It's been awhile

It’s been awhile since I could tell what is on my mind
It’s been awhile since I wrote just another blog entry
It’s been awhile since I felt like I wasn’t missing all the details
It’s been awhile but now I’ve tamed the beast and send it out to you

Lyrics work

In the last months, I wrote several lyrics while I was going through some personal changes. I won’t go into the details but if you start reflecting your roles and your family of origin, you may end up in periods of self-doubt and the quest for meaning. However, every crisis is also a chance for personal growth. The fruits of my labor may set the foundation for another, very intimate album. At this point, it’s too early to anticipate how this evolves…

Note, the opening lyrics are just a mashup of a song by a group that got me through hard times since I started guitar playing and songwriting.

Recording sessions

Besides intense lyrics writing, I took vocal lessons, established regular singing practice, and recorded tracks for the planned album. I encountered some hardware problems, and I am currently discovering additional plugins for sound optimizations and live performances.

Hardware replacement

I had some trouble with the Zoom AMS-24 audio interface and it turned out to be broken. For this reason, I replaced it with a Focusrite Scarlett 2i2 3rd Gen. Interestingly, this device doesn’t seem to add a systemic latency, which simplifies the startup script:

#!/bin/bash
#
# Toggle CPU governor, SMT and start DAW with a fixed buffer size

UDID=usb-Focusrite_Scarlett_2i2_USB
BUFF=128
RATE=48000
NULL=/dev/null
APP1=ardour9

if [ ! -e /dev/snd/by-id/$UDID ]
then
  echo "ERROR: Device $UDID not found. Is it plugged in?"
  exit 1
fi

echo off | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/smt/control > $NULL
echo -n performance | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor

export PIPEWIRE_QUANTUM=$BUFF/$RATE
$APP1 2&> $NULL
unset $LATE

echo on | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/smt/control > $NULL
echo -n powersave | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu*/cpufreq/scaling_governor

exit 0

For the sake of completeness, I decided not to change the pro audio documentation page in this concern. I’d like to keep the information about the approach of measuring and compensating the systemic latency.

Plugin discovery

When I started the documentation of my pro audio setup and wrote the plugins section, I wanted to stick with the bundled ACE plugins as much as possible for the sake of clarity, and only add Cardinal (as a synth), Guitarix (for guitar sound shaping), sfizz (for the Tchimera drum kit), and x42-plugins (for meters and convolution). However, as a guitarist and for live performance, there are features (e.g., buttons for bypass, tap delay) and some special effects (e.g., bit crusher, ring modulator) missing.

Another observation is that playing with emulated pedals or amplifier simulations doesn’t feel the same as with real gear. When I increase the overdrive/distortion, the sound doesn’t compress in the same way. And it makes it sound like I am a beginner in guitar playing. I guess I am still in the process of rediscovering my own sound, in this digital realm.

For this reason, I’m currently exploring the following projects to potentially extend my plugin selection:

• NeuralRack: a Neural Model and Impulse Response File loader that emulates guitar effect chain with a pedal, an EQ, an amplifier and a stereo cabinet.
• Ratatouille.lv2: a Neural Model loader and mixer that can also load a single model file.
• Rakarrack-plus: a merge of the Rakarrack¹ multi-effects processor and its LV2 ports with bug fixes and enhancements.

Neural amp modeling seems to a better job on retaining dynamics when using digital overdrive and/or distortion. However, it’s less intuitive to just load a file that incorporates the whole sound cahracteristics and then you’re good to go. And how to control switching between sounds (e.g., distortion on/off, increasing/decreasing delay time) in a live performance? This approach is absolutely new to me.

Rakarrack might be a more familiar solution, and it features a wide range of effects, but it probably involves the same problems of overdrive/distortion dynamics. If I had the time to delve into the Faust² programming language, I’d probably write my own effects inside mephisto.lv2, for example.

Wi-Fi IEM efforts

Though this website is rather private, there are projects at work that cannot be separated from my motivation as a musician. Since my bachelor’s degree I constantly tracked the evolution of Raspberry Pi³ systems and add-on boards to revise my Wi-Fi IEM prototype, a do-it-yourself In-Ear Monitoring (IEM) over wireless LAN system. In March 2026, I built another receiver prototype based on the Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W⁴ and the Pimoroni Pirate Audio Headphone Amp⁵ that you can easily connect with your performance computer. You can find the Zero 2 Wi-Fi IEM⁶ project at Codeberg and a presentation in the talks.

I wrote a paper and presented my research at the Linux Audio Conference⁷ (LAC), the academic venue for projects related to Linux audio. LAC26 happened at Maynooth University, Ireland in June, and I appreciate the community, the conference organization, and the many ambitious projects. Compared to Sonoj⁸ convention, this event is rather academic. However, besides the peer-reviewed contributions, you can give presentations without an associated paper and there’s a call for music, too. Feel free to bring your ideas and music to this event.

A word on JackTrip

The key technology used in the revised Wi-Fi IEM concept is JackTrip⁹, a software for networked music perfomances over the Internet. I expanded the Pro Audio documentation with networked music performance and in-ear monitoring sections to reflect some new details of my setup. I guess that these sections will grow in the future.

Call for beta-testers

If you are interested in the Wi-Fi IEM technology, please let me know. I am looking for contributors to research its application and evolve the prototype, as my primary tasks in academia leave just a little amount of time for such projects. Find contact details at my about page.

I hope that there will be time to write blog posts on a regular basis again. At the moment, there are so many projects and tasks on my to-do list that I appreciate any support. Unfortunately, I already had to withdraw from an initiative that claimed to much of my time.