Hello from Poland

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mr_p
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Hello from Poland

Post by mr_p »

Hi there!

I was reading linuxmusicians.com for few months and now I decided to join this great community and maybe take a part in discussions.
Sorry for my English. I promise that I will try to improve my level of expression :D

I just finished building a small recording studio based on Linux PC and I wanted to share my thoughts.
This is my second adventure with Linux. The first one ended about 10 years ago due to lack of software. I always was convinced about that The Linux is great (and even superior) OS but only a few weeks ago was my personal Linux Day :mrgreen:

So - I'm musician not an producer and my recording studio was designed to fit my personal needs (Its just Linux laptop, M-Audio interface and monitors and Korg midi keyboard).
I used to work with Windows And Mac software. During all years of my music work I used to use few pieces of software:

Pro Tools or Reaper as DAW
Ohm Force Minimonsta - great commercial synth.
Garritan Personal Orchestra - amazing tool for orchestration which I used to create soundtracks
Waves effects and especially
- Q10 - just regular equaliser
- C1 - regular comperssor
- L2 - great limiter (I love this one)
- De-esser
- X-Noise - great noise gate.

I replaced this set with:

- Ardour (I love Ardour but also I'm waiting for Q-tractor to become more user-friendly, it is very promising by now)
- ZynAddSubFX - I love it even more than Minimonsta!
- VSCO-2 CE (as for me - It is great as replacement of GPO; it is different - no worse, no better - just different and I've got some tricks to make it sound even more realistic)
- Calf Studio Gear - I love Calf limiter

As for now - I'm looking for good noise gate but I can manage with what I have now :)

I always thought that gear/software/hardware/instruments will not make you good musician. If you are good musician - you should be able to make good music in any envirnment. But I'm also amazed with how Linux and Linux software was developed during last years not only in the aspect of music software.

I can't fully get rid of Windows right now because of musicians that I'm working with - they are used to familiar OS and DAWs but I'll try to show them all the benefits that comes with Linux :)
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sadko4u
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Re: Hello from Poland

Post by sadko4u »

Hello! Welcome Linux World!
You can also try this:
http://lsp-plug.in/
LSP (Linux Studio Plugins) Developer and Maintainer.
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mr_p
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Re: Hello from Poland

Post by mr_p »

sadko4u wrote: You can also try this:
http://lsp-plug.in/
This looks great. I'm gonna try it. Thanks sadko4u.
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Michael Willis
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Re: Hello from Poland

Post by Michael Willis »

Hi mr_p, welcome.
mr_p wrote: - VSCO-2 CE (as for me - It is great as replacement of GPO; it is different - no worse, no better - just different and I've got some tricks to make it sound even more realistic)
I'm curious what tricks you are using. I am trying to arrange orchestral music, and I'm always interested in related tricks!
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mr_p
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Re: Hello from Poland

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Michael Willis wrote:I'm curious what tricks you are using. I am trying to arrange orchestral music, and I'm always interested in related tricks!

Hi Michael , as I'm reading your posts - I notice that I could learn acoustics from you, so I'm not shure if I can geave you any new tips, but what I'm trying to do is:

- good arrangement (in terms of what you can do during scoring orchestration)
- paning (while keeping in mind where the instrument or ensamble is placed in orchestra)
- noce, genle reverb (obviously)
- and my best trick: add noise to background
by the noise in the background I mean - find sound sample of orchestra-hall with audience wainting in silence for orchestra to start playing. I think it should be rather long sample since you don't want to loop it too much. Add it to the background of your mix. It will give you some gentle noises and "air" in the mix, a subconscious feeling of realism.
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Michael Willis
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Re: Hello from Poland

Post by Michael Willis »

mr_p wrote:reverb (obviously)
Have you found a reverb on Linux that you're happy with for orchestral music? I keep trying different things to get a better sound. The latest thing I've been working with is Invada Early Reflection reverb on the front rows of the orchestra (Strings and Woodwinds), and the reverb effect from Rakarrack for the concert hall sound.

A while ago I made an Ardour template for orchestral music: https://github.com/michaelwillis/virtua ... r-template Unfortunately it doesn't work with the latest version of the Virtual Playing Orchestra, and after making the template I decided that some parts of it were more complicated than necessary, so I'm working on updating it. You can look at my comments about instrument stage presence on that github page, I'm interested in whether you have any feedback about it.
mr_p wrote:add noise to background
I've thought about doing background noises, but not specifically ambiance from a concert hall! My thoughts were more about subtle weather effects like wind or rain, or artificial drone noises, but I do like the idea of having ambient background from a concert hall.
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mr_p
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Re: Hello from Poland

Post by mr_p »

Michael Willis wrote:Have you found a reverb on Linux that you're happy with for orchestral music?
Never found my favorite reverb on any os. I work with Linux for only few days but I think I'm gonna like Calf Reverb. Definitely need more time to work with it. Also I'll test LSP plugins, mentioned by sadko4u.
Michael Willis wrote:My thoughts were more about subtle weather effects like wind or rain, or artificial drone noises
It could be great.

All of my orchestrations were made for theater spectacles. I add hall noises only to the mix for director (and I would do this if I would release material to the internet). Version mixed for playing in theater during the spectacle is "dry" since I dont want to distract actors.
If I would make music as separate, independent piece of art, then I would consider other ambient backgrounds.


Great job with template for Ardour. I'm not sure if I should use templates. I feel more like I need to learn new environment and workflow but it could be extremely useful in the future :) Thanks!
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Michael Willis
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Re: Hello from Poland

Post by Michael Willis »

mr_p wrote:All of my orchestrations were made for theater spectacles.
Oh, that's really interesting, that could be really fun to write music for theater. I would love to hear any existing compositions that you can share!
mr_p wrote:Great job with template for Ardour. I'm not sure if I should use templates. I feel more like I need to learn new environment and workflow but it could be extremely useful in the future :) Thanks!
Yes, in retrospect I'm not sure how useful it is to share a complicated template like this. It seemed like it was really confusing to anybody else that tried to use it, but it is very useful to me because I understand it from top to bottom and can make adjustments because I made it. If nothing else, having it on github is a good way to have a backup for my own use. You would probably be better off building your own template, because then it will be suited for your purposes and you will be familiar with how everything is set up.
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mr_p
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Re: Hello from Poland

Post by mr_p »

Michael Willis wrote:You would probably be better off building your own template, because then it will be suited for your purposes and you will be familiar with how everything is set up.
I'will try to work with your template next time I'll be orchestrating my piece.
Moreover It could be useful for education purposes i.ex. with composition tutorials.

Here is webpage of my project: http://bit.do/crhome - ublock is removing youtube code from my page. You can safetly disable any adblock - webpage is adfree and code is clean. Embeded material is trailer of documentary film with our music. however there are only few notes in trailer :?

The film (and the trailer) is full of talkings, so it's not gonna be interesting outside my country (especially since it was not translated).

Let me translate text that appears at the beginning of trailer:

There are stories about wax crucifixes cast on the body of the person who passed away.
There are also tales more dark and incredible about wampires and lost souls wandering the countryside,
knocking to windows and doors...


The film tells the story of old funeral traditions
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