The PsychoVoyager Journal

I am done with this one for now. I work on it on and off for the last coupl'a weeks without blogging about it, so I'll jot down what I remember...

Recorded more handclaps for a total of six. Bounced to stereo.

Was having trouble with x-runs, slowdowns, and crashes so I cleared out tracks I clearly wasn't using. That left me with seventeen tracks of recorded audio.

What really seemed to help, aside from some slight adjustments in JACK, was changing an audio option in Ardour. In options > audio file format > data, I changed from 32-bit floating point to 24-bit signed integer. I don't know what either of those are but that seemed to help a lot.

While I was having trouble, I played around with the latency settings a little. This while recording one of the hand claps. The slight delay helped fatten up the sound on one section, which gave me an idea. I was gonna copy those tracks and double them, synced at a slight delay. I decided I liked the claps the way they were and didn't bother.

Recorded some bass guitar to the later sections of the song. I don't think it's needed before then. Bass was plugged in directly into the Lexicon Lambda. I was using the Zoom 506 pedal, but the battery died on me, before I was ready to record.

I was thinking about some lead guitar, but I don't think it is needed either. Or maybe I'm just lazy.

Added some LADSPA FX. 1st applied them pre-fader, but after reading a little of the online manual, applied them post.

TAP equalizer on a guitar track that had too much hiss on it.
TAP Stereo echo and TAP reverberator on the handclaps track.
Frequency modulator on the bass guitar track, which punches it up a bit.
Setup a bus to route vocals to apply effects. right now only using TAP DeEssor.

I took the spoken chorus bit off the DeEssor bus cuz I didn't like the way it sounded there. Also normalized that track as the choruses for that track got louder and louder.

I'd experiment with more effects, but I seem to be pushing this computer to it's limits. I'm not sure that should be the case.

I'll revisit this tune when it's time to configure the next album, whenever and whatever that is.
In the meantime the song can currently (as of this writing) be found on MySpace (faded out at a tolerable 4 min, 15 sec) and here in it's full version.

Labels: Ardour, Linux, Ménage à trois with robots, plug-ins, Ubuntu

I'm hoping to conclude this one soon. It's been over two years since I've done anything significant with it. I'd exported the audio to be used in Sonar, but since figuring out how to make my USB audio interface work in Ubuntu Studio, I'm gonna finish this in Ardour. That's the plan, so far.

All I did this go round was to play around with fader levels and cut the not quite silent sections of the guitar and vocal tracks. I recorded a hand clap track during one of the last couple of sessions (but forgot to mention it). I plan on building on that, and then maybe adding some lead guitar.

The latest...

I'll be posting audio on Vox (hat tip to the Undercover Black Man) from now on as it's better than taking up space and bandwith here. Also, it's free.

Labels: Ardour, Ménage à trois with robots, Ubuntu

No news, no updates, no nothin' lately (except a change of domain due to a "miscommunication"). If I wasn't lazy, I could figure out (maybe) how to update some of the programs, especially Ardour which I understand has to be built from the source. But I'm not trying to do that right now.

Ubuntu Studio looks interesting, but isn't due till April. I'll try it out once it's released, but until then, I want to re-record my song, April Fool's Day. I need to be able to play around with pitch, and I don't know how to do that in the version of Ardour included with Agnula*, so I'm gonna play around with Sonar temporarily(?), and see where that gets me.

This project will end a fairly long, creative dry spell for me.

Assuming I get started...

* Feb 28th 2007 Been away (From Agnula) for awhile. Forgot about the LADSPA plugins. I'd rather be able to slow the tempo down, record the vocal or guitar and then speed up to normal tempo for that effect. I know I've done it in Cakewalk, but I don't feel like relearning that software, so I'll play around with the plugins in Agnula, for now.

Labels: Agnula, Ardour, DAW, distros, Linux, Sonar, Ubuntu

Well, so much for recording one cover song a month. I started this one back in April, and then stopped doing any recording for a while. Including my song of the week. Hopefully my dry spell is over for now.

Today I went back into Ardour and recorded a bunch of kazoos. 4 tracks during the bridge, one for the last verse and end of the song and two for the intro, which were cut and pasted into the ending of the song. I wonder if the kazoo voids the a cappella-ism of this song? Doesn't matter. It's just about done, save effects (if I so choose) and final mix.

