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How we created the single on Ubuntu Studio 13.10


our sound guitarist comprehends the charms of working with JACK

The authors of the distribution Ubuntu Studio created it for creative people. Music, graphics, video. All necessary software is included in the distribution and should work out of the box.
The group concept limits us in software. Only license, in priority - free. Therefore, it was decided to use Ubuntu Studio .
Recorded and drove home. For complete happiness, they released the result under the Creative Commons license (BY-SA 4.0) .

You can listen or download all three tracks here:
soundcloud.com/muzgruppa/sets/tyopl-lamp

UPD sorry, did not expect such a number of visitors to this site and our account there while blocked (for free there are restrictions). Keep here links to googlodisk
link 1 ,
reference 2
')
UPD 2 account is available again. Apparently, just lagged the service. Links to googledisk just in case I will leave. And here's another link to the single on Jamendo - there are no restrictions on listening and downloading. www.jamendo.com/en/list/a130636/tjoplyj.-lampovyj

1. What was used


1.1. Software list



1.2. Equipment


When mixing, very useful recommendations from the site zalalbom.rf . Many thanks to its authors!
Now let's go directly to the process.

2. Tuts-tuts-tuts or hydrogen drummer


The drummer was not originally from the band - it was immediately decided to perform the soundtracks made on the Hydrogen drum machine ( Russian-language website ). The best of the default libraries (in my opinion) UltraAcoustick . However, we used the BigMono library from Analogue Drums .

2.1. Description of the BigMono library from Analogue Drums

Pros:

Minuses:

Under the license, you can download it only from this page (there is no version for Hydrogen ), it is prohibited to upload it to other resources. Therefore, I do not have the right to post here a link to our assembly. And I will not advise you to search the library on the website hydrogen-music.org in the Downloads section. Modifying is also prohibited, so I didn’t tell you about the ride side and the crashes from the UltraAcoustick . And do not try to ask me through the mail rtnsl@yandex.ru ready library instructions (>: |). But I can share our settings.

2.2. Our library settings

You can download the drumkits.xml file and drop it into the ... / drumkits / Big Mono folder (with Wave ) or customize it in the images:




The order of the HiHat tools (not visible in the image):
  1. HiHat Closed (LH)
  2. HiHat Closed (RH)
  3. Hihat open
  4. HiHat Semi-Open
  5. Hihat pedalled

Closed hatches did not seem to us to be closed enough, so their volume is adjusted given that we lower the force of each strike on them by one division (on average).
The overall loudness in the mixer was always set to maximum (even so it was rather quiet).

Take the missing samples in the UltraAcoustick library.

3. Bassist is to blame


We don't have a bass player either, so we used Naturally Decaying Bass Guitars in SF2 format.
SF2 Player is included in LMMS as a tool. In the properties of SF2 Player you need to specify the bass guitar file and select Naturally Finger Bass in the Patch property. Support for the JACK server is still poorly implemented in LMMS , so the bass line was added to Ardour as standard via export / import wave. Effects were processed only in Ardour .

4. Now for the record.


Mixed by the guitarist group. He does not plan to start an account on Habré, because he just wrote me the main points of his work on the single.
It was originally planned to use Ubuntu Stidio 12.04 (LTS) , which was installed and worked out of the box with only minor problems. But then the vocal needed an ex-sayter (it allows you to add harmonics to the vocal, making the sound better), but this plug-in is only present in the current version of Calf . Which because of dependences was not put on 12.04. With a heavy heart decided to put 13.10. Experience is not deceived. We returned to the warm lamp drops of Ardour , JACK and other software, but we got Ardour 3 and the desired exceiter.

4.1. JACK server setup

The JACK Audio Connection Kit (JACK) is a daemon-based audio server that allows low-latency interconnection of audio programs that support this technology. It is required for the work of Ardour .
Ubuntu Studio comes with a graphical qjackctl utility. Well the whole setup process is described here .
After starting qjackctl , select the parameters and put a tick (if it isn’t) in front of the “ Realtime ” item ( Realtime ). Once a powerful computer has been used, the sampling frequency is 96000, periods per buffer 3. The “interface” parameter is responsible for selecting the audio unit. Sound ( Audio ) - duplex.
There were problems with the Frames / Period selections. With a value above 1024, Ardor refused to export, so 1024 and left. You can use a lower value.

