Nicholas Toone

Nicholas Toone

  • Impulse Responses

    *Updated 10/15/2022 to include Linux Studio Plugins.

    When I first really got started recording instruments, I began hearing about something called IR’s and had to dig to find out what they were. I was a late bloomer it seems.

    IR stands for Impulse Response. Essentially an IR is a recording of a sound (like a guitar) played though a speaker (cabinet) in a environment (ie: studio live room) through a specific microphone. The final recorded file is just a wav or an aif with wav being much more common.

    You load up your IR file into an impulse response loader, which is added to a track that contains a DI guitar and an amp sim of some sort, and the IR mimics the sound of the cab/microphone/room that was recorded.

    IR’s are a must have if you’re using straight up amp sims on your guitar tracks. Normally amp sims on their own don’t sound super great; they’re very dry and don’t have a ton of “character”. Stick an IR of, for example, a Fender Tweed Champ 58 on the track and you’ll notice a big difference right away.

    IRs can also be used for reverb. Similar to the idea of capturing a sound of specific amp/mics/rooms, reverb impulses capture the ambiance of specific places be it a famous concert hall, the space under a bridge, or even a school hallway.

    While there are a ton of IR loaders out there, both paid and free, as with everything else, a good percentage of them are for Windows and/or Mac.1

    All is not lost and there are Linux options, and they’re damn good.

    Reaper supports IRs via its ReaVerb plugin and is pretty decent. I’ve been testing it out on a piece I’m working on and it seems to handle the job very well, as is pretty much expected from Reaper itself.

    SNB Reverb IR in ReaVerb.

    There is also the Linux Studio Plugins Impulse Responses and Impulse Reverb plugins. There is a mono and stereo version of each and they offer a little more tweaking capability than ReaVerb. I just started playing with these in Mixbus and so far so good.

    LSP Impulse Reverb Stereo running in Mixbus 32c.

    The only issue I found with LSP is that it only supports wav. If you manage to find IRs that were created in aif, you’ll need to convert them using something like soundKonverter.

    As an alternative to pure IR loaders, ToneLib GFX has an Impulse engine that allows you to add IRs directly into your amp/effects chain.

    IR Processor in ToneLib GFX.

    As for the IR files themselves, I have a pretty sizable IR library thanks to a few free packs:

        • 7 Deadly Sins Impulse Pack. Absolutely huge amount of IR’s to go through. If you can think of a guitar cab, it’s probably here. I haven’t even scratched the surface of these.
        • Studio Nord Bremen. A good handful of really well done IR’s covering all the greats: Marshall, Ampeg, etc as well as a few very decent reverbs.
        • EchoThief. Reverb IRs taken from real spaces across North America.
        • Housecall – Lexicon 480L: A set of reverb IRs based on the Lexicon 480L. (Note: These are aif files and may not work in some IR loaders. You may need to convert them to wav depending on their use.)

    You can also find both free and paid IR’s just by searching online. The IR files themselves are platform agnostic, so go nuts.

    Is using IR’s cheating? No it’s not and don’t let anyone tell you any different.

    Of course there are purists out there who think we should only be recording guitars through actual amps in actual good sounding rooms using actual microphones. While most of us would love a room of amps, cabs, and mics at our disposal, it’s important to note that most of us don’t have the money, or the space for that much gear.

    For us regular people who want a great sound without breaking the bank, IR’s come in very handy for shaping guitar tones.

    1: Have a gander at this list. Lots of good shit, but try and find anything that supports Linux.

  • The First Linux Recording

    Here is thirty seconds of my first, official, render from Linux.

