Our band have released out first LP, tracked and mixed entirely with Ardour.
Have a listen here:-
Austerity Disco - Austerity Disco
Any thoughts welcome.
Thanks for such a great tool!
Matt.
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The songs I like most are “Abject Raster” (mostly because of the 6/8 and 5/8 rhythm changes) and “Austerity Disco” which I think has the best vocal tone from all songs, which catched me right from the beginning.
I would like to do a remix of “Abject Raster”. No strings attached, just for fun and no profit 
In case you agree, please send me a download link to the raw tracks (or even the whole Ardour project) to bernhard.trummer@gmx.at
I’ll then send you back with what I will come up with some days later…
Thanks.
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@idconsultants really fine pieces with loads of heart and energy, the mixes would certainly deserve a fair bit of an “unmasking” seance (try @slash proposal for a start, he may hold the keys to it )
Anyway, really fine band and pieces!
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Some excellent stuff going on here, nice one Matt 
Love some of these progressions and the way the arrangements move. Did yous record and mix it yourselves aye?
Really like some of your riffing and guitar tones especially. Antonio’s voice sounds a bit like Lenny Kravitz in bits. Good singer in any case Good worknall round, Matt
Thank you everyone for taking the time to listen and for your kind thoughts.
@slash I’ve sent you an email to a very big download! Thanks for your interest.
Matt.
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Got it, thanks.
I also hear a little bit of Chris Cornell in it. 
Back to the remix, I’d like to share some insights:
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the acoustic guitars are really well recorded. There are two strange resonance frequencies on one of the two tracks. Easy to notch out, but it might be worth to figure out where those come from and whether it can be fixed at the source…
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vocal tracks: also well recorded. No complaints from my side. Keep doing it this way.
On the backing vocals I especially like the two tracks where the line is sung extra low and extra high. In solo it may sound a bit ridiculous, but it really adds something to the mix. Keep doing those extra backing vocals for future recordings! -
electric guitars: those were the hardest to tame. Let me try to explain based on the EQ curve I used for the Main-GTR track:
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Q0 / low cut and Q1: nothing wrong here, that’s always something I do, because the low end of guitars usually don’t contribute anything good to the mix. The concrete frequencies and amount of cut however depends on the actual amp tone. YMMV
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Q2 and Q3 / quite hard cuts around 2-3kHz: also nothing wrong here. From all mixes I’ve done so far (own songs and remixes, live recordings of real amps vs. amp plugins), there seem to be always something to cut out in that area, otherwise the guitar sounds a bit like the engines of a jet plane.
Again, the concrete frequency and amount to cut depends on the actual tone you have. Use the mute button on those Qs (or bypass the whole EQ) and you will hear the difference. As long as you still hear this “chchchchch” sound, you just have to cut out more. -
Q6 and Q7 / high cuts: Somehow your track contains a lot of crackling, hissing, and noise, which just doesn’t sound good and is even hard to cut out. My guess would be, that the amp either has too much gain, too much mids/highs or too much presence turned up, or even a combination of all three. My recommendation here would be to take out your earplugs, lower the master volume and play around with these knobs until you really “hear” a better sound to start with. Just take your time doing so and don’t rush.
As Joe Gilder would say: “get it right at the source” or “good mixes start with good tracks to begin with”.
Thanks again for sharing your tracks. I really appreciated it.
Very nice…some good earworms there -)
Many thanks for this.
It’s really nice to have some solid feedback.
The main guitar was recorded with a Tonex pedal. I think I’ve pushed too much gain into it from my Rat distortion. I can hear it now you’ve pointed it out.
The band recorded live with me enginnering whilst playing (apart from all my overdubs). Lesson learnt to make I’m 100% sure my sound is right before worrying about anything else!
I did load this into Ardour to take a look but I had to have it in a VM because I’m running windows. It was asking a bit much to have playback working in the VM (it almost did!) but I had a good look around at your session.
Thanks again for this.
Matt.
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Hi, interesting topic here.
I think the second version is easier to listen to… for someone who is « out of the loop ». Well, just a listener…
When you « produce » your own tunes, you « want so much » to translate this « energy » you want to hear… you stress on this guitar, and you push this type of grain in the voice…
A proficient ear put this « back in par »…
But I think, « pushîng this guitar, or this voice » is not only a matter of ego… There is a kind of « artistic meaning » in our errors.
And I think a bit of « out of bounds » and a bit of « stay in the ballpark » is the recipe ( in case a recipe exists)…
I think great tunes come from great intentions and great proficiency in terms of « technical production skills »!
I think your team have both, but I do think a lot of « back and forth » is needed to keep the whole prime energy, and to make it translatable in a small sleeve of paper which is, at the end, what a « loudspeaker » ( or not loud 
) is.
Just my opinion.
Best wishes for this end of the year.
Olivier
And then, sorry to be « relou », a french saying I cannot translate, i got both mixes from start to end in a row…
Well, the second one is « clearer ».
But my feeling is that you try to bring « tension » with timbres, rythm breaks and a little bit with tones in the melodic line… which , sorry sorry, brings you to overdo a little bit. Though I have no ideas in this area of music, maybe some « tensions » in the harmonic field could help?
If I allow me to say this, it is because there is a real hook in your song, but maybe getting out of bounds with the way chords are treated could help it?
Sorry sorry
Thanks for taking the time to listen. I do think Slash’s mix is clearer.
Matt.
off-topic:
“sorry to be « relou »”
Haha, mais non t’es pas lourdingue 
Seriously, a loose translation would be “sorry to be thick”