4.2. Ardour 3.5.74

Unlike Ubuntu 12.04 , Ardour 3 is present in the Ubuntu 13.10 repositories. Our guitar player decided to synchronize the faders and other midi-keyboard twists with the Ardor track settings. I found that the Mackie interface does not work correctly (only Master Volume moves) and reassembled Ardour from source. To work correctly, Mackie had to be corrected in the source ( /libs/surfaces/mackie/surface.cc ), in the constructor of the class “Surface :: Surface (MackieControlProtocol & mcp, const std :: string & device_name, uint32_t number, surface_type_t stype)” . ", _active (false)" should be replaced by ", _active (true)" .
After the first launch of Ardour, you need to specify the project name and folder (home by default). He connected to the JACK server himself. If you want to enable synchronization with a jack, find the Internal button between the transport control buttons and the timecode. After clicking, its value will change to JACK : Ardour and JACK sync is on.
We were pleased with the wide possibilities (considering the gratuity). Also in the plus effects before the fader (very often in the programs they are after).

4.3. Effects

Calf plug-ins have already been called in Habré the best of LADSPA . We will add to them the TAP Reverberator ( TAP Reverberator ). However, this was not without problems and the search for a solution. Most of the effects of TAP and some others had to be eliminated. For example, Calf Equalizer * Band added wheezing to the bass, especially to the bottom. And Pitch Shifter is just awful. If there is a big impulse at the beginning / end of the track, a crash on the tracks or other similar problems, then the shutdown of some effect will most likely help. Fortunately, the main types of effects are provided in several versions.
For guitar, there is a separate set of Guitarix plugins. The overload from this set is the best among LADSPA in our opinion. However, in this case, it was not needed, as the overdrive of the combos and pedals were used.

4.4. Drumming

Pleased with the presence of tires - objects in which you can connect multiple tracks to use the same effects. While mixing, the drums were processed in Ardour with effects as follows:

Hydrogen supports exporting the composition to several audio files (separate for each instrument). It can also be connected directly to Ardour via JACK . But to save computer resources, it is better to use standard wave export / import.

5. Preparation of a single for publication.


For export to flac and mp3 formats, soundconverter was used. EasyTag and Kid3-Qt were used to add tags. The cover was drawn in Gimp familiar designer. The font for the cover borrowed from webfont.ru . Presentation versions of the songs (first verse + chorus) were created using Audacity .

6. Results


People with thin and sensitive ear (sic!) Independently made an unequivocal verdict: one feels that it was recorded casually (on a cheap microphone and a maximum of the third take), but the mix is ​​good and the final recording is a demo of tolerable quality. The task is completed, and in the future we will continue to use the same software. We hope that Ubuntu Studio 14.04 (LTS) will work as stable as 12.04. This is exactly what the current version of the distribution kit is missing.
After a while, I would like a professional sound producer to publish his experience on Ubuntu Studio with studio equipment.

UPD:
Did not include useful links to very useful, even if old reviews of music software from under Linux - 7 articles:
Overview of all software (2008)
Pro Ardour and JACK (2009)

For those who want a newer overview on Habré (2012)

Once again I will mention the Hydrogen tutorial book - I would put it between 3 and 4 average on a five-point scale, but someone can help to gain a base.

Also Klukonin user shared his experience :

1) If you use ubuntu, you can pay attention to the KXstudio repositories.
There you will find the latest Ardour3 builds For ubuntu 12.04 LTS and there are such useful things as the freshest versions, for example, the Calf plugin suite directly from the repository. They are tagged with -git. There you will find a patched kernel for low latency (Jack can work with delays of less than 1 ms).
http://kxstudio.sourceforge.net/

I strongly recommend not using the Ubuntu Studio build.
I settled on Kubuntu 12.04 LTS. At the moment, this is the best thing for multimedia.

2) There is a very cool host for plug-ins - Carla. It has a built-in convenient panel for connecting by virtual postings.
And you can control it over the network via the OSC protocol. There is a ready-made client, but under the x86 architecture.

3) On the KXStudio website you can find instructions on tuning the system to achieve stability when recording
http://wiki.linuxaudio.org/wiki/kxstudio_manual

4) Fine tuning
wiki.linuxaudio.org/wiki/system_configuration#solve_irq_conflict_by_unbinding_devices

Well, the processor frequency is better to set the maximum and prohibit the shift.
Because precious time is wasted on perestroika, and this causes jitter.

I completely forgot!

The repository is ours . On Gitkhab.

Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/206204/

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