All I want for my birthday/xmas is world peace...

umm... and also this Line 6 M9 http://www.zzounds.com/item--LINM9

possibly more to come...

Betsy&Murgatroid 001.1

started playing murgatroid and got this fun progression. recorded with Tascam DR-03 while listening to kick-track. dumped to Ardour and imported this weird 6.5 min track of a Dory soundmaker toy from "Finding Nemo" that had almost completely dead batteries. decided i would build the rest of the song around the die-dory-die track. lead guitar is shit in some places as is the synth bass, but an interesting starting point.

Foggy Bottom or Bust - liner notes

all tracks written, performed, recorded, and engineered by Ryan Paul using exclusively FOSS software @ OpenSourceSoundLab in Rollinsford, NH. album art by Ryan Paul.

track 14 "swirlywhirlywee" synths performed by Elia Brooke

thanks to Nate Brand for permission to use voice sample on track 8

special thanks to Lucas Ryan, Ethan Mitchell and Gavin Dennis for kindly lending various toys for audio samples heard on tracks 1,2,6 & 7. additional vocals on squeelin' provided by Gavin Dennis.

A few to dos

Mixing in phones
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan07/articles/mixingheadphones.htm

choose some commercial audio as a headphone/loudspeaker reference

try mixing in my car at night
car speakers, circumaural phones, canal phones.

wu tang

nOe - rpm compilation

nOe RPM albums i & ii are "done." However, I would like to work a little harder on some of the tracks to do some more polishing and select several tracks from each rpm album to produce a finished album that I will release and "sell" to start raising money for my fav FOSS. Particularly I would like to raise enough in album sales to give the suggested donation of $45 to Ardour once Ardour3 (with MIDI tracking) is released. I think $5 each from me or $3 on the web would be reasonable. Here are the planned tracks:

nOe-ii: all tracks with the 3 SL tracks as bonus

nOe-i: i02, i06, i08, i09, i10

Track List:
yummy
cookies (zxcvb-vmpk)
drive
squeelin' (i08)
fresher (i06)
00110100011
hangman
choosing-to-walk (i010)
sunday breakfast (i09)
keep-the-time (i02)
synth-cocoa-phony

bonus:
bananacabananana
f*n pentatonic
swirlywhirleywee

seq24

I have been interested in and revisited seq24 a few times over the past year or so. Each time, however, I was apparently overwhelmed by its simplicity and could not make heads or tails of it since there is little to no documentation on it. However, I now have a much better grasp having followed a Dave Phillips tutorial from here. Now I am starting to realize the potential of this excellent little midi loop sequencer. Although it would take some time to get it set-up, I'm thinking of using seq24, standalone or with sooperlooper as an addition to my live looping set.

Betsy&Murgatroid: New Plans Forward

I have two acoustic guitars, Betsy (a 12-string Yamaha) and Murgatroid (a Guild) that I acquired in 1997 and 2001 respectively. Toward the end of my high school years and all through college, I focused on using these instruments as my principle tools for expression. Just after getting married in '03, Elia and I recorded a collection of a few of the 30 or so acoustic songs I had written using my very first crude studio, cakewalk on my MS-XP computer (no idea on specs). Despite my total inexperience with recording, the rushed job, and overall low quality, it still managed to be a hit with our family, despite several of them misplacing their copy... Nevertheless, I have decided to rerecord the album with my newer 'crude' studio. Below is my working track-list for this effort:

Soul Searching

Bullfrogs

Fascination Wonderment

Rain Turns to Snow

Moving to Arizona

Believe

Eternity

Funny Little Games

As it stands, I would like to have the record done by the 11.10 release of Ubuntu (october) and I am planning on putting out an album every 6 months from then on (following the Ubuntu release cycle).

nOe ii - RPM 2011 - liner notes

all tracks written, performed, recorded, and engineered by Ryan Paul using exclusively FOSS software @ OpenSourceSoundLab in Rollinsford, NH. album art by Ryan Paul.

track 8 "swirlywhirlywee" synths performed by Elia Brooke

special thanks to Lucas Ryan, Ethan Mitchell and Gavin Dennis for kindly lending various toys for audio samples heard on tracks 1,4 & 5.

FOSS Credits

Audio Engine & Routing:
QJackCtl
JACK
Patchage

Recording (Multi-tracking, MIDI, Looping):
Ardour2-GTK
Qtractor
SooperLooper

Mixing&Mastering:
Ardour2-GTK
Audacity
Jamin

Drums:
Hydrogen

Synths & Samples:
Qsynth
ZynAddSubFX
Yoshimi
Swami
VMPK

Plugin FX:
Jack-Rack
Rakarrack

Playback:
VLC
Brasero

Artwork:
GIMP

comments on the web @ overhauser.blogspot.com

album ii - second critique - car speakers

nOe-ii
car speakers

015 -drums too loud (esp. bass), robot okay

012 -drums too loud

014 -ok

hangman -awful! muddy, guitar way too quiet, drums too loud

OS002 -guitar too quiet, muddy

SL010 -chh too loud

album ii - first critique - over-the-ear mixing headphones

ii


nOe-ii
over-ear headphones

015
high synth a little sloppy - like the 1/8th note chord part

012
ok

014
loud!
short outro

SL004-hangman
noise-clicks :(
guitar a little too quiet
really long outro

OS002
guitar a little too quiet
missing bass?

