play backing track from computer to headphones, record from micro and backing track

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grond
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play backing track from computer to headphones, record from micro and backing track

Post by grond »

Hello everyone,

total Linux-musician newbie here. I have been using Linux exclusively at home since some time in the late 90s but never really used it for music. When I started with Linux I did a lot of things by hand like compiling kernels with some options and modules I personally needed but over the years I got more and more lazy to the point that I have been using stock ubuntu now for over a decade (currently plain 20.04 LTS). Since Linux is always evolving, a lot of things I once knew are outdated (if not forgotten anyway) but I think I can still consider myself an experienced Linux user. Nonetheless, everything about audio on linux seems totally overwhelming.

So far I have happily used Transcribe!, a commercial program for slowing down recordings in order to transcribe them and practice playing along to the slowed-down recordings. For writing tablature I use lilypond, frescobaldi and Musescore (after producing some totally awesome looking tablature with the first two mentioned, laziness took over again and I now mostly use Musescore). I use audacity for cutting the songs from the recordings of our acoustic jams that I make with a Zoom H5 - only very basic use, really, I load the three hours of jam and cut the songs we play out of the endless talking into individual files... :)

Now it occurred to me that I could also use the Zoom to record myself while practicing. I used the Zoom stand-alone which, of course, works fine (nonetheless a shocking experience...). As with all these things my ambitions rose and here I am not knowing how to do what I want to do. What I want to do is this:

1. replay some backing track on my computer to a set of headphones (USB currently but perhaps I should just use ordinary headphones plugged into an analogue headphone output), either from the slow-downer program mentioned above, mplayer or whatever source
2a. record the backing track computer-to-computer, so to say, into a first track
2b. record myself playing along to the backing track via the Zoom operating as an audio frontend into a second track

I would have thunk this is a very basic usecase but a few hours googling for solutions left me totally confused. Please give me some pointers...
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bluebell
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Re: play backing track from computer to headphones, record from micro and backing track

Post by bluebell »

One solution might be Audacity.

Record or load your backing track into Audacity.
Use "Andere Spuren während Aufzeichnung abspielen (Overdub)" in Audacity Bearbeiten/Einstellungen/Aufnahme.

Use ALSA/Zoom für Input, your builtin audio adapter for output.

That should do the trick.

Linux – MOTU UltraLite AVB – Qtractor – http://suedwestlicht.saar.de/

grond
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Re: play backing track from computer to headphones, record from micro and backing track

Post by grond »

Hey, thanks for your reply! That would indeed work for the case where I just play to a backing track but it has the disadvantage that I can't loop over my backing track (or usually just a section of it) for as long as I want to practice that particular section or song. I would have to repeat the backing track e.g. ten times before importing it into audacity and then play. If I use the slow-downer, I can adjust the speed of the backing track or even ramp up the speed automatically while looping the track. I can also jump to a different section of the song and loop that. I just don't know before the practice session what I will play, how many times I will play it and at what speed I can manage it on that specific day. This makes the audacity idea rather impractical for my practice.

I have a small analogue mixer here (Behringer Xenyx 502). I wonder whether I should cable up something but then I guess I will only be able to record both sources to a single track...
grond
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Joined: Wed Jul 08, 2020 9:55 pm

Re: play backing track from computer to headphones, record from micro and backing track

Post by grond »

A first step to success! Following this guide here I have been able to record the sound played by the computer and thus whatever my practice tool outputs. I assume that starting a second instance of audacity for recording myself playing via the Zoom should result in two recordings which I then can easily put together in a single audacity project. I will continue trying tonight.
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