@unfa is great to watch but somehow it feels a bit different to what Kenny Goia is doing. Early days, clearly, so who knows? On the release of Ardour 6 it might be a good time to step up the creation of tutorial videos covering as many aspects as possble (in bitesize chunks)…
Your idea for complete workflows is great. I do classical so there’s always that to add into the mix…
Sadly unfa’s other committments mean that he will no longer be making any more videos for us. I’m still pondering what to do about that, since I do regularly put money aside for these.
Recruit Dan Worrall! He has a cult following as you probably know There’s nothing like hearing Dan talk about audio-related matters…His TDR series is a masterclass. I just watched his latest video on how to use dither and, with absolutely no surprise, it feels like the definitive tutorial.
On the topic of videos (which is a bit of an aside in this thread but several people have commented on it), the most valuable tutorials for me are ones where a seasoned professional walks you through his or her typical workflow from start to finish, stopping at decision points to explain the choices and how to make them. I’m less interested in “how to do x in Ardour” (which is mainly what Kenny Gioia’s excellent videos do for Reaper), and more interested in “how do I record and mix a piece of music from start to finish in Ardour, and what are the important considerations along the way?” I’d love to see separate tutorials for different genres: from acoustic (e.g., classical) to 100% electronic. Those would be long, multi-part tutorials, but they would be incredibly useful to many people; even experienced users could learn something from them.
I think both are useful, honestly. For those new to DAWs, tutorials definitely work. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed the Mixbus tutorial series! Short, bitesize chunks that gave me what I needed without having to necessarily read a manual. On the other hand, I also agree that a complete worklow (such as classical) is extremely useful to those who have the basics under their belt and want to know how all the different skills fit into a larger whole. “Tactics” vs “Strategy” to use a chess analogy.
As a prime example, I watched a fantastic Pyramix video on classical editing (I referenced it in the classical mega-thread) but after watching, I needed to seek help with an experienced Pyramix user and re-read the manuals in order to even set up the session to make the editing possible. Yes, the video could have included it but I think people might have switched off before the “juicy” stuff happened.
Oh yes, I agree. I just find it frustrating sometimes to watch a bunch of tutorials on discrete topics (e.g., all about compression, or how to do EQ, or understanding gain staging) without getting a sense of how it all fits together. I also find it really useful to learn from practicing professionals whose focus is less on the tools and more on how to use them well. One of my all-time favorite tutorial series was the Adobe Lightroom tutorials from the Luminous Landscape, where the late Michael Reichman (a professional photographer) and Jeff Schewe (one of the developers of Lightroom) walked you through the entire process of working with a photo from capture through printing. They disagreed on many things and pecked at each other like a pair of old hens, but that was half the fun.
So I am more than willing to do some videos myself as well, my problem is time. I teach Mixbus in an introductory level at a university setting, so my style of teaching and video would probably be a better fit for people getting started, though a few of you now have asked for a workflow video or two. As a result, let me ask:
Can you name specific topics or material you want to learn more about in Ardour and/or Mixbus? Pretty much while I can’t get anything done right now, if it hasn’t been addressed by the summer when I am no longer teaching and hopefully my live work drops off a bit, I might be able to sit down and record a fair amount all at once and start editing to post it, so long as I have a good clear list of topics to cover. Obviously I would cover some of my specific class teaching stuff, but my course uses Mixbus and various ear training exercises to teach people how to hear primarily, so some of ti won’t translate well to this format.
Even better maybe it can give Dan stuff to work on as well and make it so you aren’t waiting on me to make any:)
I hate to play copycat but looking through the collection that Reaper has up would probably be a good start…picking and choosing, combining etc. Kraznet’s tutorials on Samplitude/Sequoia are excellent places to look too. Actually, I thought the new Mixbus 32C 6 video was really good for showing the real new features. Who is Nik from Harrison? He also seems like a good candidate for making videos if Dan Worrall isn’t available. I’m actually very serious about Dan (if I hadn’t made that clear already). I can’t think of anyone else who can impart such authority on a product. It’s factual yet at the same time invites you to get excited about it. And, there’s the VOICE. If he’s available and he’s even willing to make, say, a 4-part intro to Ardour set (similar to the 4-part ProTools --> Pyramix set I found recently) it would get the project a lot of extra attention. To coin a phrase, Dan’s the Man:
I think it WOULD translate well, depending on our goal(s) here. Is the goal only to serve as a tutorial on how to Ardour? Or are we also interested (as someone suggested on the Open Source diversion thread that got me here ) in getting more people to use (and hopefully contribute) to Ardour? Because if its the latter, general production/mixing tutorials that happen to use Ardour might be great! I’m sure most of us learned a lot of what we know about mixing, EQ, compression, etc. from watching youtube tutorials. If someone watches a video of you teaching ear training exercises and it really informed them they might be willing to ask, “What DAW is this clearly knowledgeable individual using? Oh, Ardour? And it costs 5% of ProTools? Wow, maybe I’ll look into that!”. I’m just throwing this out there, because if the material is available and it would be easier/faster for you to do those videos, it might be better than shooting for the moon and falling short. Tutorials would be awesome, but there are the Mixbus tutorials and a lot of that stuff translates to Ardour anyways.
