Sound recording in Debian Lenny

[Lisi]

I am after something from never-never land, but I live in hopes.

I need a sound recorder, and would prefer that it be in Debian Lenny, but a
dual-boot would be possible. It must fulfil the following criteria:

1) Be managed by someone who knows a little bit about Linux, less about Debian
and absolutely zilch about sound recording and balancing etc.

2) Ideally, usable by someone who knows even less about computers and sound
recording, but can use this package without too active a helping hand.

Last time my husband needed to record a book, I Installed Jaunty on a computer
that I had to dedicate to it, used gnome-sound-recorder and held his hand
constantly.

I have searched online both in the list of Debian packages and via Google, and
have used aptitude search and, for luck, aptitude show. Krec, Audacity etc.
are non-starters because they assume that you would know how to use at least
a simple mixer. I don't. I simply couldn't work out how to work them,
partly because I did not even know the vocabulary.

Debian Lenny is what my husband has currently on his computer. He doesn't
like change. He is using KDE 3. I am about to set up Squeeze with Trinity
to see whether I think that it has come of age. But meanwhile, Lenny it has
to be.

Thanks for any input.
Lisi

[godo]

Krec, Audacity

Post by Lisi
etc.
are non-starters because they assume that you would know how to use at least
a simple mixer.

Forgot to say...you don't have to know that.
There is only one slider for input (mic.) volume and that's enough.
Look at the pic.: www.dobosevic.com/nix/audacity.png

When I recording my voice I only put correct mic. volume and press red
button for recording.
--
Bye,
Goran Dobosevic
Hrvatski: www.dobosevic.com
English: www.dobosevic.com/en/
Registered Linux User #503414

[Petrus Validus]

Post by Lisi
I am after something from never-never land, but I live in hopes.
I need a sound recorder, and would prefer that it be in Debian Lenny,
but a dual-boot would be possible. It must fulfil the following

<snip>

Interesting requirements to say the least.

Post by Lisi
I have searched online both in the list of Debian packages and via
Google, and have used aptitude search and, for luck, aptitude show.
Krec, Audacity etc. are non-starters because they assume that you
would know how to use at least a simple mixer. I don't. I simply
couldn't work out how to work them, partly because I did not even know
the vocabulary.

If you can install Debian you can use a mixer. Have you visited this
page?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Linux_audio_software#Recording.2C_editing_and_mastering

Unfortunately I don't know too many recording apps off the top of my
head that meet your criteria. I was going to suggest Audacity. For
basic audio recording that does the job. It certainly isn't a
full-featured DAW like Ardour, Cubase, or Pro-Tools....not that your
husband needs those anyway.

Post by Lisi
Debian Lenny is what my husband has currently on his computer. He
doesn't like change. He is using KDE 3. I am about to set up Squeeze
with Trinity to see whether I think that it has come of age. But
meanwhile, Lenny it has to be.

This shouldn't be a problem.
--
Petrus Validus
***@gmail.com
If there isn't a way, I'll make one.

[godo]

Post by Lisi
I am after something from never-never land, but I live in hopes.
I need a sound recorder, and would prefer that it be in Debian Lenny, but a
1) Be managed by someone who knows a little bit about Linux, less about Debian
and absolutely zilch about sound recording and balancing etc.
2) Ideally, usable by someone who knows even less about computers and sound
recording, but can use this package without too active a helping hand.
Last time my husband needed to record a book, I Installed Jaunty on a computer
that I had to dedicate to it, used gnome-sound-recorder and held his hand
constantly.
I have searched online both in the list of Debian packages and via Google, and
have used aptitude search and, for luck, aptitude show. Krec, Audacity etc.
are non-starters because they assume that you would know how to use at least
a simple mixer. I don't. I simply couldn't work out how to work them,
partly because I did not even know the vocabulary.
Debian Lenny is what my husband has currently on his computer. He doesn't
like change. He is using KDE 3. I am about to set up Squeeze with Trinity
to see whether I think that it has come of age. But meanwhile, Lenny it has
to be.
Thanks for any input.
Lisi

Hi,
what do you think about Audacity?
Nice big buttons just like on tape-recorders.

