Project to refer to: band just released 100%-FOSS-made album

Discuss how to promote using FLOSS to make music.

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^rooker
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Project to refer to: band just released 100%-FOSS-made album

Post by ^rooker »

An Austrian band "XBloome" just released their new album "X marks the spot" - and it's produced exclusively with Free Software!

Not only audio, but also artwork, graphics and layouting.
They say on their website: "It's 100% Photoshop-free!" ;)

They're offering tutorials/HowTos about using FLOSS for band-related, audio/graphics production and they've even published the Scribus template they used for layouting the CD jewel case with a 12-page booklet.

And of course, they're releasing all their tracks as download in full-length, high-quality under a Creative-Commons license, and as ogg/vorbis files.


There's also more information about the "making of" of this album, including a list of all tools they've used.

For promoting FOSS in music production, it's great to have projects like this to refer to.
They've even written a press-text about this.

What do you think?
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maghoxfr
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Location: Uruguay

Re: Project to refer to: band just released 100%-FOSS-made album

Post by maghoxfr »

This is very encouraging because even if I knew that linux audio/graphics have a good level that would allow one to release a record, it's good to have a proof of that. I'm currently on the process of learning cinelerra/blender, I feel pretty solid in audio (after several months) because my aim is to produce short films, music videos and (as a long term goal) a feature film with OSS.

Thanks for sharing
studio32

Re: Project to refer to: band just released 100%-FOSS-made album

Post by studio32 »

I love the project And the music :)
^rooker
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Re: Project to refer to: band just released 100%-FOSS-made album

Post by ^rooker »

Sorry for not replying earlier, but I've had problems logging into this forum (strange timeouts...)

@maghoxfr:
Yeah, I've also used Cinelerra already for video editing. It's quite powerful. I hope it became a bit more stable since the last time I've used it... ;)
(But hey: compared to Adobe Premiere, it was still rock-solid)

@studio32:
Yeah, their music is great!
It took me some time to get into, but since then I'm hooked onto it... 8)

btw: Seems that audio production with Free Software is already gaining more public interest! One of the big Austrian radio stations wrote an article about their album, and broadcasted an interview with the band. Unfortunately the recording and article are in German, but after running it through Google's website translator. The English translation result is rather weird, but it contains a headline "Free and professional" - so I guess that interviewer liked it!

In case someone understands German, here's a link to the announcement on their band website:
'X marks the spot' on FM4
benzene
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Re: Project to refer to: band just released 100%-FOSS-made album

Post by benzene »

I wish I could have made this claim, but after reviewing the packages I used there was that proprietary sound card driver on SuSE 9.0
and the fact they have a $500 sound card. I'll gamble that I had just as much fun as they did making it.

Good show.
^rooker
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Re: Project to refer to: band just released 100%-FOSS-made album

Post by ^rooker »

@benzene:
It's really cool if you've also made an album like that! What's the name (band/album)?
And which $500 sound card are you talking about? The one you've used, or the one they used?

Anyway, I bet that they're not the "first worldwide" who did that. ;)
...but I think I figured out why they say so:
When I read their claim, I've checked the web, and I've sadly realized that hardly anyone makes it visible that they're using Free Software. On the linux-audio mailing list, every now and then someone posts something like: "Hey, I just made that recording/album with GNU/Linux, check it out!".
Great! But sadly, it's usually not even mentioned anywhere on the artist and/or album website. :(

It's really cool that XBloome not only made it visible that they've used FOSS, but they're shouting it out loud - with background details - which makes it easier for people like me to use it, too. Next time someone argues that FOSS ain't ready for audio primetime, I can just point to their album and say: "Oh, yeah?" 8)
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