    Notes:

        • Current hardware setup: Tascam US-16×08 into HP EliteBook 850 G3 running Fedora Jam 36.
        • Drums were recorded via Reaper on Windows the week before I started moving everything over to Linux. No processing was done to the drum tracks after the initial recording.
            • Once I got Reaper running on Linux, I exported the raw stems and imported them into Mixbus 32c
            • Plugins used: ACE EQ and Compressor on the drum bus and the kick and snare tracks. All other drum tracks were mixed using only the inline Mixbus EQ and Compressor.
                • Reverb bus 1: ACE Reverb.
                • Reverb bus 2: Gverb ( I think Gverb is included either in Mixbus or Fedora Jam. I do know it’s by Juhana Sadeharju and I can’t find anything on it other than this bit at RTcmix. No matter where it came from, it’s fantastic.)
        • Some guitars (base rhythm tracks and some melodies) were recorded via Reaper on Windows (DI run through GuitarRig 6 Player) before the move.
            • Like the drums, the stems were exported and brought into Mixbus.
            • I kept the GuitarRig processing on these tracks because they sounded good, and I wanted to use them as a reference while I dug into ToneLib GFX.
        • Remaining guitar tracks (additional rhythm and melodies, bridge guitars) were recorded via Mixbus (DI straight into the Tascam) and run through ToneLib GFX.
        • Bass recorded via Reaper on Windows before the move.
            • Bass was not a DI, it was recorded by micing the amp (Ampeg PF-350, TC Electronic BC212, SM-57).
            • No processing on it before the stem export.
            • Once in Mixbus, the tracks were touched up with ToneLib TubeWarmth and the Mixbus inline EQ.
        • Slight EQ, compression, and saturation on the master bus; no plugins, just the track controls.

    All tracks that had plugins, especially guitar tracks with heavy hitters like ToneLib GFX, were frozen/printed to cut back on system resources.

    The full song, music wise is finished and recorded. Lyrics were completed this past week and I’ll be laying down vocal tracks over the coming days.

    It’s been well over year since I completed When Something Appears so it’s nice to get something done even if it’s just a single song.

  • Software Alternatives

    Is there a hard and fast rule on what software you need to use? According to big tech, yes. There is only Windows or macOS! There is only Photoshop! There is only Office!

    As Big Tech gets bigger and swallows up smaller companies, the landscape for software can seem pretty one dimensional and expensive unless you’re willing to do some digging and be skeptical about how you procure these products.

    I’m already a little off the beaten path with software mainly because I loath the subscription model when it comes to applications. I don’t mind subscriptions for services such as music/video streaming or online storage; I subscribe to Spotify and Netflix (the originals!). I also have online storage and password manager accounts.

    For apps though, I just don’t agree with the subscription model. I like to pay for an app and be done. Some subscriptions are kind of ok; Microsoft 365 is good because you get Mail (sans advertising), all the Office apps, and a terabyte of OneDrive 1 storage for a decent yearly price so you’re getting a full package of stuff. Some are meh (Adobe), and some are downright awful (I’m looking straight at you, Pro Tools).

    The bright side to all of this is that you can still  buy apps that are just as good, or often times better than the flagships.

    (more…)

  • Universal Stupid Bullshit

    There has been some ballyhoo of late over the EU’s regulatory decision to force phone hardware companies to use strictly USB-C connectors for charging.

    The quick and dirty is that the EU wants to force hardware manufacturers to make charging ports on all phones, tablets, cameras, headphones, portable speakers, and handheld video game consoles USB-C.

    Uh-oh. Sounds like they’re trying to stamp out innovation, kill competition, and shut down Christmas all at the same time.

    (more…)

  • Low End Tricks #1

    When recording and/or mixing music on lower end or older computers, the following tricks are important:

        • When mixing, increase your buffer size to around 4096 or so depending on how many tracks you’re working with. It may need to go a little higher.
        • Freeze/print tracks that are plugin heavy. In fact, freeze/print any track that has a set and forget plugin.
        • If you need to record a last minute track (a vocal harmony or a little guitar weedly-doo) disable/mute everything but the bare minimum needed for reference and drop your buffer size as low as possible.
          • As an example of bare minimum: disable all drum tracks except the overheads and disable all guitar except the base rhythm tracks.

  • Clickable list of my saved Linux tips.

  • Spaces In Terminal

    Just gonna put this here because I’m a n00b.

    In short, for folders:

    $ command “Folder Name”

    or

    $ command Folder\ Name/

    … for files

    $ command “file name with spaces”

    or

    $ command file\ name\ with\ spaces

  • The Easy Part Is The Computer

    I’m going to add a little more to my post from last week. Yes, yes I’ve whinged and kvetched about computers here many times but I’ve been rethinking my relationship with technology quite a lot over the past few weeks.

