Episode42

Open Source Musician Podcast Episode #42


 * Title:


 * Banter:


 * Software Releases:
 * Ardour 2.8.8 is primarily a bugfix release, but also has dramatic improvements to automation editing. Perhaps more exciting "This is the last feature-adding release of the 2.8 series. The next release of Ardour will be version 3.0-alpha1" http://ardour.org/node/3599   Couple of days later Ardour 2.8.9 is released to fix "the infamous mute bug (which caused the mute button to do nothing)" which was thought to be fixed in 2.8.8 http://ardour.org/node/3611


 * guitarix 0.08.0 release sounds like it's working hard to compete with Rakarrack! This release adds new BiQuad and Moog filters, a new flanger, a new tube simulator, a new parametric EQ, and adjustable oversampling http://guitarix.sourceforge.net/


 * first version of The Salamander Grand Piano, a new piano sample library for LinuxSampler. It's a Yamaha C5 grand piano sampled in stereo with 16 velocity layers for each note, and it's just under 2GB in size. It uses the new .sfz sample format, so it only works with LinuxSampler CVS at the moment http://freepats.zenvoid.org/Piano/SalamanderGrandPiano.tar.bz2


 * Qtractor 0.4.6 is out with a bunch of fixes and a few new features, including a number of piano roll editor improvements: http://qtractor.sf.net/


 * IRC User rlameiro informs of a KDE based Linux audio distro called KXStudio. KXStudio 10.0.4.1 was just released in both 32 and 64bit versions.  It's based on Ubuntu and has Jack2 and PulsetoJack on at boot.  Official URL: http://kxstudio.sourceforge.net/  Steve takes it out for a spin and blogs about it: http://deadbeatguitarist.com/kxstudio-rocks-my-socks-off/#more-40


 * It's not open-source, but Pianoteq is now available in an entry-level version, called "Pianoteq Play", for 99 euro. It's a physically-modeled piano instrument, with a native Linux port that runs as a stand-alone JACK app. This new version removes the ability to customise your own pianos, but the sound engine is identical to the (249 euro) full version. http://pianoteq.com/
 * There's also an interview with the Pianoteq developers on Create Digital Music, which discusses porting to Linux: http://createdigitalmusic.com/2010/05/31/makers-of-pianoteq-talk-piano-modeling-developing-for-linux/


 * IRC User notKlattu has posted the fruits of the GNU Linux Multimedia Sprint. A collection of over 3GB of sample banks, brushes, fonts, sound fonts, blender plugins, icons and more! A torrent download or selective file download can be browsed.  Full details at: http://www.skyehaven.net/blog/linux-multimedia-sprint/


 * Audio Releases:




 * Tips:
 * IRC User amstan reminds us of the up to the minute ppa for ubuntu music software - shown on this forum post
 * http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1350304


 * IRC User rlameiro shares a link to a YouTube playlist with a very good tutorial to Pure Data aka Pd http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=12DC9A161D8DC5DC&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&v=rtgGol-I4gA


 * Rakarrack announcements: 1) We have made significant progress with CPU usage improvement in some of the more expensive FX like Convolotron... In Settings (as of today) you can set the internal sample rate for many of the FX ... upsampling added specifically for waveshaper class. Waveshaper is used in all distortions, so every distortion can be oversampled independently from the rest of the program.2) New effect in git repository will be included in the next release:  Echotron.  Text-file programmable multi-tap delay with up to 8 MuTroMojo filters for the first 8 taps, and up to 127 taps available.  Good default text files will be standard with Rakarrack so no configuration is required...however the ability to edit the text files may appeal to the tweakers. Delay line modulation is implemented in the GUI, so multi-tap chorus and flanging is possible.

ALSO - rakarrack now has a DONATE button http://sourceforge.net/donate/index.php?group_id=215888

Rakarrack trying to make a release soon. We're looking for user presets to include in the default bank, and most of all, good beta-testing. Please stress the program and try to do odd things and report bugs to us :) If your presets use a custom .wav file, .rvb, or .dly file, please remember to include those when you submit presets.


