Buzz and Audacity are easier to get on with than most of the other
stuff there. Buzz is actually quite *fun* - try some of the demo
tunes, they're fairly generic electronica but give a good sense of the
immediacy of the software.
Dominic
On 7/20/05, MJ Walker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> I'm going to check out that stuff, Dom, but as a technical - what's the
> opposite of wizard, wussard? - I'm not very sanguine about my chances
> of being able to manipulsate [sic!] the software. Still, 'ave a go, Joe...
> mj
>
> Dominic Fox wrote:
>
> >Please excuse the interruption - I thought some of this might be
> >pertinent to what Lawrence was saying about recording sound poetry,
> >but if not then please just ignore: the conversation about Wordsworth
> >and autobiography/influence etc. is vastly more intrinsically
> >interesting and worthwhile than the techie blether that follows, and I
> >may in any case be attempting to teach my grandmother (so to speak) to
> >suck eggs...
> >
> >Recently I've been playing with some free/open source software for
> >sound recording, generation, manipulation and mixing. When it comes to
> >audio, software is only part of the picture: even if it's all free,
> >getting the best results still depends on having a reasonably good (in
> >particular, low-latency) soundcard and a reasonably fast processor.
> >But the cost of hardware is constantly decreasing: I don't have any
> >high-end gear myself, but can get very good results on what was a
> >middle-range PC (about 750 quid - and no, I still haven't finished
> >paying for it) two years ago. Before that, I was using a PIII 450Mhz
> >PC with rather older and slower memory and hard drive, which wasn't
> >great but was nevertheless adequate for all the sonic manipulation
> >(ring modulation, filtering, reverb, chopping up samples and other
> >such jazz) that went into the first four w/trem CDs. It is in fact
> >still in use, or so I understand: the person I gave it to apparently
> >does audio work of his own with it. The fact that I gave it away
> >should tell you something about the availability of such hardware - I
> >wouldn't have got a lot for it even if I'd tried to sell it, and there
> >are similar systems available second-hand for not that much.
> >
> >Back to the software, which you can get for nothing (assuming access
> >to an internet connection). Nothing free (as in beer) has worked
> >better for me than Buzz, which is Windows-only - see
> >http://www.buzzmachines.com for downloads. It has a plug-in model for
> >generators and effects, and an enormous library of both (again, all
> >free as in beer). It's possible to set up signal chains of some
> >complexity - splitting off a signal, running it through a high-pass
> >filter, running the filtered part through a delay then recombining it
> >with the original signal in a ring modulator, say - and to run
> >recorded samples through those signal chains, re-recording the
> >results. Buzz is essentially a tracker (a type of fairly rudimentary
> >sequencer), but the ability to combine plug-ins in this way is what
> >gives it its real power.
> >
> >Audacity - http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ - is a perfectly good GPL
> >audio recorder and editor, good for capturing sounds, treating them in
> >various ways, and chopping them up. It runs on Windows, Linux and OS
> >X.
> >
> >Ardour - http://ardour.org/ - is the nearest thing Linux currently has
> >to CuBase. It's very good, but difficult to set up; Linux isn't
> >particularly friendly to multimedia applications, although the
> >architecture is improving (i.e. everything you need is a bit
> >cutting-edge, and consequently tends to be either flakey or badly
> >supported). The main requirement is a piece of software called Jack -
> >http://jackit.sourceforge.net/ - which allows multiple processes to
> >pipe audio to one another: it's a kind of low-latency digital
> >patchbay. There are an increasing number of small modules that work
> >with Jack, such that one can compose quite complex signal processing
> >environments out of a collection of self-contained modules. Fun if you
> >have the time; I confess I've had problems getting it to work even on
> >quite recent Linux distributions, but there's a dedicated multimedia
> >distro called DeMudi, based on Debian, that simplifies the process
> >quite a bit.
> >
> >Speaking of things that are fun if you have the time, CSound is
> >amazingly powerful. But also amazingly hard, being based on a kind of
> >assembly language for sound design. It's worth a look if the
> >expression "assembly language for sound design" doesn't bring you out
> >in a cold sweat. I kind of need a spare life to do all that stuff
> >in...
> >
> >There are other things I haven't mentioned - I'm told GarageBand on
> >the Mac is quite fun - but my main point is that for audio at least
> >one no longer needs access to dedicated studios full of amazingly
> >expensive gear to do interesting work.
> >
> >best,
> >Dominic
> >
> >
> >
>
> --
> Flow My Tears is a novel of nonstop intrigue set sometime in the future of an alternate reality. It has a great ending and really makes you think about life and similar things. - Online review by Keith.
>
--
Perhaps (but not likely) I may be still
a whizz at ordinary language and you
mishear things.
-- Geoffrey Hill,
Discourse: For Stanley Rosen
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