Although I’m writing this from the perspective of a Linux user, Audacity is a cross-platform audio editor: there are also versions available for Windows and Mac OS X.

For my first album, evolution, I mixed all my audio by hand, surfing the control knobs as I mixed the tracks down to a master track. It was aggravating and inexact; I relied on my memory, sometimes pulling off gradual slides of four elements at once.

That era is over.

By the time of La vie sous la mer, I no longer used anything for mixing other than Audacity.

I do not use it for recording, however.  Instead, I use a Korg D888; after all, it’s essentially a hard wired, low latency multitrack recorder, all set up with the proper inputs and outputs — no need to fiddle around with sound cards.  It records to 44,100 Hz .wav files and is fully USB compatible — I can record tracks on the Korg and transfer them over to my computer easily.

However, for mixing, I don’t think I will ever bother with actual physical sliders and knobs ever again.  In Audacity, you can create very complex sound contours for any track — you can even separate stereo tracks and contour the volume for each track, producing some wild stereo panning effects.

My main use for it, though, is sound balance.  I’ve gotten into the habit of mixing iteratively — not all at once, but in stages.  Each time I complete a section, I balance the sound before adding a new track.  Audacity is perfect for this, as the saved project files offer not only a way to save the mixer settings, but also the ability to “undo” changes.

Right now, I’m working on at least six Audacity projects.  Five are in the final stages — I burn versions of the songs to CD, listen to them in my car over and over, and write down any changes I think I need.  When I get home, I make those small changes.

For those of you who’ve reached this page from Jamendo, let me give you the current “mission status”:

My fourth Jamendo album already has the five songs I mentioned above.  I haven’t decided on the track order yet, so here they are in the order they were completed:

1. Falling into the Dream
2. Vale Avis Tenebrica
3. Let It Burn (Song of Surtr)
4. Love and War / World on Fire
5. In Memory of Dorothy Blair

There are other tracks, but they are in early stages of development.  I hope to have the album completed and ready for release in (or before) April, for one simple reason:

We’re moving to Virginia in June.  One way or another, my musical world is going to come to an end.

For a short time, hopefully.  But life offers no guarantees.

I am relatively new to the world of MIDI.  I’ve been playing keys for a while, but only recently got rigged up so I could work my computer into the equation.  When I did, I found I’d discovered a brand new world.

Certainly the capitol city of this new world is

Rosegarden

Now, I’m not going to kid you.  This is one of the best Linux Audio applications, but it isn’t really for beginners.  You have to have at least a bit of experience with using JACK, a decent understanding of MIDI connections, familiarity with your audio hardware.  Working knowledge of a few software synths also helps.

However, to get an idea about what is possible with Rosie, check out the tour.  They mention seven areas in the tour, but let me highlight the two that I feel are the most important:

Notation

Rosegarden uses GNU Lilypond to produce highly readable and attractive scores.

I’ve been using lilypond for years.  However, writing .ly files from scratch is a very slow process.  The part that ends up getting me is entering the notes and durations, especially when I have written a complex part.

Well, Rosegarden can take MIDI keyboard input, quantize it (provided you haven’t gone too wild), and produce beautiful notation.  Sometimes there’s a bit of cleanup to do (especially if you’re like me, Mr. Legato on the keys).  However, my most important use for notation was storing chord voicings and melodic sequences.  With Rosegarden, not only do I have the original MIDI recording, I also have a printable page to paste into my notebook.

Integration

As I said above, you have to know a bit about MIDI and JACK connections to work with Rosegarden.  However, once you figure out a “happy spot” — you can store the settings in the song you’re working on and reload them any time you want.  In Rosegarden terms, you can save “your studio”.

Handy!  So of course my settings for playing with Aeolus (the pipe organ simulator) are stored in a file called CathedralOfStAlphonzo.rg (pancake breakfast optional).  Whenever I load the file, Rosegarden automatically sets up the connections I used before.

The Rosegarden Companion

I liked Rosegarden enough that I actually bought the book — a real book, not a man page or html page.  It turned out to be a good choice, an excellent tutorial and starting point.

Tips

Probably my favorite Rosegarden trick is to record a keyboard passage, then play it back while shifting the sound settings around to find a good mix.  For example, with Aeolus, a three part P/I/II passage (pedal, 1st manual, 2nd manual) can be recorded and looped.  Then, you can change the organ stops until you find the best possible voicing for your sequence.  Unlike the Hammond organ, the drawbars on a pipe organ are either ‘off’ or ‘on’ — finding a nice pipe voicing is actually a compositional task on par with writing the music in the first place.  Rosegarden definitely makes this process easier.

On Jamendo, a new friend asked me a question:

I wanted to ask your advice on good instrument/computer interfacing hardware, with linux compatibility in mind.

This (and a few other questions) will be the subject of the next few posts in my blog.

I really only use two interfaces.

The Trusty USB Port

Yes, JACK is great. Yes, my soundcard is capable of realtime recording to the hard drive.