SL010

SL011
too long and just a bit weak

SL007
drags on a little long for main theme at 2min
fade out guitar part then fade back in?

016
omit chh

robot drums and nursery rhymes?

This groove has been the funnerest I have put together yet for the rpm2011 challenge. I had the goal to build a robot drum library as well as use some more kids-toys samples. nOe-015 has these built into a techno groove. Feedback welcome!

nOe-015

RPM Challenge 2011 - nOe-SL-011

I have been having some software woes lately that have blocked my creative juices, I got pumped when I found out qjackctl patchbay would save all my jack connections, except not totally since it cannot differentiate between my two E-MU XMidi1X1 USB connectors. And Yoshimi let me down in a big way when it kept crashing if I tried to used more than one channel or otherwise load a preset .xmz file. So I finally gave up and switched back to ZynAddSubFx for my live looping since I like having 5 different softsynths loaded in channels 5-9. With looping it's all about flexibility and options on the fly! I mean, you need that. Yeah?

Anyway, after pouting a bit, I managed to put together a new piece:

SL-011

It's nearly 01:00 so I think it's time to throw in the towel.

Open Soarz

I have been using open-source software for music creation for about a year and a half now.  Actually, I have mostly been learning the ropes until recently and now I have a chosen set of tools with which I plan to compose record and edit audio art.  The ability to have freedom and flexiblity is important to an artist, and I am truly becoming passionate about open-source software as it has given me an opportunity to create, a journey of the mind and spirit.  I am hopeful that I can return the fruits of their labour from the fruits of mine.  I don't really like the idea of selling my music, however, should I have the opportunity to collect donations from live shows, I plan on giving at least 50% to the open-source projects that have helped me create.

I also decided that "Open Soarz" would be a good "industrial/metal" band name that used only open-source solutions to making music.  My first couple attempts at some edgy-er material for Open Soarz (OS) is below.  I realised quickly that I will need to keep practising.

OS-002

hangman

Live Looping

About 2 years ago now I happened across a webisode of KCRW's "Morning Becomes Eclectic" featuring Theresa Andersson who blew me away with all the music she made "flying solo." She explained on the show that she uses a combination of "loop pedals" to accomplish her complex artistic expression. I started thinking about how I might be able to do something similar and as mentioned in an earlier post, I bought and tested a Boss Loop Station which I ultimately traded in for a more flexible solution to meet my needs: combining a Behringer FCB1010 with Jesse Campbell's SooperLooper software.

I have now been working with this set-up for a few months and I am really starting to put together all the puzzle pieces. I have learned (partially) how to program the FCB1010 so that I am currently able to use the one pedal to MIDI-control SooperLooper, Rakarrack (a nice digital effects pedal), and Hydrogen drum machine. I also have a small, old, simple but excellent (it was a free gift) MIDI keyboard that I connect to ZynAddSubFX and Qsynth routing different sounds on 7 channels (for now). Additionally I run my Les Paul and a 3/4 size bass I got as a gift (thanks Sadie) through separate channels (L and R) into an ART USB DualPre which is my "off-board" sound-card / preamp.

It took me a long time to figure out how all these different softwares work together, alone, with MIDI, etc. but now I'm getting results (clips below). SooperLooper is great and I really like how it syncs with Hydrogen and quantizes to my drum-loop. I only wish Hydrogen had some more MIDI bindings (like switching patterns which I cannot get to work) and that there was a linux equivalent for midistroke (Mac).

edit: I discovered a "secret feature" in Hydrogen. It seems that it will allow for selection/deselction of the patterns (1 - n from top to bottom) using MIDI program-change (PC) commands 01 - n. I programmed my FCB1010 to send PC-01 - PC-04 at bank 08 where I control the muting of Hydrogen and Sooperlooper, only it sends on a separated channel so that PC-01 - 04 are still free for Rakarrack to use.

SL-010

SL-007

RPM 2011

RPM 2011 is underway and I have gotten a slight head start in hopes that I can make a more professional looking product this year than a CD-R with Sharpie labeling. My focus this year is to use completely open-source software and my strategy for a workflow is to spend an hour or so 3 nights a week to "get my groove on" using my live looping set-up and then dump the loops to my DAW (Ardour2) and paint my picture there. I have found this has been a very efficient workflow for me given my often debilitating time constraints.

You may take notice of two new tracks to the left where I have used this strategy: SL-007 and hangman01. Tonight Elia helped me with SL-007 by accompanying me on synths. The process took about 30ish minutes to grab a few loops and then about an hour to arrange, add automation and mix to generate the recording. hangman01 has some computer artifact blips that I don't like so I will have to remix at some point.

