Most important when mixing is your ears, though sometimes a spectrum analyzer can be to some help when trying to separate instruments. Not only is JAMin a great mastering tool but it’s also good for analysing the frequencies of your tracks.
With Ardour the fastest way of getting it to work is by connecting it to the master bus.
Connect ardour master/outs to jamin In_L/R.
Connect jamin out_L/R to system playback_1/2.
Disconnect ardour master/outs from system playback_1/2 to avoid duplicate output of the sound.
Once connected you can solo one or more tracks to see how they blend.
I’ve created some presets of the effects I usually use on vocal in Ardour, distributing them here as screenshots. Presets aren’t something that should be treated as perfect settings for your needs but could be a place to start. As the saturation is highly dependent on the signal level of your tracks, adjustment of treshold for compressor and blend/dry/wet for reverb/delay effects is the first move to be carried out.
To get a reference to the processed examples, first take a look at the raw unedited vocal track.
SC4 mono: Vocals with presence
I wouldn’t have thought of using this high ratio of compression on a vocal track. But, by letting the attack off a bit, allowing the early amplitude peak to pass trough uncompressed it actually keeps some of the natural sound.
SC4 mono: Light compression
These settings gives more dynamic sounding vocals compared to the earlier preset. I’m adjusting the treshold only to touch the loudest parts of the track, leaving the main part unaffected.
Delayorama: Short Vocal Delay
The delay effect can be used as a trick to add some fatness to the vocals. The delay range should be set to somewhere between 0,08 – 0,15 (s) and the saturation of the effect should barely be hearable in the mix.
