Linux Notes

2019-08-30 by TTTThis

The Ableton problem:

  • If you get another Thinkpad230 or Elitebook 2760p, you can slide that SSD in and go. There is less power and no touch screen unless you can find one.
  • If you install WIn7 on an M2, you have to figure out how to do that, then you have to add drivers and disable all the spyware stuff, then install Ableton, and register it again, and add the add-ons. It will be faster, and you can use it on a touchscreen.

Notes on installing Ubuntu Studio

  1. Create USB boot device (5 minutes)
  • On an already-running computer, format USB with Disks
  • Right-click the OS iso file you downloaded and pick "Open with Disk Image Writer" and it should work fine (this program doesn't work for Windows 7 though). If you don't have "Disk Image Writer" I used to use "Etcher." Dismount the drive properly in Thunar or whatever file manager.
  1. Use USB boot device to install on a hard drive (5 minutes or 30 minutes or so)
  • (NOTE: if it doesn't work, maybe you get an error message like "No Bootable Device." Last time it was the OS I had burned to the flash drive. I burned a different OS and it worked. That was detected but failed to install. I tried a third OS and it worked. Another solution might be re-downloading the OS.)
  • Set BIOS to UEFI (It will not install on Legacy)
  • During install, obvious things are obvious. I generally don't do the "install updates during installation" thing, so I don't need to connect to wifi during installation.
  • Check Encryption and LVM (https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/39080/ubuntu-lvm-encryption)
  • Set encryption password. Then you'll set ANOTHER password for Login. You can pick "log in automatically" for this one because otherwise you'll have to enter two passwords every time you boot up. Now you'll wait 5 minutes on a good system or 30 minutes on a weak one (processor) while it installs.
  1. Now you have the OS and have to finish configuring it (several hours)
  • Unplug USB and reboot into OS
  • Now it will probably immediately say you don't have correct language support. IDK what this is.
  • Remove snapd backdoor with
sudo apt autoremove --purge snapd
  • Remove VLC spyware with a few commands, because there's lots of related files:
sudo apt-get autoremove vlc-nox ; sudo apt-get purge vlc ; sudo apt-get autoremove ; sudo apt-get purge vlc-data ; sudo apt-get autoremove --purge vlc ; sudo apt-get remove browser-plugin-vlc ; sudo apt-get autoremove
  • Remove Audacity backdoor
sudo apt-get purge audacity ; sudo apt-get autoremove ; sudo apt-get autoclean ; shred -rf ~/.audacity-data/ ; rm -rf ~/.audacity-data/
  • Now I sudo apt-get update. It will take 5 or 10 minutes. (And upgrade if you want - this might take a while, like 1 hour.)
  • Move the panel to the bottom of the screen by right-clicking it, "Preferences," unlock the panel, and close the Preferences. Click on the dots thing on the far left and move it to the bottom.
  • Go to "Language Support" and ignore the error message and add any extra languages. Add your extra languages, which might take 5 minutes to download. There will probably be no language selector icon though. After this is all updated, I had to right-click the language icon (which was a flag at first), then "Keyboard settings" > "Layout" > "Keyboard layout" section and add a language. Then I right-click "Properties" on it to get it to say EN instead of a flag. It worked with dual imput though.
  • Go to "Power" and set things like how long / if you want system to sleep, what closing the lid does, etc.
  • Copy any existing files over to the new OS. Do this before the next "Install programs" step because some programs are in the "Programs" folder already. Some programs are best done this way anyway because not all download locations are trusted and these are versions that have already been used without noticeable problems.
  • Install programs (may as well do this before the next ("Launchers") step because most of these get put there: Kolourpaint, VC, Thunar, VM. Think about whether you want to install from existing files or if you want to try to install fresh from the internet. For example, last time VMs didn't work because there was no Guest Additions adjustment possible for 19.04 (Ubuntu in Ubuntu I mean; Windows7 in Ubuntu did work for a shared folder), so you want to try a new VM install. However, for VC finding a safe download source is less easy so you want to install from the file you already have. Kolourpaint and Bitwig have install files and don't install from Terminal anyway).
  • Create "Launchers" by finding the program icons in the menu and dragging them beside the "Menu Button." Ones that are already on Studio: Task Manager, Screenshot, Firefox, Audacity (and set pavucontrol stuff cause you won't want to later). Others: Bitwig, Kolourpaint, Text Editor, VM, VC.
  • Add to "Language Support" any extra languages (Do this after updating and upgrading, because it can be finicky). This takes a long time, like 30 minutes, although it might take less if you do it early, so it doesn't want to install language support for every program, which is unnecessary).
  • Log in to TV
  • Fonts: There is a program called "Font Manager" and you can load ttfs through this
  • If the screen keeps shutting off after 5 minutes of inactivity, even though you try to set everything in Power, try turning it of in Screensaver.
  • nethogs monitors internet activity. You will have to enable a component called 'universe'
  • create a new Protonmail (initials as backup)
sudo add-apt-repository universe ; sudo add-apt-repository multiverse ; sudo apt update
  • Go to Software and Updates and turn off all auto-downloads and auto-updates.
sudo nethogs -v 3

for total ,

sudo nethogs -a

for speed.

