Good Studio System

Discussion:

Good Studio System

joseph brower

2006-12-18 04:08:54 UTC

I've been hired to help set up a recording studio. They want to have a
linux based workstaion for the music work. Any suggestions on what they
should have? It needs to be pretty easy to setup.

Thanks,

Joseph Brower

Emiliano Grilli

2006-12-18 09:04:47 UTC

Permalink

If you mean what audio hardware, m-audio delta 1010 (and 1010 lt) is well
supported and gives you 8 analog inputs / outputs (line level)
plus one stereo digital I/O and MIDI.

On the software side, ardour is an excellent multitrack digital
recorder. It should probably become the main app of the studio:

http://ardour.org

Post by joseph brower
Thanks,
Joseph Brower

HTH

--
Emiliano Grilli
Linux user #209089
http://www.emillo.net

Emiliano Grilli

2006-12-18 14:11:42 UTC

Permalink

Thanks for the advice. I used the delta 1010, but I could never get it to
work quite right. The system would detect it, and I could see all of
the levels, but I couldn't ever get the volume right. Maybe I just
wasn't doing it right. The 1010 works well with jack right? Also,
what other specs do you think that I should have (Processor, RAM, and
such).

I suppose you have to work out your volumes before entering the
soundcard, and use the program envy24control as mixer for that card.

I'm no expert on Processor, RAM and such but for ram, the more you
have, the better. Also a good and fast hard disk (or two, one for the
system and another for audio files) helps.

Thanks again,
Joseph Brower

Post by Emiliano Grilli

If you mean what audio hardware, m-audio delta 1010 (and 1010 lt) is well
supported and gives you 8 analog inputs / outputs (line level)
plus one stereo digital I/O and MIDI.
On the software side, ardour is an excellent multitrack digital
http://ardour.org

Post by joseph brower
Thanks,
Joseph Brower

Regards,

--
Emiliano Grilli
Linux user #209089
http://www.emillo.net

joseph brower

2006-12-18 13:42:12 UTC

Permalink

Thanks for the advice. I used the delta 1010, but I could never get it to
work quite right. The system would detect it, and I could see all of the
levels, but I couldn't ever get the volume right. Maybe I just wasn't doing
it right. The 1010 works well with jack right? Also, what other specs do
you think that I should have (Processor, RAM, and such).

Thanks again,

Joseph Brower

Post by Emiliano Grilli

If you mean what audio hardware, m-audio delta 1010 (and 1010 lt) is well
supported and gives you 8 analog inputs / outputs (line level)
plus one stereo digital I/O and MIDI.
On the software side, ardour is an excellent multitrack digital
http://ardour.org

Post by joseph brower
Thanks,
Joseph Brower

HTH
--
Emiliano Grilli
Linux user #209089
http://www.emillo.net
_______________________________________________
Users mailing list
http://lists.agnula.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/users

Mark Stuart Burge

2006-12-19 04:52:37 UTC

Permalink

What methods did you use for setting the volume on the 1010 ?

I believe the 'envy24 control' which should be part of alsa will provide
a good mixer for that card.

Also, as it would be set up in alsa, you could use alsamixer in a
terminal window and set things up there.

Jack would see each input/output of the card, but not provide mixing for
it, but then it depends what you want to do after that, generally you
would patch it directly into ardour which has it's own mixer, or put it
through jamin and then into a recorder like qarecord or timemachine

I know the delta 44 works great with jack, so I would expect all m-audio
cards to (they are amongst the best supported cards I am aware of)

Thanks for the advice. I used the delta 1010, but I could never get it
to work quite right. The system would detect it, and I could see all
of the levels, but I couldn't ever get the volume right. Maybe I just
wasn't doing it right. The 1010 works well with jack right? Also,
what other specs do you think that I should have (Processor, RAM, and
such).
Thanks again,
Joseph Brower

Post by joseph brower
I've been hired to help set up a recording studio. They want to

have a

Post by joseph brower
linux based workstaion for the music work. Any suggestions on

what they

Post by joseph brower
should have? It needs to be pretty easy to setup.

