[linux-audio-user] Vintage Style Recording in Ardour?

[Joern Nettingsmeier]

DCZX wrote:
> Does anyone know what plugins/techniques could I use to record
> something in Ardour that sounds like it was recorded on 70's vintage
> tube/tape equipment?

a technique i like to use is to get hold of some actual vintage gear and 
  use it during mixing.

i once did an organ trio recording where the organ was an overly clean 
digital keyboard. we solved the problem by piping the sound through an 
old polytone guitar amp in "british" setting which was re-recorded with 
a large-diaphragm condensor mike in my bathroom.

i've also had great results with an old and really crappy power mixer 
with a spring reverb - i patched it into an aux send in ardour and had 
very controllable vintage reverb, without having to touch the pots on 
that old junkpile (it had taken a while to find a pot position that did 
not crackle or produce dropouts...).

if you don't need "hi-fi" and are looking for a distinctly analog sound, 
dump your mixdown to analog tape (reel-to-reels will retain a very high 
sound quality, but even a cassette deck will do if you can live with a 
bit of noise and reduced stereo separation). don't use cheap noise 
reduction, though. get a iron oxide tape and drive it hard, the more 
level, the more tape saturation.

as to "tubey" effects, iirc there are some in the CAPS collection of 
ladspa plugins: http://quitte.de/dsp/caps.html
i've played with some, and they are cool, though maybe not exactly what 
you might expect...



regards,

jörn