eSpeak is a commandline based audio synthesis programme.
It came standard with Ubuntu (8.04) and works perfectly on this amd64 bit computer.
This simple line of text does several lovely little bits of magic: espeak -vnl -f voicetest.txt -w TEST.wav
-vnl: choose the Dutch voice (more languages here: http://espeak.sourceforge.net/languages.html )
-f: choose a textfile as sourcematerial to read from.
-w: save this text in this soundfile.
Done!
I have always been quite fascinated by Foley artists, who add “natural sounds” to films, often by imitating reality through means of watermelons, coconuts, rugs, gravel…
The way they produce the sounds, together with the sync quality (they have to stage it – also do they have a score – noting, hit watermelon?) of what they do.
With digital sound editing and databases, foley seems less popular. But I do want to share this link, describing how to reproduce auditive realities with fruit and veg. Enjoy!
http://www.epicsound.com/sfx/#f
(via Make)
Old faithful Audacity, the easy sound editing programme has been disappointing me for a while now, in the sense that I can open a sound, convert it to another format, but I cannot listen to it (highly unpractical for a sound editor)…
“error while opening sound device”
Now, I have looked for some solutions – and this Ubuntu forum post seems to be the most promising at the moment:::
http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=710881
I still need to try these suggestions – and promise to report back on the easiest one.
* System used: Ubuntu 8.04, realtime kernel 2.6.24*
A couple of years I ago, I bought a Iriver H340, a sound hard disc recorder for Constant, because the minidiscs were getting old and after some time, you really get sick of digitalizing the 567.273 minidiscs.
I was really not pleased about this machine, because you could for example, not easily change the sound input levels. You could also only record 80 minutes and then the recording stopped. All kinds of annoying glitches you would not expect. The machine (‘s software!) was dictating what you could do with it, and not the other way around.
After some moping about, and grumbling, I decided to try to put Rockbox on the recorder, because, hey, it could not get any worse! Rockbox is software, firmware, an “operating system” for sound devices from for example Apple, Archos, Cowon, iriver, Olympus, SanDisk, Toshiba.
I must say, that it took me a whole afternoon to install Rockbox, but I have not regretted it a minute since.
It is fantastic.
The menu’s are better, more intuitive, the choices are ample, it is flexible, coherent and transparent. The recorder works the way I – or someone else wants it to work and all previous annoyances are gone (quite special to realize that these were all due to software).
For people with a player from the fruit firm, Rockbox annihilates the necessity of iTunes, which I for many a reason consider to be a good thing.
All this to announce that Rockbox 3.0 is out and installing it has never been so simple.
Go check it out and download the installer here!
Thanks Boingboing for refreshing news on Rockbox
Somewhere in the beginning of April I was contacted by two young ladies from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. They were looking for an organisation to be able to launch their project concerning guerilla bookmarks. As I have fond memories of my “stage” in Montreal, I decided to say yes and this enabled them to come to Brussels. Next week they will set up a workshop in the Bar of Recyclart.
A synopsis:
WORKSHOP BOOKMARKS – GUERILLA ART
Date : Tuesday 13 May 2008 – Thursday 15 May 2008
Entrance : Free
Artistic guerilla action with L’Oeil dans L’Front: workshop-exhibition-action!
The Canadian collective “L’Oeil dans L’Front” from Montréal is coming to Brussels for a project about “Guerilla Art”. Together with Recyclart they are organizing a workshop about producing artistic bookmarks, which later on will be put in the books of the Brussels ‘ libraries.
This cut and paste workshop is free and open to everybody, on the 13th, 14th and 15th of May, in the bar of Recyclart, from 15h to 17h30. Bring your dose of creativity, we’ll take care of the necessary material.
The collected bookmarks will be exhibited shortly after the workshop, in the bar of Recyclart, after their brief public life and before they are spread anonymously.
If you want to participate, please send an e-mail to fabien. recker [[[ @ ]]] recyclart. be or ring 02-502 57 34.
L’Oeil dans L’Front is a collective founded by the Quebecois Elsa Charpentier and Perruche. Their intention is to gently insert art in daily life and public space. The public is invited to acknowledge and question the poetic details of daily life, by making gestures that softly alter those details. For example by eliminating the borders between spectator and actor or by instigating people to slow down or stop public life. Elsa and Peruche are introduced to Brussels by Constant vzw.
Dezelfde informatie in NL: klik hier voor de website van Recyclart.