Things to do to a Linux machine. Notes for the next set up:

Virtualbox by Oracle

Note: sometimes when you install, VirtualBox will be broken. One note, the 'guest additions' number must be the same as the version of VirtualBox, according to some people. Just double check them if you have issues. Also, 6.0.8 tried to install 6.0.0's guest additions, and there's no way to tell it where to find the correct thing.

Note: 2020 tried installing from the deb file in my programs folder, but didn't work ('dependencies'). Downloaded again and same. I had to sudo update then it installed from sudo apt install virtualbox easily.

WINE

You don't need Wine for Veracrypt. It has a Linux app, see below.

https://wiki.winehq.org/Ubuntu

If you need it, but it requires installing a few things, including i386 architecture.


sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386 

wget -nc https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/winehq.key

sudo apt-key add winehq.key

for an 18.04 system: sudo apt-add-repository 'deb https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu/ bionic main' 

sudo apt install --install-recommends winehq-stable

To REMOVE Wine adn ass: sudo apt-get remove --autoremove wine-*

but this wiki might not spell stuff correctly. Also, it might still not be added to the program launcher (when you right click and 'Open with other program') until you do this:


sudo cp /usr/share/doc/wine-stable/examples/wine.desktop /usr/share/applications/

sudo ln -s /usr/share/doc/wine-stable/examples/wine.desktop /usr/share/applications/

(as detailed here: https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=2392017)

FREECAD

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:freecad-maintainers/freecad-stable

$ sudo apt-get update

$ sudo apt-get install freecad

OBS

Loud hum. Apply an audio filter by clicking on the gearwheel beside the audio input meter and do 'settings' > + > Noise suppression, and drag it all the way down to -60fB.

(requires ffmpeg, which is free and opensource)

sudo apt-get install ffmpeg

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:obsproject/obs-studio
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install obs-studio

https://obsproject.com/wiki/install-instructions#linux-install-directions

Old instructions:

  • -Update
  • Do those updates for VirtualBox (for Ubuntu after 19.04),
  • then:
  • Install VirtualBox
  • Created Lubuntu_Nubes and resizing screen works.
  • Create VM for Win7 and disable networking.
  • Install Win7 REMEMBER TO PICK 64 BIT and HOME PREMIUM for 16gb RAM
  • Windows7 also resizing works.
  • Go to Computer in files in Windows, and there should be Devices and Removables and the Additions.iso there. Double click it and install everything. It will ask to reboot and then you should be able to drag and drop
  • the 2 exe files that have to be installed for Ableton to run: vs_redist.x64.exe (both same name).
  • Ableton into the VM (or maybe before the reboot).
  • Ableton should now work, and you have to register it.
  • HOW TO MAKE A SHARED FOLDER:
  • Windows Guest, Ubuntu Host:
  • Go to top menu > Devices > Shared Folders > Shared Folder Settings
  • In "Machine Folders" pick a folder (or create one) - this is making one on your Ubuntu Host. Check 'Auto-mount' and 'Make Permanent' (I don't know which of these is required but I have both checked and its working).
  • OK. Now in the Windows Guest "Computer" directory, you should see a Network Location with your folders name (the folder you selected or made on your Ubuntu host). This folder exists on your Ubuntu host where you put it.
  • MONITOR - to make the monitor right (at least on my 12.5 inch x230:
  • (make shure youve discarded any save state). Settings (from the Vbox program) > Display > VboxVGA. Then restart. Should have a nice stretched screen same size as the monitor

uninstalled virtualbox purged it, deleted urs/share/virtualbox

Teamviewer

  • You might not need it if you put it or already have it in a VM and just use it that way

GEDIT simple text editor

(Note: you have to update first, so maybe sudo apt update && sudo apt install gedit)

  • just sudo apt-get install gedit

Thunar file manager (although Studio comes with it)

  • sudo apt-get install thunar

Photorec - Data recovery tool

  • (Photorec and Testdisk (2 names, dont worry about it).)
  • sudo apt-get install testdisk (or photorec I forget which one, but you just install one).
  • make a folder you want all your recoverd files to go in
  • then to do a scan, type
  • photorec
  • as explained here: https://www.cgsecurity.org/wiki/PhotoRec_Step_By_Step
  • to delete your files later, open thunar as admin by going to terminal and typing sudo thunar

Disks (actually called udisks I guess)

  • sudo apt-get install gnome-disk-utility

Kolourpaint

(Didn't work for me most recent time)

MIXXX dj program

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mixxx/mixxx sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install mixxx

Veracrypt - install the GUI after the other one

  • cd to directory
  • tar jxf nameoffile.tar.bz2
  • (NOTE: different letters for non-bz2 files)
  • ./nameofthefilethatwasputhereafterlastcommand-x64
  • Installation should begin.