And if there is a need for sound editing like cutting, up/down volume,
exporting in various formats it is very easy.
--
Bye,
Goran Dobosevic
Hrvatski: www.dobosevic.com
English: www.dobosevic.com/en/
Registered Linux User #503414

[Camaleón]

Post by Lisi
I need a sound recorder, and would prefer that it be in Debian Lenny,
but a dual-boot would be possible. It must fulfil the following
1) Be managed by someone who knows a little bit about Linux, less about
Debian and absolutely zilch about sound recording and balancing etc.
2) Ideally, usable by someone who knows even less about computers and
sound recording, but can use this package without too active a helping
hand.

(...)

"Krecord" could be an option but is not in the repos anymore, maybe you
can search in the snapshot archive:

http://snapshot.debian.org/package/krecord/1.16-3/

Probably that packages wwere for Debian 4.x, not sure if it will install
in lenny :-?

Or you can try to compile from sources:

http://kde-apps.org/content/show.php/KRecord+-+Wav+Recorder?content=26436

Just note that this is an old and discontinued application that required
KDE 3.4 and all its Qt 3.x libraries.

So you can explorer another packages, like "qarecord":

http://qt-apps.org/content/show.php/QARecord?content=112651

(maybe you can still find a release that works under Qt3...)

Another option could be installing the "gnome-media" metapackage that has
the gnome-sound-recorder app, but I personally, prefer not to mix desktop
environments libraries/applications (call me "old-fashioned", but I hate
dealing with silly DE collisions :-P).

Greetings,

[Javier Vasquez]

Post by Lisi
I need a sound recorder, and would prefer that it be in Debian Lenny,
but a dual-boot would be possible.  It must fulfil the following
1) Be managed by someone who knows a little bit about Linux, less about
Debian and absolutely zilch about sound recording and balancing etc.

Not sure if matching this criteria, but the very basic I've
successfully used like years ago to record from some old LPs is plain
arecord. From the MAN output:

------------
NAME
arecord, aplay - command-line sound recorder and player for
ALSA soundcard driver

SYNOPSIS
arecord [flags] [filename]
aplay [flags] [filename [filename]] ...

DESCRIPTION
arecord is a command-line soundfile recorder for the ALSA
soundcard driver.
It supports several file formats and multiple soundcards with multiple
devices. If recording with interleaved mode samples the file is
automatically
split before the 2GB filesize.

aplay is much the same, only it plays instead of recording. For
supported soundfile
formats, the sampling rate, bit depth, and so forth can be
automatically determined
from the soundfile header.

If filename is not specified, the standard output or input is
used. The aplay utility
accepts multiple filenames.
------------

arecord and aplay chould come with alsa-utils:

% apt-cache search 'arecord'
alsa-utils - Utilities for configuring and using ALSA

[Lisi]

Post by Camaleón
Another option could be installing the "gnome-media" metapackage that has
the gnome-sound-recorder app, but I personally, prefer not to mix desktop
environments libraries/applications (call me "old-fashioned", but I hate
dealing with silly DE collisions :-P).

Thanks to all of you. I have read, and hopefully learned and digested, all
of your very helpful replies.

I had in fact been looking for the gnome-sound-recorder app, but had failed to
find any mention of it. So I shall start by trying gnome-media. Thanks
Chamaleón.

I have also had another look at Audacity, as suggested. But there is just too
much there that I simply don't understand. However, I shall return to it if
I get nowhere with gnome-media.

Lisi

[Mark]

[snip]
I have also had another look at Audacity, as suggested. But there is just too
much there that I simply don't understand. However, I shall return to it if
I get nowhere with gnome-media.

I will say from personal experience that Audacity looks tougher than it is.
I'd encourage you to give it a chance. Most of the default settings are set
to work out-of-the-box.

Mark

[Celejar]

On Sat, 8 Jan 2011 00:04:54 +0000

Post by Lisi

Post by Camaleón
Another option could be installing the "gnome-media" metapackage that has
the gnome-sound-recorder app, but I personally, prefer not to mix desktop
environments libraries/applications (call me "old-fashioned", but I hate
dealing with silly DE collisions :-P).

