I am continuing a series of posts around the #LinuxAudio tag as I get back into doing some recording at home. I have written songs that I want to record. Here is my setup. Yes, I know the desk is still untidy.
I am using:
- Ubuntu Studio is a Linux distribution optimised for media production. It has a low latency kernel that can reduce audio drop-outs (xruns) and has just about all the software you need.
- Ardour digital audio workstation (DAW) is very powerful and comes for free with Studio, but you should donate if you use it much. I used to pay a monthly amount.
- M-Audio Fast Track Pro interface. I got this from @stav. It is basic, but enough for now. I found this guide on optimising Linux to use it, but it is working fine so far.
- Korg nanoKontrol is being used as a control surface for mixing and other functions. It is more convenient to enable tracks and adjust volume than using the keyboard or mouse. I can start recording with it and I have a long USB lead, so do not need to be right next to the PC.
- MXL 990 condenser microphone. This is a fairly cheap microphone that gives me good results.
I am listening through my monitor speakers or my AKG headphones. The PC is fairly old with a quad-core AMD CPU. The little mixer is not being used for now.
I have been watching a few videos from this guy to pick up some tips as I have forgotten a lot of stuff and the software has moved on a bit since I last used it. Ardour has certainly gotten better.
Ardour can seem daunting, but it is basically a multi-track recorder with a few extras. I am still learning what all the buttons do, but you just need to learn a few to get started. I experimented by recording a few tracks of vocals.
I have not properly labeled my tracks. The blank one is a combination of all the others (a bus) so I can apply effects to all at once.You may notice some red peaks where the signal was a bit high. It can be fiddly to get the maximum signal without it going too high and that risks getting distortion, but it was not too bad in this case.
Studio comes with lots of effects that work with Ardour via the JACK audio system. I have only tried a few so far.
There are commercial effects/plug-ins available too, but these will do for now.
I have the mixer on my second monitor. Some of the effects have a very basic user interface, but these from Calf are pretty and the visual displays help you see what is happening. I am feeling that maybe I need even more screens.
All I have really done is to put different effects on each track and then some overall reverb. You may be wondering what I recorded. Well do not get your hopes up. I just wanted something simple and did not want to be concentrating too much on the music side just now.
In the next few days I hope to record an actual song. I am not going for anything too fancy. It will mostly just be me singing plus a guitar or ukulele. Stay tuned.
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Looks complicated :)
By the way, the Soundcloud track is missing or ...?
It's as complicated as you want to make it, but getting set up initially can be confusing. That's part of why I'm doing these posts. It's great that we have access to all this free software. You can do real professional work with it.
The 'song' plays for me. I set it to be unlisted on my Soundcloud feed. I'm running out of space on there. Ought to use Dsound more.
Great. You'll push me into trying it for myself and connect keyboard and drum kit that my son is using.
I am not a musician yet I can play with apps :)
Do you need linux or are these programs available on Windows too?
Soundcloud embed as I see it :
You can get Ardour for Windows, but may have to pay something for it. I may set up a subscription again as I get good value from it. It's love to see such projects on Steem so I can reward them with votes.
I can see the Soundcloud player on another PC and my phone. No idea why you cannot. You are not missing much :)
Are you using Steempeak? That seems to have an issue with the html, but it works on Steemit and in Steem.
Yes, Steempeak.
And yes, it works on Steemit.
Thanks!
How would you compare the learning curve on Ardor to a program like Audacity?
I used to use Audacity on Ubuntu, but that computer had a motherboard problem. When I replaced the motherboard, I put windows 10 on it. I still use Audacity, mostly because it's free. Of course, it has limited usefulness, you can't use VSTs with it, at least not that I've found, so I've been think about moving to a better DAW.
I have done some projects with Audacity. I think of it more as an audio editor with recording capabilities. You can use Ardour in similar ways with the potential to do a lot more. There are some good tutorials out there to get you started. The first obstacle is getting your interface working with Jack, but you may find someone with the same hardware who has experience. You can get the free demo version of Ardour to try it out.
As long as it works with a USB audio interface, I should be able to figure out how to use the program. I have a Focusrite audio interface for inputting my audio sources such as the microphone and instruments.
Hope it works for you. You can try a live Linux boot to play with some of the software, but things should work on Windows too. I've just not done much audio stuff in Windows.
Wow, who knew this was all so complex. I have a feeling many of the people that are posting videos to YouTube and stuff like that, don't have anything near as fancy as you do. Next thing you know, you will be cutting an album! This is really awesome.
Well my aim is to produce an album of my songs. We are lucky to have all those technology available. It would have cost a fortune to build an equivalent studio in the past. Most of my gear is budget stuff.
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This is some super geeky stuff man :)
Reminds me of the time I only had an ASUS EE PC with a barebones version of Ubuntu. I spent hours a day hacking it and trying to get things to work on Linux haha. Happy days.
I love playing with this stuff, but it can be frustrating at times. I really just want to make music, but I love the freedom of open source. Steem reminds me a bit of that. I've hardly used Windows at home in over 10 years.
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