Hi all,
I now have qsampler up and running along with Ardour etc..., and even if I say so myself, I'm coming along in leaps and bounds (if I ever actually finish a recording rather than getting sidetracked by yet another excellent feature, I may actually post some stuff up for others to hear).
I have now got into the habit of recording tracks in Ardour while linking to Hydrogen through Jack - and this arrangement works brilliantly for me, however, I cannot work out how to add effects/automation to the Hydrogen drums without first finishing everything and then recording the Hydrogen track into Ardour and THEN adding the effects and/or automation.
Is there a way to do this without having to embedd the drum track before hearing what it's going to sound like?
Adding Effects to Hydrogen
Moderators: MattKingUSA, khz
Re: Adding Effects to Hydrogen
not to my knowledge. Of course, it depends on what automation you are talking about. Could you be a bit more precise ?
The only thing I can think of is using ardour3 with MIDI tracks, send MIDI events to hydrogen (use it as a sampler only, not a sequencer, as hydrogen can also take MIDI events from another source). In this way, you will be able to add automation on the MIDI track that will be converted into MIDI events sent to hydrogen.
Suggestion to devs:
I would think the hydrogen devs should think about providing their software as a soft synth plugin (without the sequencing part) in LV2 format for example
So one could use it in ardour3 as an instrument plugin.
This is maybe too much to ask at the moment ...
But what I described with ardour3 is already possible with rosegarden: you sequence your MIDI tracks in rosegarden, and send the MIDI events to hydrogen.
The only thing I can think of is using ardour3 with MIDI tracks, send MIDI events to hydrogen (use it as a sampler only, not a sequencer, as hydrogen can also take MIDI events from another source). In this way, you will be able to add automation on the MIDI track that will be converted into MIDI events sent to hydrogen.
Suggestion to devs:
I would think the hydrogen devs should think about providing their software as a soft synth plugin (without the sequencing part) in LV2 format for example
So one could use it in ardour3 as an instrument plugin.This is maybe too much to ask at the moment ...
But what I described with ardour3 is already possible with rosegarden: you sequence your MIDI tracks in rosegarden, and send the MIDI events to hydrogen.
Re: Adding Effects to Hydrogen
Bascially the automation I mean is just pan and fader - mainly fader. I had a recording yesterday where I wanted it to fade out at the end - of course, I just added the automation (fader) to the master in Ardour, made it writable and then faded out at the end.
The drums via Hydrogen were still the same volume of course.
It's not a problem, it would just be nice to be able to do the whole lot at once, or maybe add a phaser or wah on certain drums on the fly. If I have to embedd it into Ardour, then so be it. It's a very small price to pay
The drums via Hydrogen were still the same volume of course.
It's not a problem, it would just be nice to be able to do the whole lot at once, or maybe add a phaser or wah on certain drums on the fly. If I have to embedd it into Ardour, then so be it. It's a very small price to pay
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roaldz
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Re: Adding Effects to Hydrogen
You can enable the "run plugins when recording" option in ardour, and just draw automation curves for plugins/faders/pans in the hydrogen track. You'd have to sync ardour and hydrogen to jack transport, because then you can count measures in ardour.
Re: Adding Effects to Hydrogen
this will only work if ardour provides the monitoring. If you do not want to record hydrogen beforehand and use hardware monitoring, use a bus. Connect hydrogen's output ports to the bus input, disconnect hydrogen from your system ports. Add an automation curve on the bus. I believe this will work but yes, you need to match hydrogen's timeline and ardour's timeline so your automation in ardour makes sense for hydrogen.
If you then decide to record hydrogen in ardour, not sure whether you can copy the entire automation curve from the bus to the track. Last time I wanted to do that, it was not implemented. Maybe it is in 2.8.
If you then decide to record hydrogen in ardour, not sure whether you can copy the entire automation curve from the bus to the track. Last time I wanted to do that, it was not implemented. Maybe it is in 2.8.
Re: Adding Effects to Hydrogen
Woah! I'm going to have re-read those posts very carefully.
Currently, Ardour and Hydrogen are synced through Jack, and I always set the tempo the same despite it seemingly making little difference to the recording.
I'm not sure what hardware monitoring is, but it sounds interesting.
In the meantime though, I'm quite happy to record everything I need whilst synching with Hydrogen, then at the last minute record a Hydrogen track to Arduour and then add the effects to the drums then.
Currently, Ardour and Hydrogen are synced through Jack, and I always set the tempo the same despite it seemingly making little difference to the recording.