Thanks to all of you. I have read, and hopefully learned and digested, all
of your very helpful replies.
I had in fact been looking for the gnome-sound-recorder app, but had failed to
find any mention of it. So I shall start by trying gnome-media. Thanks
Chamaleón.
I have also had another look at Audacity, as suggested. But there is just too
much there that I simply don't understand. However, I shall return to it if
I get nowhere with gnome-media.

You might also take a look at mhwaveedit. Very simple, and not many
options, but it works well.

Celejar
--
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[Lisi]

Post by Celejar
On Sat, 8 Jan 2011 00:04:54 +0000

[snip]

Post by Celejar

Post by Lisi
I had in fact been looking for the gnome-sound-recorder app, but had
failed to find any mention of it. So I shall start by trying
gnome-media. Thanks Chamaleón.
I have also had another look at Audacity, as suggested. But there is
just too much there that I simply don't understand. However, I shall
return to it if I get nowhere with gnome-media.

You might also take a look at mhwaveedit. Very simple, and not many
options, but it works well.

Thanks, Celejar. That is very helpful. I have installed it and had a quick
look. As you say it is worth a longer look.

I now have uninterrupted access for a few weeks to the computer that I want to
set up for recording, so shall be trying this lot in the near(ish?) future.

Lisi

[Joel Roth]

Post by Celejar

Post by Lisi
I have also had another look at Audacity, as suggested. But there is
just too much there that I simply don't understand. However, I shall
return to it if I get nowhere with gnome-media.

Audacity is generally easy to use, available on multiple
platforms, and is my first recommendation to people new to
audio processing.

Post by Celejar
You might also take a look at mhwaveedit. Very simple, and not many
options, but it works well.

Depending on your needs, and if the GUI waveform display isn't so important
you may like to experiment with Nama. (Nama does have a simple
Tk UI for controlling transport, effects, etc. with more advanced
features available at the command prompt.)

Nama is Debian packaged. That version behaves reasonably well.
You can also easily update to the latest/greatest version
from github.

http://freeshell.de/~bolangi/cgi1/nama.cgi/00home.html

Cheers,

Joel (Nama author)

[Lisi]

Post by Joel Roth

Post by Celejar

Post by Lisi
I have also had another look at Audacity, as suggested. But there is
just too much there that I simply don't understand. However, I shall
return to it if I get nowhere with gnome-media.

Audacity is generally easy to use, available on multiple
platforms, and is my first recommendation to people new to
audio processing.

Post by Celejar
You might also take a look at mhwaveedit. Very simple, and not many
options, but it works well.

Depending on your needs, and if the GUI waveform display isn't so important
you may like to experiment with Nama. (Nama does have a simple
Tk UI for controlling transport, effects, etc. with more advanced
features available at the command prompt.)
Nama is Debian packaged. That version behaves reasonably well.
You can also easily update to the latest/greatest version
from github.
http://freeshell.de/~bolangi/cgi1/nama.cgi/00home.html

Thanks very much, Joel. I'll take a look. But you illustrate my main problem
very well. In this context, what are transport and special effects?? Well,
I could possibly guess what special effects are, but "transport"???

I simply don't know enough about recording to be able to use and/or understand
anything beyond start, stop, fast forward, rewind, record and save. And it
would be nice to be able to see whether or not anything is being recorded!

Lisi

[Andrei Popescu]

Post by Lisi
Thanks very much, Joel. I'll take a look. But you illustrate my main problem
very well. In this context, what are transport and special effects?? Well,
I could possibly guess what special effects are, but "transport"???
I simply don't know enough about recording to be able to use and/or understand
anything beyond start, stop, fast forward, rewind, record and save. And it
would be nice to be able to see whether or not anything is being recorded!

Sorry for jumping in without reading the rest of the thread, but it
seems like you're looking for GNOME Sound Recorder in package
gnome-media.

Regards,
Andrei

[Lisi]

Post by Andrei Popescu

Post by Lisi
Thanks very much, Joel. I'll take a look. But you illustrate my main
problem very well. In this context, what are transport and special
effects?? Well, I could possibly guess what special effects are, but
"transport"???
I simply don't know enough about recording to be able to use and/or
understand anything beyond start, stop, fast forward, rewind, record and
save. And it would be nice to be able to see whether or not anything is
being recorded!

Sorry for jumping in without reading the rest of the thread, but it
seems like you're looking for GNOME Sound Recorder in package
gnome-media.