Recording and editing podcast and other spoken word material in Ardour. While most of my audio work is on music, I’m currently working on a podcast series and I’m also creating a documentary film that involves recording a lot of voiceovers. There’s a tantalizing but not very informative passage in the Ardour manual about using non-layered mode for recording spoken-word material, in conjunction with push-pull trimming (see https://manual.ardour.org/working-with-tracks/track-modes/). I’d love to see a demo of this in action; I’m going to experiment with it myself but it would be more efficient to watch someone who uses this technique already.
An “advanced editing in Ardour” tutorial that goes into more depth on the various editing tools, how to line up waveforms and how to position crossfades, the various trimming methods, etc. Ben Loftis has a good short Mixbus tutorial that goes into some of this (the one on layered editing) but it would be great to have one that’s more methodical and goes into more detail.
An in-depth tutorial series on MIDI in Ardour. My MIDI needs are pretty basic, but I do like using it for composing music. I’d love to learn more.
Also, as a general note, 99% of the audio tutorials you find online are for pop/rock music and I’d love to see more diversity. Classical music has its own special editing challenges, for example.
No to get too off the video topic but this is what I was thinking for with the source-destination edit workflow I suggested. Post-edit you would simply move around the crossfade with push-pull trimming. To connect the dots here, I like your suggestions!
Actually, another thought I had was a wacky video series in which the topics are all “Things you can easily do in Ardour that you can’t on other DAWs”
for widening the audience of ardour I think also - not as a substitute to the above suggestion but as a complement- it would be great to have short, specific tutorials that adress very basic things on a almost zero previous knowledge level. most complains i have heard from people which give ardour or mixbus a try was: “it doesnt work. I cannot hear anything” . or : “how can i get audio in there?” and: “export is so complicated, I have no idea what to do, maybe i do it wrong”. so a video on how to run ardour for the first time on linux / on a mac / on win.
Also specific videos on [as i see scrolling through youtube there are a lot of specific more advanced videos but rarely simple tutorials with no external plugins etc]:
how to import audio
how to cleanup speech
how to make a beat
how to export for CD
how to etc…
they would not substitute workflow vids or more advanced videos, but i see the barrier for people switching to ardour more on the entrance level and less on the advanced level
I would find this hugely beneficial. I am not a musician and am finding that using any DAW, not just Ardour, is a challenge. I have a podcast, YouTube channel and participate in several different Linux communities. Learning about jack audio has been a bit of a challenge as well. I have an IT background but it honestly hasn’t helped as much as I had hoped. I’d be interested in collaborating or helping produce this kind of content as I know it would be helpful to others as well.
Along those lines, for podcasters it would be useful to include a tutorial about setting up a mix-minus using Jack for doing online interviews via Skype or similar platforms. This can be a bit challenging on any platform; I’m using a Mac, and the equivalent of Jack is Rogue Amoeba’s Loopback app, which has its own learning curve.
Harrison Mixbus actually comes with a built-in podcasting template, and it’s educational to explore the settings although the vocal channels are very heavily compressed. It’s set up for in-person interviews and has sidechain ducking implemented.
It is not Ardour specific, but it shows a lot of about it. Watching these videos was what made me decide on making “full productions” of my own music in Ardour.
I developed some sort of a neuro-muscular problem a couple weeks ago so my left hand is mostly worthless. I was hoping it was temporary but I still can’t really play guitar or piano. SO I was thinking maybe it would be fun to do videos where I write and track electronic pieces start to finish in Ardour. My question… what screen recorders and video editing software do people recommend for Linux? Something lightweight I think would be best so as to maximize the resources available for Ardour. I keep coming across Kazam for recording. Yay or nay? And as far as editing, I was playing around with Openshot a few years ago. Seemed capable but was destroying my laptop’s resources. It could have just been my laptop, but if anyone else a suggestion that would be great.
Yes … I think the general goal is to get more people using Ardour and by doing that, also recruit more developers either for the core or for add-on scripts.
I can do videos but I’m not a pro – I’m a guy who produces some sermons for my church and probably records 10 songs a year as a hobby. My take on this sort of stuff likely isn’t that of a true pro. More like an amateur who has read a lot of books. lol
But my inclination is still toward beginning-to-end on this song using Ardour. How did I use my mics for acoustic guitar? How do I make that sit in a different place from the vocal? How do I bring a sort of unity to that mix? I think these would be interesting but also likely controversial to the extent that I’m an amateur.