An empirical approach to creating a simple intuitive tool and GUI for determining the hole placement for five hole pentatonic Native American style end blown flutes. Part 1 covers the basic approach and conclusions for calculating placement of the playing holes.
The following represents the author’s opinions and observations based upon flutes that he owns. Apply to your flute projects at your own risk. Read the rest of this entry »
One of my back burner project is to build a cool retro RC airplane. I’m still working on which one, but decided to start to get the skills ready so I could crash less at the flying field. The newest sims have great graphics, but I’d be happy with just something that would let me learn the reflexes, in particular getting used to reversed controls when flying at myself and adjusting the elevator in a turn.
Before I started using Linux, I picked up an old old copy of RealFlight for the dark side with a “transmitter” controller that had a USB adapter. It was supposed to work with Win2K and WinXP, but I couldn’t get it to work with either. Finally after much searching I finally found an open source RC flight trainer for Linux that was really hard to find, but worked remarkably well for the purpose of honing your RC flying skills for model airplanes. Read the rest of this entry »
Until now, the only way I knew to move, copy, delete, or edit files or directories in Linux that were in protected directories was by using the terminal and typing sudo (for super user) before the file management commands. I am running Ubuntu Hardy Heron. If you have many files to move, this isn’t bad once the exact phrases are worked out, but after not needing them for a while I forget and they are just enough different than the old DOS commands to cause me grief. Then I found a great time saving trick (especially for Linux newbies) that provides a GUI (graphical user interface) file manager for protected files:
sudo nautilus
Open a terminal and type “sudo nautilus”. Copying, moving, deleting, or editing files in a protected directory requires the root user password. Starting nautilus from the terminal with the sudo command asks for the root user password, then opens Nautilus in the root directory. You now have the normal file management GUI but it has super user authority. I find I am less likely to make mistakes this way, as I’ve become used to the file manager GUI in Linux.
I find the terminal a great part of Linux that lets you accomplish things a bit out of the ordinary. Without it, you are limited to the capabilities built into the GUI. In this case, you are limited to normal user authority using Nautilus. This is a good thing, as it prevents you from accidentally altering protected files. But when you are sure you want to work in the protected area, it can be launched from the terminal with sudo authority.
I struggled to get Audacity to record in Ubuntu Hardy Heron. Then I discovered that all I needed to do was install the previous version of ubuntu (Gutsy Gibbon) and Audacity recorded fine. A simple great easy to use multi-track recorder. My struggles to get the recording function to work caused me to overlook the potential of Audacity to be used as a mixdown app.
My usual workflow is to record to a mult-track digital recorder and transfer the files as wav files to the computer to process and mix. I’ve used ACID to mix the various tracks together and other programs to add compression, EQ, or reverb. I generally don’t need other effects, one would hope that a good studio recording did not need noise reduction! Then I discovered the list of effects available in Audacity. How nice to apply effects without exiting an application!
The EQ effect is incredibly flexible and intuitive. Just click on the line and a point or “anchor” is added. Click at another point and adjust. You can quickly draw the EQ shape that you want. Quick, intuitive, and all open source! As I’m preparing to create my next album tentatively titled “The Coffeehouse Chronicles” I now plan on making it a Windows free album, mastered entirely in Linux using Audacity. Though Audacity has a version available for Windows users as well.
In addition to the EQ, other useful functions included are the normalize function, fade in, fade out, invert, compressor. The tremolo, delay, high pass and low pass filters, and pitch change functions may also be handy occasionally.
Audacity is one of the most intuitive and stable multitrack mix software applications I’ve tried, and it is open source!
I’ll explain why in just a few lines, but what follows will be MP3s of the Bluebird condenser microphone and my trusty SM58 dynamic microphone in a studio setting that will let you decide for yourself if you agree with my conclusions. I came to the conclusion that the Bluebird has clearer sound for my vocals, which becomes especially important when mixing. But I’m still going to use my SM58 for live performance. And as I’ll explain, the disappointing sound that led me to purchase the Bluebird in the first place was mostly due to stuff other than the choice of microphone. Read the rest of this entry »
I was looking to write a socially conscious song and started writing lyrics a couple of weeks ago. Inspired by the self serving actions of government (the man) and the self serving motives of marketing and advertising (madmen). After letting the lyrics sit for a while, I picked up the guitar and tried to put them to a reggae rhythm. That didn’t work out well, but I did find a vibe that I liked. The vocals and guitar were recorded together in one live take. The organ and tambourine were then added.
I used Gimp to understand and set the initial color palette for “Drummer and Graffiti”. The painting was loosely based on this photo. As shown in the triangular color plot from Gimp, the bricks are toward the red end of the orange range (noted by the circle on the outer perimeter). The top edge of the triangle would indicate all black mixed with the red/orange. The circle inside the triangle just off the top edge indicates that the color of the bricks will be obtained by adding dark gray (or mostly black with some white) to the red/orange. This knowledge allowed me to quickly mix colors I liked. Read the rest of this entry »
Inspired by street art and the brick background behind a band, I painted this scene. I’m inspired to do more works that include street art integrated into a greater scene. The bricks were also a very satisfying element to add freehand. I plan on integrating bricks into future works as well.
Drummer and Graffiti - Brian Kelly, 2009 acrylic on canvas board, 9″ x 12″
I was looking for a way to make a local copy of my WordPress blog so I could carry it in my Palm. I wanted static .html pages. If I could do it with Linux, that was even better. I found a great application that creates a local copy on my PC. They have both a Linux and a Windows version. In Ubuntu, in the add/remove application just look for WebHTTrack and install. It worked great. It is a free GPL application. The website is www.httrack.com I haven’t fully worked out how to get it to work on my Palm, as the links look to be written with specific rather than relative directory structures. But the application was effective in quickly making a local copy of the blog to experiment with.
One of my back burner project is to build a cool retro RC airplane. I’m still working on which one, but decided to start to get the skills ready so I could crash less at the flying field. The newest sims have great graphics, but I’d be happy with just something that would let me learn the reflexes, in particular getting used to reversed controls when flying at myself and adjusting the elevator in a turn.
I struggled to get Audacity to record in Ubuntu Hardy Heron. Then I discovered that all I needed to do was install the previous version of ubuntu (Gutsy Gibbon) and Audacity recorded fine. A simple great easy to use multi-track recorder. My struggles to get the recording function to work caused me to overlook the potential of Audacity to be used as a mixdown app.
I’ll explain why in just a few lines, but what follows will be MP3s of the Bluebird condenser microphone and my trusty SM58 dynamic microphone in a studio setting that will let you decide for yourself if you agree with my conclusions. I came to the conclusion that the Bluebird has clearer sound for my vocals, which becomes especially important when mixing. But I’m still going to use my SM58 for live performance. And as I’ll explain, the disappointing sound that led me to purchase the Bluebird in the first place was mostly due to stuff other than the choice of microphone.
I used Gimp to understand and set the initial color palette for “Drummer and Graffiti”. The painting was loosely based on this photo. 
As shown in the triangular color plot from Gimp, the bricks are toward the red end of the orange range (noted by the circle on the outer perimeter). The top edge of the triangle would indicate all black mixed with the red/orange. The circle inside the triangle just off the top edge indicates that the color of the bricks will be obtained by adding dark gray (or mostly black with some white) to the red/orange. This knowledge allowed me to quickly mix colors I liked.