[PlanetCCRMA] Recently updated my RH9 Planet CCRMA machine

[R Parker]

Hi Marv,

Great vibe. I saw the cat pics on your site. We've got
a couple studio animals; Gus, a siamese cat and
knuckles the half dog, half goat thing. Half goat
'cause prior to house training, I'd discover mixed
within his grunt parts of styrofoam coffee cups, the
zippers of ziplock "sandwich" baggies, chunks of
expensive leather shoes and various other bewildering
things.

Knuckles has two musical notes and will reach for the
higher one as the intensity of music increases. It's
fun to direct him; he stands sideways to me, plants
solidly on all four feet, sticks his chest out, cocks
his head, and rolls the eyes in order to watch my
gestulations. My palm pointed down towards his face
means subdue. To increase the intensity of the howl I
turn the palm up and raise the hand higher. He
interprets cues more clearly with greater physical
animation, hmmm, ala orchestral directors. I shit you
not, as I bend my knees and then symoultaneously
straighten them, turn the palm up and raise my hand,
he ducks his head, then raises it up and increases
intensity while reaching for his higher note. He's
easier to produce than me. Fear not though, we humans
got him on diversity. At best, he's a one hit wonder
and only about as poetic as a can of pinto beans.

When entering the studio, he used to run directly to
the vocal both and stare at the headphones until
playback began and then start singing. His favorite
instrument is the harmonica but emergency vehicle
sirens, vocals and drums all get him going. There are
specific parts of several songs that always get him
started. One of the parts is my vocal interpretation
of a really bad lead guitar player. He positively
loves that solo. Guess I'll turn that into a duet
between him and I.

Gus is more vocal than knuckles but it's basically
impossible to direct him. He's an adlib trubador that
busts his moves when he hasn't seen you for a few
hours or wants something--human food, outside, into
his room. If we're really getting into it with
Knuckles, at times there will be four or more studio
rat/humans howling like dogs, Gus will start too.
Somewhere in my empire of crap is a song with Gus and
Knuckles in the vocal booth together.

Anyway, that's my precoffee tale of the day. BTW,
installing jack and any of its clients is generally a
breeze and Fernando has some excellent system tuning
tips in the Planet CCRMA documents. I'm sure you've
already discovered them.

ron

--- Marv Smoak <smoak@mis.net> wrote:

> 
> Hi folks, this is mainly to say "thanks" again to
> Nando
> and the community and present a few experiences and
> thoughts.
> 
> First, the update went smooth as silk; no dramas. 
> Some of 
> you might remember that I still need assistance with
> installs and
> updates.  Dave Phillips has me on his client list
> since I got
> this machine and took the plunge into Linux audio; 
> it was shipped
> to him and he setup my RH8 PCCRMA install in March,
> 03.  He has
> kept me moving ahead since then. It's a good deal,
> he helps and 
> I gladly pay him for his help.  
> 
> The RH8 system has been great for learning Linux and
> for my audio
> needs.  I wanted Linux as a general workstation and
> my main
> interest in audio is as a musician.  When I got the
> system working
> for midi-soundfonts, players, mixer, and a few
> others things, I
> just used it and didn't do any upgrading.  In the
> process of using
> it at our group's weekly practice sessions, Phil our
> keyboard 
> player got interested.  By this spring he was ready
> to install 
> RH9 on one of his machines.
> 
> We started my update and his install at the same
> time; we've both
> learned the install/update process and able to
> compare notes as
> we work and talk on the phone.  Dave's real busy
> writing these days
> but still able to keep us going.
> 
> One of the things I can now do easily (ie I now know
> how and
> the programs work) is record what I'm listening to
> on internet
> radio.  Listening, and studying what's being played,
> has helped
> me improve my playing.  Now I can use rezound, with
> realplayer
> and qamixer to capture tunes as I'm listening to
> them. Caught
> snippets of two very different versions of Naima
> last week, a
> tune our group is working on. 
> 
> Still a lot to do.  Rosegarden, Jack, ... but it
> looks doable.
> I do see some problems ahead.  But I won't mention
> them right
> now.  
> 
> If you're interested in how a practice group is
> using linux
> audio,  I've started a website and will be putting
> some info
> there.  Here's a link to an text file describing our
> "Mono
> Players Studio".  It's very functional for us and
> usually 
> ready to use anytime.  And it sounds good; the mic
> levels were
> set long ago to avoid feedback and complaining
> neighbors. 
> 
>
http://users.mikrotec.com/smoak/MonoPlayersStudio.txt
> 
> Marv
> 
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>
http://ccrma-mail.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/planetccrma
> 



		
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