  • SOMETIMES it's located in a folder, and then inside the bin folder (like filezilla)

  • For tar.gz:

  • tar -xzf archive.tar.gz
  • Ubuntu stops asking for password at boot.
  • cd etc/lightdm
  • sudo gedit lightdm.conf
  • edit out the user line with a # at the start of it. save.

Libre Office

Bitwig

  • installs when you double-click the file (about 250mb). It will ask for login when it boots up.

Ableton

installs (on Windows inside VM) when you double click it, of course, and you take the number from it when it boots up, give that to the audacity website in your account, download their file, and drag-and-drop that file into audacity.

Record System Audio with Audacity

  • Install pavucontrol if not already
  • Install audacity
  • Select pulse*
  • Click Record Button
  • Open PulseAudio Volume Control (Search For PulseAudio Volume Control in Dash)
  • Select Recording Tab
  • Now You Should see ALSA plug-in [audacity]. If you do not see ALSA plug-in [audacity], make sure you have clicked Record Button in audacity. You should be running recording in audacity while performing next step.
  • Select "Monitor from and pick system audio
  • It should now be recording system audio

Kdenlive

NOTE: Crashes when mixing images and videos. However, rendering just videos seems to be OK.

Installs with sudo apt install kdenlive.

WHAT IS SAVED ON THIS COMPUTER:

  • Bitwig drums with volume levels I like
  • Kdenlive settings for processing photos
  • Some bookmarks and social media accounts logged in in Firefox on this machine and inside VMs
  • Teamviewer logged in on VM

MIDI KEYBOARD (launch control worked when plugged in. Korg nanokey didnt because it doesn't work with Bitwig)

How to:

  • sudo apt install a2jmidid
  • Put a2jmidid -e & in Setup > Options > execute script after startup
  • Go to connect on qjackctl
  • MIDI tab
  • start Hydrogen H2

  • connect nanoPAD2 on left side to Hydrogen on right side

  • USBs automount. Do disable this, instlal dconf-editor

  • sudo apt-get install dconf-editor
  • (not completed yet)

Notes on deleting hard drives and data

I have read that there has been no case of a drive being recovered after it has been overwritten with 0's.

How to dispose of an HDD - These can actually be securely overwritten. I use "Disks" and just format the drive again, using "Erase." It takes less than 1 hour per 100mb.

How to dispose of an SSD that has been encrypted - (I don't know yet)

How to dispose an SSD that has not been encrypted - Generally, this is impossible, according to people. Because SSD stores data in weird ways, you can't simply overwrite the data the way you can overwrite an HHD. For security, you have to destroy it physically, or if you don't need that level of security you can just run several passes of 0's over it and hope that works.

How to clean "empty" disk space on a drive you're still using - This is for when you want to wipe over the stuff you've already deleted, so you can still use the hard drive, but so the files you deleted won't be recoverable.

Remember: If you're going to do this, delete your "Trash" folder too, first.

https://superuser.com/questions/19326/how-to-wipe-free-disk-space-in-linux

sudo apt-get install secure-delete

Commands:

srm - securely delete an existing file
smem - securely delete traces of a file from ram
sfill - wipe all the space marked as empty on your hard drive
sswap - wipe all the data from you swap space.

Options

    -f  fast (and insecure mode): no /dev/urandom, no synchronize mode.
    -i  wipe only inodes in the directory specified
    -I  just wipe space, not inodes
    -l  lessens the security (use twice for total insecure mode).
    -v  is verbose mode.
    -z  last wipe writes zeros, not random data.

Example

sudo sfill -f /home

After that command, your Terminal will just look like it's timed out for a long time.

When I ran it, I think I had about 550gb free of a 1tb HDD. After about 6 or 7 hours I think, Ubuntu gave me a warning that there was 0 mb of free space remaining. It looked frozen like that for a while. It had created a file in the /home/ folder called "oooooooo.ooo" which was the size of the free space. You can watch this file grow in size as the program runs. You can also see how much free space you have left by the "df -h" command in Terminal.

When its as big as it will get (you can also see this is complete using "df -h" and seeing its now 0 disk space remaining, nothing will happen (except the warning from Ubuntu that you have 0 disk space remaining. What I do is restart now, and when I restart, that oooooooo.ooo file is gone, and you have your empty space again. You can probably also just delete the file if you don't want to restart.

