This is a blog about using an open source platform to create and perform music. I will post my experiences along the way to help others to learn from my errors and invite you to participate in promoting a different class of software for music creation, available to everybody.
computer equipment
My hardware is usually nothing very special, part of my concept is to proof that it doesn’t need the highest price equipment to have fun and perform. I have a quite nice (in its days) but a bit heavy laptop Dell Inspiron 8600 (Centrino 1.4GHz, with 1GB of RAM and 60Bharddisc). In the beginning of 2009 I expanded the family with a 10 inch eeepc (1.6GHz Atom, 1GB RAM, 160 GB harddisc). For its size the eeepc is the choice when going to perform live and it seems to me that the eeepc is at least as fast as his big Centrino brother.
At the moment I have Ubuntu Linux (8.04) with a real-time kernel (2.6.*-rt kernel) running on both machines. I will probably switch to 10.04 next year.
other hardware
The internal soundcards can be used for practicing a bit or trying new software, effects and the like. But it can make a lot of noise. I bought the cheap and simple audio interface M-AUDIO transit, which has quite low noise levels with one stereo in- and one output. I soldered a small preamp from an electronics shop to enter with a microphone into the line-in. Last but not least I gave myself a MIDI controller for birthday: an M-AUDIO Axiom 25 keyboard with 25 keys, eight knobs and eight pressure pads. And then I have a Yamaha DTXpressIV electronic drumset.
"Setup" of Axiom MIDI controller, transit soundcard, the open preamp with its power connection and cables coming and going.
this is a great idea for a blog. I am working on a project for live, performance, linux, music and my search has lead me here