 * IRC User raboof lets us know that the Linux Audio Conference 2010 materials are posted here: http://lac.linuxaudio.org/2010/?page=program


 * Identi.ca user Dennisgut mentions this URL for CC licensed samples, loops and shots - http://audio.ibeat.org/


 * IRC User [lsd] has a great blog post on in the box recording http://blag.linuxgamers.net/2010/05/thinking-inside-the-box/


 * Scott Lavender mentions that rakarrack-0.4.2 is built in his PPA for Ubuntu Studio 10.04 Lucid Lynx. Currently rakarrack-0.30 is available for Lucid from the official repositories.  Also found in his Lucid PPA are zynjacku/LV2rack.  The PPA can be added with ppa:slavender/lucid.


 * Scott Lavender pointed out an email that deals with a couple of important bugs in Ubuntu Studio - https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-studio-users/2010-May/006277.html.
 * * The Ardour mute bug manifests itself when trying to mute on playback, when the mute button is pushed it does not actually mute the track. To enable mute for tracks that are already created, right clicking the mute button shows the available mute options, select those that apply.  To enable mute for new project and new tracks in existing projects, edit ~/.ardour2/ardour.rc file as shown in the email.


 * * The network-admin bug manifests itself (usually first noticed after Ubuntu Studio installation) by a grayed out network configuration options. When vanilla Ubuntu went to network-manager (instead of gnome-network-admin) a patch was added to gnome-network-admin preventing users from adjust network options in it, resulting in a single place to configure networks.  But since Ubuntu Studio does use network-manager (it has caused additional latency in audio recording) and uses gnome-network-admin (which doesn't) this has obviously become a problem.  Since gnome-network-admin doesn't appear to be installed on vanilla Ubuntu by default we are hoping it will not be considered a 'regression' to remove the patch so that Ubuntu Studio users can configure their network options.  Until then, as a work around, you can find network-manager and/or network-manager-applet on the Ubuntu Studio DVD.  See the email for details.


 * IRC user [lsd] spotted a Hydrogen version of GSCW, a free, high-quality drumkit. The Hydrogen version comes as two separate kits, and they each have a tonne of velocity layers, so with proper programming they can add a lot of variety to a mix http://www.autodafe.net/gscw-drum-kit-for-hydrogen-drum-machine.html


 * Gear:


 * Announcements:
 * IRC user Xuco is calling out to the community. GPUL is having a conference on audio and video using free/open source tools. They are requesting people submit proposals on talks.  The deadline to receive the proposals is June 27th, the notification of acceptance is June 28th. The event itself is to be held in the School of Informatics, Universidade da Coruña between July 12th and July 15, 2010.  Full details at: http://gpul.org/?q=node/117


 * Rants/Calling BS:


 * Tech Segment:


 * Listener Feedback:
 * Update - Jim in Chesapeake, Virginia has purchased a UCA-222 to transfer his cassette tapes to digital form and it 'just works'.


 * Contact Info:


 * Wiki:


 * http://opensourcemusician.com


 * E-Mails


 * osmp@pipemanmusic.com


 * Twitter and Identi.ca:


 * http://twitter.com/pipemanmusic http://identi.ca/pipemanmusic http://identi.ca/guitarman


 * Blogs:


 * http://pipemanmusic.blogspot.com http://deadbeatguitarist.com/?feed=rss2


 * Voicemail:


 * http://opensourcemusician.libsyn.com Forums: http://www.linuxmusicians.com/viewforum.php?f=41 IRC: irc.freenode.net/#opensourcemusicians


 * Podcast Out!
 * Song: Plastic People (Look at them) by Chris Adams (aka kernel_geek in IRC and opensaucemusic on youtube.
 * Band Website: http://youtube.com/opensaucemusic http://opensaucemusic.bandcamp.com


 * Direct Download: http://media.libsyn.com/media/opensourcemusician/OSMPEpisode42.mp3