    Up until the past year or so, I’ve been what you would call a die hard Mac user and had been since around 2007. Apple was my jam. The house is filled with MacBooks, iPhones, iPads, Apple TV’s, Apple Watches, and HomePod mini’s.1

    I still have two Macs but one is at deaths door and the other is so slow it’s been relegated to being a lowly media server.  In the meantime, I’d been researching new machines and using my work computer, a Dell XPS running Windows 11, as a stopgap – and we all know that using your work computer for personal shit is never a good idea.

    While I’m somewhat interested in MacBooks, I’m no longer the fanatic I once was. Apple made some design and pricing decisions over the past few years that soured my taste. Touchbars, USB-C, shitty keyboards, $500 wheels, $1200 monitor stands … you get the picture. Some of their recent designs are good (well the MacBook Pros anyway), and the Apple Silicon chips are interesting. Yet while I was considering saving and getting a MBP, in the end I simply could no longer justify the prices Apple is asking for their computers. So instead of spending a small fortune on a new MacBook Pro, I started looking at the PC market.

    After years of deriding Microsoft, I was pleasantly surprised to find that Windows is actually really good now. Especially Windows 11. Sure, there’s cruft, legacy garbage, and weird design decisions hanging out in the background, but there is cruft, legacy garbage, and weird design decisions hanging out in the background of any operating system.

    The work Dell I’ve been using would be a really nice computer if it wasn’t so prone to hardware issues. At the beginning of of the year I had to run the gauntlet with Dell Support. Three motherboard replacements later and currently the trackpad doesn’t work if the laptop is plugged into power – and this is a $2500+ laptop.

    I also am partial to Lenovo ThinkPads but one of those would also run me a couple of thousand dollars.

    And then I got to thinking: do I really need to part with that much money just to get a computer, any computer, that can handle basic music production and light video editing?

    “Marketing, marketing, marketing. Everything is Better! Faster! Thinner! Lighter! New new new! Forget about what was out just a few months ago! Check out what we have right now! It’s better!”
    – Every Tech Company That Exists.

    So I started looking at the second hand and refurbished market.

    Here is what I found:

        1. Companies market to us in order to get us to buy new and stigmatize anything second hand/refurbished.
        2. Thanks to this, people rely on new items way more than we should which, in turn, is creating massive amounts of e-waste.
        3. There are way more second hand/refurbished options out there than I think anyone realizes.
        4. It’s all good stuff.

    So count me in. Here I am on my refurbished HP laptop and everything is going just fine.

    1: I’m severely disappointed with the HomePod mini’s.

    Pros:

      • They look good.
      • They sound great for their size.
      • They pair and work ok with the Apple TV. Sometimes.

    Cons:

      • Siri is just  as useless as it is on the iPhone and it’s the only way you can control the HomePods.
      • The setup and settings in the the Home app is non-intuitive garbage.
      • The Home app itself is non-intuative garbage
      • They only work half the time when mirroring a Mac to the Apple TV. 
      • When starting a movie on Apple TV more often than not, they’ll forget they’re connected and there is no sound for nearly two minutes. Then they’ll remember the ATV and sound kicks in.
      • They constantly lose connection with each other or the Internet.
      • They only work with Apple Music. As luck would have it, I was trying out Apple Music this summer and let me tell you, calling up music on the HomePods was shaky at best. It would ether play the wrong thing, or try and play it on the TV. More often than not, I’d hear “There is a problem with Apple Music please try again later”. I cancelled my Apple Music subscription because I found it in no way better than Spotify and it never worked as advertised on anything past my iPhone. It sucked on the HomePod and the Apple TV and my computers. The Mac app is merely ok. There is no dedicated Windows app so you either get iTunes or the Apple Music web interface (both of which are garbage). You know what Spotify has? An app for Windows, Mac, and Linux. And they’re all fucking great.

  • Linux Tip #1: Max Amount of Locked Memory

    This is primarily for Mixbus and Mixbus32c running on Linux. It also applies to Ardour, which Mixbus is based on. The distro I’m using is Fedora Jam, however this most likely applies to whatever distro you’re using.