SooperLooper and Behringer FCB-1010

Earlier this year I got a good deal on a Boss Loop Station for $150. I tried it out a couple times but quickly realized that as a budding one-man digital artist, I was already relying quite a bit on my computer for beats and synths. The beats in particular were very difficult to sync up with the Boss Looper and I decided to look into alternatives. For digital loopers running in linux there are few choices, and the two that really stand out in form and function are free-wheeling and sooper looper. After looking at the two, I decided sooper looper would better fit my needs. However, it is important that I may keep my hands available for playing instruments and I had to ensure I could control sooper looper's midi-bindings through a inexpensive foot-pedal. After some research, I found that many folks found the Behringer FCB-1010 to work very well for this purpose and it was reasonably priced. I got one for $149 and then sold my Boss for $150 so it worked out well. The FCB-1010 has 10 digital banks of 10 physical pedals giving 100 addressable midi-bindings. It also has two rocker foot-pedals to control volume or similarly modulated effects. For my purposes, I use 5 of the 10 banks to control 10 midi-bindings for 5 different loops in sooper looper. Sooper Looper is a bit complicated but has lots of nice features. I have finally configured it in an efficient manner so that all my loops sync to the JACK transporter which is controlled by the Hydrogen drum-sequencer. In this way I can effectively quantize recorded loops to the length of the drum-sequence cycle.

As it stands now my live-looping setup consists of JACK, Hydrogen, SooperLooper and ZynAddSubFx. I also of course use guitar and I'm starting to experiment more with voice recording.

Music Studio Phase II - sans condenser mic

I have decided to postpone the purchase of a new microphone, since I don't really have much opportunity to do this kind of recording. However, I have found a couple nice additions to my studio set-up (totaling just about $110). I recently made 2 purchases to allow a more flexible, complete, mobile solution to my DAW. I now have the ability to take my studio on the road and use my Sony Vaio.

First I have added a simple E-MU XMIDI 1x1 USB interface ($25) so I can use my midi keyboard with a USB port.

Secondly, I needed a USB audio interface / preamp. After some research I found an excellent solution that offers a substantial "bang-for-your-buck" using an ART USB Dual Pre ($80). The ART is a great solution for me so far. It is very portable, powered by USB, and requires no software drivers. When you plug it in you will find "USB audio codec" added to your sound I/O hardware options. However, you don't have to select this for your system if you run most of your studio software on top of JACK. Instead, just change the input and output preferences in the JACK setup and you are good to go!

I also found software designed to be a guitar effects simulator called Rackarrack which also has an on-board tuner and can route your guitar notes to midi events. Although it has limited sensitivity, this may be a good way to score midi data for someone (like me) who plays guitar/bass better than keyboard.

So What...

i used to think, fantasize or dream with ink or graphite on a fresh new ream
the words formed thoughts, the thoughts told a story
that was way before i got so boring
i've lost some nerves, put out the fire
just the other day i saw my new spare tire
sat down for the barber in his swivel chair as he hacked away at my graying hair

so what if you think life is so unfair?

got a bachelor degree in two thousand three
then spent 7 more years to get a PHD
haven't been a bachelor since i was seventeen
now there's lucas ethan gavin 3 more boys like me
now the misses she be crazy, maybe i'm a bit too lazy
i can not understand she spins my head til i'm hazy
some say that i should "grow a pair" but i know that my situation is rare

so what if you think life is so unfair?


-Shhh!

Virtual Instrument Resources

I've just started finding cyber-hot-spots to get virtual instrument sounds that I can control with a midi sampler (I like Qtractor and Muse so far). So far it seems there are two key ways I can produce sound from my computer sound card: digital synthesizer and recorded samples. There are two classes of sample formats I've seen that I can play with a few different software. SoundFonts (.sf2) are usually downloaded as an archive (compressed to .sf2ARK) and can be decompressed with the SFARK utility (sfarkxtc). I like using Qsynth (by Rui Nuno Capela) to play these samples. GIG or Gigaedit (.gig) files are also available and I have been able to play them best with Jsampler, however, I have noticed some playback trouble on my desktop when trying to control Jsampler with Qtractor and record to Ardour. I wonder if I can figure out how to use Qsampler would it sync better with Qtractor? Jsampler runs with Java, whereas Qsampler and Qtractor (both by Rui Nuno Capela) run on top of Qt.

For a nice library of SoundFonts check out HomeMusician.net

Download

I wanted to make sure that music could be easily downloaded from this site. Below is a simple way to supply any download from my server space. You can right click the link to the song i08.mp3 and "save link as:"

nOe-i08.mp3

or you can download the collection "i" as a zip file:

or as a self-extracting zip file (windows only):

However, it turns out that if you "right-click" the xspf player (look more lefter), there is a "download" option. For me this would open the file with a music player embedded in firefox web browser, but you can still "save page as" under "File" in the browser.

Better than the above link would be using the simple player shown below my xspf playlist (left). I'll have to look into that later.