Development
Multi-track recording with Audacity
Audacity is one of the more popular audio editing systems for Linux. It features a straightforward user interface, recording and playback capabilities, and a number of useful editing options. Your author decided to see if Audacity was capable of working as a basic multi-track music recording system.
The hardware used for this experiment consisted of a fairly ancient
700 Mhz Pentium 3 box with 384 MB of RAM and an old IBM 20 GB hard drive.
This machine was purchased second-hand at a yard sale for a mere $10.
The sound card was an older no-frills Creative Labs model CT4810 PCI device.
Audio was generated with an electric guitar feeding into a guitar amplifier. The amplifier's line out was connected to the sound card's line in with a mono to stereo adapter plug.
The software consisted of the Ubuntu 6.06 LTS "Dapper Drake" distribution running the default stable version 1.2.4 of Audacity.
Setting up Audacity for multi-track recording took a bit of tweaking. The sample representation was changed to 16 bit integer mode and the audio i/o setting was changed to 2 channel (Stereo). The "Play other tracks while recording new one" setting was enabled, this is the critical feature that allows "sound-on-sound" recording. Tests using the default 32 bit floating point sample representation, single track recording and software play-through all resulted in serious dropouts and time distortion on the recordings. These problems also occurred with a more full-featured Sound Blaster Live card in the same system.
Once the correct settings were applied, recording was a simple matter of setting the input level below the clipping point using the input monitor VU meters, and pressing the record button. As with most multi-track recording, it was necessary to record, erase and retry most of the tracks. Audacity makes listening to and re-recording tracks easy, the rewind/play/stop/record buttons are identical to those found on a standard tape recorder, and the undo function (Control-Z) is used to remove a badly recorded track.
One minor problem showed up when playing back while recording. During the recording of the second track pair, the sound from the previously recorded first track pair made clicks and had some short sound dropouts. Fortunately, this problem only occurred while recording, the clicks disappeared when all of the tracks were played back simultaneously. This seemed to get worse as more tracks were added and may be symptomatic of insufficient CPU speed.
Once the desired number of tracks (3 stereo pairs) was correctly recorded, it was time to do a mixdown. This is a simple manner of setting the left/right pan setting for each stereo track pair and adjusting the output levels for a good volume balance between track pairs. The default 0 db track volume level produced audible clipping when multiple tracks were summed together, so it was necessary to attenuate all of the tracks by a few db. The final results can be easily exported to wav, ogg or mp3 format stereo files. The results of this (highly amateur) recording effort can be heard in this short ogg file.
This version of Audacity is a bit unpolished for multi-track audio recording work, but with a bit of effort, it can be made to function as well as an analog tape recorder. The output quality is very good, considering the inexpensive audio equipment that was used. Some of the editing effects such as track volume normalization, fade in/out and silencing of arbitrary sections make production of quality recordings much easier than with older analog equipment. Anyone who has ever waited for a reel-to-reel recorder to rewind will truly appreciate the instantaneous transport controls.
The inability to record mono tracks is an obvious deficiency, the recordings are twice as large as they should be, the screen fills up rather quickly and the total unique track count will be reduced for a given power of CPU. Despite this, Audacity can allow a junker computer to be turned into a useful piece of audio gear with a trivial amount of installation effort.
System Applications
Audio Projects
The Rivendell Operations Guide
A new operations guide for the Rivendell radio automation system has been published. "I'm pleased to announce the release of the first full version of the Rivendell Operations Guide. The Guide is written so as to provide a full "tour" of the Rivendell system from the standpoint of an end user."
Networking Tools
OpenSSH 4.4 released
Version 4.4 of OpenSSH has been released. This version features several bug and security fixes and adds a number of new capabilities.
Printing
ESP Ghostscript 8.15.3 released
ESP Ghostscript version 8.15.3 has been released. "ESP Ghostscript 8.15.3 is the third stable release based on GPL Ghostscript 8.15 which fixes CUPS driver, CJKV font support, IJS KRGB support, various compile problems, and several small issues in the command-line utilities."
