modusjonens wrote:Hi all,
I wrote/recorded this one recently:
https://soundcloud.com/modusjonens/liftoff/
My playing is still rough at spots, but I don't mind a touch of "organic" sound coming from small flubs as long as there aren't too many.
Actually, I think your playing is fine. Sure you can always get better at something, but it's really fitting for this song.
modusjonens wrote:
Tools/software used:
- Line 6 Pod HD500X (for amp/cab modeling + effects)
- Ardour (as DAW)
- Hydrogen (standalone drum sequencer)
- LMMS (for short synth samples)
- Audacity (for limiting/normalization of the resulting track, plus small eq tweaks as desired)
One of the nice things I've found about using the Line 6 is that it also acts as my audio interface. Perhaps (probably?) there's a better way to do this, but it's been working for me so far.
I started nearly the same way. Just used Ardour for Mastering also (and still do). Also I had a PodXT which is now replaced by a Helix.
Ok, for some feedback:
I really like the guitar sound and I don't find the hiss disturbing. Did you do a bit of Low Pass filtering? I have heard real tracks which have more hiss (e.g. I have the original tracks and producer packs of some Periphery songs and on some tracks there is more hiss than this. Also e.g. on Machine Heads Exhale the Vile there is also quite a lot of hiss on the drums in the beginning.
I think the song overall is quite good.
Good Work!
I just find the drums too thin-sounding and a bit mechanic. Also a bass seems to be missing.
I also started with Hydrogen but soon converted to Drumgizmo for acoustic drums. I edit the MIDI in Muse or QTractor and then import the finished track into Ardour. I normally vary the velocity and the time of the notes with a bit of randomization (both Muse and QTractor can do that). I also don't like the pattern approach, I always change some notes in repeating patterns to get more life into them.
A bit of this process from my workflow I showed in this playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... mq9tgpsCkz
I also did a more detailed complete process (Drums in Muse, recording, mixing and mastering in Ardour) for Libre Music Production here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... Xkk1PmCJR4
modusjonens wrote:
I use Ardour for audio capture and some light "mixing" (really just level adjustments -- I'm not even sure what constitutes proper mixing to be quite honest).
Mixing is not that hard, it just takes a lot of practice. There are plenty of tutorials out there.
You could do a lot with your drums.
For example, this is my latest production (a cover song which was very simple):
https://soundcloud.com/michael-oswald-5 ... ver-feat-h
Do you have the raw audio tracks available somewhere? If you like I can have a look at mixing them...
modusjonens wrote:
I've been making drum tracks in Hydrogen, bouncing them out to FLAC, then importing the resulting drum track in Ardour. After that, I record guitar over top and add samples if/when desired. The sample here is the BitInvader "Invaders must die" preset (in LMMS).
That's nearly the same I did when I started
. I used this process on this song:
https://soundcloud.com/michael-oswald-5 ... -wo-vocals
The whole electronic stuff and synths were done in LMMS, exported and imported into Ardour. The electronic drums were also LMMS, the accoustic ones from DrumGizmo (in this case the Muldjord Kit).
modusjonens wrote:
I'm still very much working on figuring out good gain settings when recording guitar. There is some definite hiss going on in the lead section from 0:34-0:42. I think I may just have been a bit overkill on the overdrive there. Any suggestions?
Have you tried going the DI way? So record the dry guitar signal and apply the final amp interactively while mixing? I am not sure the POD HD can do this, but the Helix could provide the dry and the wet signal simultanously via USB, but unfortunately there are no Linux drivers for it, so this is theoretical.
What I practically do is route the dry guitar signal to one output (SPDIF) and the wet to another one (analog), route them to two tracks in Ardour, create a group over these two tracks so that they are edited simultanously and just mute the DI track for recording (so for recording I hear only the wet track). When recording is finished I do all the necessary editing on the DI track, then I route the DI track again over the Helix and fiddle around until I have "the right" sound with respect to the other tracks, which I then record as the final sound.
lg,
Michael