[linux-audio-user] some more 'made with Linux' music

[Daniel James]

> When you
> say "Recorded with Audacity by me, mixed with Ardour and mastered
> with Jamin", are you saying that you recorded the actual tracks in
> some program/hardware (other) than Ardour and just used Ardour to
> mix them?

Yes - they were recorded using an 8 buss analogue mixer and M Audio 
Delta 1010 direct to a Linux Mandrake box running Audacity. Ron opted 
to mix the track in Ardour on his machine, so I exported one wav file 
per track from Audacity.

> Just one comment about the mix... I was surprised at the (one)
> female vocal that was panned "hard right" (all the way to the
> right). 

It's hard to get vocal choruses right - Ron actually did another mix 
after this one with louder drums and the vocal sounds nearer the 
centre of the stereo image, but the limiting on the second attempt 
was rather harsh. (We'd been discussing the way pop records manage to 
achieve such high average amplitude, but on reflection I'd prefer to 
sacrifice some loudness for the sake of dynamics and overall 
smoothness.)  

> It's good the hear a natural sounding recording with live sounding
> instruments (as opposed to my approach of relying on soft synths).

Thanks! If I've learnt anything from trying to record real 
instruments, it's that it's a lot easier to get it wrong than with 
synthesised instruments. Since this recording was made, I have been 
building up a better collection of microphones and have just arranged 
to buy a bass preamp, which should all help.

Cheers

Daniel