Thanks, Andrei - and yes, you are right. Before ever I asked for help I had
been looking fruitlessly for GNOME Sound Recorder, which I have managed to
use before. But I didn't find it. The information taht it now hides in
gnome-media was what I needed - but I am still grateful for other
suggestions, in case GNOME Sound Recorder has changed beyond recognition!

All I need now is some time!

Lisi

[Andrei Popescu]

Post by Lisi
Thanks, Andrei - and yes, you are right. Before ever I asked for help I had
been looking fruitlessly for GNOME Sound Recorder, which I have managed to
use before. But I didn't find it. The information taht it now hides in
gnome-media was what I needed - but I am still grateful for other
suggestions, in case GNOME Sound Recorder has changed beyond recognition!
All I need now is some time!

I didn't even try to search it by package name, instead I used:

apt-cache search record gnome

which narrows it down to 13 packages, of which gnome-media is pretty
easy to spot ;)

Regards,
Andrei

[Lisi]

    apt-cache search record gnome
which narrows it down to 13 packages, of which gnome-media is pretty
easy to spot ;)

I obviously had my blinkers on. :-( I made the fatal mistake of thinking
that I knew the name of the package that I wanted. :-(

Thanks for the help.

Lisi

[Joel Roth]

Post by Lisi

Post by Joel Roth
Depending on your needs, and if the GUI waveform display isn't so important
you may like to experiment with Nama. (Nama does have a simple
Tk UI for controlling transport, effects, etc. with more advanced
features available at the command prompt.)
Nama is Debian packaged. That version behaves reasonably well.
You can also easily update to the latest/greatest version
from github.
http://freeshell.de/~bolangi/cgi1/nama.cgi/00home.html

Thanks very much, Joel. I'll take a look. But you illustrate my main problem
very well. In this context, what are transport and special effects?? Well,
I could possibly guess what special effects are, but "transport"???

Sorry for the jargon. I guess that's from magnetic
tape world where "transport" means to physically
move the magnetic tape medium past a recording/playback
head.

So that encompasses record/play/stop/rewind. Btw the latter term
(which you yourself use below) belongs to the tape reel
metaphor.

cheers,

Joel

Post by Lisi
I simply don't know enough about recording to be able to use and/or understand
anything beyond start, stop, fast forward, rewind, record and save. And it
would be nice to be able to see whether or not anything is being recorded!
Lisi
--

[Russell L. Harris]

Post by Lisi
I am after something from never-never land, but I live in hopes.
I need a sound recorder, and would prefer that it be in Debian Lenny, but a
1) Be managed by someone who knows a little bit about Linux, less about Debian
and absolutely zilch about sound recording and balancing etc.
2) Ideally, usable by someone who knows even less about computers and sound
recording, but can use this package without too active a helping hand.
Last time my husband needed to record a book, I Installed Jaunty on a computer
that I had to dedicate to it, used gnome-sound-recorder and held his hand
constantly.

Do it the right way (which also is the easy way):

=> Mail-order a Lexicon (brand) Alpha (model) USB interface (about
$75); this is a stereo interface, but it handles only one
microphone-level input, and it does not provide phantom power
(which is needed for condenser microphones).

=> Plug the USB cord into the computer.

=> Plug a microphone (balanced cable with 3-pin XLR plug; this is
the standard for entertainment, broadcast, and recording industry)
into the Alpha.

=> Adjust the microphone level with the "MIC" knob on the front
panel of the Alpha. Simply adjust the level until the PEAK LEDs
flash only occasionally.

=> Use "arecord".

=> After recording, use "aplay", which sends the sound out the
headphone jack and the LINE OUT jacks of the Alpha. (In addition,
the Alpha also has RCA jacks for computer speakers.)

If you do not have a microphone with a 3-pin XLR connector, a decent
dynamic microphone can be had for as little as $20 from the supplier
from which you order the Alpha. Consider something such as the Shure
PG48XLR microphone, which comes with a XLR cable for about $40, or a
more expensive condenser lavalier microphone which clips onto your
lapel, tie, or shirt. Check with a broadcast supplier such as
www.bswusa.com or www.fullcompass.com, and tell the salesman what you
are trying to do.