RasterView 1.2.1 released
Version 1.2.1 of RasterView has been announced. "RasterView is a CUPS raster file viewer for CUPS 1.2 and higher. It basically allows you to look at the raster data produced by any of the standard CUPS RIP filters (cgimagetoraster, cgpdftoraster, imagetoraster, and pstoraster) and is normally used to either test those filters or look at the data that is being sent to your raster printer driver."
Security
Sussen 0.30 released
Version 0.30 of Sussen, a security and configuration vulnerability scanner, is out with an editor rewrite and bug fixes.
Web Site Development
Silva 1.6.b3 first public beta Released
The first public beta of the Silva content management system, version 1.6.b3, is out with new features, bug fixes and more.Tapestry: A Component-Centric Framework (O'ReillyNet)
Hemangini Kappla looks at Tapestry on O'Reilly. "Tapestry is an open source web application framework written in Java. Highly-interactive and content-rich applications can be easily developed using this framework. Tapestry offers advantages including a high-performance coarse-grained pooling strategy, high code-reuse, line-precise error reporting, and lots more. Tapestry applications can be run on any servlet container since the apps are 100 percent container agnostic."
Zope 2.9.5 and 2.10.0 released
Versions 2.9.5 and 2.10.0 of the Zope web development platform have been released. Both versions add support for ZODB 3.6, Five 1.3, and more.Zope 3.2.2 released
Zope version 3.2.2 has been announced. "On behalf of the Zope 3 development team I have just released Zope 3.2.2, a bugfix release for the 3.2.x line."
Zope News
The September 16-30, 2006 edition of Zope News is out with the latest Zope web development platform articles.
Web Services
Introducing WSGI: Python's Secret Web Weapon (O'Reilly)
James Gardner looks at the Web Server Gateway Interface Utilities in Python 2.5. "The recent Python 2.5 release features the addition of the Web Server Gateway Interface Utilities and Reference Implementation package to Python's standard library. In this two-part article, we will look at what the Web Server Gateway Interface is, how to use it to write web applications, and how to use middleware components to quickly add powerful functionality. Before diving into these topics, we will also take a brief look at why the specification was created in the first place."
Desktop Applications
Animation Software
3ds Max NIF Plug-in 0.2.7 Released (SourceForge)
Version 0.2.7 of 3ds Max NIF Plug-in, a Blender animation system plug-in, has been announced. "The 3ds Max NIF Plug-in allows 3ds Max users to open or import NIF files and also to export 3ds Max scenes to new NIF files. It is incomplete and likely will always be. It does support importing and exporting of scene hierarchy, meshes, textures, materials, and skins bound to their skeleton bones, transform animation, limit collision mesh support for Oblivion and more."
Audio Applications
eSpeak 1.16 released
Version 1.16 of eSpeak, a speech synthesizer, is available with bug fixes and other minor changes. See the change log for more information.FreeADSP 0.0.2 released
Version 0.0.2 of FreeADSP is out with build improvements and bug fixes. "FreeADSP is a free, audio-oriented, real-time, cross-platform DSP software heavily relying on external plugins for I/O, UI and effects."
Calendar Software
Sunbird and Lightning 0.3rc1 available
Version 0.3rc1 of the Mozilla Sunbird and Lightning calendar applications are out with a number of new capabilities. Testers are needed.
