I’m looking to digitize some tape recordings. I have my cassette player coming in on a USB device, and am using alsa_out to monitor on my built in soundcard. This works fine.
I’m now trying to add Jamin to do some mastering. I’m starting jamin with -p so that it doesn’t autoconnect. I’ve added a post-fader insert on the audio channel, and am routing the insert out to jamin in, and vice versa. Jamin is receiving the audio, but somehow Ardour’s not getting the result back from Jamin - there’s no discernible difference in sound even at extreme settings.
You have the outputs of jamin as the input to your track. Then you have an insert that the outputs of your sound card are connected to. Leave the outputs of jamin connected to the input of your track as you have it. Forget about the insert and connect the outs of your device to the inputs of jamin. Make sure it is the usb device and not the internal sound card. Your 2nd picture is showing the outs of your device going directly to your insert. You could use the insert but your device needs to output to jamin 1st and then from jamin to the insert. Would be simpler though to leave the outs of jamin connected to the ins of your track and have the outs of your device connected to the ins of jamin and forget about the insert.
Don’t use jamin. Certainly not if you’re serious about mastering. Poor quality, distortion, inappropriate parameters - it was a noble effort in the early days of JACK apps, but it should not be used today. Put plugins in the master bus of ardour and export.
What mastering plugins do you recommend? The bundled multiband EQ and maximizer seem to work well, so I could work with them. Jamin’s UI is nicer though – is there a combination I should look at?
Experimentally, I’ve found that I’m needing to bring up the top end a bit, presumably because of the tape bias, but I’m new to doing this.