[LAD] automation on Linux (modular approach)

[fons at kokkinizita.net]

On Mon, Mar 22, 2010 at 12:33:23PM +0100, Ralf Mardorf wrote:

> fons at kokkinizita.net wrote:
>
> >That's certainly true for most of the music I love,
> >but OTOH in practice as an audio engineer you are supposed to
> >solve problems created by circumstances
> >out of your control. If a singer wants to redo one
> >phrase of song and it ends up being a few dB louder
> >than the rest you'll have to accept that - you can't
> >ask to do it again just because of that. But it's no
> >big deal. Either you just remember to push the fader
> >at the right time, or today, using Ardour, you can
> >just cut out that fragment and move it to a separate
> >track with its own EQ and level. I find this a lot
> >easier than using automation.
> >
> >Ciao,
> 
> Full ACK and in addition I would use a subgroup for the channel of
> the regular track and for the channel of the track of the copied
> fragment.

My preferred way of handling e.g. fragmented solos is
to assamble them on one track, and use the region gains
to level them if necessary. You can do this even with
a single original track: cut it into pieces and give
each one its own gain. I find this a lot easier (and
faster) than using Ardour's automation (which usually
doesn't do what I want but seems to have a mind of its
own).

> Even if heavy mixing is required, e.g. for an audio collage I guess
> it's more musical to do such heavy mixing with an external (not
> necessarily analogue) mixing console.

A physical mixer makes a lot of difference. One step
beyond is an old 'analog style' mixer which has *all*
the controls available all the time - no menus or
selection of displays, just reach out and use the 
control. You learn to use them almost without looking,
much as you would play an instrument.
 
> Some kind of heavy mixing for current chart music needs automation
> that isn't possible by Linux now, if this is needed it can be done
> by recording the different mixes and then by piecing together this
> recordings, because this kind of music itself is pieced together.

There a music styles where hundreds of little pieces
are put together, but if traditional mixer automation
is requuired to make sense of them that indicates a
problem with the way all these little pieces are
generated and stored: there's a lack of control at
that point. A tool used for this sort of work should
make it trivial to change the level of each little
piece, e.g. put the mouse on it and change its gain
with the mouse wheel. This is a form of automation
but not the traditional one.

Ciao,

-- 
FA

O tu, che porte, correndo si ?
E guerra e morte !