Perseverance

Firstly apologies for not being online so much.
I'm pretty much done with the whole social media thing. Twitter, Instagram et al were all doing my head in. It's like so much noise. I can do without it. I also know where to find friends if I need to and they know where to find me.

Anyway, I was involved in an RTA a week ago. I've been signed off for three weeks in total at the moment and although nothing is broken, getting around is a bit of a problem. I can't walk too far and the medication stops me from driving when I need to take it.

This means I'm spending a lot of time sitting down looking at my TV, books and my PC screen. I decided to have another go at getting Fl Studio into Linux. I installed Linux Mint on my desktop PC and after a lot of reading managed to get it working. The reg key is installed so it's out of demo mode too. This means I can get back to writing a few tunes while I'm recovering.

It's good to have FL Studio back.
It'll be good to recover fully too.
Fingers crossed.

Learning Applied

I bought a copy of this book last week and although I'm only a few pages in I've learned a lot already.
The only thing with learning is that unless one can apply that knowledge then it's a bit of a waste of time. The one thing that has stuck in my head is that Linux doesn't care about file extensions. At first (being an old Windoze user) I thought there wasn't much point in this, how does Linux know how to open certain files? I'm using Ubuntu and indeed it does use file extensions as a recognizable way of opening files.
But there is an advantage of using this facility in Linux. Here's a quick method that I've been playing with.

1. Open gedit and write a message.
2. Save the file as a .mp3. Gedit will happily do that.
3. Use AES Crypt to encrypt the .mp3 you just made.
4. Rename the .aes file by removing the .aes extension.
5. You now have an .mp3 file which is an encrypted text file.
6. Share your file.

While I wouldn't send my bank details by this method it is at least reasonably secure for sending simple messages. It's also reasonably quick and if you reverse the process it works to decrypt your message.
As I work my way through the book I'm hoping to find more useful nuggets that let me play with encryption processes.

That's all for now. Back to the book which I highly recommend.

On A Mission

My mission for a while now has been to get FL Studio working on Ubuntu.

After many weeks of researching how this can be done I've decided that it would be best to run FLS on my Ubuntu Studio desktop. It has everything I need to get FLS to work minus WineASIO but I've worked out how to get that installed.
I'm going to try and get it running this weekend if I have time.

I really do miss FL Studio. I've been using it for years and I know my way around it. I've also bought a few very decent Image Line plugins which I'd like to use again.

I'll let you know if I'm successful.
Ubuntu Studio and I are certainly ready to roll.

Automatic Fishing

While I like listening to the soap opera that is radio life on my scanner I do have other commitments and therefore can't dedicate too much time to it.
What I needed was something to monitor the scanner and only keep the interesting bits, then when I have time I can listen to the compact version and not have to sit through the silent parts.
Step up to the plate Audacity.
I really do like this audio editor. I'll admit to missing Cool Edit Pro but Audacity is a great second and not only because it's free. Since I first used it many moons ago it has come on in leaps and bounds. With this in mind I thought I'd see if it was capable of sound activated recording. You'll be pleased to know that it is very capable of the above task. Just set your activation db level and it'll start when sound goes above that level and stop when it drops below. All very simple and all wonderfully effective.
As you can see above in the screen grab it has captured just the audio I want to listen to and none that I don't. There are probably a few more features in Audacity that I have yet to discover and I look forward to finding those.
In the meantime I have a lot of useful audio that can be repurposed another time.
I wonder what I'll produce.

Just Jamming

I hadn't played with ChordPulse since I switched over to Ubuntu from Windows.
I'd had one failed attempt at getting it to work on Ubuntu before but I was new to Linux and I really hadn't a clue so I gave up. This time around with a handful of knowledge and a determined approach I managed to get ChordPulse working. It's a fun program. Pick a style, a tempo and some chords and one has the perfect backing band. I've already been jamming with my baritone ukulele and I'm off to the loft as soon as to grab my Honer melodica.
While I realise now that instead of buying a radio I should have bought an arranger keyboard my despair at a lack of music making gear is diminishing fast. I have the Jack audio connection kit installed along with a few bits of music software and I'm enjoying playing after about a year in the musical wilderness.
Of course the holy grail for me is to have FL Studio running and I'll probably attempt that on my Ubuntu Studio machine.
In the meantime I have enough to keep me occupied.