Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Linux Studio!

When I was in junior high and high school, I had a friend whose parents were pretty well-off and who seemed to have everything he wanted (like Ricky Schroeder on Silver Spoons). He had lots of musical equipment, but the thing I always wanted was his four-track recorder. This would take a normal cassette and utilize its two tracks per side, enabling multitrack recording. I've thought for years that if I only had one of these, and a drum machine, that I could truly express my creativity.

Well, thanks to Linux, I now have a chance!

After using Cinelerra, a full-featured, multitrack video editing program, I shouldn't be surprised that Linux programs like this exist, but I'm still very impressed that they do. I haven't started using it yet, but Ardour seems to have all the features I would need (multi-track recording with the ability to export to a CD format). I'll just need a microphone and maybe a new PCI card to allow multiple inputs from my amp or other instruments.

I actually had a dream last night about using a drum machine for recording and I was journaling about it when it occurred to me to check for a Linux drum machine. Of course, there it was, also in the package manager's repositories! It's called Hydrogen, and it's great!

Now that I have these, I just have to start recording!!

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