Sources of Light @ r11

Contents hide
  1. Gear
  2. Software
  3. Tracks
    1. Calling Out a Name
      1. Timing
      2. DAW stats
    2. Waiting for the Stars to Fall
      1. Timing
    3. Shine
      1. Timing
    4. Castles in the Sky
      1. Timing
    5. The Haunted House
      1. Timing
    6. Fair-weather Friend
      1. Timing
    7. Still Alive
      1. Timing
    8. Without You
      1. Timing

I recorded an album called Sources of Light, released in October 2024. I started recording it and finished . Here are some probably fairly boring details about the recording process, gear and music.

Gear

Software

For all recordings, I used Ardour v6 on Ubuntu Studio. Almost all of the production effects were from Calf Studio Gear plugins.

All guitar effects, pre-amps and modeling was from a Line 6 Go stomp box. I recorded directly into a Scarlett USB audio interface (no external cab). For acoustic guitars and vocals, I plugged the microphone directly into the interface's XLR input.

Minimal automated effects were used, except delay/reverb for vocal tracks, and a few weird things like the ring modulator at the end of The Haunted House, or the very first synth chord in Calling Out a Name. Fader automation was used extensively.

All rhythym/clean guitars were doubled, one panned hard left (90/10) and the other hard right (10/90). Lead vocals were also doubled in the same way. Acoustic guitars were also doubled and panned12. This hardcore doubling was a bit of an experiment. I think I liked it, even though it made recording take quite a bit longer.

To handle all the track doubling during the mixing phase, I created audio buses in Ardour and redirected the outputs of the doubled tracks to the bus, and then redirected the bus output to the master track. All automation was then only done on the buses; the doubled tracks were not touched except to set the panning. So there were a lot more tracks/buses to handle in Ardour than otherwise. Basically every instrument that I doubled would actually have three "tracks" in the DAW interface instead of just one. Which was obnoxious but I think it made a difference in the resultant mix. At least to me.

Drums were programmed using Hydrogen v1.1.1 with the FLAC GSCW-1 drumkit. I did very little to the drums except increasing the gain of the kick, snare and hi-hat. Otherwise I did absolutely nothing to them production-wise. Largely out of pure laziness. And also because over-produced drums annoy me.

In all cases I recorded all instruments, one at a time, from start to finish. Then the vocals, then I would do a rough mix, then program the drums, then finish mixing and any other post-production effects (that was pretty rare, though).

Tracks

Calling Out a Name

Timing

Instrument Start End
Electric guitars
Keyboards
Bass
Vocals
Drums/mixing

DAW stats

Waiting for the Stars to Fall

Timing

Instrument Start End
Electric guitars
Bass
Keyboards
Vocals
Mixing
Drums

Shine

Timing

Instrument Start End
Electric guitars
Bass
Keyboards
Vocals
Mixing
Drums

Castles in the Sky

Timing

Instrument Start End
Electric guitars
Bass
Keyboards
Mixing
Drums

The Haunted House

Timing

Instrument Start End
Electric guitars
Bass
Vocals
Mixing
Drums

Fair-weather Friend

Timing

Instrument Start End
Acoustic guitars
Electric guitars
Bass
Vocals
Mixing
Drums

Still Alive

Timing

Instrument Start End
Guitars/Keyboard/Bass
Vocals
Mixing
Drums

Without You

Timing

Instrument Start End
Electric guitars
Acoustic guitars
Bass
Keyboards
Vocals
Mixing
Drums
  1. The two other guitars in the acoustic guitar "trio" at the end of Without You were not doubled
  2. The acoustic guitar solo in Fair-weather Friend and subsequent leads were also not doubled
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