tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28146984854749312442024-02-07T12:30:43.667+01:00Linux RecordingUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2814698485474931244.post-88857406759883632242012-06-08T17:59:00.000+02:002012-06-08T17:59:59.132+02:00Mackie Onyx Blackjack<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyFGLi8nzdov8MXE_dsKq1M8Poapt-A-eCsPun2DtJ5gASB4zZe1EzWpLiwx5SFNs1eN6JU2C3sZazAVs0LOS-H9QiGrM67bun2EBUc1GEovSrqFsxYtDrwp0Qva6L7c3PcE5ygiWFs7Ie/s1600/IMAG0151.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyFGLi8nzdov8MXE_dsKq1M8Poapt-A-eCsPun2DtJ5gASB4zZe1EzWpLiwx5SFNs1eN6JU2C3sZazAVs0LOS-H9QiGrM67bun2EBUc1GEovSrqFsxYtDrwp0Qva6L7c3PcE5ygiWFs7Ie/s200/IMAG0151.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mackie Onyx Blackjack</td></tr>
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I got a new audio interface (for Christmas, so it is about time that I blog about it), namely Mackie's Onyx Blackjack. It is a fabulous 2x2 24-bit/48kHz USB device, which works out of the box with a recent Linux kernel (since 3.2, I think).<br />
<br />
The Blackjack features two of the same high-quality preamps as Mackie's Onyx mixing consoles. Both channels have jack/XLR combo inputs and are switchable between Hi-Z and Line signal and there is a global switchable phantom power, so you can connect about anything you want and even use it as a DI box if you want and have a computer nearby, since the interface is only USB-bus-powered.<br />
On the output side of things you have two options: two 6,35mm jacks for your studio monitors or other speakers and a 6,35mm headphone jack. Both monitor and phones outputs have independent level controls (and the phones preamp can get very loud, so watch that knob before putting on your headphones).<br />
The input can be routed to the monitor/phones via a separate level control and a mono/stereo switchable button, so hardware monitoring is easily possible.<br />
<br />
You probably will already have some sort of soundcard or onboard sound built into your computer, so in order to always use the Blackjack create the file ~/.asoundrc (or /etc/asound.conf for system-wide use) with the following content (adapted from the <a href="https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Alsa#Random_Lack_of_Sound_on_Startup" target="_blank">Arch Wiki</a>):<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">ctl.!default {</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> type hw</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> card Blackjack #adapt this to your card</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> #device 0 #not required, defaults to 0 (see the output of aplay -L)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">}</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">pcm.dmixer {</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> type dmix</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> ipc_key 1024 #required and must be unique</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> slave.pcm {</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> type hw</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> card Blackjack #same as above</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> #device 0 #same as above</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> }</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">}</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">pcm.!default {</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> type plug</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> slave.pcm dmixer</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">}</span><br />
<br />
<div>
This works great if you only want to use this interface. On a laptop you might want to switch between the built-in card and the Blackjack, since you might have it not always with you. See <a href="http://linux-recording.blogspot.de/2012/06/switching-between-two-soundcards.html">this post</a> on how to do that easily.</div>
<br />
So, I think the Mackie Onyx Blackjack is the perfect small audio interface for your Linux based home studio. Superb audio quality, great hardware almost entirely made out of metal (apart from the knobs and the interior), easy to use, next to nothing to do for setting it up and all that for about 150€/200$.<br />
Although I did not do a direct comparison, I think it is safe to say that with this interface you get significantly better value for money than with other similar interfaces like the Presonus Audiobox, M-Audio Fast Track Pro or Lexicon Lambda. The only bad reviews I read were due to some very bad Windows drivers, but of course this does not affect the use on a Linux system.<br />
One more thing, the form factor is not what you get with aforementioned devices and I was skeptical at first, but it proved to be really handy sitting there on your desk with all controls easily at hand.<br />
<br />
All in all, I can only recommend the Mackie Onyx Blackjack audio interface. Go and get it, but if you find a better device, have something to add or have some question, feel free to comment below.Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2814698485474931244.post-5461879429708455342012-06-08T17:57:00.000+02:002012-06-08T19:01:45.571+02:00Switching between two soundcardsSince I have my <a href="http://linux-recording.blogspot.de/2012/06/mackie-onyx-blackjack.html">Mackie Onyx Blackjack</a> audio interface I had the problem of switching soundcards on my netbook, because usually the interface is connected to my desktop computer and I don't want to switch cables every time I need sound on my netbook for just a few minutes. And with having the Blackjack set as my default device I have no sound at all when it is not connected.<br />
So I found <a href="https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?pid=1101949#p1101949" target="_blank">this</a> rather simple solution of writing a small bash script, that I can use to switch soundcards pretty much on the fly. Here is how:<br />
<br />
Create a text file with the following content. Remember to adapt it to your needs by replacing all mentions of <i>Blackjack</i> and <i>Intel</i> with your soundcards. You can find their names by entering <span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">cat /proc/asound/cards</span> into your terminal. In the output the names of your soundcards are given in the brackets.<br />
