Any Ecasound and Nama Users?

Support & discussion regarding DAWs and MIDI sequencers.

Moderators: MattKingUSA, khz

Post Reply
Broomy
Established Member
Posts: 163
Joined: Sun Apr 28, 2013 5:36 am
Been thanked: 1 time

Any Ecasound and Nama Users?

Post by Broomy »

Recently I came across Ecasound and the frontend Nama and I kinda like the bare to the bone look and feel of it.
Besides that, I also like the fact that it's low on resources; my trusty Presonus VLS audio card, demands old (usb 2.0) hardware to function.
And lastly, it would really suit my recording needs (which is usually just one or two guitar tracks, with a mild effect chain).

I wondered: Are there any frequent users here on this forum?
And what keeps you using Ecasound/Nama in spite of the more graphical advanced alternatives?
And how do you punch in/ punch out when recording a track?
How did you find your way in setting up a effect chain?

Hans
The Quintar Project:
- Popularizing an all fifths tuning for guitarlike instruments
- Youtube: Playing and Building
- Files: Sourceforge
User avatar
davephillips
Established Member
Posts: 592
Joined: Sat Aug 15, 2015 1:05 pm
Has thanked: 35 times
Been thanked: 23 times

Re: Any Ecasound and Nama Users?

Post by davephillips »

Greetings !

I frequently run a small script that launches ecasound for making quick recordings when I don't need to launch Ardour or Bitwig. Very handy script.

IMO the best user of ecasound is Jeanette C, she's a member of the Linux Audio User list but I'm not sure she's here. She's blind, so ecasound is perfect for her and she has mastered it. As you're aware, ecasound is no joke, it's a powerful command-prompt DAW, possibly the only one of its kind, certainly the only one of its class.

Here's Jeanette's music page:

http://juliencoder.de/nama/music.html

Check it out, she does great stuff with Csound too.

Best regards,

Dave Phillips
Broomy
Established Member
Posts: 163
Joined: Sun Apr 28, 2013 5:36 am
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: Any Ecasound and Nama Users?

Post by Broomy »

Greetings to you too!

I've checked that website and it has some nice musical examples!

Do you mind sharing your script as an example?
Do you use Nama as well?

And yes, ecasound is no joke! It's very powerful. And I noticed it's updated recently.

Hans
The Quintar Project:
- Popularizing an all fifths tuning for guitarlike instruments
- Youtube: Playing and Building
- Files: Sourceforge
User avatar
milo
Established Member
Posts: 1242
Joined: Wed Sep 06, 2017 2:55 am
Location: Southern Utah, USA
Has thanked: 275 times
Been thanked: 218 times
Contact:

Re: Any Ecasound and Nama Users?

Post by milo »

davephillips wrote:Here's Jeanette's music page:

http://juliencoder.de/nama/music.html
Thanks for that link, Dave! I've been listening to her music all morning and it is good stuff.

Make sure you check out her Bach recordings, everyone. I especially liked the Rhodes piano version of Goldberg Variation No.7: http://juliencoder.de/bach/BWV988-Varia ... ersion.ogg. Brilliant! I'm tempted to add a drum track.
User avatar
davephillips
Established Member
Posts: 592
Joined: Sat Aug 15, 2015 1:05 pm
Has thanked: 35 times
Been thanked: 23 times

Re: Any Ecasound and Nama Users?

Post by davephillips »

Broomy wrote:...Do you mind sharing your script as an example?
Here it is, short and sweet:

Code: Select all

!/bin/sh

xterm -T "EcaRec" -bg antiquewhite -fg black -e "/usr/bin/ecasound -c -f:s24_le,2,48000 -i:jack -o:foo.wav" &
It's called ecarec.scr, I gave it executable permissions so it's a nice little self-contained utility recorder.
Do you use Nama as well?
No, but I have looked at it for review purposes.

Best regards,

dp
vasakq
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Aug 26, 2019 10:33 pm
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: Any Ecasound and Nama Users?

Post by vasakq »

I have been using ecasound a lot lately. The reason is It runs perfectly on my Raspberry Pi Zero W and I use it mainly to record live concerts of classical / baroque chamber music. And being CLI program it can be operated and monitored remotely via ssh. In practice it means I put RPi (running headless), USB soundcard (E-Mu 0404USB) and battery power pack in a shoebox an place it in the foot of mic stand. Then I can start / stop recording from android phone or tablet running some ssh (or even better, VNC) client. This setup is very neat because it requires just 2x3m of cables - from the bottom of the stand to the mics - so there are no cables running across the stage for the musicians to slip over and the whole setup fits in a backpack. I also devised a bash script to start recording ASAP, but its a bit longer, around 100 or so lines of code and all of the interactive stuff is in foreign language so I am willing to translate it and publish here only on your request :D

This is a sample of music recorded with ecasound (although it is edited and processed in Ardour on a laptop running Debian):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EiDAZqnDZg
Broomy
Established Member
Posts: 163
Joined: Sun Apr 28, 2013 5:36 am
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: Any Ecasound and Nama Users?

Post by Broomy »

That's a very nice recording (and beautiful music too)!

I've been working with Ecasound using Nama on top of it for some time now.
Personally I really like the bare-to-the-bone look and feel and it works rock solid.
There are three things which are a bit less easy to do or which needs some improvement (imho).
1. Adding newer plugins is possible but not as straightforward as the older plugins;
2. There's no native click(track) option, so you have to use Klick for example to get a click track;
3. Punch in / punch out (in Nama) is currently under (re)development.

Besides that I that I really like it.

Hans
The Quintar Project:
- Popularizing an all fifths tuning for guitarlike instruments
- Youtube: Playing and Building
- Files: Sourceforge
jeanette_c
Established Member
Posts: 728
Joined: Tue May 12, 2020 5:53 pm
Has thanked: 347 times
Been thanked: 268 times

Re: Any Ecasound and Nama Users?

Post by jeanette_c »

I know that this is an old thread, but if it's still of interest, now I'm here. I use Nama quite regularly and I used to use pure Ecasound before that. In case of interest, there is a mailinglist on freelists.org, searching for Nama should do the trick. It is a very small and quiet list, not many users at all.
Best wishes, Jeanette
--
distro: ArchLinux, DAW: Nama, MIDI sequencer: Midish
All my latest music on https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMS4rf ... 7jhC1Jnv7g
Albums, patches and Csound on http://juliencoder.de
Broomy
Established Member
Posts: 163
Joined: Sun Apr 28, 2013 5:36 am
Been thanked: 1 time

Re: Any Ecasound and Nama Users?

Post by Broomy »

Thanks for the reply.

I'm already using the mailinglist (every now and then).

Using Ecasound as my go-to DAW.
I have scripts for when I just want to noodle on my guitar or to record a quick idea.
The build-in effect are suprisingly good.
Love it.

Hans
The Quintar Project:
- Popularizing an all fifths tuning for guitarlike instruments
- Youtube: Playing and Building
- Files: Sourceforge
jeanette_c
Established Member
Posts: 728
Joined: Tue May 12, 2020 5:53 pm
Has thanked: 347 times
Been thanked: 268 times

Re: Any Ecasound and Nama Users?

Post by jeanette_c »

Hey hey Hans, have you tried Nama's doodle mode? Quite good for noodling and with tracks and effect chains you could put on your fave effects with just the right settings. I find that helpful to noodle experiments on synths.
--
distro: ArchLinux, DAW: Nama, MIDI sequencer: Midish
All my latest music on https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMS4rf ... 7jhC1Jnv7g
Albums, patches and Csound on http://juliencoder.de
Post Reply