Ok, before anything, I have to say that I'm not a truereliable source. I'm just a computer user, and as a user, I learn. Sometimes. So, I can share my knowledge, but remember that my knowledge may be sometimes simple BS...

If you think I'm wrong, I'd be grateful if you told me so (with the “contact” link)

Here, you'll find advise and tutorials on open source software I'm currently using to make this website, and to record and mix.

About sound recording : do some tai chi chuan, and always target the sound, not its source. That's all I can say at this very moment...

Damien, le glaneur de sons

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Martha Stewart’s way to build suspensions.

Actually, less evolved than what she would do. To say it all, I call these suspensions « rednecks ». Check the picture to understand why…

1. Cut a about 10 cm long PVC tube (2 or three centimeters less than your microphone)
2. Saw two rectangles in this tube, so that you have to 2 cm wide bands linking two one cm circle at each end (tell me if i sound like an automatic translator)
3. In one of the bandes, make a hole the size of the screw of your mic set
4. You may obtain two circles linked together by two rigid strips
5. In one of these strips screw a hole the size of the screw thread of your mic set
6. Place the suspension on the mic set, and screw it down ; add a little rubber disc to soften the impacts
7. Do the same with the second suspension (if you work in stereo)
8. Take six little elastics, and bend them over the top of one end (one circle) of your suspension, and pass the mic in each end of the elastic. Do the same with the three other elastics.
9. Do the same at the other end of the suspension, and then on the other suspension

Ok, it looks silly, but now, you can run and take sound at the same time (I checked, it works).

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Read, edit and convert OGG files

The softwares listed bellow are open source, free and reliable (I use them everyday). Above that they are simple to use, which is a fairly important reason to like them to me…

• Audacity : a software to edit and mix OGG, Mp3, Aif and Wave sound files (Mac, Windows & Linux)

Audacity is a light, easy to use and powerful multitrack editor. Editing functions are complete, mix is a little too primary : it’s a good software to begin with, and to process relatively complex piece of work.

Here is a little tutorial I wrote about it.

• OGGDrop : a really tiny software to convert OGG files

It’s a little window wtih a little fish in it. Drag and drop the file that you want to convert. The little fish turns, and you converted file is next to the old one. It couldn’t be easier… Vorbis website has much more to say than me about their baby...

Click here to download it.

• Media Player Classic : read any media file.

This little software can read everything. And when I say « everything », I mean it.

Click here to download it.

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About the tags you could add to the files you publish (or share, or give, or whatever), here's a German "giftware" (I don't know what the hell it means, but it looks free...), MP3-info. It adds a tab to the property window of a Mp3 file, and allows you to add the name of the author, comments, even personal icons...

Another free and open-source software (but a little tricky, according to my own experience) : entagged

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Searching a way to publish your artwork ?

Well, it wont help you being in the first pages of google with the keyword "music", but it will help. First, it looks like a nerd meeting point, but you could find interesting stuff there...

Internet Archive

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Ok, let’s say that a partially computer handicaped person like me could give advises about how to edit a sound, how to prepare a picture for web, how to code a website… Sounds presomptuous, uh ?

Yes. Let’s admit it. I might be over confident. Just like with my english. When my Wisconsinite wife asks me " Da ya waaant me to correct your website ? ", I feel like a need of independance in foreign linguistics.

Add the fact that I spent 15 minutes to write the first sentence of this text, using wordreference.com to find a synonym for " presomptuous " (and also the translation of " synonyme ", which is silly, because all specific vocabulary in English comes from French thanks to William the Conqueror, now tell me, do I really sound arrogant ?), and you’ll realize that translating the tutorial I’m doing in French sounds like a job for Hercules.

The cherry on the cake (it means : above all) is that I do speak like that in French too (with words like " presomptuous " and references to ancient Greece), and I use the same kind of humour (stylish and ironic ; let me precise to our american readers that " ironic " has nothing to do with the steel industry… What you say ? Put my head up in what ?).

Anyway : as I’m learning lots of stuff about open source softwares (and the educational advantages of bugs), I want to share.

It will take some (long) time, but I’ll do it.

Have a look at the softwares I’ll talk about :

Audacity : the unique valuable sound editor of the free world. Well. actually, the only one I know...

Nvu : a WISIWYG and easy to use software to edit webpages. Some people say that it looks like Dreamwaver, but before, I was the Adobe PageMill type of guy...

TsWebeditor : more specific about CaScadeS stylesheets. Very useful to correct some of Nvu's little bugs.

The Gimp : to edit pictures without having any Adobe products to buy at an indecent price

And many more as one goes along…

PS : don't forget to have a look at Framasoft, a french website about open source softwares. If you speak French, that will be great for you. If you don't, their English version is interesting enough.

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