Slashdot Mirror

Ardour: The 2.0 release (just out last week) is AWESOME! Get it!

Binaries are available only for OSX. For those not on OSX, you can build it yourself. See http://ardour.org/building for build instructions, or http://ardour.org/building_vst_support for building it with support for VST plugins. You can currently get the VST 2.3 SDK from a link on Steinberg's 3rd Party Developers page.

Ubuntu users should read UbuntuStudioPreparation ("Setting up your system for an audio workstation...")

I built with scons VST=1 PREFIX=/usr/local and installed with sudo scons VST=1 PREFIX=/usr/local install. The resulting binary is called ardourvst.

For the especially new - every time the build complains about not being able to find a library, try sudo aptitude install libraryname-dev. Barring that, do aptitude search libraryname to find matching packages. Install the -dev package if it complains about not being able to find something. Sometimes this automatically installs the package itself, sometimes not, so pay attention.

Perhaps I'm over using the term but I am using convolution as one would use comvoluted, to make something more complecated. The EMU DSPs do really process sound. They can do EQs, reverbs, delays, etc. Basically any FIR function that can be executed in sufficient time (they execute a fixed number of instructions per sample), I'm not sure if they can do IIR or not, but regardless. So when a game requests a sound be played from a certian location, in a certian environment, the card does the calculation for how that wave should be changed, and what speaker(s) it should be played from. Go to the kX project homepage if you want more technical information on the topic.

As for VST plugins yes, I am fully aware of how they work. YOU seem to be the one that doesn't understand. VST is just an interface, an API, for plugins to talk to hosts. There is no reason one can't have the other side of that talk to hardware instead of having it be a software alogrithm. Some companies do just that. Universal Audio, for example, has a card the UAD-1. It's basically just a DSP on a PCI card. It supports VST, DX, RTAS, and AU, but the work isn't done by the CPU for those plugins, it's done on the card's DSP (http://www.uaudio.com/products/digital/ultrapak/F AQ.html). The PowerCore PCI MkII is the same basic thing, different company (http://www.tcelectronic.com/default.asp?id=1233).

For that matter Cubase 3 does something like this. You can set it up to use basically any external hardware processors as VST plugins. It controls the automation of the external device, and handles sending and recieving audio (http://www.steinberg.de/ProductPage_sb51ba.html?P roduct_ID=2442&Langue_ID=4).

It's not all that common, since most people would rather spend the money on something else and just bounce tracks when needed, however it's not at all a technical problem. You write a plugin as normal, but rather than implementing and processing in software, you have it do it on your DSP.

Also, if it was truly a closed format and developers had to license the format to use it, you wouldn't see free VSTs around - Who would want to pay to license a technology when they're releasing their project for free? Granted, the free VSTs are nowhere near as good as the commercial ones, but it is possible, they do exist, and they aren't made by people hacking or reverse engineering the format.

If you'd like to have a look at what I'm talking about, take a look at this post. Also, if you'd like a look at the SDK info for VST, have a look here.

The VST format is an open format, and if more people did get around to trying to create hosts for it, it would be possible. Creating an API to host VSTs can be done from the same documentation, you simply have to write code to parse the input generated by the VST plugins.

Granted, running them on Linux or BSD would require WINE, as I've said before, but it is possible.

As for DX, RTAS, and AU - those aren't nearly as commonly used as VST. Also, pretty much any plugin avaliable in those three formats is also avaliable as a VST. I'm well aware the DX is a closed format, and I'm unsure as to the open/closed nature of RTAS and AU.

And not even all that good considering that Virtual Guitarist has been out for years and sounds better.

http://www.steinberg.de/displaydoc_sb5e0b.html?Pro duct_id=2041&Langue_ID=2&doctype=238&templ=10&divi sion_id=&loc=doc238

The fact that its using a real guitar is mitigated by the fact that the playing sounds super mechanical.

Those must be cool time traveling kids, considering version 3 isn't available yet.

Strange - I could've sworn that that's exactly what was in the upgrade box I got 2 weeks ago...

If you still don't believe me: the online help was missing from the DVD, so you have to download it...

np: Autechre - Arch Carrier (LP5)

Protools may be great but there are other less expensive solutions with the same audio fidelity and professional feature sets. Steinberg makes Cubase SX and Nuendo, my favorite audio production programs.

The cost of Pro Tools typically involves hardware for audio processing. With Steinberg's software my Pentium 4 1.8 Ghz handles everything, and I can run 16 tracks without even slowing down my system.

