A Question for Gentoo Bass Players???

southpaw

Hello fellow brothers of bassdom,
I was a little curious about a couple of things regarding gentoo/bass players/computer sequenceing & sampling/ and midi conversion. To clear things up let me put it this way, I am a bass player, I have been for close to 18 years now (damn that makes me feel old), during which I've experimented with many different technologies to give you an idea, I remember when laying down tracks on an ATARI w/ integrated midi connects was hot stuff...But enough remeniscing, my point being that of all the emerging technologies over the years the one that stands out the most for me would have to be midi for bass.
An impossible feat due to slow tracking and low frequencies until recently, I found a converter known as the AXON AX100. Between the AX100 and a piezo pickup system bass players could finally take part in the wonderful world of midi. A world that belonged to keyboard players only until now. Sorry about the mellow drama, oh and btw I'm definately not an AXON rep I just know a good idea when I hear one. Where am I going with all this mumbo jumbo well I'm glad you asked. My question to you the gentoo bassist is for those of you who are familiar with this aspect of composing music through a DAW triggered via midi by a piezo enhanced electric bass(if that isn't a shot in the dark...)have had any success adapting this method to a gentoo based audio sequencer or sampler? If such a creature exists please come forth and share your experience, I would like to hear about it because Im doing my fair share of research on the subject and I would like to build one gentoo box for sequencing and one for sampling. Any takers, hope to hear from ya...
thanx
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magnesium · Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 8:24 am Post subject:

As a new bassist I was curious at how to record a bass onto a computer, midi or not. I know that with Apple's GarageBand they have all sorts of accessories to record music on a mac, and am not sure what format it records this into, but I was intrigued by an accessory that they have which you plug your lead cord into. perhaps have a quick poke about the apple e-store and you'll be able to better understand the technology then I can. http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?productLearnMore=T9106LL/A for example

Along the lines of midi though, do you know any good linux compatable software that will play out bass tabs (or even guitar)? I'm looking for something that will play the music (midi or wav, I don't care) and show the tabs; kind of like follow the bouncing ball. Any ideas?
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wjholden · l33t Joined: 01 Mar 2004 Posts: 826 Location: Augusta, GA

Ok, I'm a mathematician and not a musician so anything I say may not be helpful in any way. That said, here's some Linux audo software:
http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/
http://muse.serverkommune.de/
http://audacity.sourceforge.net/
http://www.metadecks.org/software/sweep/
http://linux-sound.org/ <<-- just found this on Google, see what you think.

frameRATE · Posted: Tue May 03, 2005 8:48 pm Post subject:

Linux audio definitely needs some work. One reason I can't switch fully to Linux .. =(
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southpaw · Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 6:14 am Post subject:

Hello magnesium,
This response is pertaining to your question about how to record bass to a computer (DAW a.k.a Digital Audio Workstation). I am new to recording pro audio with linux so I can only give you general advice. In a nutshell, you're obviously going to need PC or MAC, back in the old days the Apple Macintosh was the #1 choice among professional engineers and home hobbyists alike. Because of its stable no nonsense OS it was the perfect candidate for sequencing software. How thing have changed, although the MAC is still to this day a staple in most if not all professional recording studios, the modern windows OS has made quite a name for itself in many pro audio establishments, thanks in part to sequencers such as Steinbergs Cubase SX, Nuendo, Cakewalks Sonar, and even the windows XP version of Pro Tools. But not to deviate too much, you will also need a good sequencer any of these will do, although there is many more out there that are equally as solid these are just the more well known programs. Next you will need an AD/DA (analog to digital/digital to analog) converter/ audio interface to plug your bass into, these devices come in a wide array of inputs (XLR, RCA, S/PDIF, 1/4"), options and price ranges. There are two things to keep in mind when looking at an interface setup (1) is the converter/ soundcard and (2) converter via usb or firewire. If your using a laptop or a desktop and your on a budget I'd recommend going with a usb or firewire enabled interface, I think M-Audio would be a good choice because they have many to choose from and their especially user friendly. Next your going to have to tweak your computer for recording, it's usually a good idea to use a computer dedicated to recording only, that means no internet, no email, no gaming nothing only audio. However if your broke as most of us are, you'll have to do more tweaking to get the desired result and even then there won't be any gaurantee's that your final product will be to your liking. Finally there is no substitute for knowledge, read, read, read and ask questions, embarking on the journey recording your own music is very exciting and can be very gratifying, but it can also be very frustrating. You ultimately have to determine how involved you want to be.
Anyway I hope this has been helpful, I will leave you now with some web addresses to aid you in your journey, lots of luck...

musicXP.net
computermusic.co.uk
soundonsound.com
m-audio.com
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mattsavigear · Posted: Wed May 04, 2005 9:29 am Post subject:

My other half and I use the following linux setup for recording! Note we don't do much with MIDI yet (though we have played with it a bit), but we have successfully recorded vocal, keyboard, guitar and bass. Haven't tried true drums yet (probably never will, not enough channels on the hardware), but have managed a friend's electronic kit.

Hardware:

Tascam US-122 (basically a USB sound card, 2 channel input, via 1/4" jack or XLR. Also has MIDI. The jack inputs can be switched from normal signal levels (e.g. from DSPs or preamps) to low level direct guitar input.).
Normal desktop PC (Athlon XP 2100+) or laptop for band rehearsals (Pentium-M 1700 I think).

Software:

JACK audio connection kit + qjackctl
Ardour + LADSPA plugins
Hydrogen

...plus occasional use of Audacity, jack-rack and timemachine

All the software is in portage, though some of it is ~x86 (ardour, specifically). Unfortunately, Ardour's MIDI support is very new, and not fully implemented, but you might want to look at Rosegarden or Muse.
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southpaw · Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 3:00 pm Post subject:

Hey Matt,
have you guys tried incorporating the sofware mixer with a drum sequencing program?
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mattsavigear · Posted: Fri May 06, 2005 7:16 pm Post subject:

Yep - you can slave basically give ardour control of the jack transport, and slave hydrogen from the jack source. As long as you have the right beats per minute set up in each program it works fine.
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Matt.

"Ninjas aren't dangerous. They're more afraid of you than you are of them." - The Tick.

southpaw · Posted: Tue May 10, 2005 7:10 pm Post subject:

Thats cool, you know I've heard lots of folks complain about linux not being ready for pro audio and I have never done any recording with linux, but being that you have I was wondering what your opinion on the matter was (in reference to ease of use, latency, THD and S/N ratio and so on...)??
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mattsavigear · Posted: Tue May 10, 2005 9:46 pm Post subject:

I think this is where I become less useful to you!

I should point out we're strictly amateur, and have no actual history of knowing how to work in a studio, so I suppose the ease of use can't be that bad. That said, I'm not bad technically, so the software setup side of things might be awkward for a less computer literate person - I guess that shouldn't be a problem for you if you're a gentoo user!

Things like latency and S/N ratio aren't really on my radar at the moment.

You might find hunting round the ardour site useful, as the guy who writes it has a business creating professional studio setups with linux based kit.
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Matt.

"Ninjas aren't dangerous. They're more afraid of you than you are of them." - The Tick.

southpaw · Posted: Wed May 11, 2005 4:09 am Post subject:

Thats cool matt,
I appreciate the tip though, I will definitely check the "ardour" site for more info. Eventually, I would like to design a DAW based on the gentoo-linux OS, because of it's in-depth configuration options it makes an ideal audio workstation platform for sequencing and sampling, but I'm a long way away from that...anyway off to the drawing board.
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khiloa · Guru Joined: 27 Jan 2004 Posts: 333 Location: Florence, SC