No, I don’t use it.

See, I have a Korg D888 — a digital 8-track recorder. It’s already configured to be a low-latency hard drive recorder . . . and nothing else! I prefer to use my computer for processing, controlling, and mixing. (Plus, it’s awful hard to drag your desktop computer into the closet to record a few trumpet tracks).

In the old days, I mixed down directly on the D888. However, the USB interface makes it possible to send audio (44.1 kHz .wav files) to and from the recorder.

Nowadays, I mix all my audio in Audacity. Generally, I record a base track with the fundamental structure of the song; I then add layers on top of this until the composition is complete. Each time I complete a set of tracks, I download them to the computer and mix them in Audacity to see how they fit together. Over time, each new track is adjusted to fit the others, and vice versa.

I like it better than the old days, surfing the control knobs and sliders on the D888 for mixdown. Also, I gave up on using effects entirely — I record my tracks “dry”, then add the effects through Audacity plugins and other software sources.

This is only possible because of the USB port. Advice: for Linux, look for hardware that is compatible with both PC and Mac. Chances are, it doesn’t depend on some prepackaged nightmare contraption software that only runs on Windows.

Edirol UM-3EX

Only recently did I really get into MIDI, and I’m proud to say, this product worked right out of the box with absolutely no configuration required. The UM-3EX lets me have 3 in/out MIDI pairs. Here’s my standard routing:

1. Midi 1: IN from Hammond XK3 Organ, OUT to Nord Rack 2X.
2. Midi 2: IN from a cheapo Yamaha keyboard, OUT to Kurzweil ME-1.
3. Midi 3: IN from Nord Rack 2X (for recording patch dumps — always back up your settings!)

The setup above lets me use the Yamaha for all the computer-based synths I have set up (Aeolus, xsynth, Zynaddsubfx, for example). Also, if all else fails, I can just boot up the Yamaha by itself any time I want, turn the volume back up from ‘0′, and bang out a piano line if I feel like it — no setup required.

Since my last article, I’ve been trying out a number of synthesizers and music programs.

(Yes, I still do jazz — someone asked me if I was going to start doing ambient / trance / electro. Well . . . I don’t like to limit myself. The one thing I’m certain never to do is covers. The rest of the musical universe is fair game.)

In the next few posts, I’ll hit the ones that have worked the best so far: Rosegarden, Audacity, Renoise, Hydrogen, and Lilypond.

Today, I’m adding a new category to the blog: Linux Audio.

For years, I went along using the same old software tools. Meanwhile, Linux audio was advancing. New software came along, and incredible new things became available.

I’m going to try to take you along while I explore this new world.

My first discovery came courtesy of Ubuntu Studio:

Aeolus

• Homepage: http://www.kokkinizita.net/linuxaudio/aeolus/index.html
• Current Version: 0.6.6
• Current Debian / Ubuntu Package: 0.6.6+2-4

I started out as a jazz guitar player.  Jazz needs bass, so I learned to play fretless bass as well.  Turns out, I enjoyed bass more, so shifted my focus.  Today, I consider myself primarily to be a bass player (although the more general title of ‘composer’ is better suited).

However, I’ve always loved the sound of the organ, particularly the Hammond.  This is odd for a bass player to say, because . . . well, the organ is an instrument that can do without a bassist entirely.  The Hammond, for instance, has pedals, and a rich history of organists who have perfected a (literal) walking bass line.

Now, I’m just barely coordinated enough to play on two keyboards or two manuals, not to mention also be stomping out a third rhythm at the same time.

So understand when I see the console of a pipe organ (for example, this one), it’s a bit like putting Captain Jack Aubrey in command of the U.S.S. Nimitz.  Sure, the principles are the same, but the machine itself is from an entirely different world.

That’s where I have to thank Aeolus.  Aeolus is a software synthesizer designed to recreate the sound of a pipe organ.  I have to say, in a few weeks of use, this program makes barely a dent in memory or CPU usage on my machine, and yet produces very realistic sounding audio (especially through a good set of speakers).

There is an excellent tutorial on getting started with Aeolus, complete with screenshots.  Aeolus works well with Rosegarden, as well as MusE.

In my studio, I have two keyboards: the Hammond, of course, and a cheapo Yamaha from Best Buy (mostly for computer MIDI applications — I use an Edirol UM-3EX interface, which worked perfectly with Linux right out of the box).  Most of the time I play Aeolus through one keyboard split into two channels.  However, I’ve set it up before as 4 manuals (two keyboards in two channels) . . . .

It’s too bad Dr. Octopus turned to a life of crime, because he could have been a great pipe organist.

Anyway, I’m working on my 4th Jamendo album right now.  One of my side projects is to actually write a pipe organ arrangement of “La vie sous la mer (or, The Mermaid Wife)” (song #2 on my 3rd album).  Maybe I’ll get done with it in time for the new album.

Provided I can find a good pair of robotic, sentient extra limbs.