Tuesday, July 7, 2009

First recording with audacity underway!

So, I have decided to start recording some of my music. I am using Audacity atm until either A) I hit a brick wall with it and can no longer use it or B) I finish this song.

It is kind of Tool/NIN-y, so it isn't really the music _everyone_ likes.

Just the intro to the song for the time being, haven't gotten the whole thing worked out yet... It's about 3 minutes long (calculations tell me the whole song should be about 10 minute slong total when I am done).
http://files.volatileminds.net/nothing_intro.mp3

Criticisms and comments are much appreciated! /me looks at jono.

6 comments:

  1. Hey Brandon,

    Good luck with Audacity. I am also a part-time linux user and musician(also part time), and have been struggling with audio recording in Linux since last two years. Now I feel more confident with the tools I have come to know and love in linux for this purpose.

    Have a look at
    http://sites.google.com/site/linuxstudioproject

    Let me know what you think of it.

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  2. Hello,

    I'm gonna repeat a bit what jerullan said here and on his site, but anyway.

    Audacity will work, but there are way better tools right at your fingertips, especially for an Ubuntu(Studio) user. Having a working JACK/Ardour stack is not as easy as just launching Audacity, but it's very doable and will bring you a lot (no latency, power of a real DAW versus a good-yet-simple audio editor, jack awesome chaining features...)

    In addition to jerullan page, have a look at the following wiki resources:
    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuStudio
    ...especially these "Community sharing" articles:
    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/UbuntuStudio/GettingStarted
    https://help.ubuntu.com/community/HowToJACKConfiguration

    And to finish, a little shameless autopromo for me too: my first demo, done in UbuntuStudio 8.04 & Ardour, is here: http://www.flyingmolehill.com/2009/03/at-least-i-tried.html

    Have fun, keep us updated on your progress!

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  3. Cool intro. As you say, it bears inspiration from Tool, although I think it sounds more like drone music. Kind of like SunnO))) minus all distortion (/me like). I like the fact that the intro is building up some tension, although I think it could be built upon even more (if that's what you want).

    One thing I thought about was when the fuzzy guitar comes in towards the end. The difference in volume compared to the ongoing part is quite big and may need some bridging (although it could be a good thing too depending on where you're going next). How about upping the volume slightly on the last words before the fuzzy part? Small thing, but I think it could help "tensing up" the intro, as well as bridge the difference in volume some.

    These are my thoughts on this short piece and may of course be totally ignored :P. Otherwise, I think you did pretty well so far and I'm hoping that you will keep us updated.

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  4. Audacity is a pretty good little editor for simple stuff, but the one thing that makes it impossible for real recording is that it is a destructive editor. As you make changes like adjusting volumes, fading in and out, using filters like compression, etc...those changes are applied to the actual waveform. If you make a bad change, you can always undo the change, but what if you make 10 changes, and realize that the one you made several minutes ago was not what you wanted. You then have to go back through those ten changes, correct the bad one, and then re-apply the different filters to get what you want.

    A true DAW applies filters differently. Instead of treating the waveforms like a Word document and applying each change sequentially, a good DAW treats everything like a chain of filters, similar to a real world input output chain in an equipment rack. If you realize that change you made to a particular effect 10 minutes ago really screwed up something later, you can just go to that filter, tweak a knob or two, and get your desired effect.

    It takes a lot to wrap your mind around something like Jack, but the idea of a virtual equipment rack of processors and filters is vital to a good DAW.

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  5. Pretty cool! What instruments did you use next to the guitar?

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  6. @Olli, Everything was made with my guitar actually (except my voice lol)

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