Episode: 1347
Title: HPR1347: LinuxJAZZ#4
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr1347/hpr1347.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-17 23:55:47

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Hello there, this is Tony Denton, aka Barryman with another episode of Linux Jazz My Fourth
for Hack-A-Public Radio.
That improvised extract shows what can be done with a reasonably simple audio studio setup
and in this podcast I want to outline a number of useful tips and stuff which I have picked up and developed
pragmatically over the last few years.
I use a virtually total Linux solution in my workflow.
I can say that all my music related work, things like layouts, print, composition, score and part writing, sound backings,
even personal practicing etc, is produced 100% within the Linux environment.
For more than four years now I have had no other software platform available to me for my music work other than Linux.
I am a jazz musician with some 53 years experience.
Blind is it really that long ago?
My main instruments are clarinet and saxophones but where performance is concerned with a particular
specialism for the baritone saxophone and with a little piano or keyboard thrown in to allow me to compose and to work out arrangements and harmonies etc.
A great number of jazz musicians of my generation like to think of themselves as modernists.
Probably this is because we grew up and cut our teeth during the same era
that Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Monk were doing their thing.
For myself I am definitely not at the so-called cutting edge of the music, preferring instead a more middle of the road approach.
Most of my performance work is carried out as a freelance musician, working with a number of local bands
and in a number of different jazz idioms ranging from the New Orleans style to full modern big band.
Mostly as a side man but sometimes as a featured soloist or as a backing instrumentalist to vocalists.
The bulk of my work is done within quartets or quintets though around the local jazz venues.
However I will work anywhere they'll pay me but mostly it's here in the north of England.
I want to talk a bit about my present recording studio setup.
I did this in a couple of my previous HPR episodes, 0712 and 0755,
but they were made well over a year ago and have moved on a bit since then.
I'm still working at improving it but I find I can produce quite reasonably good quality sound recordings here at home in my spare bedroom studio.
Now bear in mind this is a fairly small room, some 16 feet by 12 foot with no special sound proofing,
other than the set of full bookcases arranged around the walls.
The sound is quite dead for any speaking part of the recording.
When recording speech I use a Zoom H4N recorder mounted on a small tripod and with a pop filter on
and I use a remote controller addition to switch the thing on and off so I'm up to disturb it.
When recording voice I only have the Zoom on.
The main machine itself is off, the windows and doors shut to minimise the chance of any background disturbance such as my wife calling up to see if I want a cup of tea.
Having captured the vox part which I do as one long file but leaving suitable pauses where the audio is to be inserted,
I transfer that single file from the Zoom where it is said as a WAV file to a new folder on the computer.
Typically the file structure on the computer is constructed within a master folder named say podcast hash4
and within that three subfolders to hold the media files, audio and text because I always script it, not being too good at doing live recordings from notes,
and a building folder where the various elements that make up the whole recording are finally assembled.
It's a bit more complex when it comes to recording the solo instruments however.
The main computer has to be on and a little enhancement or ambience provided by the mixer.
I describe my hardware setup in my second podcast HBR0712 but will give you a quick reminder of this setup later in this port podcast.
Back to the music though, the following 45 second extract is from an original composition of my own called summer dancing
and the bit we will hear is part of an improvised section following the main tune.
That piece summer dancing was completely realised using my home setup.
The initial theme which we will hear a bit later was improvised in real time on a Yamaha keyboard and saved directly onto the computer.
I used an open source piece of software called improvisor.
By the way details of all the various items mentioned in this podcast are in the show notes.
I read about improvisor in the Linux format magazine and decided to give it a try.
The program has built-in rhythms and backing similar to band-in-a-box which I also use.
I was trying to find an open source alternative hence the tryout.
Okay, some background on how I approach writing musical themes and compositions.
Basically I have two ways to start either a melody pops into the head or it falls out from a keyboard improvisation or comes as an idea for a riff saying.
So that's the melody first approach or else a harmonic or chord sequence comes first.
Again, usually brought about by fiddling at the keyboard, no pun intended.
In the case of summer dancing it was the latter approach.
Improviser has as I have said a number of built-in rhythms and backings and it was as I was trying out the sumber rhythm that the chord sequence emerged.
