Hello Ardour forums! I’ve been a proud Ardour user for 2-3 years now.
My band, Antibubbles, just recorded a 4-song EP for FREE internet consumption, and I did all the mixing, etc. in Ardour.
We’re a synthesizer-driven power pop band from Raleigh, NC.
More on us here: www.antibubbles.com
The new EP is called Catawampus.
You can stream or download the entire thing for free! It asks for a donation amount - please feel free to donate if you like what you hear, but it’ll also take $0 as an acceptable amount
We recorded all the parts separately - drums, vocals and guitars were all recorded using a Zoom H2. Bass and synth were recorded direct-in.
I used a ton of Ardour plugins! Lots of TAP and Calf plug-ins, including compression, EQ, reverb and delay effects, the guitar distortion is the Amp V plug-in + TAP EQ.
I’m going to give you the benefit of an honest critique, the same as if I were analysing my own track. This means that I’m going to focus more on what’s wrong than what’s right – really, it’s just that I’m in mixing mode and am on the lookout for what’s wrong (and skimming over what I shouldn’t touch).
Dynamic contrast. Certainly, it’s not too a big factor for this style of music. But here it IS a biggie. The drums and rhythm guitar are dynamically flat, making it hard to keep interest. The drums are super busy, and since there’s no contrast, no beat emerges: lost ‘hook’ opportunity. The guitar is a spastic one-tone drone that doesn’t so much pop. The tracks would imo hit harder with more synthesizer to hold the bottom end and the guitar used more occasionally as sort of a spotlight. [Edit: It totally works on “Our Capsule” though. Love the texture there.]
The synth has some pretty sweet bits. It’s the money here. The way the synth is used as well as the doubling of male-female vocals give it a Rentals vibe.
You guys know how to play your instruments about 10 times better than I play.
antibubbles and thisisquitealongname: nice synthy stuff both of you! Love this kind of stuff (and probably gonna rip off some sounds as I’m working on an album in this vein as we speak
Thisisquitealongname: tunes are groovy, but your website is incredibly hard to read (not that I have the best eyes)