I attempted to upload this to Archive.org, but the upload tool ccPublisher 2.2.1 is as screwed up as the last one I was using, 1. something or another. I'm gonna wait to see if it pops up within the next day or two, if so I'll post the link here, if not, I'll ftp it to the site and then post the link here. I don't want any more multiple posts showing up there. I still haven't cleaned up my eariler messes.

Edit: finally uploaded the song here. I'll be using the FTP option from now on with archive.org. Less headaches. 10/02/06

Labels: a cappella, Agnula, Ardour, covers, kazoo, Linux, Politikill, Richard O

Politikill is a tune originally written and performed by someone who calls himself Richard O. It's about eating facists. I'd wanted to cover this one for a little while, so here we are.

I made one minor change in the lyrics because I do eat meat. Even had some red meat over the last coupl'a Judeo-Christian holiday periods, and for the most part, liked it. Also "hold the feet" was easier to sing.


I wasn't sure what the "name of a cheese" thing was about, but found out there is a President brand cheese. That bit might've been neccesary, because threatening the President may be against the law. Found that out from an episode of The Jeffersons, a long time ago.

I thought I might combine my experiments with Dokaka-eque a cappella recording with PSP Rhythm beats. Naturally any mixture between voice and instrument would void the a cappella-isms, but that's not why (so far) I went with with straight vocals. It was faster. I may still add other stuff later, like guitar and maybe an automated beat. My rhythm is still a bit sloppy.

I recorded in Ardour, starting with the melody and words. Even though I used the click to keep the time, starting out this way could be a problem if I try to introduce a tuned instrument.

I added drum sounds next and then a bassline and two separate tracks kinda mimicing a rhythm guitar. After that, an extra vocal for the very last verse.

I'm not sure if I'm adding anything else. Maybe more harmony. maybe effects and/or instruments. In any case, I may get this done on time.

Here's what it sounds like so far.

Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike

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Labels: a cappella, Agnula, Ardour, covers, Linux, Politikill, Richard O

Thought I'd be done with this by now, but, nooooooooo.

A couple of days ago I recorded some guitar onto two tracks. It was a single performance but divided into left and right. I plugged the Peavey into the SGX, using setting# A 048 (Semistort) with the left cable out going to the Tascam 688, which used to be a multitrack recorder. Now it's a mixer/patchbay thing. The right cable out from the SGX to the Zoom 505 (I forget what setting) and then into the Tascam which is connected to the soundcard inna computer. So anyway, I do that for the bridge and outro. I like the way it sounds and I won't have to do anything with the crap I recorded before because the mistakes are completely covered up. The major one's anyway.

I found a tutorial that showed how to use automation for volume gain (and a couple of other things related to Ardour) and played around with that as well as using Jamin. But that's getting ahead.

Recorded some reverb added to the vocals to a separate stereo track. Used the LADSPA Tap reverberator (warbler) on a post fader on a bus recorded to a stereo track. Don't know if that makes any sense, but that's what happened.

Decided I didn't care for the drum track so I ditched it and came up with something else. Soon I decided I didn't need a drum track and that's kinda where I am now.

Some efforts were made at mixing, using Jamin and then not. Had a few crashes from using Jamin with Ardour (with about twelve tracks of audio) and now there's some weird shit with the tracks not having any output connections. Too tired to fix it write now or talk anymore about it.

edit:
This version was announced as finished, but I came back to it here, to release a commercially available download single.

Labels: Above It All, Agnula, Ardour, covers, Crystal Walters, effects

Hooked up the electric guitar (Peavey Vortex 1) to the Zoom 505 FX pedal, used a couple of basic settings and recorded a few tracks starting at the chorus.

Sounds horrible so far. My head's not in this right now, so I stopped. I'll have another go in a day or so.



Based on The World They Loved To Hate, written by Crystal Walters. Creative Commons license: Attribution-ShareAlike

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Labels: Above It All, Agnula, Ardour, covers, Crystal Walters, guitar

Recorded a new lead vocal track in one take and then 4 tracks of harmony for the choruses and bridge. Used the MXL 990 microphone.

Most vocal and instrument tracks are recorded mono (in Ardour), but I usually edit the input to accept both left and right channels thru alsa_pcm:capture_1 and alsa_pcm:capture_2.

I think that's all for today. May add some 'lectric guitar tomorrow, and then it should be ready for some editing/mixing.