If you mean what audio hardware, m-audio delta 1010 (and 1010 lt) is well
supported and gives you 8 analog inputs / outputs (line level)
plus one stereo digital I/O and MIDI.
On the software side, ardour is an excellent multitrack digital
http://ardour.org

Post by joseph brower
Thanks,
Joseph Brower

HTH
--
Emiliano Grilli
Linux user #209089
http://www.emillo.net <http://www.emillo.net>
_______________________________________________
Users mailing list
http://lists.agnula.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/users
<http://lists.agnula.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/users>
------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________
Users mailing list
http://lists.agnula.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/users

Emiliano Grilli

2006-12-19 08:59:38 UTC

Permalink

Post by Mark Stuart Burge
What methods did you use for setting the volume on the 1010 ?

I don't have a 1010 but a hoontech/staudio dsp2000, which is very
similar, and based on the same chip.

For controlling the input levels I use microphone preamps and/or an
analog mixer, which I use also to control output volume.

The goal is to record at the highest level you can get without
clipping, so a bit of compression/limiting can be helpful in the input
chain. I tend to record without EQ or effects.

Post by Mark Stuart Burge
I believe the 'envy24 control' which should be part of alsa will provide
a good mixer for that card.

Yes envy24control is the way to go.

Post by Mark Stuart Burge
Also, as it would be set up in alsa, you could use alsamixer in a
terminal window and set things up there.

I don't think alsamixer is adequate with an envy24 based card

Post by Mark Stuart Burge
Jack would see each input/output of the card, but not provide mixing for
it, but then it depends what you want to do after that, generally you
would patch it directly into ardour which has it's own mixer, or put it
through jamin and then into a recorder like qarecord or timemachine
I know the delta 44 works great with jack, so I would expect all m-audio
cards to (they are amongst the best supported cards I am aware of)

Yes, all of the delta series do work: I had the delta 2448 (now
discontinued) and some friends have the audiophile 2496, which is maybe
te best "pro" stereo card out there that works with linux.

Ciao

Post by Mark Stuart Burge

Thanks for the advice. I used the delta 1010, but I could never get it
to work quite right. The system would detect it, and I could see all
of the levels, but I couldn't ever get the volume right. Maybe I just
wasn't doing it right. The 1010 works well with jack right? Also,
what other specs do you think that I should have (Processor, RAM, and
such).
Thanks again,
Joseph Brower

Post by joseph brower
I've been hired to help set up a recording studio. They want to

have a

Post by joseph brower
linux based workstaion for the music work. Any suggestions on

what they

Post by joseph brower
should have? It needs to be pretty easy to setup.

If you mean what audio hardware, m-audio delta 1010 (and 1010 lt) is well
supported and gives you 8 analog inputs / outputs (line level)
plus one stereo digital I/O and MIDI.
On the software side, ardour is an excellent multitrack digital
http://ardour.org

Post by joseph brower
Thanks,
Joseph Brower

--
Emiliano Grilli
Linux user #209089
http://www.emillo.net

joseph brower

2006-12-19 16:05:41 UTC

Permalink

I tried using alsamixer, which i guess must have been my problem. I
couldn't ever get any input. Is using 'envy24' just as easy as alsamixer?
I've never heard of it, let alone used it.

Thanks for all of the help,

Joseph Brower

Post by Emiliano Grilli

Post by Mark Stuart Burge
What methods did you use for setting the volume on the 1010 ?

I don't have a 1010 but a hoontech/staudio dsp2000, which is very
similar, and based on the same chip.
For controlling the input levels I use microphone preamps and/or an
analog mixer, which I use also to control output volume.
The goal is to record at the highest level you can get without
clipping, so a bit of compression/limiting can be helpful in the input
chain. I tend to record without EQ or effects.

Post by Mark Stuart Burge
I believe the 'envy24 control' which should be part of alsa will provide
a good mixer for that card.

Yes envy24control is the way to go.

Post by Mark Stuart Burge
Also, as it would be set up in alsa, you could use alsamixer in a
terminal window and set things up there.

