Just want to share this as the recording itself and mics are not high q at all, but mic positioning and mixing tools (Mixbus 2, Linux DSP, Invada Plugins, Calf Plugins) have helped a lot to do this work, im very glad i did buy Mixbus 2 with Linux DSP Plugins bundle, and i appreciate a lot the effort made to bring the latest releases of Ardour 3.
All instruments including voice were recorded on a very garage-ish room acoustically treated (gently), Drums recorded with 4 tracks (2 OH + Kick + Snare), the rest of the instruments used 1 track each.
Recorded using Boss BR 1600 and data sent to PC and mixed all in Mixbus.
Probably missing something, the download is a 33.96MB .zip file, it contains about 5 mp3 tracks @ 320kbps, maybe the problem is that youre expecting a single mp3 track, hope that helps.
In the future i’ll be using Soundcloud to share music instead of megaupload since as you say… its very very annoying.
I have no doubt about the quality of Mixbus and I confirm that I don’t have much experience in hardware mixing consoles for recording, only for live PA mixing. It’s true that ardour’s mixing interface suits better to me, than the mixbus interface does. Mixbus does look cool, but all the knobs all over the place would confuse me.
But I see that I maybe should have at least tried the demo before saying all that. Maybe I will as soon as I have time to test such a big thing adequately.
Although I’m not fan of trash, I really enjoyed the guitar work on this material. Many great riffs!
But what I missed was better drums sound - in my opinion the kick and snare should have been EQ’ed more, and louder. In many moments they just get lost behind the guitars and vocals.
Cheers!
P.S.
I’ve also bought Mixbus recently
I’m going to remix all my songs - Mixbus’ features look very promissing!
But what Linux DSP plugins do you use? Aren’t there any free ladspa equivalents?
Maybe I’m missing something, but on the Linux DSP page I’ve found for example EQ and Reverb LV2 plugins. On the other hand there are a few free alternatives to those either in ladspa or in an other form. I don’t know how about others.
So excuse my lack of knowledge on this matter, but what’s so special in Linux DSP plugins? They are quite expensive…
There are some very good and some very bad free alternatives - specifically you asked if there were any LADSPA equivalents and the answer to that is no there aren’t
So excuse my lack of knowledge on this matter, but what's so special in Linux DSP plugins? They are quite expensive...
I and the few other people involved with the plugin development have a huge amount of professional experience of pro-audio, having worked as software / hardware developers and engineers for some of the worlds top pro-audio companies. Does this make for a better product or not? We like to think it does but you can always try the free demo versions and judge for yourself whether they work well for you.
I appreciate that income levels vary widely, but I don’t believe they are expensive. Most are available for between GBP10.00 and GBP20.00 - in the uk at least, this is not a large amount of money, especially in the context of the cost of the other hardware necessary if you want to do audio production, even as a hobby. And given that we don’t have the economies of scale present in other platforms, is just about the lowest price we can ask and still support a full time business.
What you get is software that is developed full time, and a high standard of support, mainly because we want to provide a high quality product that works well, but also because we have a commercial interest in ensuring that the product is good and that the support is of an equally high standard.
thanks for having explained that.
OK, I agree they are not expensive when comparing to other software or hardware products; I meant they were expensive for me, a single home user with his home recording hobby I’ve already spent huge money (huge for me) to buy Mixbus, but maybe later when I’ll repair my budget I’ll find your plugins very useful and worth buying as well.
You are leading me to the question: What’s so special about Mixbus? Compared to the linuxDSP plugins it is expensive and I don’t see any value in it except the cooler look. Maybe I am missing something. For what Mixbus costs I can buy a mic or a decent audio interface.
Compared to that the linuxDSP plugins are really cheap and offer something that you don’t find any cheaper.
@linuxDSP: I already purchased MKII-EQ and the stereo reverb. I am considering Pro channel and the Multicompressor. It would be cool if it showed the compression graphically like the CALF compressor does. I would most probably purchase a Chorus/Phaser/Flanger bundle, a Vocoder/Harmonizer and a Leslie as soon as you come up with those.