How to clean .cache and other folders on linux:

sudo apt install secure-delete

shred a file with

srm -rfll filname.extension

or a folder with

srm -rfll foldername

rfll does one pass of 0s. You can use srm -r filename.extension to do 38 overwrites ctrl-h toggles hidden folders .cache starts wasting hd space. You can put all it's contents into a newly created folder and srm rfll or r newlyfolder.

to make it faster and less secure, you can do only 2 passes with -l. If you do srm regular 38 passes, I think it takes about overnight to do 1gb. -l does 1gb in like 30 minutes I think.

srm -rlvz *

or srm -rlvz /home/yourPCsname/directoriesyouwanttooverwrite

In this command, * (*)means everything in the current folder * r means recursive which means all subdirectories and their contents are affected * l means simplified, so it does only 2 passes instead of 38. ll means just one pass * v means verbose, so you can see the progress as it works * z means zeroes, so the final wipe is with 0s.

You can do similar things with sfill, such as sudo sfill -lvz /home

which does 2 passes on everything in your home directory

If you want, you can stop thumbnailing with sudo apt-get install dconf-tools: https://askubuntu.com/questions/518889/how-to-disable-thumbnail-generation

In Windows, how they overwrite unused disk space is:

  • Empty temp folder with:
  • Windows button > run > %temp%
  • and delete everything there (skip the files that Windows won't delete)
  • To overwrite unused space:
  • Windows button > run > 'cmd'
  • cipher /w:C\ (or whatever drive letter you want to fill with a big random file)

HOW TO ROTATE PHOTOS (all files in a folder in this example):

terminal
go to folder:
cd /home/COMPUTERNAME/Pictures/Photography/rotate   (rotate is the name of the folder)
then:
mogrify -rotate 90 *png

Sometimes in Linux sound starts to only play with one side of your headphones:

Go to Volume Control and Output Devices tab and slide the volume to full. It worked.

Convert images or resize images

Convert all or pngs to jpgs

  • convert ExistingName.png NewName.jpg (converts that one png to jpg with a new name)
  • convert *.png *.jpg (converts all pngs to jpgs)

  • convert * *.jpg (converts all files including jpegs to jpegs)

  • (older linux use 'mogrify' instead of 'convert') mogrify -format jpg *.png (to convert them to jpgs)

How to use a Cameo Silouette plotter cutter with Linux:

Usually you use their software on Windows.

You can use Inkscape on Linux, but have to add an extension to Inskcape.

You have to add python-USB, but that might not be found even after updating, so you have to 'sudo add-apt-repository universe'

Then you can download the .deb file from here https://github.com/fablabnbg/inkscape-silhouette/releases

And you'll have10: https://libertyseeds.ca/2017/12/08/A-better-open-source-extension-for-Silhouette-Cameo-Inkscape-and-Ubuntu/

Export Firefox bookmarks to an HTML file to back up or transfer bookmarks

This article explains how to export your bookmarks to an HTML file, which can be used as a backup or for importing into another web browser.

For instructions specific to these other browsers, see Export bookmarks to Internet Explorer, Export bookmarks to Opera and Export bookmarks to Safari. 

Click the Library button 57 library icon on your toolbar. (If you don't see it there, click the menu button fx57menu then click Library.) Click Bookmarks and then click the Show All Bookmarks bar at the bottom.

From the toolbar on the Library window, click Import and Backup and choose Export Bookmarks to HTML....

Youtube-dl

https://www.tecmint.com/download-mp3-song-from-youtube-videos/

sudo apt-get install youtube-dl

but that didn't work so:

sudo wget https://yt-dl.org/downloads/latest/youtube-dl -O /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl
sudo chmod a+rx /usr/local/bin/youtube-dl

then restart the Terminal otherwise it won't work

default folder for downloads is home folder

to download mp3, do:


youtube-dl -x --audio-format mp3 <http...>
youtube-dl -x --audio-format mp3 
youtube-dl -x --audio-format mp3 
youtube-dl -x --audio-format mp3 
youtube-dl -x --audio-format mp3 
youtube-dl -x --audio-format mp3

PLAYLISTS:

youtube-dl --ignore-errors --format bestaudio --extract-audio --audio-format mp3 --audio-quality 160K --output "%(title)s.%(ext)s" --yes-playlist 'https://www.youtube.com/watch?stuffstuffstuff'

youtube-dl -x --audio-format mp3 --playlist-start 1 --playlist-end 5 https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=xxx555xxx
TTTThis

90s Rave Scene

2019-08-30 by TTTThis

Notes from comments:

Everyone acting funny bout the dude at 0:33 but this vid shows that even social outcasts are welcomed at raves,everyonejust dances and noones judging one another, like it should be - Maxim van Dijk

