My laptop has a 13", 1280x800 screen. My main screen at home is a Dell Ultrasharp 2209WA, 22" and 1680x1050. I don't much like to work with dual screens as I always end up clicking outside the screen I'm supposed to be in, windows keep opening in the wrong screen etc. so I just shut of the laptop screen.
Anyway, after the "reform" where xorg.conf was deemed to be user-unfriendly, it is actually harder to manually add a screen resolution. In Gnome's "Display preferences" window, 1680x1050 was not on the list of possible resolutions. After some googling I found this helpful post about how to add a screen resolution manually with xrandr. After step 3, however, I just used the "Display preferences" dialog to choose the newly added resolution, which makes the rest of the steps unnecessary.
The "Display preferences" is apparently a GUI for xrandr. I hope that in the future, it will be able to add modes as well.
By the way, for those who celebrate: merry christmas!
lördag 26 december 2009
onsdag 23 december 2009
Using a MIDI controller - the Nobels MF-2
I have recently purchased an old MIDI foot controller, a Nobels MF-2 (pictured here). Part 3 of Dave Phillips' "Brief survey" of Linux MIDI applications (from 2004!) directed me towards kmidimon (for monitoring MIDI events) and QMidiRoute (for routing MIDI commands). I still haven't figured out how to hook things up, but the signals from the pedal show up in kmidimon, which is a good sign.
I have yet to read the MF-2 owner's manual (thankfully downloadable from Nobels) and figure out how the pedal itself works. Then I will make an effort to understand this MIDI routing business.
My intention is to control start/stop/overdub in SooperLooper and start/stop active loops in seq24. Any helpful hints are appreciated.
I have yet to read the MF-2 owner's manual (thankfully downloadable from Nobels) and figure out how the pedal itself works. Then I will make an effort to understand this MIDI routing business.
My intention is to control start/stop/overdub in SooperLooper and start/stop active loops in seq24. Any helpful hints are appreciated.
Success with new Jack settings
No wonder there are problems when you are stupid! I was using the obsolete "freebob" driver instead of the newer FFADO "firewire" driver in Jack. Once this was corrected, even Bristol seemed relatively stable. (I'm on Ubuntu Studio (Karmic) using an Edirol FA-66, FYI)
Now I can achieve lower latency, too. With a sample rate of 44.1 kHz and a buffer size of 64 frames/period (latency according to Qjackctl: 4.35 msec) things seem to work well. With a buffer size of 32 (latency: 2.18 msec) Adour disconnects from Jack, and with an even lower setting, my whole system gets very slow. But I've worked with higher latencies than 4.35 msec without being dissatisfied, so this is a win.
At maximum sample rate (192 kHz) I can get down to 4 msec (with 256 frames/period). I can go even lower but then my system gradually gets a bit slow. Somehow Hydrogen doesn't recognize the higher sample rate, or maybe all the samples in the drum kits are recorded with a lower sample rate, because everything gets more high-pitched when Jack is set to a higher rate.
I guess I could tweak the settings more to achieve optimal performance. I don't know what "No memory lock" or "Unlock memory is", and I know even less what the difference between these two is, so I will need to read up on it. Maybe "Periods/buffer" is something to get acquanted with as well. Checking the memory lock boxes has had no apparent effect, though.
Ardour still throws a segmentation fault once in a while, particularly when normalizing a region or when trying to reconnect to Jack once connection was lost (Ardour always dies when I try that at 192 kHz). This is quite annoying, and I hope I can fix it. Hydrogen has also died once for no apparent reason.
In short: I'm back on track. My goal is to have a stable environment for composing, recording and mixing. There are still some things to work out but I'm getting closer!
Now I can achieve lower latency, too. With a sample rate of 44.1 kHz and a buffer size of 64 frames/period (latency according to Qjackctl: 4.35 msec) things seem to work well. With a buffer size of 32 (latency: 2.18 msec) Adour disconnects from Jack, and with an even lower setting, my whole system gets very slow. But I've worked with higher latencies than 4.35 msec without being dissatisfied, so this is a win.
