Recording A Rock Band With Linux

Linux now looks as though it may be mature enough to be used for professional audio applications. There have been important improvements in the Linux 2.6 kernel, such as preempt and a new scheduler. Open Source multi-track audio recording software, such as Ardour, and the JACK low-latency sound server, along with numerous plug-ins, is now competing head-to-head with commercial software. The Taken are a small-time, Canberra (Australia) based rock band. All members are computing geeks and most make a living by working at IBM's Linux Technology Center. The band's bass player is a trained audio engineer and has worked with much of the recording equipment and software used by professional studios around the world. Between now and OLS, The Taken will record several songs using a combination of Linux and suitable Open Source software, as well as ProTools running under Windows XP. We will document the processes used with each set of tools and compare various aspects of the two setups including hardware support, reliability, performance, sound quality, usability and tool availability. We're probably not promising a professional sound engineering experience, rather some data and information for other hobbyists. During the meeting we will play excepts from recordings and demonstrate some of the Linux tools.

Authors: Kelly Daly, Keith Matthews, Martin Schwenke