    Issue

    Mixbus 32c shows the following message when launched:

    WARNING: Your system has a limit for maximum amount of locked memory.
    This might cause Mixbus32C to run out of memory before your system runs
    out of memory.
    You can view the memory limit with ‘ulimit -l’, and it is normally controlled by /etc/security/limits.conf
    Solution

    Open a Terminal window and check the memory limit by typing ulimit -l . You may see something like this:

    $ ulimit -l
    8192

    This means that Mixbus is limited to 8GB of memory. To open this limit up, in Terminal, edit limits.conf:

    $ sudo vi /etc/security/limits.conf

    Add the following lines (or if they already exist with a # in front of it remove the # and change the number value of memlock to unlimited):

    @audio – rtprio  95
    @audio – memlock unlimited

    Save the file and check the ulimit again. You should see this:

    $ ulimit -l
    $ unlimited

    If you don’t see this, then restart. You can try logging out and back in, but I found this didn’t work. A full restart, for whatever reason did.

    Launch Mixbus. If you see the same warning message, check your group in Terminal:

    $ groups yourusername

    If you don’t see the audio group listed, for example:

    username : username wheel pkg-build

    add your user to the audio group:

    $ sudo usermod -a -G audio yourusername

    Check groups again. You should see audio listed:

    $ groups yourusername
    username : username wheel audio pkg-build

    Launch Mixbus and the message should be gone.

  • Another Major Shift

    After all my posts opining about Apple, macOS, Dell, and Windows, I’ve thrown my hands in the air and given up looking at new computer hardware. I have a ton of reasons which I’ll write about, but the main one is that I’ve become dismayed thinking about the amount of second hand computers that exist while companies churn out new product for ridiculous prices. As a friend of mine recently said: “I like the idea that Apple is making high performance chips that are low on power consumption but I can’t, and won’t spend that much money on a computer.”

    After looking into the second hand market, I headed to a local, mom and pop refurbished computer store and marveled at the WALL OF LAPTOPS they had on display:

    WALL OF LAPTOPS

    These are all second hand/refurbished. And they have more than these stored away in the back. They have old old computers, not so old computers, and newish computers. Give them an idea of what you’re looking for and they’ll hook you up. Why would anyone buy something brand new? Performance? The ability to run whatever is shiny and new?

    Well …

    I ended up purchasing a refurbished HP EliteBook  850 G3. The model is around six years old and came with an i7 6600u, 16GB of memory (which I upgraded to 32GB thank to an extra stick of ram I had lying around) and a 512 SSD. Supposedly the CPU is not Windows 11 supported but who cares?

    In another twist, I decided to flatten the hard drive and give Linux a run for its money.

    After doing some research, I settled on Fedora Jam as it’s geared towards music production and so far so good.

    I’ve got my Tascam US16x08 running using ALSA – which came with Fedora Jam and needed no configuration – and it all works with Mixbus32c. I have to say that, so far, Mixbus runs so goddamned smooth on Linux, which makes sense considering it’s based on Ardour.

    My usual go-to and longtime favorite DAW is Reaper, and it turns out they have a Linux build.  I managed to get it installed and running but, at first, it would not pick up the Tascam. I kept at it over the past few days and now it seems to be running just fine – although under JACK rather than ALSA. I mean ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

    Music aside, I’ve managed to set it up Fedora as a full-on desktop environment running KDE Plasma and with all my usual apps (Firefox, Spotify, FocusWriter) as well as a good number of Open Source alternatives. The most pleasing surprise is a video editor called Kdenlive. it’s got just the right amount of features that I used in DaVinci Resolve and Premier Pro to make it just right without excessive bloat.

    I’m also loving how well a new release of Linux runs on six year old hardware. When I first brought the laptop home, and before I nuked the drive, I gave the Windows 10 install a spin and it was a little sluggish. Fedora, on the other hand, is running like a dream.

    Linux has come a long, long way since I seriously tired it last. I know it will never overtake Windows or macOS – I mean, it’s been poised to take over for as long as I can remember – but wow, it’s so much better than I remember.

    So far so good.