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Producing music on a Debian machine

Off-Topic discussions about science, technology, and non Debian specific topics.
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babcat
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Joined: 2018-04-11 09:22

Producing music on a Debian machine

#1 Post by babcat »

Hello, I am a musician from Volos, a port-city in Greece and started uploading music tracks, electro style, a bit punk, pop, dance. The computer is a 2004 single core 3Ghz pentium4 Prescot, 2GB DDR1 ram with Debian stretch running on a 64gb ssd. The software used is Ardour and Qtractor trackers-sequencers, ams synthesizer, petri-foo sampler, qmidiarp midi sequencer, hydrogen drum machine, mhwaveedit editor, jamin for mastering. With jack as sound server and qjacktctl mainly for interconnecting apps.

[Removed by Moderator - we are here to talk about Debian/Linux/Computer and not publicise music tracks]
Last edited by babcat on 2018-05-29 20:14, edited 2 times in total.

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Lysander
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Re: Music tracks produced on a Debian machine

#2 Post by Lysander »

Hi babcat, I sent a message to your Bandcamp account after your last post was removed - but maybe you removed it in order to post from your normal account. Even though your post may be looked on as promo [which it is] it raises a few interesting questions. I will now quote from the message I sent so the community can see your answers too:

Can you tell us a little more about why you chose a Debian machine to produce the music. Was it an ethical choice, financial or were you experimenting with newer software on old hardware? Does the software you use have an affect on the kind of music you produce [e.g. does it include/lack features that proprietary software would not]?

The reason I ask is part of my academic research will be looking - to some extent - at musicians in the Middle East [OK you're in Greece but that's close enough for me!] and the choices they makes with regard to free software. Do you know of any other musicians who use FOSS?

The style of your music is quite new to me but it seems like some kind of eletropunk hybridisation. I can't hear anything typically [or traditionally] Greek in there but please correct me if I'm wrong. Are they any regional influences in your music or are they purely cultural? Touristas (UTA) is cool, I esp like the groove around the 2min mark.

Sorry for all the questions but your topic has come at quite an interesting time. I was only talking to my institution about the kind of work you're doing very recently.

EDIT: a mod may consider reinstating the OP's link or allowing him to re-include it. Yes it is promo, but it's highly relevant to the topic. I'm sure some people would be curious to hear music produced on this machine [and it doesn't cost anything to stream it].

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debiman
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Re: Producing music on a Debian machine

#3 Post by debiman »

babcat wrote:Hello, I am a musician from Volos, a port-city in Greece and started uploading music tracks, electro style, a bit punk, pop, dance. The computer is a 2004 single core 3Ghz pentium4 Prescot, 2GB DDR1 ram with Debian stretch running on a 64gb ssd. The software used is Ardour and Qtractor trackers-sequencers, ams synthesizer, petri-foo sampler, qmidiarp midi sequencer, hydrogen drum machine and mhwaveedit editor. With jack as sound server and qjacktctl mainly for interconnecting apps.
on such matured hardware!
i'm awed!
babcat wrote:[Removed by Moderator - we are here to talk about Debian/Linux/Computer and not publicise music tracks]
hrmph.
i would love to hear what they did.
it's hardly commercial, is it?

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babcat
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Re: Producing music on a Debian machine

#4 Post by babcat »

