As I still haven't found a way to get audio recording working properly on my Kubuntu system I've been thinking of alternatives. One is to do a fresh install of the latest version and hope that it resolves my various issues, another would be to rearrange my drive and install something like Ubuntu Studio with a dual-boot. Somewhere I picked up on dyne:bolic and its derivative pure:dyne. These are audio/video-biased live CDs that can write to existing partitions and even be run from there. I downloaded the latter to check it out.

It booted fairly quickly, but seemed to confuse my monitor which had problems locking onto a signal at times. Eventually I got to their very minimal desktop. It was running in what looked like 800x600. It was using the open nvidia drive. The preferences only offered 640x480 and 320x256. I'm not sure anyone would want to use those modes. Everything is run from a menu when you right0click the desktop. It offers things like Ardour, Audacity and Hydrogen along with Jack. I had a go at setting it up, but could only get playback with a bit of distortion at fairly high latencies. I obviously need to tweak it for my on-board sound. I didn't manage to record anything on the first attempt. Ardour didn't even load properly. So not a great first impression, but I will try it again after reading up. There is a later version that uses a DVD to provide more modules.

Malc had more success when he used it on an electronic music course. So it should be possible to do someting on my 'mighty' PC.

This week's Secret Bass drumming session had more atmosphere than usual when there was a power cut. We were drumming by candlelight, in a building made of straw. Torches were used at times for demonstrations of technique.

I'm starting a new category for this post as I hope to be setting up my own mini-music studio at home.

Jokosher is a multi-track recording application for Linux. It's a project instigated by Jono Bacon of LugRadio fame. It's aimed at musicians who just want to record several tracks rather than those who want to tweak waveforms and perform all sorts of manipulation. It still has facilities to use software effects and other add-ons.

I've been keeping an eye on the project, but yesterday they announced the latest release (0.9), so I installed it. It's looking pretty good, but there are a few issues, mainly in the sound quality, but that may be specific to my PC. I don't normally have problems, but with the audio I imported it sounded very garbled some of the time. I quickly plugged in my electro-acoustic, after finding the appropriate jack plug adaptor, and played along. I managed to get some sound recorded, but the guitar really needs to go via a pre-amp to get a decent level. It was a very brief test, but I posted my impressions on their forum.

There's a nice set of videos of Jono talking about the project on Youtube.

I've been reading up on audio and recording. There's lots of forums out there, of varying audio geekiness. It's a field with no limits on the amount you can spend on equipment, but I intend to just get the basics for now so that I can record at least some guitar, drums and my daughter's violin. Some of those require a reasonable microphone and probably a mixer or pre-amp to plug it into. For my guitar I have my old Korg Pandora that can act as pre-amp and some effects. Later I can look at things like better sound cards and guitar effects.

One of our LUG members is planning on giving a talk on Linux Audio at the July meet. That should be interesting. He is likely to using stuff like JACK and Ardour. I will also be seeking guidance from my good friend Malcolm who has far too much gear.