Friday, August 03, 2007
Ménage à trois with robots part 11
I am done with this one for now. I work on it on and off for the last coupl'a weeks without blogging about it, so I'll jot down what I remember...
Recorded more handclaps for a total of six. Bounced to stereo.
Was having trouble with x-runs, slowdowns, and crashes so I cleared out tracks I clearly wasn't using. That left me with seventeen tracks of recorded audio.
What really seemed to help, aside from some slight adjustments in JACK, was changing an audio option in Ardour. In options > audio file format > data, I changed from 32-bit floating point to 24-bit signed integer. I don't know what either of those are but that seemed to help a lot.
While I was having trouble, I played around with the latency settings a little. This while recording one of the hand claps. The slight delay helped fatten up the sound on one section, which gave me an idea. I was gonna copy those tracks and double them, synced at a slight delay. I decided I liked the claps the way they were and didn't bother.
Recorded some bass guitar to the later sections of the song. I don't think it's needed before then. Bass was plugged in directly into the Lexicon Lambda. I was using the Zoom 506 pedal, but the battery died on me, before I was ready to record.
I was thinking about some lead guitar, but I don't think it is needed either. Or maybe I'm just lazy.
Added some LADSPA FX. 1st applied them pre-fader, but after reading a little of the online manual, applied them post.
TAP equalizer on a guitar track that had too much hiss on it.
TAP Stereo echo and TAP reverberator on the handclaps track.
Frequency modulator on the bass guitar track, which punches it up a bit.
Setup a bus to route vocals to apply effects. right now only using TAP DeEssor.
I took the spoken chorus bit off the DeEssor bus cuz I didn't like the way it sounded there. Also normalized that track as the choruses for that track got louder and louder.
I'd experiment with more effects, but I seem to be pushing this computer to it's limits. I'm not sure that should be the case.
I'll revisit this tune when it's time to configure the next album, whenever and whatever that is.
In the meantime the song can currently (as of this writing) be found on MySpace (faded out at a tolerable 4 min, 15 sec) and here in it's full version.
Recorded more handclaps for a total of six. Bounced to stereo.
Was having trouble with x-runs, slowdowns, and crashes so I cleared out tracks I clearly wasn't using. That left me with seventeen tracks of recorded audio.
What really seemed to help, aside from some slight adjustments in JACK, was changing an audio option in Ardour. In options > audio file format > data, I changed from 32-bit floating point to 24-bit signed integer. I don't know what either of those are but that seemed to help a lot.
While I was having trouble, I played around with the latency settings a little. This while recording one of the hand claps. The slight delay helped fatten up the sound on one section, which gave me an idea. I was gonna copy those tracks and double them, synced at a slight delay. I decided I liked the claps the way they were and didn't bother.
Recorded some bass guitar to the later sections of the song. I don't think it's needed before then. Bass was plugged in directly into the Lexicon Lambda. I was using the Zoom 506 pedal, but the battery died on me, before I was ready to record.
I was thinking about some lead guitar, but I don't think it is needed either. Or maybe I'm just lazy.
Added some LADSPA FX. 1st applied them pre-fader, but after reading a little of the online manual, applied them post.
TAP equalizer on a guitar track that had too much hiss on it.
TAP Stereo echo and TAP reverberator on the handclaps track.
Frequency modulator on the bass guitar track, which punches it up a bit.
Setup a bus to route vocals to apply effects. right now only using TAP DeEssor.
I took the spoken chorus bit off the DeEssor bus cuz I didn't like the way it sounded there. Also normalized that track as the choruses for that track got louder and louder.
I'd experiment with more effects, but I seem to be pushing this computer to it's limits. I'm not sure that should be the case.
I'll revisit this tune when it's time to configure the next album, whenever and whatever that is.
In the meantime the song can currently (as of this writing) be found on MySpace (faded out at a tolerable 4 min, 15 sec) and here in it's full version.
Labels: Ardour, Linux, Ménage à trois with robots, plug-ins, Ubuntu
Monday, March 19, 2007
April Fool's Day Part 4
The guitar editing from the other day left a wee bit of a gap on the right side of the stereo which I fixed by a little cutting and pasting. It was time I did something about that kick drum track (imported from PSP Rhythm) which had some mild pops and clicks in the background.
Sonar has something called Session Drummer, but I didn't feel like figuring out how it works right now, so I looked into something more familiar. First I tried Hammerhead, but didn't care for it's sounds, the deepest of which was almost as crackly as the one in PSP Rhythm. I remembered Hydrogen and thought I might've read that there was a Windows version. I was in luck, so I downloaded it, programed a quick loop, imitating the original track and exported it.
The Hydrogen Kick was a different sound, but I figured it would do just fine. Once in Sonar I Groove Clipped it and stretched it the length of the song and then EQ'd it with NyquistEq5. Then I went and cut all the spaces in the vocals, where I neither spoke nor sang (but cleared my throat once or twice) and then exported to mp3 so I can listen to it a million times on my PSP before making my next move...
Next...
Sonar has something called Session Drummer, but I didn't feel like figuring out how it works right now, so I looked into something more familiar. First I tried Hammerhead, but didn't care for it's sounds, the deepest of which was almost as crackly as the one in PSP Rhythm. I remembered Hydrogen and thought I might've read that there was a Windows version. I was in luck, so I downloaded it, programed a quick loop, imitating the original track and exported it.
The Hydrogen Kick was a different sound, but I figured it would do just fine. Once in Sonar I Groove Clipped it and stretched it the length of the song and then EQ'd it with NyquistEq5. Then I went and cut all the spaces in the vocals, where I neither spoke nor sang (but cleared my throat once or twice) and then exported to mp3 so I can listen to it a million times on my PSP before making my next move...
Next...
Labels: April Fool's Day, effects, Hydrogen, plug-ins, PSP Rhythm, Sonar
Saturday, March 17, 2007
April Fool's Day Part 3
Edited a small bit of the first guitar track (near the beginning), taking out a few notes that were kinda sloppy, time-wise. I played around with VST effects after reading this article on effects chains for vocals, which also touches on a bunch of freebies in that area. I downloaded a bunch and tried a few out on a vocal or two and the second guitar track.
For the main vocal (in this case the fourth vocal track - I don't know if I'll end up using this one or the fifth), I used the Spitfish de-esser, Floorfish noisegate, the Classic compressor, and Bionic Delay. I'm not sure if I really need the first two. I'll play around with them some more. My use of the Bionic Delay is a tad bit over the top with the ping-ponging (though not too excessive), but I can't resist it. Used the Compressor on the "trickster god" bit at the end and then for the guitar I duplicated the track, so I could keep the naked sound, and then play with the effected stuff independently. I used the "Uhhh" preset on the Classic Phaser, and then threw the Bionic Delay on top for some funkadelic bouncing around. Sounds a bit like whales or something. I like the way it's shaping up, so far...
Next
For the main vocal (in this case the fourth vocal track - I don't know if I'll end up using this one or the fifth), I used the Spitfish de-esser, Floorfish noisegate, the Classic compressor, and Bionic Delay. I'm not sure if I really need the first two. I'll play around with them some more. My use of the Bionic Delay is a tad bit over the top with the ping-ponging (though not too excessive), but I can't resist it. Used the Compressor on the "trickster god" bit at the end and then for the guitar I duplicated the track, so I could keep the naked sound, and then play with the effected stuff independently. I used the "Uhhh" preset on the Classic Phaser, and then threw the Bionic Delay on top for some funkadelic bouncing around. Sounds a bit like whales or something. I like the way it's shaping up, so far...
Next
Labels: April Fool's Day, effects, guitar, plug-ins, Sonar
