My band is on a seriously low budget and we checked out the ads in the
locat rags for studios that offered rates we could afford.

We found one that is well within our budget but we are a bit nervous.

They are running a system called Linux which the owner told me is a clone
of ProTools?

I have never heard of this Linux thing, but he did give me a demo of some
work that they have done and are in the process of doing and it looked
pretty good to me.

However, I admit I am clueless when it comes to this stuff and the last
time I was recording it was 2 inch tape.

My concerns are that we need a product that is transportable and since we
are flying in some tracks from around the states (favors by friends who
feel sorry for us) we need to be able to interface with them and I have
the skinny that they are all using Protools.

I need help/advice real quick.

Am I being taken here?

I mean, what is this Linux stuff?

Is it like Mackie/Berhinger where Beheringer is 99.9 percent of Mackie at
half the price until you need it to work on opening night and Berhinger
goes belly up?

Please help.
Thanks.
Quint

Quinten wrote:
My band is on a seriously low budget and we checked out the ads in the
locat rags for studios that offered rates we could afford.

We found one that is well within our budget but we are a bit nervous.

They are running a system called Linux which the owner told me is a clone
of ProTools?

Linux is an operating system. ProTools is an application, which at
this time does not run under Linux. It sounds like you are being given
a load of BS.

Whether the audio application is compatible at any level with PT is the
question that needs to be asked, preferably demonstrated to you by the
studio owner. If you REALLY need compatibility with PT I would not
risk it.

Quinten wrote:

They are running a system called Linux which the owner told me is a clone
of ProTools?

Not funny. Go away, flatfish.
--scott

--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 20:28:30 -0700, Drily Lit Raga wrote:

Quinten wrote:
My band is on a seriously low budget and we checked out the ads in the
locat rags for studios that offered rates we could afford.

We found one that is well within our budget but we are a bit nervous.

They are running a system called Linux which the owner told me is a clone
of ProTools?

Linux is an operating system. ProTools is an application, which at
this time does not run under Linux. It sounds like you are being given
a load of BS.

Ok I c what u are saying.
From what I have been told, they can export to mp3 format and then import
the tracks into Protools on the other side.
Can this be done?

Whether the audio application is compatible at any level with PT is the
question that needs to be asked, preferably demonstrated to you by the
studio owner. If you REALLY need compatibility with PT I would not
risk it.
The studio owner did not tell us that Linux was compat with PT, but that
the data generated by the Linux program could be used in a PT system.

I am confused.

On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 23:34:43 -0400, Scott Dorsey wrote:

Quinten wrote:

They are running a system called Linux which the owner told me is a clone
of ProTools?

Not funny. Go away, flatfish.
--scott

Huh?

Quinten wrote:

Ok I c what u are saying.
From what I have been told, they can export to mp3 format and then import
the tracks into Protools on the other side.
Can this be done?

Probably but that is not a really good option, just because MP3
conversion, unless it is done at super high bit rates, will leave you
with undesirable compression artifacts. Can they do an OMF format
instead?

If that's all you can afford, well there you go. You can't afford PT
so you take what you can get. I would be wary though, it's likely to
cause some problems.

FYI Flatfish is apparently someone who shows up on the NG a lot
recently talking about using Linux for Pro Audio recording, which while
POSSIBLE is not something that is currently accepted as a PRO thing to
do. This person also pretends to be other people and so your post
looks quite a bit like something Flatfish would do.

Maybe you're sincere, but this newsgroup is pretty notorious for long
running scathing arguments about various things and using Linux happens
to be one of them. Does this studio have a web site? Where are they
located?

In article , says...


They are running a system called Linux which the owner told me is a clone
of ProTools?

I have never heard of this Linux thing,

Really? Well you'll feel right at home around here with that kind of bizarre
ignorance. Tell me, have you ever heard of a burger joint called McDonalds or
a coffee shop called Starbucks?

In article , says...

The studio owner did not tell us that Linux was compat with PT, but that
the data generated by the Linux program could be used in a PT system.

I am confused.



Maybe this whole audio thing isn't your forte. Perhaps you'd be better at
creative writing, or graphics work?

In article , says...

On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 23:34:43 -0400, Scott Dorsey wrote:

Quinten wrote:

They are running a system called Linux which the owner told me is a clone
of ProTools?

Not funny. Go away, flatfish.
--scott

Huh?


Weird eh? Scott usually likes answering stupid questions to show off his
incredible grasp of the obvious. He probably thinks you are trolling him.

Quinten,
there seems to be some trolls around things forum. Their only
purpose in life is to annoy it seems.

Not all are that way though, some are honest people. You have got some
honest answers, I will make some as well.

First, it is right that Linux is an operatings system, often shortened
as OS. It on the same kind of ground as Windows or MacOS. The purpose
is to make the computer behave itself and start doing the things we
expect a computer to do. That is show things on the screen, read and
write from hard disk, listen to mouse moves and keyboard typing and
such. The OS as such is not very interesting for a musician, unless you
are building your workstation of course. So Linux can be perfectly
adequate.

ProTools is a so called application program. If you have ever used a
computer you will have seen different application programs. Maybe you
have tried Word for writing texts or Excel for doing calculations, or
maybe even played some computer game. ProTools is a program you use to
track audio signals, to process them with various things, to mix them
together and finally to create the things needed to make CD-s. Often an
engineer will use a few different programs apart from ProTools as they
may be more suited to parts of the process. One example is that
ProTools itself does not burn CD-s, you need a different program there.
You should also know that since ProTools has been around since
computers were not as fast as they are today, it uses special hardware.
This is things the engineer is interested in of course, but the
musician should not really care.

Next thing is that audio (sound for short) on a computer is nothing
else than data files. Sort of like the files you created in Word or
Excel. The same type of file can often be written or read by different
programs. Sometimes with a bit of fuzz, sometimes with a lot of fuzz.
Now all this should be the engineers problem.

I think what your problem here is that you cannot really evaluate the
statements by the studio that they can handle their part of the deal.
You probably have a feeling that things will not go really smoothly. To
my mind there are three ways to handle this situation. In very short
form the three alternatives a
- walk away. If you cannot trust them, and it is in their interest to
convince you, then do not use them.
- get expert advise. You could hire someone with a technological level
of knowledge which you trust and let him or her do the evaluation.
- write a good contract.

I think that the third point, writing a good contract, is something you
should do anyway. You should write down things like what is expected of
you and what is expected from the studio. You should probably describe
these "outside" musicians and how they expect to communicate the audio
files. You should describe who owns the recorded material if various
scenarios happens (such as if the studio cannot deliver). And in this
specific case, I thing you should write down their promises about
beeing able to handle the external musicians. And if they cannot
deliver on that, I think it is fair that you should be able to walk
away without paying very much (if anything at all). As always, in a
contract, never sign on technical things you do not understand the
consequences. Instead of agreeing on working on mp3 files, do request
that they can send the mix in a format that the external musicians
actually can use to add their overdubs.

I believe the first thing I would do is to make a "dummy" test. That
is, spend an hour or so and record just anything. Mix that down and
send it to your outside musicians and ask them to do a dummy overdub.
Import and it and mix the whole thing. This is to test the studio claim
that they can handle this kind of thing. As this is a major part of
your production, I would not pay the studio anything at all if they
cannot deliver. I would not record there. If they can deliver, it is
fair to pay them at least a bit for their work. Testing this early in a
production saves hazzle later.

Anyway, the studio may actually be very competent and very honest about
things. I would give them the possibility to prove it. They could also
be totally incompetent and not knowing anything. In that case you
should at least end up with a limited damage.

Gunnar

In article . com,
says...


First, it is right that Linux is an operatings system, often shortened
as OS.

It's nice when questions so stupid are asked that other idiots can get a sense
of empowerment by answering them.

Quinten wrote:

My band is on a seriously low budget and we checked out the ads in the
locat rags for studios that offered rates we could afford.

We found one that is well within our budget but we are a bit nervous.

They are running a system called Linux which the owner told me is a clone
of ProTools?

I have never heard of this Linux thing, but he did give me a demo of some
work that they have done and are in the process of doing and it looked
pretty good to me.

As you have noticed, this is a rather contentious issue. Some people have
gone as far as assuming you're trolling, but I'm going to assume it is an
honestly-asked question and give an honest answer.

Linux is just an operating system. It is not a recording system any more
than Windows or the Macintosh is, but all of them can run a recording
system.
On the Mac and Win32 this would most likely be ProTools. In the future it
is possible that ProTools may one day run on Linux as well, but this looks
unlikely at the moment.
If you have found a linux-based studio, it is likely that they are running
Ardour, which based on the idea of ProTools, but isn't a drop-in
replacement.

Information can be found he http://www.ardour.org

Linux started out in the server market where it is still strong.. At a
guess, roughly 75% of the internet is running on it. However, as a
recording environment it is still early days for Linux.

My concerns are that we need a product that is transportable and since we
are flying in some tracks from around the states (favors by friends who
feel sorry for us) we need to be able to interface with them and I have
the skinny that they are all using Protools.

Ardour won't be able to load the ProTools files directly, unless they've
pulled some minor miracle and reverse-engineered the file format. However,
if you can get them to export stuff as WAV files, one per track/stereo
pair, you should be able to load these back into Ardour although you will
probably need to line them all up again.

I need help/advice real quick.

Am I being taken here?

It could work. I'm assuming that you're approaching a studio and not trying
to set up the entire system yourself. If it's the latter, you're probably
going to have a lot of problems whatever system you choose.

If you're going with a studio, ask THEM if they're happy to receive tracks
recorded with ProTools.

--
JP Morris - aka DOUG the Eagle (Dragon) -=UDIC=-
Anti-walkthroughs for Deus Ex, Thief and Ultima http://www.it-he.org
Reign of the Just - An Ultima clone http://rotj.it-he.org
The DMFA radio series project http://dmfa.it-he.org
d+++ e+ N+ T++ Om U1234!56!7'!S'!8!9!KAW u++ uC+++ uF+++ uG---- uLB----
uA--- nC+ nR---- nH+++ nP++ nI nPT nS nT wM- wC- y a(YEAR - 1976)

we need a product that is transportable and since we
are flying in some tracks from around the states (favors by
friends who feel sorry for us) we need to be able to interface
with them and I have the skinny that they are all using Protools.

I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. If you're not Flatfish the
Troll, I'm pretty confident there are some audio formats (WAV or AIFF)
that both PT and Linux will be able to handle. Assuming you're going to
be present during final mixdown, that's all that matters.

Linux people generally aren't dummies and may be able to work magic
from a technical point of view (which doesn't say a thing about their
ear for music, of course-- but you seem pleased with what you heard).
That said, contact some of the bands that recorded at this place and
ask their opinion. If they have bad experiences, don't do it.

Finally, I'd like to have contact info of this studio you're talking
about, cause they're doing some seriously interesting stuff there. I
might learn a thing or two from them.

On Sat, 22 Oct 2005 23:14:38 -0400, Quinten wrote:

My band is on a seriously low budget and we checked out the ads in the
locat rags for studios that offered rates we could afford.

We found one that is well within our budget but we are a bit nervous.

They are running a system called Linux which the owner told me is a clone
of ProTools?

I have never heard of this Linux thing, but he did give me a demo of some
work that they have done and are in the process of doing and it looked
pretty good to me.

As far as recording goes, if their previous work sounds good to you, and
is in the same kind of style as your band, then it would not matter if
they were recording analog to wax cylinder.


However, I admit I am clueless when it comes to this stuff and the last
time I was recording it was 2 inch tape.

My concerns are that we need a product that is transportable and since we
are flying in some tracks from around the states (favors by friends who
feel sorry for us) we need to be able to interface with them and I have
the skinny that they are all using Protools.

It depends how exactly you going to work with these tracks.
Are they complete mutitrack backings which you just want to overdub
a few things on, new instrumental parts written to a click on earlier demo
recordings, or are they finished stereo tracks that just need mastering?

Do you envisage returning the multitrack versions back to the people who
have kindly donated time, for further work, or totally finishing them at
the studio?

You really need to be very clear about how you are going to organise this
*before* you go into the studio! Once you have a plan, ask the studio
owners whether they consider it practical.


I need help/advice real quick.

Am I being taken here?

I mean, what is this Linux stuff?

It's software.


Is it like Mackie/Berhinger where Beheringer is 99.9 percent of Mackie
at half the price until you need it to work on opening night and
Berhinger goes belly up?

Please help.
Thanks.
Quint

In article ,
Quinten wrote:

They are running a system called Linux which the owner told me is a clone
of ProTools?

A numer of people, myself included, would be very interested in knowing
the details of a professional studio using Linux in a production
environment. Plese elaborate.

In article ,
Quinten wrote:

My band is on a seriously low budget and we checked out the ads in the
locat rags for studios that offered rates we could afford.

We found one that is well within our budget but we are a bit nervous.

They are running a system called Linux which the owner told me is a clone
of ProTools?

I have never heard of this Linux thing, but he did give me a demo of some
work that they have done and are in the process of doing and it looked
pretty good to me.

However, I admit I am clueless when it comes to this stuff and the last
time I was recording it was 2 inch tape.

My concerns are that we need a product that is transportable and since we
are flying in some tracks from around the states (favors by friends who
feel sorry for us) we need to be able to interface with them and I have
the skinny that they are all using Protools.

I need help/advice real quick.

Am I being taken here?

I mean, what is this Linux stuff?

Is it like Mackie/Berhinger where Beheringer is 99.9 percent of Mackie at
half the price until you need it to work on opening night and Berhinger
goes belly up?

Please help.
Thanks.
Quint

_____TROLL-0-METER____
|...............................................|
0---------5--------10
__^__

Out of date and worn out bait

per Directory of Trolling Standards, ©2004
--
Digital Services Recording Studios
http://www.digisrvs.com