LinuxMusicians

Hi

I am an experienced Linux user & musician but a newbie here. I am mainly a lead guitarist & songwriter, been playing since 1976. I play other instruments enough to bluff my way through a few multi tracked parts. I started Multi tracking on an old tape 4 track. It was trying to get a decent computer music set up going that led me to Linux (Slackware in those days) about ten years ago. I am now just trying to get a home studio running again after my life being derailed by a series of catastrophes over the past five years.

I tend to use Ubuntu variants (including the Puppy/Ubuntu hybrids). I have just got an Alesis io2 expres USB interface which suits me as I can move it around between computers wherever I can find space to work. I am very fond of the brilliant Muse Sequencer but do seem to be using Ardour & Hydrogen a lot more these days.

The bar really seems to be have been raised on quality in the past few years. I especially need to learn production/mixing skills. I can get a decent signal on to a recording (even if the playing is a bit rusty ) but I need to know how to turn it all in to a pleasing finished product. Some advice on being able to do live miking in the kitchen without it sounding too awful would also be useful: I do not have the luxury of a studio space, so have to make the best wherever I find myself.

best wishes
Guy

Welcome English guy!

Whereabouts on our fair isle may you reside squire?

I really want to start using Muse, just I'm dependent upon plugins so I'm waiting for Muse to implement VST or LV2 before I dive in.

I'm trying to brush up on my mixing and production too so I recently bought and have just started reading "Mixing Secrets for the small studio" by Mike Senior, a pro producer who runs a regular column on the subject in Sound on Sound. I've not even read all the first chapter yet but its got great reviews on Amazon so I'll post a review on here when I'm done.

Hope you enjoy these forums!

Hi danboid.

I am down on the Kent coast near Dover.

Muse does support DSSI synths & LADSPA plugins. It was also the closest to cubase, which is where I came from, so in those days it was the obvious choice. I am on the mailing list & will raise LV2.

I do have 'Home Studio Recording for dummies' as well as the pre-computer 'Home Studio Recording for Musicians' by Craig Anderton. I am starting to get into things like youtube. For example, I found a really good 8 minute tutorial on using EQ on vocals ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qdDDVort ... ults_video ). The nice thing about video tutorials is that you can actually hear what should happen.

best wishes
Guy

Hi Guy!

Yep - I know it supports DSSI and LADSPA but the softsynths I want to use (Aspect, Noisemaker and maybe AceEchidna soon too) require native VST support. There is no need for you to bother them on the mailing list as I've already thoroughly badgered them so we've just gotta be patient or code it ourselves.

I'm pushing for VST support first because Aspect is VST only right now (although an LV2 port is coming), VST is a more mature standard, most plugins are VST already so it may entice more ports and I also suspect VST is easier to implement in the host as LV2 is a bit of a monster really. Rui and falktx can speak from experience about the host implementation side - I'm just guessing.

You've got a point about the vids but its not a prob with this book as you get access to 100's of sound files for the examples and exercises you get to hear the before and after. The author has produced a number of household bands and he wouldn't be writing for SoS if he didn't know his stuff so I trust I've made a good choice of text- we'll see!

Enjoy the forums!