Le même info en FR: cliquez ici pour le site de Recyclart.
I have recently been working on a manual for a certain script with which you can easily record interviews, without having to edit them. More about this script will follow later.
During the research and testing phase of this script, I have encountered many a challenge (euphemism for problem). At this moment in time, my computer has Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon – Gnome desktop – and an Ubuntu Studio realtime kernel (installed through synaptic).
One of the challenges is the multiplicity of sounddrivers/sound servers.
Alsa – OSS- ESD -> and to make stuff more complex, I use an external soundcard..
Here is where you find the sound preferences of your Linux computer through the graphical interface (by using your mouse (^_^).
This is what I can choose from:
Now, as I try to work with a script, I need the command line version of this:
And this is where arecord comes in.
Arecord = alsarecord
This command displays all soundcards and digital devices that can be used to capture sound – at that moment:
$ arecord -l
On my computer I get a result indicating that my soundcard of my laptop is hardware device number 0 for capturing and the external soundcard (USB) is hardware device number 2:
$ arecord -l
**** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
card 0: ICH6 [Intel ICH6], device 0: Intel ICH [Intel ICH6]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: ICH6 [Intel ICH6], device 1: Intel ICH – MIC ADC [Intel ICH6 – MIC ADC]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: ICH6 [Intel ICH6], device 2: Intel ICH – MIC2 ADC [Intel ICH6 – MIC2 ADC]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 0: ICH6 [Intel ICH6], device 3: Intel ICH – ADC2 [Intel ICH6 – ADC2]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
card 1: Pro [FastTrack Pro], device 1: USB Audio [USB Audio #1]
Subdevices: 1/1
Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
Now, I want to record a test sound through my external soundcard, via arecord (in the Terminal).
$ arecord -f dat -d 20 -D hw:1,1 test.wav
The sound is recorded in the file where you are on that moment in your Terminal.
*Extra*
Two commands which give handy results for trouble shooting:
– To see which soundcard(s) are installed on your computer:
$ cat /proc/asound/cards
– To check what sound modules are loaded:
$ cat /proc/modules|grep snd
Thanks to linuxquestions.org and Cyberciti.biz for the online inspiration.
This is actually the fourth Linux audio workshop!
Some details:
** What: Workshop ARDOUR
** Where: Atelier du web, Rue du Fortstraat 39, 1060 Bruxel
** When: 14/06/07, 19:30 – 21:00
** Info and enrollment: http://wiki.bxlug.be/ProjetAudio/Mini-atelier_2
Thursday june the 14th an Ardour worksession is on the agenda. Learn how to make a radiojingle with Ardour. Ardour is a digital audio workstation with which you can record edit and a whole lot more).
Please take your headphones, microphones, ideas for slogans, and some sound and music!
**
This is one episode in a series of workshops taking place during the months of April, May and June, focussing on useage and knowledge exchange about free software for audio. The software presented include all major open source tools for capturing, editing, production, mixing and diffusion of sound. The workshops are a collaboration between Constant, Collectifs.net, Radio Campus, Radio Air Libre, Radio Panik and Bxlug. The workshops came about spontaneously.
**
See detailed program: http://wiki.bxlug.be/ProjetAudio/
(enroll by clicking on edit and adding your name in this wiki page:
http://wiki.bxlug.be/ProjetAudio/Mini-atelier_2)
Through the Make Magazine weblog I have found a website called Osalt (open source as alternative) which shows what alternatives there are for Commercial software in open source software.
Now, of course it would be better to start with open source software in the first place, but more often than not people are used to certain propietary software to do certain tasks, and they have a hard time changing those software habits.
With this website you can check whether there is an open source alternative for the proprietary software you use/know etc.
An example:
I want to replace Ph*t*sh*p by an open source alternative.
In the software directory I choose Graphic applications, low and behold, Ph*t*sh*p is in the list.
I get a list of comparable open source programmes, or applications that have similar possibilities (whether partial or completely) as the proprietary software.
What I really liked about this website was, that first of all I got more than just the Gimp (Gimp is good!!) and secondly that the compatibility with which operating system is also included (whether you are a linux, mac or wind*ws user).
Part of a screenshot:
A while ago, there was a question for Constant, concerning The Gimp, GNU Image Manipulation Program and possible tutorials on The Gimp. I stumbled upon a review of the following book: Gimp 2 for photographers.
And the review is positive!