About Recording on Thorpe with the Yamaha

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Just for curiosity's sake:

Thorpe, my Asus EeePC 901 with Eeebuntu Jaunty Jackalope OS, came with a cute little stereo microphone built right in below the monitor. Xandros, the GNU/Linux distro it shipped with, had only the simplest audio recording software, and so did Eeebuntu, so I installed Audacity, which I've been using for three or four years now. I find it frequently buggy but capable. I'm especially pleased because the latest release, 1.2.6, has an .mp3 encoder that actually works. I could never export as .mp3 before and always had to export as .wav and convert to .mp3 in iTunes if I was on a Mac, or with a script I downloaded for Nautilus on Linux.

Since I record instrumentals and vocals at the same time, using the same microphone, it took the first four songs to find a good balance of vocals and instrumentals using the volume on the keyboard and the placement of the laptop. My biggest problem now is that the left channel of the stereo microphone is a lot quieter than the right channel. Since I don't think you can edit channels separately in Audacity (I don't know how, anyway), I have to just mix them down to mono. Which is okay, but stereo is very pretty to listen to. I'll have to check that out.

Another problem is that Thorpe's audio output is much weaker than a full-size laptop's. At full volume, it's quieter than 1/4 volume on an iMac--both the speakers and the headphone jack. So if it sounds kinda quiet in the recording, it's bound to be loud as hell in real life, and I can't check it without sticking it on my mp3 player. At least that's the opposite of the problem I usually have, which is super-quiet recordings that just distort when I try to get them any louder.

The Yamaha keyboard is adorable. It has phat beets.

Thorpe the Eee

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It came. My Asus EeePC 901 came, and I replaced Xandros with Eeebuntu, which is a thousand times better. Here's a screenshot:



Also, I'm writing this from the MBTA commuter rail. Because it has wireless. Crappy wireless, but STILL.

New Laptop = New-Sounding Music

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Sneaky Studios Inc. is a-changing! I just ordered myself an Asus EeePC 901 (the littler one, look how cute and tiny it is! It isn't even the smallest EeePC, that one's only 7") because my four-year-old hand-me-down Gateway fried a few weeks ago. I saved the hard drive so wasn't too sad about it and figured it would be nice to go traveling without the Internet to burden me down, and then I remembered that without a cell phone, I won't be able to call my parents (or friends or anybody, but my parents would be worried). And I've heard wonderful things about the EeePC, and was especially impressed that it comes with a GNU/Linux option since I've been an Ubuntu user for almost two years and can't stand Windows (not that I couldn't replace Windows with my favorite operating system, but it's nice to think they did it for me). I'm excited to try out a new Linux OS.

Of course, this means recording will be a little different, since I've been using Garage Band on the iMac at school. I'm a great DIY advocate and don't demand much by way of a recording studio. The 901 comes with a built-in microphone which I'm anxious to test out but I won't be able to play software instruments anymore--I tried out LMMS for awhile and didn't like it. I'll have my melodica and mini-megaphone with me and plan on picking up a handsaw, so, looks like that's what The Sneaky Mister will become. If I can get my hands on an acoustic guitar that would help me out some on the busking circuit so maybe it'll sneak into the recordings as well.

SNEAK SNEAK SNEAK...

Some other relevant facts about the Asus EeePC 901 (since I love making lists, and using parentheses):

• 1GB of RAM, which is twice as much as my dead laptop so I can't complain


• a webcam! Never had a webcam before


• 20GB storage, all memory, no hard drive, which means it should be quieter and more resistant to bumps than a normal laptop (I have a little 20GB external to supplement and will probably get a much bigger one eventually, nobody can believe I only own 8GB of music)


• weighs less than 2.5 pounds, or approximately one bunch of bananas


• measures 7" x 9" making it officially small enough to fit in the top pouch of my hiking pack, with my toothbrush and sketchbook and stuff


• Skype!! Obviously if it didn't come with Skype I could install it, but this is important to me because it's the main reason I'm getting it now in the first place.

I was intensely tempted by a range of $13 sticker decals on Amazon.com that fit on the back and palm rest of the EeePC 901, but resisted. I can make my own goddamn decals, and they will probably own those other decals's asses.