This is food for thought, and below I have my thoughts. Before I digress my advice for "signal chain recommendations" is to pick the DAW you are going to use (I expect you have - if not my strong advice is Ardour. It would be Audacity which has a really great user interface, but has become flaky over the last few years). Then experiment with what it offers from its menus. There really are no criteria nor useful guidance for Free Software music tools that I know of. Perhaps someone will reply here, with one. More below..... On Thursday, October 23rd, 2025 at 9:28 PM, Fons Adriaensen <fons(a)linuxaudio.org> wrote: [snip] Tricky, I know. But there is a gap to fill. One very hard aspect of using Free Software for making music is all the choice, variability of quality and the lack of direction. Recording using mainstream propitiatory software has the same issues, but is matched with teaching in Polytechnics and an industry to join. Is there anywhere a place for people to be initiated into the mysteries? Myself I am interested primarily in modifying guitar signals, secondarily recording live music and thirdly in processing and editing those recordings. I have been at it in a half-hearted way for fifteen years, but I have started to get serious only in the past two, and I feel very frustrated at almost every turn. Nobodies fault, in Free Software music creation there are not the sort of training resources I see in the propitiatory world. When I go to Patchstorage it is a magnificent cornucopia of all sorts of choices, but no way to pick amongst them. Still for me I am an aging computer programmer with scientific training, I may be frustrated but I have the tools to cope. For an ethical musician that just wants to do shit, and not pay for warmed over windows and mac software (that IMO is almost all spyware of some sort now) this is very daunting They come to this to "record my voice", here is a Linux box, a sound card and a microphone. There are a hundred and twenty three options for software where do you can start??? Lastly it is important to treat people asking questions with far too little information with respect. Having to endure flaming for asking noobie questions is so very 1990s. peace Worik

