Today will be my last job at the live console for a while here in Germany. We will enter a something-like-a-lockdown state on Monday. So the remix of the hotline of the German unemployment office comes somehow in time.
So how did this go… I recorded the hotline with a headset adapter into my mobile recorder (Tascam DR70D). After determining the tempo, I put it into a time grid in Ardour. It reminded me of another piece of music that had rap lyrics (in English). So I took 1 bar of beats from that and it almost fit the tempo! Ardour’s time stretching helped to do the rest.
Added more beat using a Korg Electribe sampler. Synthesizers: Roland Juno 106 & JD-XA, Korg Monologue. No software synths used for this one. Also no MIDI tracks, I just played the stuff on the keyboards.
Female vocals: Lewitt LCT440 mic. x42-autotune, Voxengo Voxformer compressor/de-esser. Pseudo rap: EV RE320 mic, Sknote DistoS compressor. Reverbs all Bricasti M7 impulse responses via IR.LV2 Delays: Calf Vintage Delay. Other stuff: TAL Bitcrusher, TAL Chorus 60. And x42-eq everywhere.
Mastering: Harrison Spectral Compressor, Voxengo CRTIV (tape simulator, to be used with care), Voxengo Elephant mastering limiter.
All Windows VSTs via LinVST. Works like a charm but is fragile… always a pain to update systems or change versions of stuff. The efford is rewarded by getting gems like Sknote DistoS.
Record scratching effect in the outro: I routed the complete track through TerminatorX and scratched using the mouse. Recorded the output using jack_rec.
Ardour 5.12.0 on kxStudio / Kubuntu 18.04 - video Editing in Lightworks 2020.1 on the same system. Camera: Z Cam E2C (hint: get the new E2-M4 instead!).
Yea… welcome to my life sadly. I suspect you are better set up in Germany than we are on the other side of the pond, but I am making just enough from my part time work that I wouldn’t get anything from unemployment, yet I would get more from unemployment if I stayed home and didn’t work… Sadly needs to happen over here even if it makes finances difficult for me personally.
Hope yours doesn’t last as long as mine has though, going on 8 months now I believe?
Well, as some US media say, “socialist” Germany is not entirely bad as a state / government in the current situation. The situation is somewhat complicated because the regulations of restrictions and also the first funds for the economy was run by the federal states. July until mid October went quite nice for me at the live console and also at the cameras. April to June I was fed by my federal state a bit. Now full stop again, no idea what the next weeks will be like. Except for all gigs canceled. Our politicians are full of promises, but yeah what does that mean…
Trying to get into video conferencing/streaming more (see my other post on using Ardour as a digital mixer with the Behringer X-Touch mini controller) … but opening a new field of business isn’t as easy as most people think. Buying the equipment or finding reliable sources for rental is one thing, the other is getting the contacts in the market right, which usually takes several years, not weeks.
I’d love do some recording, but artists without gigs can’t afford recording. Also video live streaming of music is mostly not payed at all, gotta do boring business stuff.
Well, perhaps not the perfect topic for the Done with Ardour section here. Let’s try to have all the beer we’re now crying into and make some fresh arts stuff.
