Recording "Something" with Ardour (Ubuntu Studio)

Ok, digital multi-track recording has never really been my interest. However, stumbling over Ubuntu Studio and thus Ardour with friends woke my curiosity. So I set out to record a cover version of one of my favourite songs, “Something”. Here’s the result: http://tinyurl.com/3npyykg

Equipment?

Ubuntu Studio 10.10 on an older 32bit laptop

Input: Xion USB Recorder (originally made for recording tape/lp to computer, but works just as well using the earplug output from my bass/guitar amplifier)

Acoustic Guitar: USB microphone from a PS2

Drums: Hydrogen Drum machine
Organ/Synth: ZynAddSubFX (using the laptop keyboard to play, not too easy)

Effects reverb + phaser using “Calf plugin for Jack”.

Since this is my first try with DAW, it took some time to understand how to get things working. But I must say, I am very impressed with Ardour, Jack and the other programs. Once I got the hang of how to put things together, it was extremely easy.

Also it is a very - ah - revealing - experience to record myself…

Thanks for a great product!!!

This is great for a first time. Did you use a midi file of the actual song for the drumtracks, or program them by hand?

I hand programmed the drums. They started out rather more simple, but as time went I couldn’t resist adding more and more details. And being a Ringo drum-style fan I couldn’t resist… even to the point of making the distinct “reverse fill” (i.e. from low/mid/hi-tom/snare drum) in the end… Oh what fun I’ve had :slight_smile:

I also looked at YouTube, there’s a couple of examples where a real drummer shows how to play the drums for this song. That helped a lot getting things down into Hydrogen.