Desktop Environments
GNOME Software Announcements
The following new GNOME software has been announced this week:- Accessibility Test Suite 2.11.1 and 2.15.1 (new features and bug fixes)
- Agave 0.4.1 (new features, bug fixes and translation work)
- control-center 2.16.1 (bug fixes and translation work)
- Eye of GNOME 2.16.1 (bug fixes and translation work)
- fast-user-switch-applet 2.17.1 (bug fixes and translation work)
- GDM2 2.16.1 (bug fixes and translation work)
- gedit 2.16.1 (new features, bug fixes and translation work)
- Glade 3.0.2 (new features, bug fixes and translation work)
- GLib 2.12.4 (bug fixes and translation work)
- gnome-games 2.16.1 (bug fixes, documentation and translation work)
- GNOME Power Manager 2.16.1 (bug fixes and translation work)
- GNOME Screen Ruler 0.7 (new features, rewrite in Ruby)
- GNOME User Docs 2.16.1 (documentation and translation work)
- GQ LDAP Client 1.2.0 (new features and bug fixes)
- GTK+ 2.10.6 (bug fixes)
- GtkSourceView 1.8.0 (bug fixes and translation work)
- LDTP 0.6.0 (new features and bug fixes)
- metacity 2.16.3 (bug fixes and translation work)
- Netspeed 0.14 (new features, bug fixes and translation work)
- PyGObject 2.12.2 (new features and bug fixes)
- PyGTK 2.10.2 (bug fixes)
- PyGTK 2.10.3 (bug fixes)
- Rhythmbox 0.9.6 (new features, bug fixes and translation work)
- Scratchpad 0.3.0 (new features and bug fixes)
- Yelp 2.16.1 (bug fixes and translation work)
KDE Software Announcements
The following new KDE software has been announced this week:- Boson 0.13 (new features and bug fixes)
- Kphotobymail 0.3.2 (bug fix)
- LDTP 0.6.0 (new features and bug fixes)
KDE Commit-Digest (KDE.News)
The October 1, 2006 edition of the KDE Commit-Digest has been announced. The content summary says: "KPersonaliser, the new installation greetings wizard, has been removed from KDE 4. Solid is imported into kdelibs for KDE 4. Marble, a generic geographical widget with wide-ranging possibilities, is imported into KDE SVN. Work begins on supporting Telepathy in Kopete. Experimental eyecandy in the Kate editor, with a new, non-obtrusive search bar implementation. User interface experiments in Krita. Development of Krossrunner in KOffice, a command-line OpenDocument format manipulator. KArm has been renamed to KTimeTracker, to better represent its functionality. The kde.org website, along with many related sub-sites, has changed over to the Oxygen style. aKademy 2006 draws to a close."
Electronics
layout editor 20060920
Release 20060920 of layout editor, an integrated circuit CAD system, has been announced. "The new version has more than 20 bug fixes and some new functions like a 3D-view."
Games
Cyphesis 0.5.10 released
Version 0.5.10 of Cyphesis has been announced, it features bug fixes and more. "Cyphesis is a small to medium scale server for WorldForge games, with builtin AI. This version includes the demo game Mason which is currently in development."
KoLmafia: v9.3 Release (SourceForge)
Version 0.93 of KoLmafia has been announced, it adds a few new features and lots of bug fixes. "KoLmafia is a cross-platform desktop tool which interfaces with the online adventure game, Kingdom of Loathing. KoLmafia is written in Java (J2SE 1.4 compliant), with binary releases in JAR format."
GUI Packages
Qt 4.2 Released (KDE.News)
Version 4.2 of the Qt GUI system has been announced. "The main features of this release are CSS-like desktop stylesheets, a new graphics view class, Qt/Mac look-and-feel improvements including the ability to host Carbon widgets inside Qt widgets and tighter cross-desktop integration. See the Qt 4.2 intro for a detailed list."
Imaging Applications
Comix 3.6 released (SourceForge)
Version 3.6 of Comix, a customizable image viewer that is aimed at viewing comic books, has been announced. "Version 3.6 introduces a number of changes - such as a colour adjustment dialog with settings for contrast, brightness, saturation and sharpness. There have also been a number of bug fixes."
Instant Messaging
WeeChat version 0.2.1 released
Version 0.2.1 of WeeChat, a fast and light IRC client, is out with several new features and bug fixes. See the change log for details.
Interoperability
Wine 0.9.22 released
Version 0.9.22 of Wine has been announced. Changes include: The usual assortment of MSI improvements, Several bug fixes to the various common controls, Pixel shaders enabled by default in D3D, Various improvements to the build process, Many translation updates and Lots of bug fixes.