At maximum sample rate (192 kHz) I can get down to 4 msec (with 256 frames/period). I can go even lower but then my system gradually gets a bit slow. Somehow Hydrogen doesn't recognize the higher sample rate, or maybe all the samples in the drum kits are recorded with a lower sample rate, because everything gets more high-pitched when Jack is set to a higher rate.
I guess I could tweak the settings more to achieve optimal performance. I don't know what "No memory lock" or "Unlock memory is", and I know even less what the difference between these two is, so I will need to read up on it. Maybe "Periods/buffer" is something to get acquanted with as well. Checking the memory lock boxes has had no apparent effect, though.
Ardour still throws a segmentation fault once in a while, particularly when normalizing a region or when trying to reconnect to Jack once connection was lost (Ardour always dies when I try that at 192 kHz). This is quite annoying, and I hope I can fix it. Hydrogen has also died once for no apparent reason.
In short: I'm back on track. My goal is to have a stable environment for composing, recording and mixing. There are still some things to work out but I'm getting closer!
måndag 21 december 2009
A bunch of problems
Since last time I wrote, I haven't had access to my equipment and I haven't had time for music making. I'm back now and ready to go. Sadly, I've had a fair share of trouble this far:
1. "Ubuntu Studio controls" don't seem to work for me. I need to set the permissions for /dev/raw1394 manually every time I restart.
2. Ardour crashes during normal usage without further explanation.
3. The Bristol version included in Ubuntu Studio isn't compiled with the Jack driver, which is a big mystery to me. After compiling it from source, I can run hook up a midi keyboard to it through Jack. Sadly, it crashes randomly, emitting the most horrendous sound.
4. ZynAddSubFx crashes too.
On top of this, ALSA sound playback fails every half an hour or so - Rhythmbox gives me a weird Gstreamer error ("pad problem") and Spotify (Wine) just stops playing without further notice.
I'm not so enthusiastic about this as I first was... I think I need to find someone who can help me set up a stable audio production environment, this trial-and-error thing is starting to wear me out.
EDIT: After correcting a mistake, everything works better! The enthusiasm is back. See the next post
1. "Ubuntu Studio controls" don't seem to work for me. I need to set the permissions for /dev/raw1394 manually every time I restart.
2. Ardour crashes during normal usage without further explanation.
3. The Bristol version included in Ubuntu Studio isn't compiled with the Jack driver, which is a big mystery to me. After compiling it from source, I can run hook up a midi keyboard to it through Jack. Sadly, it crashes randomly, emitting the most horrendous sound.
4. ZynAddSubFx crashes too.
On top of this, ALSA sound playback fails every half an hour or so - Rhythmbox gives me a weird Gstreamer error ("pad problem") and Spotify (Wine) just stops playing without further notice.
I'm not so enthusiastic about this as I first was... I think I need to find someone who can help me set up a stable audio production environment, this trial-and-error thing is starting to wear me out.
EDIT: After correcting a mistake, everything works better! The enthusiasm is back. See the next post
torsdag 29 oktober 2009
Installing Ubuntu 9.10 (Karmic)
I ended up never installing 9.04 (Jaunty). This time around, I even made my way to a release party (at Gnutiken) to install the latest Ubuntu release. I have to say, it was a painless and quick process and everything seems faster (it might also be because I installed the 64 bit version...).
This time, I installed the regular Ubuntu, instead of Ubuntu Studio. The steps to get things going from here:
1. I installed linux-image-rt (the realtime kernel)
2. I installed some audio software (apt-get install ardour hydrogen gave me most of the necessary stuff like jack and qjackctl).
2. I added my user to the 'audio' group and logged out / logged in.
3. To get access to the firewire device, I did modprobe raw1394 and chmod a+rw /dev/raw1394 (I learned this from my own blog)
4. I set up qjackctl to use the FFADO plugin with a buffer size of 512 and it worked!
I haven't been able to test it much yet, but playback from Ardour seems to work fine enough. Hooray for 9.10!
This time, I installed the regular Ubuntu, instead of Ubuntu Studio. The steps to get things going from here:
1. I installed linux-image-rt (the realtime kernel)
2. I installed some audio software (apt-get install ardour hydrogen gave me most of the necessary stuff like jack and qjackctl).
