EMUSIC-L Weblog

 I happened across Ken Restivo’s blog the other day (lots of good "math funk" there in Ogg Vorbis format), and was interested to note that he’s doing almost everything - recording, synthesis, mixdown, the works - on LInux, using free software.

Having listened to the stuff he’s got there and liking it quite a lot, I started investigating what I could get or get running on OS X to best take advantage of my now-aging iBook G4.

• Most of these use Jack to output audio, so JackOSX is a requirement. I’ve installed it from a pre-built package.
• Hydrogen, a very nice drum machine, is available via MacPorts. Outputs via Jack. Does not build properly. Grrr.
• He uses the specimen sampler, which doesn’t have an OS X port, so I’ll have to try porting that myself. Outputs via Jack.
• Ardour, which comes in a prebuilt OS X version, for audio recording. I’m trying the new native version of this. Seems fine.
• Rosegarden, for MIDI sequencing (should be buildable via MacPorts, but not sure if this is a native app or X11).
• Lilypond, for engraving
• There are several more tools he mentions: fluidsynth, PHASEX, nekostring, AMS, Jack Rack, SooperLooper, WhySynth (interesting because of its mention of the ESQ-1 as an influence) and Helix, all of which I need to investigate in more detail.
• I’ve put links to all this in my del.icio.us, and will keep updating those as I go along.

 What I hope to do is put together a reference list of "useful free music software that will run under OS X". This is all part of my plan to hit Different Skies 2008 with my laptop, a USB controller keyboard, and the necessary gewgaws to connect me to the board (the FIREBOX; a teeny-tiny mixer to allow me to pull myself out of the mix for cueing, and to swap in the headphone output to the board if the FIREBOX cacks on me; and the necessary cables & c.). My aim is something that will fit completely into my carryon luggage so I can just walk in, set up, and be ready to go.

In "Every User Lies" at the excellent Coding Horror blog, Jeff Atwood refers in passing to the concept of the "active user" - the person who immediately runs the software without looking at the manual at all.

In my trying out of various softsynths (most notably the WayOutWare TimewARP 2600 and the GForce Oddity and impOSCar), I’ve found myself doing that - firing up Garageband, and opening the plugin in a track, then just fiddling with the presets. By this point I know quite well that doing this with an analog synth with a screenful of knobs and sliders is counterproductive, but I caught myself doing it anyway.

So I decided that if I was going to have any kind of a meaningful interaction with the plugins, I was going to have to work through the manuals and see what there was to learn, whether I decided to buy them or not - and to avoid wasting money on something that didn’t fit my headspace (and earspace). [Read more →]

From the Krakatoa entry on Wikipedia: "Biologically, the ‘Krakatau problem’ refers to the question of whether the islands were completely sterilized by the 1883 eruption or whether some life survived. When the first researchers reached the islands in May 1884, the only living thing they found was a spider in a crevice on the south side of Rakata."

I’ve added a new Wordpress plugin that will let me inline a player with MP3 links. Here’s a sample of a noise piece I made a while back using Thonk: Joe McMahon - An Ocean of Liquid Helium - click on the little speaker icon following the link to play the track.

I’ve started going through the various subpages in the site, cleaning them up to look better (all fixed text is so retro), and fixing lots of broken links. First up is the MIDI spec pages; I’ll be converting them over the next few weeks to look much better than they do now.

Quite some time back, I found a scanned copy of the ARP 2600 User’s manual. I’ve always had a soft spot for the 2600, though I could never quite afford one; it’s always seemed like a great balance as far as analog synths go.In a recent fit of “my disk is too full”, I unzipped the file of scans and started reading. It’s really a very good introduction to the machine and how it works; I’ve actually started feeling like if I had one in front of me, that I’d be able to use it effectively. [Read more →]

 A quick overview of Pure Data, ChucK, Supercollider, Csound, and several other synthesis languages/tools I haven’t heard of before. Looks like it would repay some link-mining. [Edited 01/08 ... I forgot the link!]

Between the two evenings (Friday tech rehearsal and Saturday performance) we’ve got good versions of everything, looks like. That’s excellent.

It was an outstanding year this year. We’re hoping to work out the best way to communicate the Different Skies experience altogether; I have no idea whether it’ll be a DVD, CD , or what at this point,  but it will definitely contain a lot of great music.

And yes, the gear video’s coming. 

I’m currently at the airport, having just finished going through security and having to have my backpack scanned twice; too many confusing electronic bits, I guess.

Load-out took from after the concert and final jams (ten-ish) until about 3AM. We got to experience the weather we might have had: 60 mph winds and cold. Fortunately, that was the only cold night we had. We all got up as usual thsi morning; several folks had to go out early (Otso, DK, and Mike) because of bad weather predicted along their return route. Giles, Bill Fox, Darrel, Allen, and Doug went out around noon, and Jim Combs and I followed soon after. I was lucky that Jim was with me, as there was construction that required us to get off the freeway and drive through random parts of Phoenix. Jim had done it on Sunday when he went back down to pick up Otso and John 3. I dropped Jim off, dropped the rental car off (it was a Honda Civic hybrid - only half a tank of gas to get all the way to Arcosanti and back - cool!), and checked in.

Man, am I tired. Thank goodness Ivan was there to do sound for us, but that is some heavy equipment. Fortunately Rus ran into The Naked Guy during this process instead of me, as I would probably not have handled it with equal aplomb. (The Naked Guy showed up partway through the process; he apparently really needed to get to the visitor’s parking lot for some reason. Who knows.)

Sales at the merchandise table were brisk - the two folks who volunteered to help out took in more than $400. Wish I’d had my CD ready, but oh well. Maybe next time.

I need to analyze my setup and come up with something without a single point of failure if I want to play live. The FIREBOX was the bottleneck - if I’d just yanked the mixer cables and swapped them to the Firebox I could have stayed on line. “Everything and Nothing” would have just been different, rather than for all practical purposes nonexistent. I could have done fine with something I could switch to a straight audio-out feed from the headphone jack in an emergency - it worked well enough for the TV appearance, so it would certainly do for a backup. I didn’t use the Vortex much at all, so I could leave it home next time. If the audio was all routed direct to the mixer, and then to the direct box, I could turn up the direct laptop feed in case of an interface crash, or simply switch to whatever else I was using (real modules/etc.) if the computer bit it completely. Add one of the Edirol controllers for a backup if the keyboard goes but the computer’s up. and I should be ready for nearly anything. Though I will still keep the drum and whatever other acoustic instrument(s) I bring handy; they should work for anything short of the power going off. Miking, etc. is to be figured out later. And I’d really like to start playing trumpet again. Would be a nice addition to Brian’s sax.

Admittedly, it would have been nice if I had been able to figure this out earlier, but at least I’ve got a live setup sorted out for next time … and I definitely want there to be a next time.

Mostly rested today. Put together the vocal samples for “Everything and Nothing”, Allen’s and my piece … we’ll talk about that later.The concert was a raousing success; technically speaking for me it was a nightmare, The FIREBOX hung repeatedly whenever I brought up any software that tried to talk to it, so when we got to “Everything and Nothing”, I really did have nothing. Worse, Allen’s rig crashed too. I filled with a little ambient percussion, hoping he could get straightened out, but no luck. Still, even on the pieces I was out of due to tech problems, it still sounded great.I was fortunately problem-free for Bill’s piece, and I rocked my MiniMoog solo tonight. Very happy. Drumming was at a way higher standard than the rest of the weekm even happier about that.A great experience, and one I’ll probably write more about later. Especially I need to look at the technucal issues and see how to resolve them, I’m going to play more live gigs.