@johannes: if you don’t understand the extra that Mixbus offers, then it means either that you don’t really know much about audio engineering or you do, but prefer to work in a particular style that regular Ardour facilitates better (or you have specific needs that Mixbus doesn’t want to address).
Mixbus contains world-class DSP from Harrison consoles integrated (and the integrated part is key) into a very smooth, accessible and (for most people) obvious work flow that makes it more likely that you’ll get the mix you want sooner rather than later. You don’t need Mixbus to get this mix, and some people might legitimately not like either the DSP it offers and/or the workflow it encourages. But for people with lots of experience of hardware consoles, it is a tool that works in a very recognizable way that has long been established as a a very reliable path to get good and sometimes even great musical mixes accomplished.
There might be some more effects added later, it depends on the popularity (or lack of) for the existing bundle. If more effects are added, it won’t be a separate bundle, so there won’t be a need to make a separate purchase.
@linuxdsp: no prob. at all, i shared the mix and the tools i used to get more feedback than to show off my work as im very far from pro as i see it but i hope im on the way to a good level of professionalism as “plingativator” showed on his thread “Cut That Cut Out” also in “made with ardour”, which i think is a great work.
But anyway as of this material, this is just an 8 track mix made for a band that wanted a little more guitars than drums, and a little more overheads than the standard record, but what i find amazing in my very short experience with mixbus and linux dsp is that i DID mix this 8 track demo in about 1/3 the time i spent doing it before without mixbus and linuxdsp, with even a better sound, thats what i really want to share about mixbus and linux dsp.
There “are” tools, and Ardour 2.8 is great and Ardour 3 is waaaay better than the 2.8 built in mixbus 2, there is calf plugins and invada which are all great, but working with mixbus and linux dsp saves time, and time and quality are money, so is an investment that a lot of us can do for our own home studios specially if we “live from it”.
Im purchasing also an RME 9652 which i’ve been reading is a very good sound card, is cost me used on ebay 500$, i would find hypocrite from me not spending 280$ in 2 Softwares that complement very well with that card because they are expensive… good firewire interfaces are 400$+ good headphones are 80$+ good amp is 1000$+ a good AMD CPU is 100$+ … i mean… “come on!!!”
by the way… the satisfaction of doing great music, and get feedback for it from friends musicians in this forum over the world… is FREE. (lol)
Mixbus does look cool, but all the knobs all over the place would confuse me.
Not true. It takes several minutes to read the Mixbus related manual section, and the same to understand the audio flow logic with all the knobs. Actually I find it much more convenient, and useful comparing to standard Ardour interface. The knobs make editing faster, and easier.
And the rest of Mixbus advantages were already clearly explained by Paul.
Mixbus does look cool, but all the knobs all over the place would confuse me.
It's probably just as overwhelming when you first try and use a real large format mixing console, but (as I think Paul said) it is a long established workflow for hardware consoles which has produced some great results.
There is always going to be a debate about whether digital / software products should seek to emulate hardware in terms of user interface (and / or sound) and the UI is one of the things that we concentrate on a lot with the linuxDSP plugins. Personally, I find that a user interface that mimics some of the hardware controls is more intuitive than for example, a collection of identical looking sliders (which in the case of a host provided e.g. LADSPA UI, can change their on-screen function / location depending upon which host application you use…)
That said, there are some things that work more intuitively in software than they ever could in real hardware e.g. multi-band graphical EQs etc where you can drag the EQ curve in real time.
Mixbus is a superb product, but that shouldn’t exclude trying other workflows / plugins as well - its about finding the right combination of tools for a particular project.
It's probably just as overwhelming when you first try and use a real large format mixing console, but (as I think Paul said) it is a long established workflow for hardware consoles which has produced some great results.
As someone that teaches this to students and to volunteers, I can tell you that is likely the case. In fact I use Mixbus now specifically because it is close to a hardware console and it gives me a starting point to teach my students without needing each of them on their own console.
Mixbus is a superb product, but that shouldn't exclude trying other workflows / plugins as well - its about finding the right combination of tools for a particular project.
I’ve already spent huge money (huge for me) to buy Mixbus, but maybe later when I’ll repair my budget I’ll find your plugins very useful and worth buying as well.