It was brilliant, look at all the massive eyes, chewing and gurning. Everybody was pilled up, it was just pills and water, no booze dancing all night together happy. If you bumped into someone you'd end up having a chat. Wasn't about fashion or dressing up, you wore what you wanted to dance all night in. - Melford Blue

No video phones to make fun of people later with. Just some random with a (probably massive) video camera at this one. - WhisperSparkles ASMR Since 2010

you got that right....the fact was rave party back then during the 90;s thru the 2000's was kinda the party for the outcast, weirdos, and definitely not for the cool kids....i had my fair share of rave parties, rolls and K in late 90's to early 2000 fun times - nugraha teguh ginting

Molly...makes you look into the soul and see the beauty in everyone...while it makes you look like someone from a horror movie xD - Haffelpaff

good old days. no stabbings no acid attacks no gangs just happy people having fun - New Adventures

One thing that always strikes me about the difference of then and now.... we danced together, NOT FACING THE DJ booth. - KA FKA

Oh cool, I was at this party. It was an illegal warehouse event by Energy in 89'. Me and mates were driving a Peugeot 205 gti and at about 5.00am I went to the car to get some skins, I had a football in there too so I took it out and kicked it in the air. Next thing there was like 50 to 100 of us out of our faces passing and kicking the ball to each other, it was so hilarious trying to kick the ball as we were so gone we kept missing it and falling over 🤣😂🤣 best time ever. Trust me when I say this, these were beautiful times to be alive, the parties, the music, the people... Epic in every sense... The dj playing is Evil Eddie Richards who I first met at Clink Street in 88'... Best days of my life ❤️ ❤️ ❤️ xxx - Tam James

Amazing thing is, nobody is showing off, they just look like ordinary people enjoying the atmosphere, just being themselves. Nice to see lots of black and white people mixing, no trouble. Everyone happy. I remember the 80s being like this, people were so much nicer to be around. Nowadays everyone is image obsessed and arrogant, all about me me me, the labels on my clothes, the car I drive (you mean lease LOL) and posting everything about themselves on Instagram or Facebook etc. People have such a horrible self important attitude these days with no time for anyone else. Social media has turned everyone into sickening attention seekers. Get me a time machine please. - Ernie Flannel

Every single person is dancing or at least trying to dance.Thats cool. - Dennis Fiorillo

Love how people dance and are not trying to look cool for one another. - jryde421

Theyre trying but you can't see it..its a different kind of trying - Matina TheArtOfRolling

LMAO remembering the time were waiting for the bus home late in the morning after hard partying and suddenly realised we were dancing at the bus stop to the idling of a bus engine. Couldn't stop laughing when we realised what we were doing. Wicked beats were everywhere. Man, them were the days....... - The Herbalizer

Oh hell yeah! No cell phones. Everyone dancing. No stupid trendy clothes. Raves back in the days were the ultimate! Everything was perfect and I mean EVERYTHING! - Anthony Smith

The 90s was f***ing amazing for raves...No post code wars back then you might get the odd one or 2 muppets chewing a wasp but not as much as you do nowadays..it was just happy people on a dance floor enjoying the music....All as one..Peace.. - David D

Looking back at this. I don't ever remember it being a problem finding my mates or loosing part of the gang you went out with when its all over and time to go home. You always found each other and usually ended up back at a mates house or flat to carry on for a continued party and eventually wind down with a few joints while the birds started tweeting. Happy days.... Now i cant even meet up with a friend without about 10 mobile phone calls back and forth just for a pint in the pub. whats happened lol? - Kick Muck

I was there and It was amazing! Talk of how times have changed,no mobile phones glued to peoples ears,no people covered in stupid tattoos,I don't know what the point im making now and im sure some one will reply to bite me on my arse ha ha but things were just better then,or were they? - Russy Russ Ally Decks

this is so awesome to watch, nobody gives a fuck, they are just enjoying the moment and everybody dances, no one is holding his shit mobile phone in his hands!! would love to have such a clubscene back - Marcus Mondel

I love how everyone is enjoying the music and not caring about the camera. Unlike now days were people get hyped they being filmed then it goes away from them and the just stand there again. - Isaac Tom

We need less phones and cameras on the dance floor. People can't be themselves on camera. - Geeeee8

Not a single Instagram post or Tweet was made that day.

