My portfolio...all of it with Ardour

Greetings Ardour family,

Thank you for allowing me to showcase my work with Ardour. Here’s the link to my site:

You will find a few songs here. All mixed by Ardour (Linux) on my humble Intel i3 laptop. (It still amazes me that I can mix on this little Asus lappy).

Love to hear your thoughts…

Thank you,
Steve

5 Likes

Very nice sounding songs, thanks for sharing. Any comments on plugins you usually use? guitars are amp recorded right?

This sounds really good! Some very nice songs.

Thank you Bluebones and Christian!

These are all client supplied files. Guitars are recorded, not a keyboard played patch.
Regarding plugins:

EQ - I usually start with lsp EQ. I can make those sound like anything. They even can do a good Pultec emulation. I also give HUGE props to Robin Gareus’ x42 EQ. I use it to add top end air on things and it does not get brittle.

Compresson - I was doing Calf comps for a while, then really leaning into lsp again. lsp comps are soooo versatile. They are the only ones I can make sound like an 1176. For “mastering” stereo buss jobs, I love x42 compressor. It’s a perfect “gluey” unit.

Gate - Was doing Calf…now its all lsp. I love the Hysteresis control. Can help a lot to get rid of gate stutter on drums. (I just realize as I’m typing this that it may not be called that. it might just be a second threshold control for release…)

Saturation - Calf is the best so far. I admit I and am in need suggestions. Having said that, Calf actually does this good. Their Saturation and bit crusher do the job.

Drum replacement (sample) - Note, I almost never entirely replace a live drum. I will augment the sound with the sample on another track. lsp is awesome for this. Their Trigger works great. I usually print the output to a track, then get rid of this plug in. Time align printed track if necessary. Sometime I’ll on purpose change the time alignment - doing so can give you many choices in attack sound (especially for Kick).

Verb - Dragonfly rooms, plates (drums and Vox). Tal Reverb II & III for snare. My last project I tried a lsp Impulse Reverb plugin with a Lexicon 480L IR on snare (Snare Plate) and one on vocal (A-Plate). Soooo good!

Last couple of odd and ends would be bass enhancement and stereo widening. Calf right now does this best for me. And to get my mix up to competitive levels, all master buss processing is x42 - comp, limiter, metering.

What I’m looking for is a comp that can do ssl buss style compression, and a doubler (harmonizer type). Maybe one day…

Yours,
Steve

3 Likes

Thank you for the suggestion, backstudies!

Since I’m running a Linux os, will I be able to use plugins from Airwindows?

Thank you,
Steve

Yes, he provides VST for Linux as well as Windows and Mac.

Can you give more details (settings) on how emulate Pultec Eq with LSP Eqs and 1176 with LSP comps please ?

1 Like

Like the sound ! sharp and powerful, nice work !

There are Pultec style EQs available for Linux… https://www.overtonedsp.co.uk/download/download_ptc_2a/ (sorry, I just had to say) :slight_smile:

I know, I already have it and always use it on my master bus :wink: .
But I’m curious to know if it is possible to reproduce the same behaviour (or next to) with LSP Eqs ( I used it a lot too).

These types of vintage equalizers are some of the few I know of that just ‘make it better’ - it doesn’t matter what it is, it Just. Sounds. Better. - they really are the kind of secret ingredient that turns a good mix into a proper recording (and its no surprise most professional studios have some stashed away somewhere).

A lot of this comes from the control interaction, for example the ability to boost and cut the low frequencies at the same time, which instead of cancelling out, as you might expect, produces a tight bass boost with a slight dip in the low mid. This is the signature ‘low-end trick’ as its often called. While its likely possible to emulate this with other more general EQs, what you don’t get is the intuitive ability to just dial in how much you want to ‘better-ize’ the sound. In addition, a more general purpose EQ can be a very wide ranging tool, whereas the inherent limitations of some of these early designs actually makes it almost impossible to make them sound bad no matter what you do.

3 Likes

Hi sub26nico,

All others have stated, yes there are actual Pultec EQ’s out there. I’ve been trying a demo from Applied Computer Music Technologies Ltd. It’s their ACM-2A. Having that said, LSP Parametric EQ’s can do some of the same things these older units are famous for. Specifically, the boost/cut thing. Using LSP’s Hi and Lo shelfs and setting the Mode to APO, adjustments to Q can lead to Pultec-like response curves. NOTE: seriously check out x42’s parametric EQ. There’s something special when using it to recreate Pultec top end “air”.

Regarding LSP compressors doing an 1176 emulation: When you read the specs for such classic compressors, the LSP units surprisingly come close when you use the same parameters. Of these, this is what I do:

Sidechain:
Position = Feedback. (Feed Forward when trying to do “All Buttons In” mode.)
Type = RMS. (an 1176 is a “Limiting Amplifier”, but LSP is too fast in PEAK mode).
HPF = ON and set to taste to eliminate LF distortion. Most likely above 50Hz to start.
Compression:
Mode = Downward
Knee = 0db
Attack = use range of 20 - 800 microseconds.
Release = use range of 50 msec to 1.1 seconds.
Adjust Make up, or output gain as needed.

For fun, here’s some 1176 docs and a good site of their history:

http://www.univertron.com/SAS/manuals/Urei/Urei%201176ln-Manual.pdf

Now…one BIG issue with all this LSP emulation of classic gear: Doing so in no way reproduces the circuit distortion we have grown to love in the classic gear. This is especially true when trying to copy 1176 settings. You may get the compression part close, but the complete “sound” of the input/output transformers will not be there, along with other analogue circuit fun. You can try adding saturation before the LSP comp, say, if you want to try a “Blue Stripe” sound. Yet, just know it’s all a compromise.

Well…this is what I have done. I do need more time with the ACM-2A unit. The folks at ACMT (a division of overtonedsp if I’m understanding things correctly) are the only ones to do a real emulation of a Pultec. (wow…the word “real” and “emulation” right next to each other. Dang.) I know of no one doing 1176 or LA-2A plugins for us Linux folks. So, I’ll keep tweaking LSP units till these come out.

Hope this helps,
Steve

2 Likes

Thank you so much, Vincent Tassy!!!

Hi bachstudies

Got it. I’ll check’m out then. Thank you!
-Steve

For the record, see the built in compressors modes for Mixbus as well. Not specific emulations, but good feel for those uses.

   Seablade

I was very tempted to ask the same question as sub26nico, but the fact is I don’t really know how a Pultec or 1176 is supposed to sound, I mean I kind of have the idea, but I don’t know, so I can have the ingredients but would never pull off the recipe : (

It’s clear to me that in order to achieve that kind of feat you have to be very familiar with the actual gear, which seems to be the case for @serdeman. That brings me to a more practical question, are you maybe planning on doing some youtube tutorials for us Linux folks to enhance our workflow and sound? I’ve learnt a lot from people using Pro Tools and other software and plugins, but it’s definitively an advantage to witness the alchemy happening with our very own tools, and for me in this case also in the same genre target.

@bluebones

Regarding making videos, I will definitely think about this. I need to see if my rig can handle it. HA! (All the songs you have heard on my site have been mixed on an Intel i3 laptop)

-Steve

1 Like