This approach gives you uncompromised audio quality -- clean,
full-fidelity, hum-free, and is better than using a PCI sound card or
a sound card integrated into the motherboard.

And the balanced microphone cable (which is the type of cable used
with 3-pin XLR plugs) can be hundreds of feet long without fear of
noise or hum, so you can change the recording location without having
to move the computer.

If you need phantom power (for a condenser microphone) or two
microphone inputs, you need the larger Lexicon Omega (about $175).

The Lexicon Alpha and Omega use USB 1.0 and thus work with Linux Etch,
Lenny, and Squeeze; a two- or three-line configuration file may be
needed to make the Lexicon the default sound device. With Ubuntu
10.10, both are fully plug-and-play.

RLH

[Petrus Validus]

Post by Russell L. Harris
The Lexicon Alpha and Omega use USB 1.0 and thus work with Linux Etch,
Lenny, and Squeeze; a two- or three-line configuration file may be
needed to make the Lexicon the default sound device. With Ubuntu
10.10, both are fully plug-and-play.

This is exciting to hear that such interfaces have "out of the box"
compatibility. What about other units like the MBox2 and various
M-Audio interfaces - do they have the same level of Linux compatibility
as the Lexicon units?

Last I heard, which was about 1-1.5 years ago, the DigiDesign MBox2 was
a no-go and M-Audio external interfaces were hit or miss.

Thanks.
--
Petrus Validus
***@gmail.com
If there isn't a way, I'll make one.

[Russell L. Harris]

Post by Petrus Validus

Post by Russell L. Harris
The Lexicon Alpha and Omega use USB 1.0 and thus work with Linux Etch,
Lenny, and Squeeze; a two- or three-line configuration file may be
needed to make the Lexicon the default sound device. With Ubuntu
10.10, both are fully plug-and-play.

This is exciting to hear that such interfaces have "out of the box"
compatibility. What about other units like the MBox2 and various
M-Audio interfaces - do they have the same level of Linux compatibility
as the Lexicon units?
Last I heard, which was about 1-1.5 years ago, the DigiDesign MBox2 was
a no-go and M-Audio external interfaces were hit or miss.

I found one forum post which said that the Alpha "just worked" in
Linux. I needed the capabilities of the Omega, so I ordered one. It
did not work "out of the box", but a few hours with Google turned up
the solution. All I needed to do with create in my home directory a
configuration file ".asoundrc":

$ cat .asoundrc
pcm.!default {
type hw
card Omega
}
ctl.!default {
type hw
card Omega
}

Subsequently, I obtained an Alpha, and found that it, too, worked.

I considered other USB boxen, but to me, the features and
specifications of the Lexicon appeared to be the best for my needs.
These are nice units.

I have running here on various machines Etch, Lenny, Squeeze, and
Ubuntu 10.10; some handle the Lexicon cards more automatically than do
others, but nothing more complex than the above configuration file is
needed.

Of course, the nice thing is that a USB sound card (really a sound
"box") can unplugged and used with any machine.

By the way, today's electronically-balanced outputs can drive either
balanced (that is, professional/broadcast) or unbalanced (that is,
consumer) inputs, automatically. Here, "balanced" means twisted pair
with shield, terminating in either XLR or 1/4-inch TRS phone plug.
And "unbalanced" means coax (like guitar cable). terminated in either
1/4-inch TS phone plug or RCA plug.

RLH

[Rob Owens]

Post by Lisi
I am after something from never-never land, but I live in hopes.
I need a sound recorder, and would prefer that it be in Debian Lenny, but a
1) Be managed by someone who knows a little bit about Linux, less about Debian
and absolutely zilch about sound recording and balancing etc.
2) Ideally, usable by someone who knows even less about computers and sound
recording, but can use this package without too active a helping hand.

When I really need to dumb things down for users, I often make my own
bash script to do it. Maybe something like this would work for you:

#!/bin/bash

echo "About to start recording. Hit Ctrl-C to stop."
arecord myfile.wav
echo "Recording saved as myfile.wav -- be sure to rename it to something
meaningful."

You can create a launcher/shortcut to run it in a terminal, or you can
pretty it up with zenity, xdialog, or KDE's equivalent.

-Rob