EeePC 901 running Reason 4

After restraining myself for months now, I finally buckled and got myself an EeePC 901 (XP version) – it’s a tiny black beauty with a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom processor, 1GB Ram, and 2 SSDs (4GB for the OS and 8GB for program files and documents). I paid NT$16500 over here in Taiwan (got it at NOVA in Taichung), or just over US$540.

It shipped with a Chinese version of Windows XP which I’ve promptly replaced with an nLited version of XP Home in English. It would probably have made more sense to install XP on the 20GB Linux version of the 901, but I was told there wouldn’t be stock before August. Though the nLited XP is far smaller than the usual, I’ve decided to leave a 1.5GB page file active on the OS drive, leaving very little space to spare on that drive. I installed all the EeePC drivers from the supplied rescue CD without a hitch.

I believe there is still some clutter left over from the initial ASUS configuration, since XP wouldn’t allow me to format the drive with a working version of XP present on it – to get around this, I guess I could have installed my version of XP to the other SSD first, but with everything up and running now I just can’t be bothered. System restore, the other large space invader is disabled. I can always change this configuration if I run into problems, but so far so good.

I got the Eee with an eye to replacing the aging BenQ Joybook 5000U I’ve been using to do my live shows on and also for streaming shows into SL. Reason 4 installed without a hitch, along with my T-box USB midi interface and was soon doing tests with my WX-5 windcontroller. I was a little concerned with the performance until I remembered to optimize XP for music applications (following this guide). I’m happy to report that the little Eee is now performing on par with the BenQ machine it is replacing. Latency using the built-in souncard is at 42ms, and though that’s rather high, it’s the same as what I’ve become used to with the BenQ. Audio quality is perfectly acceptable, but I’ve opted to up the ante a little bit and have just ordered a Behringer UCA202 USB audio interface. There are a number of reasons for this choice:

a) it will be much less expensive to replace the US$30 UCA202 than to repair the audio jacks on the Eee should they start to give problems after multiple plug-ins and plug-outs (the jacks on the BenQ have become a little finicky with use).

b) the optional ASIO drivers for the UCA202 should theoretically give me much better performance in Reason, allowing me to reduce the previously mentioned latency figure.

c) the UCA202 is USB bus powered. A big consideration given the fact that I’ve run into problems on stage before when the wall-wart powered M-Audio USB Audiophile was unhappy with the amount of current it was receiving.

d) I did streaming tests with the ShoutCast plug-in for Winamp (essential for my SL live shows) and whilst the Eee had no problems encoding the audio (in fact barely registering CPU use), I wasn’t happy with the sound quality of the audio coming into the Eee via the built-in mic-in jack. I think I might have been overloading it with the output from my desktop’s M-Audio Fast Track Ultra interface. The UCA202 should fare better. That said, I’m more than happy with the audio quality of the Eee’s built-in mics when using SKYPE.

e) man, it’s cheap! Add the US$30 for the T-box and I’ve got a USB audio/midi solution for roughly US$60…

And thankfully YES, the Eee is more than happy to play my WMV encoded video/backtrack whilst running Reason. Keep in mind that my Reason requirements for performing live are not too high, never running more than a single combinator device. No doubt, you’d run into “computer too slow” messages pretty soon if you started to do more complex arrangements (confirmed when I tried to play back the included demo tracks).

So far I’ve been extremely impressed with this little machine – not to mention more than a little relieved that it will be able to handle the musical duties I bought it for! I’ll report back on latency once I have the UCA202 installed.

PS. as an added benefit, the Eee works surprisingly well as an E-book reader (if at 1.2kg slightly heavier than I expected) to replace the Mio Pocket PC GPS I’ve been using for this purpose ;^)

EeePC 901 as E-book reader

*** UCA202 UPDATE ***

The UCA202 is a true plug-an-play device and uses the generic USB audio CODEC. The ASIO drivers with the UCA202 were a bit of a catch 22 – they worked just fine, and on this machine I could reliably go down to 17ms latency in Reason without crackling. But the ASIO driver overwrites the USB audio CODEC for that USB port, meaning you can’t then use the UCA202 as the default audio device in XP. In other words, ASIO = no Winamp or Media Player via the UCA202. Since I need Media Player for my shows and Winamp for streaming, ASIO seems to be a no-go for me and I’m back to 42ms latency via the generic USB audio CODEC. Oh well, I’ve been playing like this for two years now, so at least I’m used to it. Besides, the other benefits I mentioned above for using the UCA 202 still count. I did my first Second Life show with the Eee last night – in this configuration, the Eee provides my live instrument sounds from Reason whilst streaming audio into SL via Winamps’s ShoutCast plug-in. It performed flawlessly.

I was trawling the net the other day for a freeware alternative to something like Apple’s Garageband. Couldn’t find anything similar, but I did find a very cool online sequencer called Splice. It allows you to find free CC licensed loops and sounds, upload your own loops or sounds and then to mix them together in a composition.

As sequencers go, it’s pretty basic; you can time-stretch and trim loops (unfortunately you can’t transpose them), add volume and pan curves, add 4 effects to each track (though you can’t edit any fx parameters), and there are two soft synths available (again no editing of synth parameters). But hey, it’s free and runs in your browser. Once you’re done with your track, you can publish it to the Splice website under a CC license and download your mix as an mp3.

To get some idea of what Splice is capable of, I spent an hour with it yesterday. Below is the result, rather unimaginatively entitled “Hour One”:

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

On the track’s page over at the Splice website here you have the options of downloading the mp3, opening the track in the online sequencer to look at how it was made, or to remix it.

I don’t see the Splice sequencer replacing Reason or Sonar for me anytime soon, but it’s still fun to play with and a good introduction to sequencing. And did I mention that it’s online and free? You’ve been editing your photos online with Photoshop Express, now welcome to sequencing in the cloud.
***UPDATE***
Sadly, Splice is no more. But here’s a great resource for online audio tools that are currently available. AUDIO SILVER LINING

Completely off-topic, but I discovered this awesome little gem of a game yesterday and have to tell everybody about it:

This version was apparently written in 5 days by a single programmer, Petri Purho. Only 7 levels in this small version of the game, but there’s a deluxe version on the way. Here’s a taster:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QsTqspnvAaI]

Much more about Crayon Physics on the Kloonigames website.

Great article here for anyone even remotely involved in the music industry:

David Byrne’s Survival Strategies for Emerging Artists – and Megastars

I heard Caetano Veloso‘s version of “Cucurrucucu Paloma” in a 7-eleven last night. It had me pinned to the ceiling speaker until Emily could tell me who the artist was. Beautiful arrangement! Ordered a “best of” today and can’t wait for it to arrive.

And I was introduced Concha Buika by Simon Glickman of Editorial Emergency when he wrote my press release for Chill Dynasty last year. I was haunted by this track, but couldn’t find Buika’s album for sale online. I finally found her album and pre-ordered it here today. “Mi Nina Lola” is the title track off the album. Somehow I can’t get through watching it without getting my heart caught in my throat, no matter how often I watch it – and just when I think the charm has worn off, I’ll leave it for a day to come back to find it still doing it to me. Something’s going on here; I’ve tried to analyze what, but in the end I think it’s simply that voice and that performance. Pure voodoo: