Testing PreSonus Studio One

Hello..

Compared to GarageBand, it’s much more flexible. Having the ability to share instruments between tracks, track grouping, unlimited number of filters per track/group, and having a number of worthy plugins makes it a very good candidate. After trying it for a month or so, I think it will only work if I got the Presence XT add-on. There is a similar one that comes with Studio One Artist (thankfully, I got it for free). but that quality is simply bad.

At some point, I’ll try Presence XT and see how things will go. Nonetheless, here is something I made using Studio One. Enjoy!

So, music is the the thing I do on the side

Humanoids,

I’m working on a new soundtrack. Here is my latest one. I hope you enjoy it. 🙂

 

Until next time 🙂

Trying to relax/recover

Hello people 🙂

 

So, in the middle of playing games and being busy doing nothing, tech posts will be on hold for some time (I think it’s very noticeable :D). I’ll be posting tracks here for the time being. I don’t know when I’ll get back to technical stuff, but I definitely know it’s not soon. Also, I had a terrible bike accident. So, I’m in doing-nothing-playing-and-eating-all-day-sleeping-a-lot mode (it’s an actual mode :D).

 

Here are two things I posted lately on SoundCloud. I hope you enjoy them.

Keep up the good work 😉

Sketching the Third Soundtrack.. and somthing else

Hi there!

Between work and laziness, I managed to complete this one. It’s still a working progress. It’s meant to be the inspiration of the whole soundtrack. I’ll take my time on this one.

 

I hope you enjoy it.

 

PS: Technical posts will come back soon, ISA. I’m trying to setup some hardware for it, and as soon as the hardware is ready I’ll get back to the geeky stuff, ISA. Wish me good luck. 🙂

First Soundtrack?

Sorry for the long absence. I disappear.
Just finished the first soundtrack. I made it from scratch. Some of it were ideas I had back in 2012. Some of it were ideas I had just today. 😀
I hope you enjoy it: The First Soundtrack. My favorite one is the last one, titled “Walking Away”, which I had the idea for it this afternoon.
See you soon.
PS: About the distributed series.. I have no idea if I’ll finish it or not. I’ve been really busy since then. So..

Setup a Cluster using ROCKS!

I thought it might come in handy for some people. Let’s get to it.

What is Rocks?

Rocks is a linux distribution based on CentOS. It’s intended for High-Performance Computing. It has the tools that helps managing the cluster, and it’s really easy to setup for a… I’m not going to say a “Mere Mortal”, but it shouldn’t be hard for an average computer science student.

Installation

Check Your System Requirements

You’ll need a minimum of two computers (the main node, and a compute node). Here are the system requirements for running Rocks:

Frontend Node

• Disk Capacity: 30 GB
• Memory Capacity: 1 GB
• Ethernet: 2 physical ports (e.g., “eth0” and “eth1”)
• BIOS Boot Order: CD, Hard Disk

Compute Node

• Disk Capacity: 30 GB
• Memory Capacity: 1 GB
• Ethernet: 1 physical port (e.g., “eth0”)
• BIOS Boot Order: CD, PXE (Network Boot), Hard Disk

In other words, one main node with two ethernet ports, and n-number of compute nodes. Both should have loads of free space, and you will need some cables and switches to connect things together, depending on the number of nodes. And no minimum requirement for processor cores. Also, you can use the same installation process for virtual clusters.

Connect The Nodes Together

Connect all nodes to the main node, and connect the main node to the internet. Of course, you can configure the network connections to suit your application. Also, make sure that DHCP is disabled in all switches that connects the private network. Rocks relies on DHCP to boot (read more), connect and install the OS on compute nodes.

Download ROCKS! and Burn the DVD

I used the jumbo DVD, because it has everything. Rocks components are separated into multiple CDs. The big one is better because inserting CDs to the machine one-by-one can be annoying. Here is the link to the download page.

Install Rocks on the main node

Before doing so, make sure you set the right boot order as described in the system requirements. Insert the DVD, and boot it up.

As soon as the boot screen pops, type “frontend” and hit return. This will tell Rocks that this node is the frontend node, and will start the installation process accordingly.Wait a bit for installer to come into life. When it shows up.

This is the welcome screen. Choose CD/DVD-based roll.

Here is the rolls list. Choose the following rolls: Base, Ganglia, HPC, Kernel and OS. Those are rolls I needed to set up my cluster.

Check the rolls summary, and make sure that the right rolls are selected. Then, hit “Next”.

Here, Rocks requests some basic information about the cluster, such as host name and location.

Public network configuration. This should be configured depending on the router that connects to the internet. Double check the physical ports and make sure that you got the connections right. I chose “eth0” to be the public connection.

Private network configuration. Should be configure according to the switch that connects the network together. If it’s a virtual HPC cluster, change is not needed. Also, make sure that the network is in the right order. I chose “eth1” to be the private network.

Write your desired Gateway and DNS server. I chose the router.

Don’t forget the password. You’ll need it. Note: the root is the system admin. It can do anything and everything. You don’t want to forget the password.

Choose the proper timezone.

If the machine has the minimum disk requirement (30GB), manually partitioning won’t be needed.

Wait a bit for things to finish. Have a snack, maybe.

Voila! The main node is up. Time to set up the rest.

Install Rocks on the rest of the nodes

If you got network booting running in all compute nodes, things will be much easier and seamless:

1. Open a terminal window on the frontend node.
2. Run the insert-ethers command.
   
3. Choose the device you want to connect. For now, it will be “Compute”.
4. Turn on all compute nodes (make sure the boot order is set as specified in the requirements), and watch Rocks handles the rest.
5. If network booting didn’t work, you’d have to boot the Installation DVD into each compute node. However, in this case, boot and leave Rocks handle the rest. No need to type anything on the boot screen.

A list of all detected nodes. Nodes are detected using DHCP.

insert-ethers will show nodes as they’re discovered.

Ganglia

Ganglia provides a monitoring solution for your cluster.

It monitors the cluster. Simply open the browser on the main node, and go to http://localhost/ganglia/. It will be the way to check whether the setup on each node was completed, too.

Then what?

I don’t know. You got yourself a cluster. Do whatever you want with it. Write some MPI app that folds proteins. Distribute a database of randomly generated records for fun. Break the world record on the number of PI digits you can calculate. Whatever.

I hope this helps. Leave me a question if you want. Hopefully, I’ll finish the NBody series.. I not going to say soon, but I hope I do.

HPC Setup

I’ve been trying to setup an HPC cluster of all the PCs I have at home. When I finish that, I’ll be able to continue the N-Body post series. What I want is for people to understand how HPC apps work and being able to build ones that harness the power they have in hand. On the way, I’ll post a few things that might not be relative to the topic. Maybe I’ll post a tutorial on how to build a cheap HPC system. Also, before that, I’ll post another OpenCL implementation that fixed some major implementation faults and performance issues.

Stay tuned.