Mic->cable->mic-pre->ADC->ITB plugins or? Mic->cable->mic-pre->Digital console or... Mic->cable->mic-pre->Analog console. ----- Shure SM57 & 58 are nice sound on a budget.. a similar: Audio-Technica mb1k AKG P5s many years ago i went to a pro recording studio, they had Neumann U87, AKG 414 & RCA ribbon... very high quality mic-pres... john hardy m-1, amek, etc... 2 rappers, testing microphones, some microphones do Not match the singer voice... does Not matter how high end. microphones have "personalities", like a color pallette. Tube, No Tube, Triode or Pentode, Transformer, No transformer, Dynamic or Condenser, small or large diaphragm. polar pattern: Cardioid the most common. Fixed polar pattern or user selectable polar pattern. etc.... MXL has nice condenser mics.. Audio-Technica AT4033a is a "copy" of a Neumann U67 AKG 414 has many different versions / models, some are a "copy" of Neumann U47fet Rode also has nice, the common NT1 or NT2 Showeps are also nice. some people make capsule upgrades, circuit upgrades to cheaper mics. https://recordinghacks.com/microphones/AKG-Acoustics/C-12 ---- Focusrite Scarlett USB interfaces does Not have enough mic-gain, must be used usualy at 90% all the time.. more increase noise.. Clarett USB interfaces have better sound quality, but same low gain. there are mic boosters from Klark Teknik if need more than 90% gain. ---- for the signal chain... cables do matter, good shield minimum. ------ there are 2 kinds of plugins: Pure Digital. vs. Analog Emulation.. and "Hybrids" in-between the spectrum.. "50-shades of grey." there is CPU or DSP. DSP is always better, CPU requires coding disabling all branch predictions, most plugin developers do Not do that. CPU has latency, some DSP also have. Analog Emulation, Native for Linux: The best sounding plugins i´ve tested were made by Harrison, but Discontinued... The Bass Flow Channel, had Oversampling = increase latency = Bad. but Very nice Analog Emulation Algorithm for any type of music.. "Oversamplig is increasing sample rate x2 or x4 internally, process & down convert again." 48Khz to 96KHz to 48KHz or 96 to 192 to 96 or 192 to 384 to 192... Reaper DAW allows to Oversample Any plugin. but i dont like Oversampling... i prefer DSP. Anyway... Harrison Console still available for Linux: https://store.harrisonaudio.com/all-products/mixbus-11-daw?tab=downloads Older: https://support.harrisonaudio.com/hc/en-gb/articles/19516617411613-Harrison… https://support.harrisonaudio.com/hc/en-gb/articles/19840057916957-Why-is-H… https://forum.harrisonconsoles.com/post-68224.html https://store.harrisonaudio.com/studio some ilok plugins for Windows work on Linux, only plugins that ilok license allows to be installed on the PC, Not USB, there is No USB drivers. using Carla for Linux + VST Wine bridge. but 32-Bit has issues... only 64-Bit. AV Linux MX has Carla v2.5 with 32-Bit repo, but DAW looks horrible, and very unstable. https://www.bandshed.net/avlinux/ Official KXStudio repo does Not have 32-Bit https://kx.studio/Repositories https://github.com/KXStudio/Repository/releases there are millions of 32-bit VST plugins for windows-. available.. kvraudio.com ----- ProTools HDX is the industry standard / Carbon is a smaller All-In-One mini-me version / No latency. Universal Audio DSP, Not as Good, but nice anyway... has latency if used with normal DAWs. SonicCore Xite-1 DSP is very nice, but Synths mostly, Not for Mixing like HDX DSP. ----- No-ITB "Non-In The Box" Digital: Yamaha 01v96 consoles have nice sound, 2x Type of EQ emulations. Mic-Pres are Nice. ADC are Nice. older 48Khz consoles are also nice... 02R 01v Promix01 was too limited in my opinion.. Analog: there are plenty options... Mackie, Soundcraft, Tascam, Yamaha... havent heard the New Yamaha MGPx but the old MG had a nice clean sound. New Tascam has nice sound also. dont like Signature series... old Mackie VLZ & 8-Bus were ok, Analog Eq is more limited vs. Digital EQ, unless its a very High-end Analog EQ or Console. ---- EQs have 4 or 5 main Q curves... old API, old NEVE, SSL4k 9k, new Neve, etc... from Ultra-Wide, to Ultra-Narrow. Symmetric or Asymetric Boost & Cut. example: Waves REQ is Asymetric, Narrow on the Cut. https://cdn-docs.av-iq.com/other/Renaissance%20Equalizer_Manual.pdf vs. https://massenburgdesignworks.com/products/mdweq6/ Ultra-Wide Q on the Cut, maybe Symmetric. plugin-alliance.com has nice emulations for AAX-DSP Avid also has nice Analog emulation plugins. GEQ-7 had 4 curves well mapped: https://www.440audio.com/en/software/v4647-Kjaerhus-Audio-Golden-Equaliser-… Discontinued. pspaudioware also has nice analog emulation. ________________________________________ From: Fons Adriaensen <fons(a)linuxaudio.org> Sent: Thursday, October 23, 2025 4:28 PM To: linux-audio-user(a)lists.linuxaudio.org Subject: [LAU] Re: Signal Chain Recommendations On Thu, Oct 23, 2025 at 04:30:07PM -0400, Stephen H. Dawson, DSL wrote: How do you think anyone could help if the only info you provide is 'my spoken voice' ?? * What is the purpose of the recording (i.e. which quality aspects matter, which don't, how is the result distributed, ...) ? * In what circumstances is the recording made (studio, office, living room, open air, ... ? * Which microphones (and other equipment) do you have available ? * Do you have any professional training as a speaker ? Assuming you have some control over the circumstances and some decent microphone, very probably you won't need any plugins at all. I would in any case make the recording that way, anything needed (maybe a bit of EQ and limiting) can be applied later anyway. If you want a professional result, don't try to be the speaker and the sound engineer/producer at the same time. There are reasons why these functions are normally separated. Ciao, -- FA _______________________________________________ Linux-audio-user mailing list -- linux-audio-user(a)lists.linuxaudio.org To unsubscribe send an email to linux-audio-user-leave(a)lists.linuxaudio.org

Hello Jeanette, Thanks for your reply. The purpose of the recording is to capture my voice to deliver training materials through MP3 files via Internet downloads. The recordings will occur in a room treated for sound absorption of echoes. I will use a Blue Designs Yeti for the recording. I have several years of professional training as a speaker. I will record the signal dry and edit it in post-production. I agree on the signal chain of equalization and limiting, with perhaps compression. Specifically, I am looking for recommendations on the names of preferred plugins for the proposed signal chain. Kindest Regards, *Stephen Dawson, DSL* /Executive Strategy Consultant/ Business & Technology +1 (865) 804-3454 http://www.shdawson.com On 10/23/25 17:39, Jeanette C. wrote:

Hello Robin, Thanks for your reply. I appreciate your work on the setbfree project. The PodcastPlugins project is new to me. The purpose of the recording is to capture my voice to deliver training materials through MP3 files via Internet downloads. The recordings will occur in a room treated for sound absorption of echoes. I will use a Blue Designs Yeti for the recording. I have several years of professional training as a speaker. I will record the signal dry and edit it in post-production. I agree on the signal chain of equalization and limiting, with perhaps compression. Specifically, I am looking for recommendations on the names of preferred plugins for the proposed signal chain. Kindest Regards, *Stephen Dawson, DSL* /Executive Strategy Consultant/ Business & Technology +1 (865) 804-3454 http://www.shdawson.com On 10/23/25 18:58, Robin Gareus wrote: