is to reinforce stereo placement - the sound
source is positionable and the resultant reflections realistically place
the source at a specific spot. (rather than dragging the sound back to the
center).

http://www.invadarecords.com/Downloads.php?ID=00000263

Denemo 0.8.2:
http://www.denemo.org

The source tarball for the 0.8.2 (stable) release is now available. Also uploaded is a binary built for Windows.

A lot of bugs were fixed and several new features were added.

MIDI input
MIDI input filters - scripts that let you control Denemo from MIDI
controller. (Advance on edit, Angry Delete, Figured Bass entry ...)

Audio feedback - either simple beep-beep type sounds on entering
notes/rhythms or (with JackMidi) synthesizer notes.

Mouse shortcuts (e.g. dragging to create crescendos or slurs, all
customizable with custom cursors during drag)

More scripting support.

Applying operations to selections.

More printed notation available from commands (Tempo Indications,
fingerings, metronome marks, beaming, anacrusis (upbeat), repeat
barlines ...)

Better menu organization.

Allow Denemo music scores to have their own actions automatically
performed on loading. (e.g. launching education games, playing
scores ...)

Fixes to Windows version: no need to re-boot after install, scripted
menu items in hierarchical menus no longer crashing.

NetJack2 (NetJack for Jack2) improvements on latest SVN rev 3269:

- much more reliable behaviour: now works correctly with audio/midi ports on Linux, MacOSX and Windows

- improvements in ALSA audioadapter component

- "resynch" itself after network overload (see known problems section)

- the NetJack2 components (netmanager, audioadapter, netadapter) will soon be integrated in JackOSX package, even with no GUI to control them in a first step.

Some old general words on NetJack2:

1) First remember that NetJack2 common use case is to have one "master" machine (where Jack server is synchronized on the audio card) and one or several "slave" machines that are synchronized on the "jack_net" backend. This setup is typically used to run heavy audio processes on slaves machine but keeping in synch with the master.

If the user still wants to listen to the audio stream on any slaves machines audio card, an "adaptation" has to be done since master and slaves audio cards are usually not synchronized.The "audioadapter" component is an "in server" client (that can be loaded using jack_load tool or the new extented JACK2 control API) that does this step by resampling the audio stream from/to the master machine on the local slave audio card.

The "audioadapter" component uses the needed underling audio API (CoreAudio on OSX, ALSA on Linux and PortAudio on Windows) to access the audio card.

2) Another typical case is "master" machine synchronized on audio card, and "slave" machine also synchronized on audio card, and the user wants to transmit audio streams on the network between the 2 machines (a more common need for joe user maybe...)

Another in server" client  called "netadapter" is available for that. When loaded in the slave Jack server, it just connect to the master machine (same feature as jack_net component) and "adapts" (that is resample) streams from the network to be played on the local slave audio card.

Wiki page : http://trac.jackaudio.org/wiki/WalkThrough/User/NetJack2

Known problems:

- in case of network overloading (too much audio channels ) the system is supposed to "resynch" itself and continue working when the load decrease later on. This does not yet work perfectly and you may need to restart the networking component (like : jack_unload netmanager and jack_load netmanager again)

- when Windows is used as the master, quitting slave clients is not correctly detected and "not working anymore" clients stay in the server.



jack_capture:
jack_capture is a program for recording soundfiles with jack. Its default
operation is to capture whatever sound is going out to your speakers into
a file, but it can do a number of other operations as well.

0.9.31 -> 0.9.32:
 *Changed default format for from wav to wavex for files with more
  than two channels. Thanks to Fons Adriaensen for the suggestion.
 *Added fix for 64 bit mode. Thanks to Andras Simon for helping
  to find the bug and Dominique Fober for fixing the bug.
 *Added the "-verbose" option for easier debugging in case program
  crashes or freezes.
 *Checks whether sndfile.h exists before generating setformat.c.

Ambisonic LADSPA plugins:
Version 0.4.0 adds a 2nd order periphonic panner and
horizontal rotator (i.e. 9-ch output).

Have a look at the README - channel orders of the
existing 2,1 plugins and the new 2,2 ones are not
the same.

http://www.kokkinizita.net/linuxaudio/downloads

Audio Releases:
Julien Claassen
Jazz
Download link:
Software used:
Nama
LinuxSampler
Fluidsynth
LADSPA-plug-ins


B Minor Prelude From the first WTC(Well Tempered Clavier)
Download link:
Tips:

Viktor Mastoridis


1. HowTo Jack configuration: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToJACKConfiguration

which is interlinked with the more general and highly useful:
2. UbuntuStudio preparation: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuStudioPreparation

3. Soundcard compatibility - definitely check the Alsa guide:
http://www.alsa-project.org/main/index.php/Matrix:Main

4. On the long run, I recommend browsing through and reading the articles of Dave Philips on LinuxJournal: they are written with a light, understandable, yet highly informative style. You will get ideas which software does what and at what quality level in Linux Audio
http://www.linuxjournal.com/users/dave-phillips/track
 
Rants:
SAE ends it's support for Ardour
Financial support for Ardour.
  1. Monthly donation
  2. One time donation.

Tech:
Song Writing Tips:
  • Rosegarden.
  • Scratch Tracks.
  • Idioms.
  • Popular Culture.
  • Personal Experience.
  • Combining Ideas.
  • Notebooks.
  • Thumb Drive.
  • http://jamstudio.com


Direct download: OSMPEpisode12.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 9:21 PM
Comments[1]

Short Episode with a little talk about
Software Releases:
    New Calf-Plug-ins Packages for Ubuntu

        deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/stochastic/ubuntu <distribution version> main
        deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/stochatic/ubuntu <distribution version> main

  1. Filter (High Pass or Low Pass)
  2. Flanger
  3. Multi-Chorus
  4. Phaser
  5. Reverb
  6. Rotary Speaker
  7. Vintage Delay

    Filterclavier:

A MIDI controlled Lo/Hi/Bandpass filter for Calf plugins

http://ardourmidi.wordpress.com/2009/01/22/filterclavier-midi-controllable-filter-piano/


    Pure:Dyne leek&potato released:
        http://puredyne.goto10.org

    Aldrin:
Aldrin is an open source modular music sequencer/tracker for the
GNU/Linux operating system. It is written in python and supported by
the Armstrong audio processing backend (previously known as libzzub).
http://code.google.com/p/aldrin-sequencer/

    Minicomputer:
Standalone free open source Linux software synthesizer Minicomputer is
released in version 1.3.
Technical Feature: Midi Basics
http://minicomputer.sourceforge.net

    Zynjacku-3:
zynjacku is JACK based, GTK (2.x) host for LV2 synths. It has one JACK
MIDI input port (routed to all hosted synths) and one (two for stereo
synths) JACK audio output port per plugin. Such design provides
multi-timbral sound by running several synth plugins.
http://home.gna.org/zynjacku/


Lyrics for new Podcast Theme:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dhtg7sgs_7crhmg9hr

Song: Audiobraille- Track 7
Direct download: OSMPEpisode11.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 9:32 PM
Comments[1]

This week we talk a little about standing waves.

Loomer - VST plugins
Direct download: OSMPEpisode10.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 6:03 PM
Comments[1]

This episode was recorded before Christmas but I didn't have time to edit it till know. Sorry it's late.

In this episode we talk about Equalization.

PianoBooster
NetJack
Direct download: OSMPEpisode9.mp3
Category: podcasts -- posted at: 12:41 PM
Comments[0]