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#1 2008-02-28 21:25:22

radi0gnome
Member
From: Kingston NY
Registered: 2006-12-29
Posts: 1030
Website

Mp3 on myspace and recording stuff

Hi,
  I just added a song to my myspace page, my first somewhat successful venture into modern recording technology. It's the first one on www.myspace.com/charleskoeppen .

  I was going to post the Mp3 along with pictures of the flute on the "shakuhachi fluff" thread, but I'm having problems with my camera. The shakuhachi is the one at the bottom of Perry Yung's blog archive for June '06 : http://www.yungflutes.com/log/archives/ … index.html .

  I'm sure I'm not alone in experiencing frustration and lots of wasted time trying to figure out how to get sound from the shakuhachi onto the computer in Mp3 format, so I thought I'd share my experiences here.

  First, since I run mostly on Linux but keep Windows around for programs that don't run on Linux, my first stab at recording was on Linux. I'll keep things short here and just say that I couldn't get it to work. However, Windows has a nifty sound recorder under start->all programs->accessories->entertainment. Using a vocal mic (an SHS that's supposed to have the same specs as a Shure SM) with a 1/4 in jack and an adapter to fit that into my computer, I was able to figure out how to get a .WAV file that eventually became the "After Shock" song that's on my myspace page. In order to get it from a .WAV into an Mp3, since I didn't want to buy anything new, I used MusicMatch to burn the .WAV to a CD and then used MusicMatch again to rip the CD to Mp3. If you want to suffer the pain of listening to that track, you'll notice (aside from some horrid playing) that there's way too much static. That was fine for my purposes then, which was really intended to be just a demonstration of circular breathing with shakuhachi.

  After some research, I had enough knowledge to realize that most computer sound cards aren't made for good recording applications, and that a fast and easy solution would be an M-audio Fast Track USB sound card. So I bought one. This sound card is actually a little box with inputs for a microphone and a few knobs and a USB cable to connect it to the computer. I tried Linux again, and set with a new abundance of knowledge about Alsamixer (that's mostly a Linux thing) and Audacity (a free and robust sound recorder), I was able to get Linux to record, but not with the new soundcard. So, it was back to Microsoft. The soundcard worked great, although I had to use the mic cable with the XLR kind of jack to attach it to the soundcard. Audacity was a charm too, it was easy to edit my playing by chopping out some phrases I didn't like and add a bit of echo. I still had to use the tedious trick of using MusicMatch to turn the .WAV file into an Mp3 though because Audacity won't allow you to export a project as an Mp3 without finding a LAME .dll file on your own. The result is the Black Beauty track I pointed you to at the beginning of this post.

  As far as the track itself, I just played into the mic for about 10 minutes. My intent was to find the best 3 or so minutes of that to use, but I liked it so much that I only chopped a few minutes out of it. Listening now I think I could have chopped a minute or so off at the end because there's a natural ending there and the subsequent phrases don't add much. I almost thought it was cheating to use the echo, but it sounds a lot better that way. I called it Black Beauty because that's what the previous owner called the flute. I used circular breathing when I felt like it, and altough I like the results of my meanderings, I have to admit that I don't have a lot of control over the flute and basically have to let it take me to where it wants to go. I don't play Japanese music, but I can understand why Japanese music on these instruments is so hard because the instrument doesn't seem to like to be controlled.

  If anybody has constructive criticism about the recording techniques or process, feel free to post them here. As far as criticism on the musical content, you're welcome, but I'd prefer it be offline via email because I know it's pretty bad by Japanese traditional standards (and actually only mediocre by my standards) and don't really want the bullet wounds to be public.


"Now birds record new harmonie, And trees do whistle melodies;
Now everything that nature breeds, Doth clad itself in pleasant weeds."
~ Thomas Watson - England's Helicon ca 1580

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#2 2008-02-29 00:22:04

rpowers
Member
From: San Francisco
Registered: 2005-10-09
Posts: 285

Re: Mp3 on myspace and recording stuff

You can find your LAME here:

http://lame.sourceforge.net/download.php


"Shut up 'n' play . . . " -- Frank Zappa
"Gonna blow some . . ." -- Junior Walker
"It's not the flute." -- Riley Lee

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#3 2008-02-29 01:14:17

radi0gnome
Member
From: Kingston NY
Registered: 2006-12-29
Posts: 1030
Website

Re: Mp3 on myspace and recording stuff

rpowers wrote:

You can find your LAME here:

http://lame.sourceforge.net/download.php

Do you know how to compile it? I've never compiled anything on Windows.


"Now birds record new harmonie, And trees do whistle melodies;
Now everything that nature breeds, Doth clad itself in pleasant weeds."
~ Thomas Watson - England's Helicon ca 1580

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#4 2008-02-29 05:04:50

amokrun
Member
From: Finland
Registered: 2006-08-08
Posts: 413

Re: Mp3 on myspace and recording stuff

Recording in Linux works fine for the most part for as long as the sound card itself is supported. Some less common or more recent cards may not work but that's about it. Sometimes it takes a bit of work to get anything done since occasionally the default settings may be completely wrong or there may be a problem of some sort. I do all of my recording work on Linux and haven't had much trouble once everything was set up the first time. If you plan to record on Linux and plan to spend a bit, such as buying a sound card made specifically for recording, it is usually a good idea to check some forums where people talk about these things. There are plenty of people doing music on Linux and they can most likely recommend some good setups that are known to work well. Thankfully the market offers plenty of choices today, especially in the field of professional equipment as opposed to gaming which is generally dominated by just few brands.

As for the LAME files, check the following on the website of Audacity:

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/help/fa … m=lame-mp3

That should get the encoder working. Personally I prefer FLACs or OGGs but I realise that some websites have their own preferences as to what users can upload.

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#5 2008-02-29 10:40:15

mrosenlof
Member
From: Louisville Colorado USA
Registered: 2006-03-01
Posts: 82

Re: Mp3 on myspace and recording stuff

I haven't listened to the files, so this is not a comment on your recording.  I found the default encoding parameters for Lame gave me an unpleasant "warble" in flute mp3s.  I played around with the encoding parameters and came across

lame -V -q0 in.wav out.mp3

selecting variable bit rate and highest quality (but slowest) encoding.  As usual, your mileage may vary.


Mike Rosenlof

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#6 2008-02-29 19:16:46

dust
Member
From: Albion
Registered: 2007-09-08
Posts: 91

Re: Mp3 on myspace and recording stuff

radi0gnome wrote:

"After Shock" song that's on my myspace page. In order to get it from a .WAV into an Mp3, since I didn't want to buy anything new, I used MusicMatch to burn the .WAV to a CD and then used MusicMatch again to rip the CD to Mp3. If you want to suffer the pain of listening to that track, you'll notice (aside from some horrid playing) that there's way too much static.

As an experimentalist I find the static on "After Shock" an interesting and desirable counterpoint..  big_smile


imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete.

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