It goes a little something like this.

Based on The World They Loved To Hate, written by Crystal Walters. Creative Commons license: Attribution-ShareAlike

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Labels: Above It All, Agnula, Ardour, covers, Crystal Walters

Forgot to mention this yesterday, but the rhythm pattern created in Hydrogen was set in that program to 40 bpm, while the tempo in Ardour was set to 80. Ardour is in sync to Hydrogen, thanks to JACK, but the 80 bpm does not cancel out the 40 in Hydrogen. Hydrogen seems to automatically sync to JACK, so I haven't messed with anything there. Ardour was set to sync to JACK before I started recording. No biggie. Something else to look into, and so far I like the way it's worked out.

I spent a little time (an hour or so) trying to figure out why I couldn't split any tracks and found out that the edit cursor (blue) was different from the playback cursor (red). I also set the "snap to" properties to bar.

Before doing any more recording, I extended the bridge section by cutting and pasting the guitar and vocal tracks and then replced the ending chorus section with a previous guitar take.

Recorded three tracks of Bass with the Fender Jazz, with the third being the best of the bunch. I may still incorporate the earlier takes somehow.

Here's what I have so far.


Based on The World They Loved To Hate, written by Crystal Walters. Creative Commons license: Attribution-ShareAlike

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Labels: Above It All, Agnula, Ardour, covers, Crystal Walters, Hydrogen, Linux

I worked on this a little yesterday, but didn't post about it. I'd simply opened up Hydrogen and created a drum track using the HardElectro1 drumkit by ArtemioLabs. I also used LADSPA effects on a couple of instruments: Simple amplifier on Kick 2 & 3 & FX and TAP Flanger on FX.

Today I opened up Jack Control and set the sample rate to 88200 just because, however my soundcard may not support that as Ardour seems to indicate that I'm at 48 kHz. I'll look into that later. Hydrogen seems to stay at 44100 no matter what. Hmmm.

In Ardour I recorded a bunch of guitar takes, trying to get input levels right. Adjusted the levels via the Tascam 688 and then there was the issue of playing the song right. There were a couple of extra chords at the begining of verse two I wanted to cut out (easier than playing the whole song over again) which seemed tricky. Through right-clicking I tried to split the track, but no go for some reason. Instead I pressed the range button on the upper right hand side of the screen and was able to select the area I wanted to delete. Then I went and dragged the two pieces together. Not sure how accurate the placement was. Sounds okay, I think, as far as timing is concerned. This kinda thing would be much easier in Cakewalk. Also recorded a scratch vocal and then the Hydrogen output to a track so that I can mix it down and listen to it at my leisure.

I changed my mind about posting the in progress audio files. I'll continue to do that and then remove them from my server once the song is completed, and then post the miscelaneous tracks to archive.org.

So, here's Above It All, based on The World They Loved To Hate, written by Crystal Walters. Creative Commons license: Attribution-ShareAlike

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Labels: Above It All, Agnula, Ardour, covers, Creative Commons, Crystal Walters, DAW, Hydrogen, Linux

I manged to record one track of vocals on track 21. Could'a sworn I'd recorded keys on that track not long back. Anyway, it came out well enough (I didn't rewrite the lyrics), but when I try and record another track the program (Ardour) flips out on me. The tracks keep playing, but the graphics lose detail and I can't stop it except by killing Ardour in log mode.

After closing Jack and restarting both it and Ardour I managed to record a harmony track and another lead vocal as well as an almost spoken word part of the choruses. every now and then I have to restart Jack and Ardour because of the issue mentioned above.

Trying to record guitar on track 25 I find myself faced with the same problem as before. I restart everything again, take a short break and start over. I manage to record up to the end (almost) of the 2nd chorus. Same thing happens on 26. I keep both those takes. On 27 I start just before the 2nd chorus and make it to the end of the bridge and into the third chorus, when I get an error message about track 16 (which is muted - one of the keyboard tracks mentioned in part six). I go to track 28 (I must be a masochist) and then I get the "pool out of memory - recompile with larger size" message. I don't know what that's about, but a quick Google shows that a few people have had the same thing. At the moment, I don't know if it's been solved by anybody, but I'll leave that for another time.

The guitar (an Ovation Celebrity) was recorded through an ART SGX 2000 on the "Slow Flange" preset (A-103).