Multimedia
OpenLibraries 0.3.0 is out
Version 0.3.0 of OpenLibraries, a set of cross-platform set of C++ libraries for use in rich media applications, has been released by the Jahshaka Project. "The alpha version includes working implementations of the libraries object, media and image modules. Additionally, the libraries plugin module features a stable architecture for feature abstraction and development. Other key features include support for high-dynamic range images and 3D. The media module includes support for media and image sequence playback, with and without cache."
Music Applications
midi 0.2.1 announced
Version 0.2.1 of midi, a Pythonic MIDI API with hardware sequencer support, has been announced. "This release provides object oriented programmatic manipulation of MIDI streams. Using this framework, you can read MIDI files from disk, build new MIDI streams, process, or filter preexisting streams, and write your changes back to disk. If you install this package on a Linux platform with alsalib, you can take advantage of the ALSA kernel sequencer, which provides low latency scheduling of MIDI events."
MMA 1.0-RC1 Released
Version 1.0-RC1 of MMA, the Musical MIDI Accompaniment, is out. New features include inversion notation for chord generation, new MidiInc options and usability improvements.San Dysth V0.1.0, Snd-ls V0.9.7.1, E-Radium V0.61f
New versions of the audio applications San Dysth, Snd-ls and E-Radium are out. "San Dysth is a standalone realtime soft-synth written in SND. It was first developed as final project for the 220c course at CCRMA."
"Snd-ls is a distribution of Bill Schottstaedt's sound editor SND.
"
"E-radium is Radium and a special version of E-UAE (with support for
realtime scheduling and alsa midi). Radium is a unique type of music
event editor made to be efficient and provide many possibilities.
"
Office Applications
Kommander Releases, Plugs in and Updates Site (KDE.News)
KDE.News covers the release of Kommander version 1.3.0. "The Kommander team is proud to announce a new development release which has some bug fixes but most importantly a new text editor. Along with this we are releasing two new plugins for databases and HTTP forms. We have also updated our site with an article and tutorial section starting out with an Introduction to Kommander. We also have a development news section. More is in the works to be released in the coming week."
Office Suites
KOffice 1.6 RC 1 Released (KDE.News)
KDE.News covers the release of KOffice 1.6 release candidate 1. "This version does not contain any new features, but comprises of a number of bug fixes that were the result of user comments made about the beta 1 version. The team hopes to continue its great dialogue with the users, and is looking forward to the final release on October 15th."
Science
METRo: Model of the Environment and Temperature of Roads
Environment Canada has produced a road weather forecast application called METRo. "METRo is a program used on a operational basis since 1999 that together with the input of an atmospheric forecast, road composition and observations from a road weather station (RWIS), produces a local road forecast (temperature and road condition) for a 48-hour period, this in less than 2 seconds of computation time on a simple desktop computer. All the input and output of METRo are in XML format. Installation of the METRo program is relatively simple on a GNU/Linux system in less than a day."
Web Browsers
Mozilla Firefox 2 Release Candidate 1 Available for Testing (MozillaZine)
Mozilla Firefox 2 Release Candidate 1 has been announced. "This preview of the next version of Firefox browser is aimed at Web Application Developers, testers and early adopters. For more information, refer to the Release Notes."
Mozilla Links Digest for September 2006
The September, 2006 edition of the Mozilla Links Digest is online with a new collection of Mozilla articles.
Miscellaneous
Tabbed file manager for GNOME - PCManFM 0.3.2 (GnomeDesktop)
GnomeDesktop.org introduces PCManFM 0.3.2. "Nautilus is currently one of the greatest file manager on GNOME which is absolutely powerful. However, for people who have relatively limited system resource, or those who want to keep their desktop simpler and cleaner, is there any lightweight replacement? Besides, too many opened folders often make our desktop crowded, is there any possibility to get tabbed browsing interface in GNOME file managers? The anwser to these questions is yes."