I don't think alsamixer is adequate with an envy24 based card

Yes, all of the delta series do work: I had the delta 2448 (now
discontinued) and some friends have the audiophile 2496, which is maybe
te best "pro" stereo card out there that works with linux.
Ciao

Post by Mark Stuart Burge

Thanks for the advice. I used the delta 1010, but I could never get it
to work quite right. The system would detect it, and I could see all
of the levels, but I couldn't ever get the volume right. Maybe I just
wasn't doing it right. The 1010 works well with jack right? Also,
what other specs do you think that I should have (Processor, RAM, and
such).
Thanks again,
Joseph Brower

Post by joseph brower
I've been hired to help set up a recording studio. They want to

have a

Post by joseph brower
linux based workstaion for the music work. Any suggestions on

what they

Post by joseph brower
should have? It needs to be pretty easy to setup.

If you mean what audio hardware, m-audio delta 1010 (and 1010 lt) is well
supported and gives you 8 analog inputs / outputs (line level)
plus one stereo digital I/O and MIDI.
On the software side, ardour is an excellent multitrack digital
http://ardour.org

Post by joseph brower
Thanks,
Joseph Brower

--
Emiliano Grilli
Linux user #209089
http://www.emillo.net
_______________________________________________
Users mailing list
http://lists.agnula.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/users

Daniel James

2006-12-19 18:49:52 UTC

Permalink

Hi Joseph,

Post by joseph brower
Is using 'envy24' just as easy as
alsamixer?

Even easier, it has a good GUI with meters, plus routing and other
options that alsamixer doesn't provide.

Post by joseph brower
I've never heard of it, let alone used it.

Most distros don't include envy24control by default, because they are
aimed at users with more basic audio interfaces.

Cheers!

Daniel

joseph brower

2006-12-18 18:01:33 UTC

Permalink

The guy has a Lexicon Omega firewire mixer already. Do those work well?

Thanks,

Joseph Brower

If you are building it yourself ..
I would start by deciding how many channels they want to record at the
same time. That will get you to the card you need (for example, if only
4 chans are needed for input, then a delta44 would be a good card to
start with (maybe go up to a 1010.
Nvidia for graphics card, with dual head capability and a couple of dell
19in lcds
or single head with a 22in wide aspect lcd if you are price limited.
Pay lots of attention to cooling fans and power supply, so you dont end
up with a loud machine
Plenty of ram (at least 1gig - go as high as you can afford)
Fast processor (2.4GHz upwards) dual cores are still not supported well
at the moment, but do work. You could go dual core and run it on a
standard kernel until such time as the distros become well suited to
them. (as with 64 bit)
SATA or SCSI hard drives (one fixed inside for o/s and temp space and
one or two removable trays, so you can swap out project work as you need)
LiteOn or another well supported cd burner
I have used agnula/demudi, planetccrma/fedora core 2,3,4 and Ubuntu 6.01
Out of these, ubuntu has provided the most flexible and easy to use
system.
demudi was ok and included a great set of tools, but was more difficult
to upgrade and was a touch buggy.
Planet ccrma on the older distros fc 2, 3 or 4 worked great, but was
again slightly limited with upgrades and development has slowed down a
lot since fc5 (now on fc6) and although you can manually get it going,
is a lot more work to install.
Ubuntu works pretty much out of the box and there is a great copy/paste
howto on their ubuntustudio wiki for getting it low latency and tuned
for audio work.
Use qjackctl, ardour, jamin
and spend time configuring the setup in qjackctl so it has a persistent
patch bay to the programs commonly used if they don't want to spend time
patching everything for small tasks.
timemachine
is great to keep running for capturing stuff that wasn't anticipated
, jackrack if you are short on effects processors
I hope this gives some ideas for you
Good luck

Post by joseph brower
I've been hired to help set up a recording studio. They want to have
a linux based workstaion for the music work. Any suggestions on what
they should have? It needs to be pretty easy to setup.
Thanks,
Joseph Brower
------------------------------------------------------------------------
_______________________________________________
Users mailing list
http://lists.agnula.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/users

_______________________________________________
Users mailing list
http://lists.agnula.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/users

chan

2006-12-23 04:03:56 UTC

Permalink

On Mon, 18 Dec 2006 10:01:33 -0800, joseph brower

Post by joseph brower
The guy has a Lexicon Omega firewire mixer already. Do those work well?
Thanks,
Joseph Brower

If you are building it yourself ..

