So now that I’ve decided I’m going to get serious about releasing the music I’ve composed for the better part of the last 25 years (and still write), I’ve been going through the process of learning as much as I can about Digital Audio Workstations (DAW). I’ve certainly played around with ProTools and other DAW software over the years but I really wanted to move everything to 100% open source running under Linux (see my previous article about moving exclusively to Ubuntu on all my systems). It appears the time has come for that to become a reality. I’ll be writing here about my experience in getting my DAW set up so others will gain from it. Here is the very rough list of the components of my DAW:

• Ardour DAW – (http://ardour.org/)
• Jamin Mastering Suite – (http://jamin.sourceforge.net/en/about.html)
• Rosegarden MIDI sequencer, score editor and composition suite – (http://www.rosegardenmusic.com/)
• Hydrogen Drum Machine – (http://www.hydrogen-music.org/)
• Ubuntu Linux – (http://www.ubuntu.com/)
• Korg Triton
• Ensoniq ESQ-1
• Korg Poly-800 – (yes I’m aware this belongs in the Smithsonian)
• Korg Electribe
• Breakout or semi-pro recording interface that is still being researched (though I think the E-MU 1212M certainly looks nice)

I still need to purchase either a good full-size electric piano or steal my mother’s Steinway Grand I had the privilege playing growing up. Another idea is to get a good, 88-key, weighted midi controller and use sampled sounds. I have written and arranged lots of multi-timbred works but much of my continuing composition these days is solo piano.

I will keep you posted on my continuing efforts. Also stay tuned for some initial recordings coming very soon!

(UPDATE) See http://www.seanstoner.com/blog/2008/02/19/linux-studio-chapter-ii/ for the follow up to this post.

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So many hours at the piano makes a guy hungry. For tonight’s meal it was chicken breast in a tomato vodka cream sauce accompanied by sauteed broccoli. Yummy and fast. Take a boneless, skinless chicken breast, season with salt and pepper and saute in a saucepan with olive oil over medium high heat. After cooking on both sides for a few minutes, pull the chicken out of the pan and throw in some chopped shallots and chopped garlic. Saute for a minute or two and deglaze pan with a cup of vodka. Reduce for 2 minutes and add can of chopped tomatoes along with 1/2 cup of chicken stock. Simmer for 5 minutes for flavor to meld and add the chicken back in until cooked through. Add in 1/4 to 1/2 cup of cream to taste and check for seasoning. Depending on the sauce’s consistency, I’ll typically add a beurre manie to pan sauces. You should taste the tomato, vodka and cream all together, balanced in harmony. Yum.

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