I simply improvised a theme at the keyboard over the chord sequence and rhythm and saved it to the disk.
The main difference between improvisor and band-in-a-box is that band-in-a-box uses sampled sounds to make up the backings etc.
Whereas improvisor sounds are synthesized.
So that is why for more serious recordings and still stuck with band-in-a-box.
So now here's the theme for summer dancing.
Of course the harmonic sequence for that particular tune is obviously a fairly complex one and the melody possibly even more so.
To arrive at such results needs a fair grounding in jazz type harmony and improvisation.
That's where the 53 years experience comes in I guess.
But any approach where the simple or complex works equally effectively using this basic method.
What's in my music production bag?
Okay, my main machine is really very underpowered for a so-called medium machine.
It's an old Acer Aspire S80 with just one gigabyte of RAM.
It has an Intel Pentium 4 517 processor and have dual monitors hooked up to the machine.
It's used as a Ubuntu as the desktop currently 12.4 LTS.
I use the PC's on-board sound card but have a small Yamaha PSR 350 keyboard hooked up to the PC via a midi-man midi-sport 2x2 interface.
The Yamaha provides additional sound sets and it's through this that the backings are provided.
I use a variety of reasonable quality, dynamic and studio capacity microphones with stands and pop filters and as already mentioned the Zoom H4N recorder.
In addition to the main PC, I use two laptops, a 17 inch Sony Vile running with a Ubuntu 1304 and an ASUS triple EPC running Crunchman World off.
These are the main computing tools where music production is concerned.
On the proprietary front I do have a Nexus 7, currently Jellybean 4.3 which I use just for checking email, the odd news feed and a bit of browsing on the internet.
I bought the Nexus as the best tablets alternative to avoid the locked in experience to be found with Apple and Microsoft products.
My intention in the future is to hack the Nexus 7 with a 100% Linux operating system yet to be decided on.
Currently my Nexus is not routed.
The Nexus 7 comes with a 6.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5x2.5
So, over and above the music instruments and the computers and their operating systems,
what are the software do I use in the process and what is the process and procedure used?
For the instrumental portions I mainly record straight into audacity with the band-in-a-box
backing track input to one channel at the mixer and the instrument miced to a second
channel. I can add a small amount of effect to the miced channel which keeps the backing
track flat. These band recordings are then mixed down to a single monotrack at 44100
hertz and exported and saved as a flat file. The solo bumpers are just simply improvised
and recorded onto a single audacity track. When it comes to assembling the podcast,
I place the vox recording from the zoom on the top track and split and move the track
at the point where I am inserting the audio clips. I simply drag them into audacity and
move the cut part to the right as necessary. If I need to record using a separate tracking,
then I will use audio. I often produce the music in score and parts of subsequent life
performance. The written music is produced using Sibelius IV and is a legacy from the days
when I worked in education at a local music academy. The sound backings are generated
in an old copy of band-in-a-box and another legacy acquisition.
Now the Sibelius Nord band-in-a-box have been ported to Linux so I need to run them virtually
or under wine. I use wine, which is okay, but it means I can only run the older copies
of the programs. This isn't a problem for me however, as the older versions provide
all the functionality that I need. Keeping it all together, well some form of regular
practice is a vital important part of staying up to speed for a practicing musician, keeping
much fit if you like. Besides the usual boring scales and arpeggios, which are however essential
for any musician, but particularly for a jazz musician, it is important that a solid
amount of improvisation practice is vital. Now this can be achieved by standing in front
of a mirror or a wall if you can't stand the side of yourself, but it can be made certain
that so much more enjoyable by using band-in-a-box to provide a backing track. It's a bit like
the well-known Jamie Adener Soul Method, a music minus one. The Abersold Method is distributed
in something like a hundred books showing parts in treble and bass concert pitch, as well
as B-flat and E-flat pitchers, which case it's for just about all instruments. The books
are classified into genres and types, and there is a CD recording of the backings, just
like those that band-in-a-box is capable of.
Well, that's about all I can say on the topic for now, but as and when I move on, I'll
make another HPR episode to keep adding to the discussion. Cheers for now.
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