Lysander first of all thank you for your interest and thank fate for the coincidence.
Back at 2006 while finishing my thesis, crossover IT and sociology the subject, I switched to Linux, ubuntu at the time, it was because I got tired of XP and felt that sth goes wrong (in general) whenever I encountered cracked software. I also felt that the style, the luxury and price of MacOs was not for me and it still isn't.
Then I switched to xubuntu and for 2 years now Debian. I also have a puppy linux live cd. Fair enough.
What I enjoy in linux is the informal style. Since I cannot cope with monitors computers
and technology for all day, every day,
I want to have as funky time as possible in front of the screens. So messages like
"time warp or clock problem (xxxxxxxxx seconds in the future)" or "booting paravirtualized kernel into bare hardware",
or the command "whoami". I run "top" to watch the processes and read "2 running 116 sleeping..." and I stare at the screen and smile. Then
I share these with the girl and we laugh. All this stuff inspires me for music and everything.
Even kernel panic has the opposite effect of panic on me. I enjoy this engineer's kind of humour when things don't go as planned . I also enjoy using
GUIs that are idiosyncratic, with character, and many programms that are simple and do a few things, rather than one that does many. I like programm messages exposing technical stuff.
It is mind-broadening and as I am part engineer myself
(studied IT but I can't say I was the best student in the class)
I can feel a bit of this experience in a way. Plus, I have to admit I like to stand out a bit by using sth different,
and have a fast desktop with handy keyboard shortcuts on a machine I don't really need to
upgrade, for the time being. If/when I start editing video, I'll examine the possibility of upgrading to multi-core.
I don't ask for much, I just go through it. And now I enjoy writing down thoughts I never really digged.

The software surely affects the electropunk style and the groove. As for features, I don't ask for more.
I am happy with the system's stability
and with the way I cope with computers, because I believe stability depends a lot on the user.
About regional influences, "Username" has a bit of "tsifteteli" style, but again filtered through this electro thing/style in my head.
I can see myself going on with regional influences, occassionally, depending mainly on the theme of the lyrics.

Musicians using foss in Volos... a city of 150-200.000 people, hosting the computer science branch of the University of Thessaly,
so quite a few people are using foss for sure, but musicians? We could be 3-4. Professional musicians? Probably none.
In the whole/rest of Greece I have no idea. From pros I remember encountering
2 snob guys and another one who liked a mixer plugin I have never used.
What do I know to say? Everybody makes his/her own choices and goes on.
Last edited by babcat on 2018-05-30 18:25, edited 1 time in total.

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Lysander
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Re: Producing music on a Debian machine

#5 Post by Lysander »

Great response, thank you very much indeed. So finances do play a part in your decision which is understandable - if you can get a great OS for free why pay for it - and it could be paywall for some. I find it very interesting that software inspires your music, arguably the production process. This is an incisive point that shows that the machine and software are not just conduits, but they influence the music-making.

I think yes, due to the fact that you studied IT a Linux OS may appeal more and I underestimated this point, I thought that there would be more musicians there using FOSS. However, musicians are not that heavily into IT in my experience, especially classical musicians - they spend more time with their instruments and less with their PCs and they wouldn't care about the geek 'kudos' of using Linux [like a lot of people do, let's be honest - I came from a family of music and computer enthusiasts so I have interests in both]. Likewise I agree, it would be hard to find a professional musician using FOSS because they would be more interested in the end result rather than the process. So there's an argument that FOSS and its related hobbyism could well be a distraction, but when the software gratuitously influences the music, it is also an instrument.

Debiman - it's not to hard to find OP's music, there are a couple of large clues on this page to easily help you locate his Bandcamp.

bdtc1
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Joined: 2015-01-22 09:00

Re: Producing music on a Debian machine

#6 Post by bdtc1 »

For a while I used a 4-track minidisc recorder, synching microphone recordings to MIDI synth and drums. Great times. And to this day I still prefer real knobs and dials over a computer program.

One interesting issue with using a computer in a studio setting is fan noise. Another is latency. Then there is the left side / right side of the brain thing.

It's great to have options, though.

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debiman
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Re: Producing music on a Debian machine

#7 Post by debiman »

babcat, thanks for the pm.
extremely cool music, i'd love to hear MORE!
i was a bit leery about what "electropunk" might mean, but - imo - your music is the best possible definition. i truly dig it.
and sometimes i don't like when people sing in their native language if it isn't english (sorry), but with your music it is the opposite. it has to be greek, nothing else would work.

@all, find babagatos on bandcamp and enjoy two perfect songs.

you should include the info "proudly produced on matured hardware!"

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