Not only is technology making record labels obsolete, it's also making studios obsolete. With a $2,000 investment in computer equipment and software, $500 to sound-dampen the garage, and $500 for a decent microphone and mic preamp, plus one of these, you can rock pretty hard these days, and sound very good while you're at it.

Please, people, if you don't know what s/he's asking, keep your trap shut, m'kay? We're talking audio here, so signal-to-noise ratio counts, you see...

But, do you want to go the hardware or software recording route?

If you have a decent enough computer (G3 macs or PII upwards x86s will do the trick for about 16 tracks), you might consider getting a good soundcard.

I personally use a M-Audio Delta44, 4 inputs, 4 outputs, nothing more. Perfect for recording. They have nice break-out boxes, so you don't have to crouch behind your computer when plugging in your guitars, basses or mics, they work under Macs, PC's and have linux support via ALSA (yes, linux can do multitracking as well). When you need more tracks, you can just add more cards and get 8/8 or up to 16/16 in/out-system.

As for recording software, well... my delta came with a cut-down version of Logic Audio, which should be good enough for start. Most 'pro-sumer' soundcards come up with basic software, so you shouldn't need to cough up any more money for it in the beginning.

Other software: Cubase is nice, and there's nice 'lite'-versions for beginners (some soundcards come with this instead of logic). Cakewalk is quite popular as well.

If you just want audio recording (the aforementioned do MIDI as well), then there's Cool Edit Pro. For free, there's Audacity (audacity does Windows, Linux and Mac) which is proficient enough multitrack audio editor. SLab is a good linux multitrack recorder.

And mp3, well, you don't want to use mp3 for multitrack recording, but most modern software can import mp3-sounds, and output the result to mp3 (some of them [cool edit/audacity] can do ogg as well)

If you want a proper hardware recorder (which are nice, since you can take them to your rehersal space, summer cottage, ..., what have you), then there's plenty to choose from. Most of these are a couple of years old, so you can find them for reasonable prices used (or even new!)

Roland VS-8xx series, they're nice, compact, can do 4-track recording, and 8-track playback. Loads of features, and useful later on even if you grow out of this one. Earlier models had inbuilt harddrives, the later ones have ZIP-drives (if I remember correctly). If you can get one for cheap (and i think you should), then go for this one.

Korg D-8. A bit easier to operate, but quite useful nevertheless.

And i think Fostex had some as well, just keep your eyes open in the pawnshops.

Well now that apple does control the home/semi-pro video market (they still need to kill premiere), they're going after a second "niche" market : audio.

They already have iTunes/iPod, they Get Emagic, now who's NeXT ? Steinberg ?

When apple will hold the Audio market, they'll just need to push a little more their switch capaing.

The funiest about this this is that 10/15 years ago apple had to sign some contract with Apple records (no URL to give) the record compagny that did the beattles, in order to keep their name : to keep their name they had to limit the Sound capabilities of all apple Hardware .....

I have a page with several popular GPL VST Plugins ("Destroy FX"). If someone were to port VSTGUI to linux, we'd definitely compile our stuff for linux users as well.

Approaching the problem from the other side, I'm becoming increasingly swayed by the benefits of Variable Bit Rate as a way to improve the quality at the recording side. It only goes so far, of course, but I am hearing an audible difference.

I use (and heartily recommend) CDex as my CD-Ripper, and it is now supplied with the Lame encoder. The latest CDex supports VBR, where you can set a) the lowest bit rate you will accept, and b) a general quality tradeoff parameter, where "VBR0" is the least, and "VBR9" the most compromised in quality. I'm hearing better results with this setup than I did with Steinberg WaveLab 3's VBR system, and it's also allowing WinAMP to show the correct songlength, rather than fluctuating as the bitrate changes.

In effect, the VBR system analyses each audio block and makes a guess as to how much information it can drop. If you convert the resulting file back to WAV and examine in CoolEdit Spectral View, you can actually see the high-end cutoff stepping up and down as the bitrate varies. Noisy sounds such as cymbal splashes get the most bandwidth, while smoother sounds allow a lower rate to be used.

The resulting files are larger, but you could tradeoff more quality to get the size down. With the parameters I use ("VBR0", no less than 96kb/s), the bit rates shoot up to 320kb/s at times, and the average compression ratio is only about 8:1. Still, I think the results are worth it...