Hi! I’m a relatively new user of Ardour (and Linux MultiMedia Studio) and I find them really brilliant. Though since I’m a new user, I’ve been trying to watch, read and experiment on things I found in the internet how to learn and maximize the use of these fantastic softwares.
Anyway, I would like to ask the community if you can help me figure out the fastest way to achieve the effects of Nothing’s Carved in Stone’s song, “Out of Control”. A friend asked me if I can provide the needed programming for their upcoming live next week. Vocals, 2 guitars, bass and drums are already provided in the band. Just the added extra effects of the sounds being heard in the song are needed.
As I still consider myself a n00b using LMMS, I thought it would be best to ask more experienced people how to fully utilize the software for the sounds needed in the song.
Rather than spending more time in research and experimenting to achieve the needed sound for the song, I thought I would ask the community who has more experience in this.
The only effects that i can pick on that are not performed by the band themselfs is the delay thats on the vocal which would be really simple to program, it doesnt really change through the whole song except maybe it gets masked when the band are really going for it. work out the tempo and put that into a delay plugin of your choice. It may need a bit of EQ or to use filters on the plugin to calm the high and lows down. Use a low Feedback value so it only repeats 1 time and you get a much lower 2nd repeat. A much better way though i find is if the delay has an option to set how many feedback repeats then set it to 3 and adjust the feedback till you get the desired drop in volume for each repeat.
Theres probably also a very subtle reverb on the vocals to liven it up.
The studio version and the live version are quite different. With the studio track the vocals have been EQEd to be very thin and a tad harsh to fit nicely in the mix. Live the vocals a smoother and have more low mid content but it still works, i prefer the live vocal sound.
As for the FX on the instruments if thats what you are needing now is where it can get a bit harder, as just looking at there pedal boards there could be numerous things going on. I know from the beginning it sounds like a phaser on the bass with a little distortion. and the guitars are some kind of distortion aswell.
Is this to be used live? using ardour as your mixer, or to provide some kind of backing track with just the added effects?
If its live, you would feed an aux send sends from the desk, 1 from each effect, to inputs in ardour and just directly put the plugin in the track. Ideally you would have seperate outputs back to the desk for each effect, or you could just have 1 stereo outback back and do the mixing within ardour.
Thank you very much for the response, veda_sticks!
Anyway, what I actually need are just more or less the fast background tone and the wubs or so heard outside of the vocals, guitars, bass and drums.
I’ve asked around at the LMMS IRC channel that I should use Ardour instead of LMMS, you see. I’m not really sure how to make those effects for the live gig.
That’s the reason why I asked help here so that I can speed up my learning process to get the extra effects needed, that are outside of what are being heard from the vocals, guitars, bass and drums.
Now thats a bit more out of my depth. Live they probably use a backing track with the extra fx’s and parts or maybe a loop pedal with different samples.
its probably possible to recreate some of the sounds using a synth plugin, but i wouldnt know where to start. I dont know much about creating sounds using synths.
Tell your guitar and/or bass player to try a “phaser” effect pedal. I think that’s what you are asking about. There’s a phaser/flanger type “swooshing” sound throughout the song. They probably added in post-production, but if one of your bandmembers experiments with a phaser pedal, you might get some of the feel you are looking for.
while were on the subject of effects, particularly bass effects. If you can, id suggest double di’ing the bass guitar, pre and post fx. Some effects in particularly distortions can really kill the low end. With a pre FX channel you can keep a nice full sound and blend it with FX.
Alternetivly you can use a pre FX DI and then mic an amp if your using amps. and just use the mic to get all the detail while using the DI for lows.