TTTThis

"me and my friends miss rock and roll"

2019-08-30 by TTTThis

Nothing on my phone this morning except a couple of replies. there was a new vid by lana. out of the people today, really lana must be the top. chan isnt making music any more it seems, and the last one was unfortunately more towards a pop attempt, which is one of her ambitions i think but didnt go through. both women. are there any other musicians today? lanas been putting out tracks for the past few months to a year. mariners apartment complex, venice bitch, and doin' time (by sublime). with 70s like ( / 90s like) solos and lots of lyrics. theyre mostly not that great songwise, but still good and lana. before them i thought highly of lana but not as highly as now. something in the type of songs. yup, i think higher of her than if she had put out an album full of amazing written songs. the one today was another ballad, about it sounded like an appraisal of things, culture, music, and possible bowing out. it has the lyrics 'guess im burnt out afterall.' and that she and her friends miss rock and roll. this is the same thing ive been feeling recently.

i had a few shitty days a few days ago, uncontrollable, and wrote a metal album. so much more interesting than the electronic shit recently. and the drums. i wont explain. i dont think you can ignore or avoid electronic. its just that its not as fun to play. you dont have an instrument. and the people making it are producers, hands off, and thats not the same either. when you listen to their tracks. a girlfriend of mine sent me a couple shes been listening to. they werent bad. there was a good use of accentuating organ synth notes, and i think a decent guitar or voice hook. but overall so flat and boring. you can hear that they probably took a few loops and premade samples and put them in to compose the majority of the track. also that they probably didnt spend years picking up and playing an instrument or writing songs. the other thing though that i was feeling a bit ago is that the musics not hard enough. ive been wanting harder music again. the headbanging, the arm banging or fist pumping, the forward sound, the attitude and perspective. even hard edm doesnt have it. it has just louder grinding serum synths and bigger builds.

i guess also that lana is a bit like the latin and greek poets now, that commented on things and made us think or realize them, also in song. the poets of old did so in song, right? the recent ones just in verse mostly meant to be read. but like of old, now we wake up in the morning and still in our bed listen to lana sing a song about the times still in our bedsheets sheets wondering what were going to do with the day.

TTTThis

The History of the Spanish Language

2019-08-25 by TTTThis

The Phonecians gave a name to the peninsula which is today Spain and Portugal with the word "I-shpan-ha," which is thought to have meant "land or island of hydraxes," as those people might have confused hydraxes (which they called "shpan") with rabbits, which are common in Iberia. Romans, who began their conquest of the region during the Second Punic War in 210 BC, continued to use the same word, "Hispania," and elsewhere did refer to Spain as "the land of rabbits." There is even a coin from Hadrian's rule that includes a rabbit in the same way the Egyptian coin bears an Ibis. "Iberia" was the Greek word for the same place, so the words can be used interchangeably.

Image

Before the Romans came to Hispania, several languages were spoken in various areas (called "paleohispanic languages"), including the languages of the Iberians, Basques, Celtiiberians and Gallaecians, some of which languages were related distantly to Latin through Indo-European language roots, while others weren't related at all. From these neighbour languages some words remain today in Spanish, such as the Celtic "camino," "carro," "colmena," and "cervesa" and the Celt suffixes "-iego" and "ego," while many place names, surnames and common words such as "izquierda" come from Basque (although many of the place names entered the language during the Reconquista, in which many Basques took part, a millennia after the first "Spanish" was spoken in Iberia).

The speakers of the first "Spanish" were those who in this Roman colony spoke one of the dialects of Roman Latin that came to be used there. Through the course of historic events, the particular dialect that came to spread over all of Spain was the one spoken in central Iberia around Toledo, in the Kingdom of Castille, but that didn't happen until around 800 years after the fifth-century breakup of the Roman Empire.

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Early, "Spanish" was just one of the prodigious children of Roman Latin, some of which still live today in more developed forms, including Italian, with is today very similar to Spanish, the two languages sharing most of their vocabulary and grammar and the Latin phonemic system. For example, while today's Spanish is 20% distant from Roman Latin, Italian is only 12% distant (and Sardinian is 8% distant, all according to the linguist Pei), and speakers of Romance languages share a high level of mutual intelligibility: Spanish has around 89% intelligibility with Portuguese, 82% with Italian, and around 73% with French, having a much higher degree of intelligibility when read than when spoken, demonstrating that much of the difference is phonological.

In 711 the Muslim conquest of Spain began, succeeding in most of the peninsula for hundreds of years, during which time the majority of the Christian population (which mostly remained Christian, although many of those who wanted a place in the powerful parts of the society controlling the land were more enthusiastic about the Muslim faith and conversions) spoke a mix of the preexisting Latin and Arabic (a mix we call "Mozarabic") until the 11th century, and today 8% of Spanish is Arabic in origin (around 4,000 words), including common words like "aceite," "zanahoria," "azul," "azúcar,"technical words (such as those describing irrigation, "atarjea," "acequia," "arcaduz," and "aljibe,") scientific words such as "algebra," and titles such as "alcalde." In addition to the Latin-Arabic mixed language, a large population spoke a Latin-Judean language ("Ladino"). Both of these languages had vanished by the 16th century, but that the population spoke a mixed/bilingual language like this is considered to have facilitated the transfer of vocabulary from Arabic to Spanish.

The Reconquista spread the language of the kingdom of Castile over the bulk of Iberia, partly through poems and songs about the heroes of these great battles and adventures (including those by El Cid in the 11th Century).

A big push towards the Castilianization of Iberia took place in the 13th Century under King Alfonso X ("Alfonso the Wise") who assembled scribes in his court and tasked them with writing works on history, astronomy, law, and other subjects of interest. Writing continued to enforce Castillian Spanish between the 13th and 16th centuries from Toledo, and after that from Madrid.

It was during this time that Germanic sailors influenced Castille to replace their "septentrion," "oriente," "meridion," and "occidente," with "norte," "este," "sur," and "oeste," (although Germanic words don't feature very large at all in Spanish) as this was a time when ocean voyages were increasing. While the first Castillian grammar book was written in Salamanca and presented to Queen Isabella I, Cristóbal Colón was beginning his 1492 mission to sail west to Asia.

In the New World, Spaniards adopted from American peoples or created new a variety of words, and from the neighbouring Romance languages they were more frequently exposed to, including that of Renaissance Italy, they also received some new vocabulary. From the Americas, new things meant new words, such as "tomate," "aguacate," "mosquito," "cigar," as well as other novel flora, fauna, and cultural concepts.

The solidification of Spanish began in earnest, we might say, in 1713 with the first founding of the Spanish Royal Academy, built for the purpose of standardizing the Castillian language with its publications of dictionaries and grammars that continue to this day. There is one such academy in every Spanish country, held together by the Association of Spanish Language Academies that was created in 1951.

Today Spanish adds new words from its own technical and popular culture, although it has been remarked that for its size, Spanish does not feature prominently in any scientific writing outside of the humanities (social sciences, medical sciences, and arts and humanities making up 75% of scientific production in Spanish), while Spanish literature, on the other hand, continues to feature large in the world.

These days, Spanish also adds to its around 100,000 real-use words from English, which is also adding to its 200,000 real-use words, mostly with new technological, sports, commercial, and pop vocabulary.

Thus the participants in the Spanish language include Basque, Iberian, Celtiberian, Phoenician, Roman Latin, Greek (much through the Roman, but also for scientific terms especially beginning around the 13th Century), Visigothic, Arabic, Hebrew, French and other Romance languages, German, Quechua, Nahuatl, other American languages, and English.

Read later: http://www.gutenberg.org/files/56490/56490-h/56490-h.htm#Page_363

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Production Notes

2019-08-24 by TTTThis

On Mutt Lange's Def Leppard:

Vocals:

First, guesses by producers and musicians, that can also be used as methods:

EQing: Scoop out the mids. Compress the stew out of it. Add a bunch of 10k and 16k. Or boosting from 12 to 16k. Or HPF, a mid scoop and Aphex, with a few cents up and down on a Harmonizer with 15 to 30ms delay each side for a bit more width possibly dont hard pan those returns.

Effects: A harmonizer like the Eventide. Eventide H3000 set on the "FAT AS CAN BE" program with some reverb or delay. Or a stereo harmonizer just a little off unison on each side. Manley mic pres and C12s.

One of the methods used is with a Dolby A machine, and its called the vocal mod or even "the John Lennon mod." The method involves encoding the background vocals with Dolby but not encoding the playback, thus giving the vocals extra high end and sizzle.

"The Dolby A" was a 70's noise reduction machine. The amount of compression on each band is inversely proportional to the volume of the band, which means that quieter sounds get brighter while louder sounds remain almost unchanged. This adds brightness and air without generating any new harmonic content or distortion.

The bands are as follows:

Band 1 has a low pass filter around 80Hz.

Band 2 is the results of the input signal minus band 1 and 3, essentially a band pass filter from 80Hz to 3kHz.

Band 3 has a high pass filter around 3kHz.

Band 4 has a high pass filter around 9kHz.

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The machine was also abused as an enhancer:

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The most common Dolby A mod was disabling the two lower bands so that only the high-frequency portion of the signal was compressed, giving even more air to vocals. This is the vocal mod we mentioned.

There are other Dolby-licenced technologies besides the Dolby A, such as the Dolby S noise reduction type (derived from the Dolby SR), which involves combining both fixed and sliding bands, anti-saturation, spectral skewing and modulation control. S type provides 24dB noise reduction at high frequencies and 10dB at low frequencies. Modern high-end cassette decks generally contain Dolby S-type that can make cassette tapes sound "nearly as good as CDs."

