Audio Production With Free Software by D.Lynch

Audio Production With Free Software Freeing your ears without compromising on audio quality By Dan Lynch - http://danlynch.org Licensed Under Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike 2.0 UK:England & Wales

Agenda – what I want to cover
Introduction
Who I am / What I do / Podcasting background
Audio Production 101
Principals / techniques
My Production Tools
Software and hardware I use
Software Freedom Law Show
How it came about / Background
Hardware & Software Used
Quick Demo / Example

Agenda – continued
Linux Outlaws
How we record the show
Editing and post production
Publication
Music Production on Linux & The Future
A confession
Current problems and shortcomings
How do we address them
Discussion & Questions

Who Am I? From the other end of the M62...

...where we all look like this!

Background & Podcasting Musician, Sound Engineer & Big Geek :) Host of Linux Outlaws – linuxoutlaws.com Producer of the Software Freedom Law Show for the SFLC FLOSS advocate, web developer/host and Linux/FOSS writer Have a small production company called Half Baked Media

A Podcast Is... A piece of pre-recorded media delivered to subscribers for download via the web.
On demand, not broadcast live
Can be audio or video
Nothing to do with the Apple iPod
Emerging media format, still young
Subscription based, fans subscribe to an RSS feed and are notified of new episodes as they hit the feed.

Audio Production 101 – Pre
Fix the basics before worrying about technology
background noise / environment
The better the source recording the easier your job editing
Use the best microphone for the job and place it well
Experience will help you here
You don't need to be pushing the recorder. Especially with digital
No technology can substitute for your ears, the best tools you'll ever have

Audio Production 101 - Post
Compression is king
How does it work? Why do you need it?
Noise Removal / Gates
Can be really useful in a noisy environment
Limiters – Getting the volume right

My Studio - Hardware
Soundcraft 328 digital mixer
RME HDSP 9652 audio card
Standard PC tower:
AMD X2 4200 CPU, 2gb RAM, various hard disks
Behringher Composer Pro Comp/Gate/Limiter
ADK A51 studio condenser mic (shock mounted)
Spirit Absolute Zero monitors

My Studio - Software
For podcast and other audio production I use Ubuntu Studio 64bit at the moment. Have used 64 Studio in the past.
Have JACK & Ardour set up...
But use Audacity most by far

My Studio – Mobile
The latest addition to my audio kit is the Zoom H4 handy recorder
Very versatile. Costs about £200 new. Balanced XLR inputs, full 96/24 recording, takes standard SD cards and AA batteries.
Works like any normal removable storage drive
Zoom H4 Product Page Zoom H4 Product Page >>

Software Freedom Law Show
Fortnightly podcast from the SFLC about legal matters in the Free Software world.
SFLC enforces the GNU GPL
Began about a year ago
How did I get involved? Free Software Only!!!
What I do as producer:
Advise on equipment and recording techniques
Edit the show together from recordings
Encode to Ogg and Mp3 for release

The Fun Bit... I hope ;)
Recorded in the SFLC office by Bradley, using Arecord terminal utility (he's hardcore)
Equipment: AKG C1000 mic, USB audio interface
Let's put together a Software Freedom Law Show right now and look at what tips and techniques it involves....

Linux Outlaws Production
We each record locally, UK & Germany
Recordings loaded to a private area on our webserver. Where I download.
I combine, compress and normalise levels on both files Create a stereo file, keeping the tracks separate We edit in Audacity and export to Ogg Vorbis & Mp3

Music Production on Linux
A dirty confession – I dual-boot XP still on one machine for music production only
Pro Tools, Reason, Ableton Live and many proprietary VST plugins standard in commercial studio production.
Example: Drums I use Groove Agent a lot

The future?
I think audio production on Linux is more than ready for widespread use. Music production is still very proprietary and presents problems.
How do we address this as Free Software advocates?
Are we duplicating effort with the likes of Pulse Audio, JACK and now Phonon all trying to do the similar things?
What about hardware support?

Any Questions?
If you'd like to discuss audio production, music or anything else please contact me any time: [email_address]
Check out LinuxOutlaws.com and SoftwareFreedom.org
Any questions?

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Audio Production With Free Software by D.Lynch

by Dan Lynch on Jul 23, 2009

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Audio Production With Free Software by D.Lynch — Presentation Transcript