QLoud v.0.19 - plotting much faster
Version 0.19 of QLoud is out with a bug fix and performance improvements. "QLoud is a tool to measure loudspeaker frequency and step responses and distortions."
Languages and Tools
Caml
Caml Weekly News
The October 3, 2006 edition of the Caml Weekly News is out with new Caml language articles.
Haskell
Haskell Weekly News
The September 27, 2006 edition of the Haskell Weekly News is online. This week we see a new Hugs release, and the results of the ICFP contest are out! We feature a special report on the Commercial Users of Functional Programming workshop, courtesy of John Hughes.Haskell Weekly News
The October 3, 2006 edition of the Haskell Weekly News is online. This week we see the proceedings of the first Haskell Workshop now freely available, and work has begun on a unified library for generics in Haskell.
Java
How do you test? (O'Reilly)
Dejan Bosanac discusses code testing issues on O'Reilly's OnJava site. "For starters, in Untested code is the dark matter of software post Cedric Beust questions common agile-development statements that untested code is broken. He points that missing-deadline or shipping the product that doesnt implement everything that was asked of you is much worse then shipping product that is not 90% covered with test cases."
Lisp
SBCL 0.9.17 released
Version 0.9.17 of SBCL (Steel Bank Common Lisp) is available. "This version adds an interpreter-based expression evaluator, supports weak hash tables, includes other changes related to FFI and debugging, and fixes a few bugs."
Perl
CPAN Module Review: Test::Perl::Critic (O'Reilly)
Chromatic discusses Perl's Test::Perl::Critic module on O'Reilly. "If you really want to make something a habit, find a way to do it without thinking about it. I like to automate the things I value so I never do them incorrectly, incompletely, or infrequently. Thus Test::Perl::Critic allows you to add customizable Perl::Critic tests to your test suites, so you can ensure that youve followed local style. Ive been part of the Perl QA group for around five years. In that time, weve built dozens of wonderful test modules around a common backend library and a common protocol, evangelized testing and quality to the Perl 5 and Perl 6 developers, spread the expectation and understanding of good testing to CPAN contributors and more, and even built automated systems to check various quality measures of public code."
Perl 6 mailing list summary
The September 24-30, 2006 edition of the Perl 6 mailing list summary is out with coverage of discussions on the Perl 6 mailing list.
Python
Urwid 0.9.7 - Console UI Library for Python
Version 0.9.7 of Urwid, the Console UI Library for Python, is out. "This release adds a new BigText widget for banners and text that needs to stand out on the screen. A new example program demonstrating BigText usage and a number of fonts are included. This widget is a fixed widget, a new alternative to flow widgets and a box widgets. Fixed widgets may be displayed within Overlay or Padding widgets to handle changing screen sizes."
Urwid 0.9.7.1 released
Version 0.9.7.1 of Urwid, the Console UI Library for Python, is out. "This release fixes bugs introduced in the Padding and Overlay classes in the previous release. These bugs prevent the graph.py example program from running."
Dr. Dobb's Python-URL!
The October 4, 2006 edition of Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! is online with a new collection of Python article links.
Tcl/Tk
Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL!
The October 3, 2006 edition of Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL! is online with new Tcl/Tk articles and resources.
IDEs
Anjuta bounties (GnomeDesktop)
Some cash bounties are being offered for developers who find and fix bugs in the Anjuta development studio. "We are starting to offer bounties for some of our Anjuta tasks. This has been done to encourage people to contribute to Anjuta development and to speed up some of our priorities. Now, in addition to enjoying helping Anjuta get better, you also get the chance to earn some incentives for your valued contributions."
Test Suites
LDTP 0.6.0 released
Version 0.6.0 of LDTP, the Linux Desktop Testing Project, has been announced. "This release features number of important breakthroughs in LDTP as well as in the field of Test Automation. This release note covers a brief introduction on LDTP followed by the list of new features and major bug fixes which makes this new version of LDTP the best of the breed."
Page editor: Forrest Cook
Next page:
Linux in the news>>