Multi-tracking vocals: 10 or 12 takes of backing vocals. On some songs on Def Leppard, there could be 100 vocals tracked together. When you layer 24+ tracks of vocals sung in the way he has them you may get an effective mid scoop in the eq without adding any eq, but the singer has to be pretty accurate hitting pitch and timing because if you tune and do trimming correction all you will get is a flanging effect. Addition of whisper tracks. Because the tracks sound like theres just one singer, though, it might have been just one, along with one background singer, Mutt. You don't hear multiple timbers. Using other voices besides the singers. Then building one huge voice out of them. For a high voice (like Avrils, who Mutt also worked with, there was a man singing the "Complicated" chorus, then they heavily EQed his take to just add one specific frequency range to Avril's take, and same with other singers, so the end result is it sounds like just her singing. Mutt may also have backing vocalists drop consonants and sing only vowels sometimes so the BVs don't rub with the primary tracks.

According to one forum, for Def Leppard the whole group and Mutt would stand around a mic and do the parts. Mutt and bassist Rick Savage sing high. Mutt has a pure tenor voice, and very precise singing ability.

Now according to Mike Shipley, engineer with Mutt on the albums: the "Pour some sugar" BVs were done like this: layer 3 people singing in unison on 20 tracks, bounce them to one track. Do another 20 tracks and bounce them to one track. EQing heavily on the bounces. Then repeat the process. Rebounce the vocals a few times, taking out the offensive frequencies very heavily on a narrow bandwidth first the honky frequency build up, then the shrill middle frequency, the same way so the sounds ends up kind of "concave" sounding with a lot of smooth high end.

"Mutt would make everyone everyone overemphasize the diction of the words," according to Shipley, which gets the sound of those BVs, along with how tight the tracking up is. A lot of the distinct sound is because of Mutt's voice. "We would no use reverb on any of the BVs," but Shipley used multi tap delays to thicken and widen the sound as much as he could, and even more EQ in the mix. "That kind of vocal sound kinda sounds best done on analog because of what the multiple bounces do to the sound. ... Doing it digitally needs boxes like the 'Hedd' to get the right kind of saturation."

Also, Shipley said they would use a lot of tumbling flanged delays. No mic pre's other than what were in the SSL 4K were used on either album. Compression with a Teletronix LA-2.

Guitars:

Sometimes, they layered up different guitars for different tonal qualities. Les Pauls for low end, teles/strats for high end. String by string technique for certain parts (such as the Hysteria pre chorus) to avoid any arpeggiation. Sometimes, they tuned open strings to a chord for similar reason.

Pyromania: According to Shipley, after trying dozens of amps, "I’m pretty sure we ended up with just a little Marshall combo amp after we’d tried everything," through condenser mics, to get the "commercial distortion" sound. A custom 100 watt head with an old cabinet.

Hysteria: According to Shipley, all the guitars are though a Rockman guitar headphone amplifier (made famous by another band, Boston). Not amps. "There might have been a couple passes of clean guitar through a small amp, but most all of it was recorded through a Rockman. That meant an awful lot of EQ’ing and processing. All the clean sounds, all the jangly parts, and all the distorted guitars were Rockman. It would get a bit irritating, because we’d try everything and just keep going until we found something that worked. Because we did it for so long, it never was that satisfying; we’d just look at each other after weeks of working on it and just go, 'I guess this is the best we could do,' and that was it."

But he elsewhere said, "We had a specific sound in mind for Hysteria and at that time because we were living in a world of electronics, we had to utilize those tools because we couldn't get the tones right. On Pyromania for example, the previous record the group did, we had like 200 amps in the studio but because they weren't a straight power chord band, you had to get the distortion and tones right first. So it was a lot of work and lot of layering was involved. But going back to your question, when it comes to mic'ing techniques, it is different for every player. Back in those days it was more condensers than dynamics being used but we'd experiment endlessly with microphones and went to such amazing lengths to get the tones we were after."

Drums:

Shipley: "All the other songs on the record, the song's drums were all samples from the Fairlight CMI (computer musical instrument) sampler. There are no real drums. The cymbals are played, but the bass drum, snare, and toms are all machine. We had all kinds of drums in there, and I sampled them into the Fairlight and detuned them. We'd sample them in at half-speed, thinking that we'd get a better sound, because that's when Fairlight was at 8 bits – you had to get around that part of it. We sampled [Ludwig] Black Beauty snares, other snares, and all kinds of bass drums. We ended up with something that Mutt liked that we could detune a little bit. When we were sampling in the sounds, we used [Neumann] KM 84s and we used [Shure SM]58s. There were so many mics. The toms were primarily Simmons toms back then, which were electronic. We experimented, EQ'd, and mangled the sound up a little bit to come up with the drum sound. It was pretty unnatural, but that was kind of the point."

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