<br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">#!/bin/bash</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">if [ "$1" == "Blackjack" ]; then</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">rm ~/.asoundrc</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">cat >> ~/.asoundrc << END1</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">ctl.!default {</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> type hw</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> card Blackjack #adapt this to your card</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> #device 0 #not required, defaults to 0 (see the output of aplay -L)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">}</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">pcm.dmixer {</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> type dmix</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> ipc_key 1024 #required and must be unique</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> slave.pcm {</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> type hw</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> card Blackjack #same as above</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> #device 0 #same as above</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> }</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">}</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">pcm.!default {</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> type plug</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> slave.pcm dmixer</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">}</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">END1</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">elif [ "$1" == "Intel" ]; then</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">rm ~/.asoundrc</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">cat >> ~/.asoundrc << END2</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">ctl.!default {</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> type hw</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> card Intel #adapt this to your card</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> #device 0 #not required, defaults to 0 (see the output of aplay -L)</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">}</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">pcm.dmixer {</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> type dmix</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> ipc_key 1024 #required and must be unique</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> slave.pcm {</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> type hw</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> card Intel #same as above</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> #device 0 #same as above</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> }</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">}</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">pcm.!default {</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> type plug</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"> slave.pcm dmixer</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">}</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">END2</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">fi</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit;">Then name the file something like <i>soundcard</i>, put it into <i>/usr/bin</i> and make it executable.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">By using </span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">soundcard Blackjack</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> or </span><span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;">soundcard Intel</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> or whatever your devices are you can switch to the desired one. But you will have to restart the application you want to have sound in to have the change applied.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">If there already are additional lines in your <i>~/.asoundrc</i>, be careful, as the script will completely remove the file first and then write a new one. </span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2814698485474931244.post-285510550551856162011-09-30T18:36:00.000+02:002011-10-03T19:49:18.444+02:00Using Analogue Drums Big Mono with HydrogenI recently discovered the wonderful <a href="http://www.analoguedrums.com/index.php">Analogue Drums</a> drum samples. They have several high-quality drum kits for sale (for a reasonable price) and also a small free kit named <a href="http://www.analoguedrums.com/details-bm.php">Big Mono</a>.<br />
Unfortunately they only support proprietary software for Windows & Mac, but they provide every sample in WAV format, so you can use them in your favourite sampler. With <a href="http://hydrogen-music.org/">Hydrogen</a> being my favourite drum sampler I created a Hydrogen drumkit file for the Big Mono set, which you can download <a href="http://petercrighton.de/linux-recording/drumkit.xml">here</a>. Then just put the drumkit.xml file along with the WAV files from the Big Mono kit in the folder <i>$HOME/.hydrogen/data/drumkits/Analogue Drums Big Mono</i> and you should be ready to groove.<br />
My drumkit file (NOTE: <i>only</i> the XML file, not the samples, which are copyrighted by Analogue Drums) is released under the <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported</a> license, so you can use it accordingly.<br />
I did no tweaking whatsoever (e.g. panning, EQing), so go ahead and edit it as you like. Do you find flaws in my drumkit or have improvement suggestions? Then leave me a note in the comments.<br />
<br />
Finally, here's a short demo of Big Mono playing in Hydrogen: <a href="http://petercrighton.de/linux-recording/BigMonoDemo.ogg">Big Mono Demo</a><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Update:</b> <a href="http://petercrighton.de/linux-recording/Big%20Mono%20Demo.h2song">Here</a> is the h2song file of the Big Mono Demo I created.<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB-euFwBC-8NMb_9s_R5MnZ8rimMBSzwJpNaPhzJKALx73fiVNZ42g5jemlhuLIsF70kvsS079_O4rXrWVyVkPvKpEW_cFdlp2KlGOFXOHm7AgMh2lvGCuiocWtl-LLrY_r3B2QX2BSqQq/s1600/Analogue+Drums+Big+Mono.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="496" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhB-euFwBC-8NMb_9s_R5MnZ8rimMBSzwJpNaPhzJKALx73fiVNZ42g5jemlhuLIsF70kvsS079_O4rXrWVyVkPvKpEW_cFdlp2KlGOFXOHm7AgMh2lvGCuiocWtl-LLrY_r3B2QX2BSqQq/s640/Analogue+Drums+Big+Mono.jpeg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: small;">Analogue Drums Big Mono in Hydrogen</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2814698485474931244.post-76533850678613378942011-09-30T15:41:00.002+02:002011-10-01T03:05:52.087+02:00Introduction<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1okPTsytYgASdSBqpd9ixenMedTVsdGXOF005qgWWRRYl11nIxSiqemd9mFSd83szvkH7eb4VVPXIYOassChgGe4tncYtH5rL7SvkOrIQcjPE7J0T-z4mesTNGmzeDPC9wr_Kmo4EZzYg/s1600/Peter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1okPTsytYgASdSBqpd9ixenMedTVsdGXOF005qgWWRRYl11nIxSiqemd9mFSd83szvkH7eb4VVPXIYOassChgGe4tncYtH5rL7SvkOrIQcjPE7J0T-z4mesTNGmzeDPC9wr_Kmo4EZzYg/s200/Peter.jpg" width="200" /></span></a><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;">So, this is my first blog post.<br />
Let me introduce myself first: My name is Peter Crighton and I am living in Mainz-Kastel, Germany. I have a great passion for music (especially Progressive Rock) and Linux and Open Source. You can read more about my several musical projects at my website <a href="http://www.petercrighton.de/en">www.petercrighton.de</a>, where you can also find a growing collection of transcriptions, that I make (using the fabulous <a href="http://www.lilypond.org/">LilyPond</a>). If you want, you can also follow me on <a href="https://plus.google.com/106072391176810307125">Google+</a> – if you send me a message from there, I will also put you in my Linux Recording circle.<br />
Now I decided to share my experiences with Recording on Linux (I am using an <a href="http://www.archlinux.org/">Arch Linux</a> system) in a separate blog – and here it is. So stay tuned!</span>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0