2. I added my user to the 'audio' group and logged out / logged in.
3. To get access to the firewire device, I did modprobe raw1394 and chmod a+rw /dev/raw1394 (I learned this from my own blog)
4. I set up qjackctl to use the FFADO plugin with a buffer size of 512 and it worked!
I haven't been able to test it much yet, but playback from Ardour seems to work fine enough. Hooray for 9.10!
onsdag 22 juli 2009
Krater - an album-a-day
So, that supposedly useful post I promised you will just have to wait. I will post it some time during the next decade or so...
Irony aside, I have recently recorded an album-a-day. It's called Krater and can be downloaded here. Most of it was done within 12 hours, with a minimal amount of mixing done the next day. I don't really know what to tell you about the music itself, there's some pop music with shaky vocals in Swedish and some instrumental tracks of different genres. I still love the sounds of the Roland TR-808 drum machine.
Stuff used:
Hardware
* Edirol FA-66
* Boss ME-50
* ADK A-51
* Fender Telecaster (thanks Caspar!)
* Peavey Cirrus 4
Software
* Ubuntu Studio (Hardy)
* Ardour
* Hydrogen
* seq24
* ZynAddSubFX
* Qsynth (with Fluid R3 sound font)
Jack crashed a couple of times during recording, but otherwise there were no issues from what I can remember.
What's next then? I still haven't installed Jaunty, but I will do it soon. Apparently there are still problems with the realtime kernel, but there is help!
Irony aside, I have recently recorded an album-a-day. It's called Krater and can be downloaded here. Most of it was done within 12 hours, with a minimal amount of mixing done the next day. I don't really know what to tell you about the music itself, there's some pop music with shaky vocals in Swedish and some instrumental tracks of different genres. I still love the sounds of the Roland TR-808 drum machine.
Stuff used:
Hardware
* Edirol FA-66
* Boss ME-50
* ADK A-51
* Fender Telecaster (thanks Caspar!)
* Peavey Cirrus 4
Software
* Ubuntu Studio (Hardy)
* Ardour
* Hydrogen
* seq24
* ZynAddSubFX
* Qsynth (with Fluid R3 sound font)
Jack crashed a couple of times during recording, but otherwise there were no issues from what I can remember.
What's next then? I still haven't installed Jaunty, but I will do it soon. Apparently there are still problems with the realtime kernel, but there is help!
fredag 27 februari 2009
Plans
Not much has happened since the last time I wrote - I've been busy working, going to shows (most recently the fantastic Anna von Hausswolff and Wildbirds and Peacedrums, both very inspiring) and watching Twin Peaks. I've recorded some bass and vocals for a song, but there is no finished result yet.
I have some plans, though: two solo "albums" or EP:s this spring: one with my "pop" songs, with quite a lot of melodies and guitars, some toy keyboards and some sampling; one with more austere bass-oriented songs that I could perform with only bass and vocals if I wanted. As per usual, the end results will probably differ a lot from what I've planned, but there it is. Also, I will try to establish some routines and schedule time for playing/practicing/recording. Now that I'm not in a band anymore it's hard to find the time to really work with music.
As for my Linux-related plans, I intend to play around some more with the Hydrogen beta, and also make more use of the seq24 sequencer and the Specimen sampler. If I would stumble upon a cheap midi foot controller, I would try putting it to use with SooperLooper or something.
My next post will be a little more subtantial, with a collection of useful links to Linux music related issues.
I have some plans, though: two solo "albums" or EP:s this spring: one with my "pop" songs, with quite a lot of melodies and guitars, some toy keyboards and some sampling; one with more austere bass-oriented songs that I could perform with only bass and vocals if I wanted. As per usual, the end results will probably differ a lot from what I've planned, but there it is. Also, I will try to establish some routines and schedule time for playing/practicing/recording. Now that I'm not in a band anymore it's hard to find the time to really work with music.
As for my Linux-related plans, I intend to play around some more with the Hydrogen beta, and also make more use of the seq24 sequencer and the Specimen sampler. If I would stumble upon a cheap midi foot controller, I would try putting it to use with SooperLooper or something.
My next post will be a little more subtantial, with a collection of useful links to Linux music related issues.
Prenumerera på:
Inlägg (Atom)