A nice single monitor setup: run a minimal KDE under Windowmaker or
similar,
then, in KDE, in the window behaviour settings panel, set
'active desktop borders always on, except when moving windows'

so for example, open zynaddsubfx, open a couple of its synth programming
panels,
and drag them to a neighboring desktop, and, with the
mouse scrollwheel set to
'scroll thru desktops' (in 'multiple desktops settings panel)
(and while there, add lots of desktops!)), now,

each nudge of the mousewheel goes to the next desktop, but an errant
mousegesture can't suddenly
terrify you by crossing the once penetratable 'active desktop border'.
You lose 'virtual' desktop space, but regain it with wonderfully
accessable multiple desktop space.

I run konqueror filemanager on screen 1, qjackctl and vkeybd on #2, zyn
and a vkeybd on #3, creox
and a vkeybd on #4, ecamegapedal and a vkeybd on #5, highlife vsthost on
#6, and open the chosen
vst gui, and drag it to #6, and add a vkeybd...I can quicky choose and
test fx from creox and eca
with vkeybd, as well as testing sounds from whatever synths...sky is the
limit, let your imagination
run wild...2 22inch monitors, with 10 scrollable desktops each? Bill Gates
certainly didn't make it
possible! Thankyou and Merry Christmas to all the great coders out there
who mmake free or afforable
software...a true abundance of riches!

Mark Stuart Burge

2006-12-18 15:09:40 UTC

Permalink

If you are building it yourself ..

I would start by deciding how many channels they want to record at the
same time. That will get you to the card you need (for example, if only
4 chans are needed for input, then a delta44 would be a good card to
start with (maybe go up to a 1010.

Nvidia for graphics card, with dual head capability and a couple of dell
19in lcds
or single head with a 22in wide aspect lcd if you are price limited.

Pay lots of attention to cooling fans and power supply, so you dont end
up with a loud machine

Plenty of ram (at least 1gig - go as high as you can afford)
Fast processor (2.4GHz upwards) dual cores are still not supported well
at the moment, but do work. You could go dual core and run it on a
standard kernel until such time as the distros become well suited to
them. (as with 64 bit)

SATA or SCSI hard drives (one fixed inside for o/s and temp space and
one or two removable trays, so you can swap out project work as you need)

LiteOn or another well supported cd burner

I have used agnula/demudi, planetccrma/fedora core 2,3,4 and Ubuntu 6.01

Out of these, ubuntu has provided the most flexible and easy to use system.
demudi was ok and included a great set of tools, but was more difficult
to upgrade and was a touch buggy.

Planet ccrma on the older distros fc 2, 3 or 4 worked great, but was
again slightly limited with upgrades and development has slowed down a
lot since fc5 (now on fc6) and although you can manually get it going,
is a lot more work to install.

Ubuntu works pretty much out of the box and there is a great copy/paste
howto on their ubuntustudio wiki for getting it low latency and tuned
for audio work.

Use qjackctl, ardour, jamin

and spend time configuring the setup in qjackctl so it has a persistent
patch bay to the programs commonly used if they don't want to spend time
patching everything for small tasks.

timemachine

is great to keep running for capturing stuff that wasn't anticipated

, jackrack if you are short on effects processors

I hope this gives some ideas for you

Good luck

Daniel James

2006-12-19 01:32:29 UTC

Permalink

Hi Mark,

Fast processor (2.4GHz upwards) dual cores are still not supported well
at the moment, but do work. You could go dual core and run it on a
standard kernel until such time as the distros become well suited to
them. (as with 64 bit)

64 Studio 1.0 supports dual-core Athlon 64 X2 CPUs. The SMP kernel is
not installed by default, but is included on the AMD64 install CD.

Cheers!

Daniel