I'm not sure what hardware monitoring is, but it sounds interesting.
In the meantime though, I'm quite happy to record everything I need whilst synching with Hydrogen, then at the last minute record a Hydrogen track to Arduour and then add the effects to the drums then.
Re: Adding Effects to Hydrogen
software monitoring vs hardware monitoring:
when you connect an audio source to a track input (or more if > mono), ardour considers doing the monitoring itself if you don't monitor the source audio from outside ardour. It has a global option that you can turn on and I believe it is on by default the very first time you create a session.
The thing to know is that IF you chose to have hardware monitoring outside ardour, the audio of the source will not reach the track fader. Only recorded material that is played back by ardour will reach the track fader. Now, IF you decided to have ardour doing the monitoring, the source audio will reach the track fader and you can apply effects in real time with plugins on the track.
So, let's see how this applies to hydrogen:
- you connect hydrogen's output to an ardour track.
- by doing so, you may have disconnected hydrogen's outputs from the system. If that's the case, you must have software monitoring (done by ardour) enabled to hear hydrogen. In this case, hydrogen's audio will go through the track fader to the master bus, etc.
- If you have "hardware does monitoring" in ardour, then you must have hydrogen's outputs connected to your system ports to hear something because ardour will not process the audio up to the track fader. You will only be able to visually monitor the audio that reaches the track if you arm the latter for recording. You will see that the visual volume metering in the track mixer strip will switch to "input". If you click on this little button (in the track mixer strip) and check "pre" or "post", you will see nothing. Hardware monitoring makes ardour not treat the audio at the track fader.
- I believe that if you instead connect hydrogen's outputs to a BUS in ardour, you will still hear it through ardour's master bus regardless of the monitoring type. I guess this is because busses are just simple audio routes, not like tracks. Tracks are special routes connected to a diskstream. They fill some different purpose than busses.
You can experiment a bit and try to understand these concepts a bit more. Once you get a good understanding, this becomes very useful knowledge. For example: I always use hardware monitoring because I tend to use hardware effects so I don't need to have ardour process the audio in realtime with plugins. This makes me use a rather large latency, which is safer for recording. I can always add plugins during playback, and mix the whole stuff like this. Any recorded material is latency compensated by ardour so it will align correctly. My hardware monitoring gives me virtually 0 latency since my guitar audio signal bypasses the whole CPU for monitoring purposes. That depends on the sound card you use. My RME HDSP card provides this monitoring possibility
when you connect an audio source to a track input (or more if > mono), ardour considers doing the monitoring itself if you don't monitor the source audio from outside ardour. It has a global option that you can turn on and I believe it is on by default the very first time you create a session.
The thing to know is that IF you chose to have hardware monitoring outside ardour, the audio of the source will not reach the track fader. Only recorded material that is played back by ardour will reach the track fader. Now, IF you decided to have ardour doing the monitoring, the source audio will reach the track fader and you can apply effects in real time with plugins on the track.
So, let's see how this applies to hydrogen:
- you connect hydrogen's output to an ardour track.
- by doing so, you may have disconnected hydrogen's outputs from the system. If that's the case, you must have software monitoring (done by ardour) enabled to hear hydrogen. In this case, hydrogen's audio will go through the track fader to the master bus, etc.
- If you have "hardware does monitoring" in ardour, then you must have hydrogen's outputs connected to your system ports to hear something because ardour will not process the audio up to the track fader. You will only be able to visually monitor the audio that reaches the track if you arm the latter for recording. You will see that the visual volume metering in the track mixer strip will switch to "input". If you click on this little button (in the track mixer strip) and check "pre" or "post", you will see nothing. Hardware monitoring makes ardour not treat the audio at the track fader.
- I believe that if you instead connect hydrogen's outputs to a BUS in ardour, you will still hear it through ardour's master bus regardless of the monitoring type. I guess this is because busses are just simple audio routes, not like tracks. Tracks are special routes connected to a diskstream. They fill some different purpose than busses.
You can experiment a bit and try to understand these concepts a bit more. Once you get a good understanding, this becomes very useful knowledge. For example: I always use hardware monitoring because I tend to use hardware effects so I don't need to have ardour process the audio in realtime with plugins. This makes me use a rather large latency, which is safer for recording. I can always add plugins during playback, and mix the whole stuff like this. Any recorded material is latency compensated by ardour so it will align correctly. My hardware monitoring gives me virtually 0 latency since my guitar audio signal bypasses the whole CPU for monitoring purposes. That depends on the sound card you use. My RME HDSP card provides this monitoring possibility