I exported the session as a wav, which then crashed Ardour again and again (something about frames overflowed), but I found that the file itself was fine and I opened it in Audacity and saved it as an ogg vorbis file.

Click on the title of this post to hear it. This song is still in progress and a bit rough. Of course it may remain so, once done. I'm just saying it ain't done, yet. That's all.

Labels: Ardour, guitar, Ménage à trois with robots

Though I've figured out (I think) how to sync Ardour to Hydrogen and whatnot, I've already assembled 12 tracks of audio from the various drum instruments. This is probably less effective than syncing, but I'll wait til the next song to find out. I was supposed to do some more recording, which I did do (a couple of tracks of amSynth using the Deeck preset), but the first 90 minutes was spent arranging the various drum tracks into my usual song format; verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-etc. Next time I'll do all of that in Hydrogen. During that time I learned how to trim regions and duplicate them. If I understand correctly, each of the 16 bar audio snippets which occupy my tracks count as a region. Or something like that.

Eventually I'm gonna have to incorporate a midi program into this routine as I could probably use some quantizing. Or perhaps just learn to play better. However the the two takes (sort of a bassline) when played together and panned into separate left and right channels don't sound quite as bad as when I was recording them.

Labels: Ardour, Hydrogen, Ménage à trois with robots

Okay, I found the Jack transport option in Hydrogen. It's near the top of the screen and looks like a meter. So, I can get Hydrogen to play with Ardour, but while... Nevermind, I got it. If I press play in Jack, I'll hear sound play in Hydrogen, but while that line thing moves across the bars in Ardour no sound plays in the latter. But I see now that they are working together after pressing play in Ardour (sync source is set to Jack). Cool.

I recorded a track this morning with amSynth (played through a midi keyboard - the Roland U-20) without too much effort. The track itself sucks, but I may be able to salvage a couple of pieces of it. I'll do more recording tomorrow (actually later today) after work.

I had some crashing issues a little while ago. Don't know what I did exactly. I thought, at first, it might've had something to do with the Jack Transport in Hydrogen. I had that switched on, but I also had amSynth on. When I'd open Ardour, it would be fine until I opened the file I was working on. I'd get a shitload of error messages in a log window. Then when I tried to play anything Ardour would either freeze, shutdown, or log me out. I avoided the situation this time by not starting amSynth, yet and waiting till I opened Ardour to turn on the Jack Transport in Hydrgen.
I'll see if it happens again tomorrow and take a closer look. Just tried opening amSynth and it won't cooperate. The Jack window logs another x-run each time I try.

Labels: amSynth, Ardour, Hydrogen, Ménage à trois with robots

This song (untitled at the moment) started with a beat created in Hydrogen. Initially, I wanted to use this with Rosegarden, which is both a MIDI and audio sequencer which also imports Hydrogen song files. Things were going well with that (for a different song - Thinking Of You), until my attempt to record a third track of audio on top of two drum tracks (from Hydrogen), and two acoustic guitar tracks. Anytime I pressed record, the song would start in the middle of the song. I couldn't find a way around this, so I gave up on Rosegarden for the time being. The song was re-recorded in Sonar in Windows (needed to be done and e-mailed on Valentine's Day). I had some problems with Sonar, since I hadn't used it in while, but while not great, the job was done. I continued my Linux experiment with Ardour, which is an audio multi-track which doesn't do midi (I gather).

There's supposed to be a way to sync Ardour with Hydrogen using JACK, but I've not figured out how, even after reading this. I'm using Hydrogen 0.8.2 (instead of 0.8.1 mentioned in the link), I think, and the Jack transport slave option seems not to be available in audio preferences.

I'll figure it out eventually. What I did instead was something like what I used to do in Cakewalk/Sonar with the Hammerhead drum program in Windows; I'd program the beats first, then separate each instrument and export the patterns to wav files. Import the wavs (one for each instrument) into the Cakewalk tracks where they can be looped, edited and panned into some sort of arrangement. Here I did the same with Hydrogen, though some patterns contained more than one instrument. These were panned in advance of being converted to wav. The wavs were imported into Ardour's sound library and then placed into tracks 1-12. Those tracks with panned instruments were placed with right and left on separate tracks.

Labels: Ardour, Hydrogen, Ménage à trois with robots, Sonar