Today we layed down the last drumtracks for three songs and now the job is done for Pete! Lucky him! Now there's 14 songs with 16 drumtracks waiting to be sorted out.
Did some more experimenting for a low fi drumpart. This time did a stereo mic ambience recording with two Mesa Boogie 4x12 Rectifier cabs. Then a stereo ambience recording with doubletracking and using a bass + tubescreamer on full as a mic. It sounded really really weird, but just what I was looking for! :D
Now I'm going to start cleaning up the drumtracks, cutting out micbleed, fine tuning any overdubs, prepare a preliminary mix of the drums to record everything else with. Next up is Tuukkas guitar!
This is also the last week in our temporary practice flat, this week forward, Lunar Path is homeless, no place to practice. We've already been looking for a couple of months, but most practice flats for rent are either too fancy and way too expensive, or way too small and way too expensive :(
This sucks as we should start rehearsing the new material with Jesse. So if anybody has any tips or knowledge of some relatively cheap and safe storage, garage, practice flat or anything for rent around helsinki/uusimaa, please please contact us! My email is jonas@lunarpath.com
Almost any reasonably priced shed or hut over 15m2 will do, as long as there's a steady temperature and locks on the door. Best feature is if there's no known pyromaniacs in the area.
Yeppers... see you later, alligator.
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Monday, April 12, 2010
"What about this one?"
Layed down two tracks today. The second one was particulary hard, since it was a very complicated song that we haven't ever played together as a band. So it took twice the time it normally would, but it ended up great if I may say so myself!
Did some experimenting also. Connected a Mesa 4x12 rectifier cabs input into a mic preamp and used that as a microphone to record some low fi drums. Also used a piezo, taped to a half-empty Jack Daniels bottle to create this weird resonating microphone. Then connected my Schecter half-acoustic guitar to a Ibanez tubescreamer (knobs on full) -> morley wah and used that as a microphone. It ended up sounding really, really weird, but cool and just what I was looking for!
Then I recorded some percussion stuff on my crutches, the Jack Daniels bottle and the studio sofa.
Now there's only 3 songs left without drums and we're hoping to get them recorded tomorrow!
Can't wait to get this stuff out, It'll be really interesting to se how people will react to some of the new material.
There's a lot of weird time changes in some of these new songs. 5/4, 7/8, 7/4, 6/8, switching between straight and triplets etc. One song got a small polyrythmic sequence. And ofcourse the usual 4/4 but with an exotic rythm and the beat changing directions back and forth. Make me wonder what the hell I've been up to this last year when this kind of stuff emerges from the bottom of my imagination. But still, it's not math-metal or any of that typical technical prog showboating, the "prog" stuff just sounds kind of volatile, unpredictable and at times kind of "note-to-self-your-friends-are-getting-worried-about-you-so-act-normal"-feel.
In all I think it's going to be a very diverse record and hoping that you people will enjoy it. It's got a shitload of new stuff, A LOT of experimenting sound- and music-wise and the song themselves offer a rollercoaster ride of the whole emotional spectrum. The lyrics will also play a more important part in creating a central theme, rather than just slapping together a pretty basket of "oh baby"'s and "oh yeah yeah yeah"'s.
But better put a lid on it for now, so I don't sound like too much of an ass, building up too much expectations in one way or another.
It's going to be fun to release this and to hear what people say, can't wait!! :D
/J
Did some experimenting also. Connected a Mesa 4x12 rectifier cabs input into a mic preamp and used that as a microphone to record some low fi drums. Also used a piezo, taped to a half-empty Jack Daniels bottle to create this weird resonating microphone. Then connected my Schecter half-acoustic guitar to a Ibanez tubescreamer (knobs on full) -> morley wah and used that as a microphone. It ended up sounding really, really weird, but cool and just what I was looking for!
Then I recorded some percussion stuff on my crutches, the Jack Daniels bottle and the studio sofa.
Now there's only 3 songs left without drums and we're hoping to get them recorded tomorrow!
Can't wait to get this stuff out, It'll be really interesting to se how people will react to some of the new material.
There's a lot of weird time changes in some of these new songs. 5/4, 7/8, 7/4, 6/8, switching between straight and triplets etc. One song got a small polyrythmic sequence. And ofcourse the usual 4/4 but with an exotic rythm and the beat changing directions back and forth. Make me wonder what the hell I've been up to this last year when this kind of stuff emerges from the bottom of my imagination. But still, it's not math-metal or any of that typical technical prog showboating, the "prog" stuff just sounds kind of volatile, unpredictable and at times kind of "note-to-self-your-friends-are-getting-worried-about-you-so-act-normal"-feel.
In all I think it's going to be a very diverse record and hoping that you people will enjoy it. It's got a shitload of new stuff, A LOT of experimenting sound- and music-wise and the song themselves offer a rollercoaster ride of the whole emotional spectrum. The lyrics will also play a more important part in creating a central theme, rather than just slapping together a pretty basket of "oh baby"'s and "oh yeah yeah yeah"'s.
But better put a lid on it for now, so I don't sound like too much of an ass, building up too much expectations in one way or another.
It's going to be fun to release this and to hear what people say, can't wait!! :D
/J
Sunday, April 11, 2010
"No-no, play it like; babum bap bodobom swicssh pischh"
Three days behind, drumtracks to nine songs in the "can" so to speak.
The recordings have gone well, no technical problems or such so far. Had some problems with my right ear one day, but luckily the sounds were checked before and it didn't affect tracking. Besides, "Pet Sounds" was tracked and mixed in mono and with only one ear :P
It's been tough tho, really tiring. Long hours, about 8-10h per day of meticulous tracking, bad sleep, eating junk, sometimes forgetting to eat. Me going "Hmm... the fill that's between the second bridge and chorus, that first snare hit sounded a little weak, it wasn't muscular PAM but a piAMh, let's do it again" x 100. But in the end it's worth being a little anal in this stage. Rather that than realizing later you've passed some poor takes though that's going to take three-four hours to fix into a sort-of-ok take, or just redo the take and have it all over in 5 minutes. Or worse, pass a shitty take and in the mixing stage realize it's unfixable. But listening so intense is tough, when the day is done, your brains is just mush and you hardly know your own name.
Some songs have got last minute changes eventhough we've done a very extensive pre-production. But it's just some things that won't even come to mind when the song is fresh and you're working on it intensively. These things suddenly comes to mind when you've let the song grow on it's own for a while. Two tracks got improved so much that all of the drumpatterns got changed, and by that one songs status was improved from "possible bonus" to the same status as all the other songs. No song is ever 100% "done", if someone claims it is, then he/she's lying. But as long as you realize when it's done enough, it's good to let the song live, not to rush to the studio soon after the song is done. Depends on the genre of course.
Did some small experimenting yesterday. In one song, a drumpart is supposed to have a low-fi sound, so I taped a piezo microphone on a juicebox and used it as a mic to get a boxy, weird ambient sound. Then I plugged my half acoustic Schecter guitar into a mic preamp with the gain turned way up, turned the humbuckers and piezo on full on the guitar, and used it as a second mic to the juice box. It sounded really, really interesting. :)
But now there's only five songs left. We'll continue today and probably tomorrow. We're expecting to get all the drumtracks ready by tomorrow, as the pace have been so far about 3 songs per day.
Then I'll start to sort out and prepare the drumtracks. I always gate by hand, so there's a lot of work cleaning up the tracks. I've still got a cast on my foot, I might get rid of it in early May, so I'm trying to leave my own guitars until then. When I record guitars I want the freedom to be able to do it myself, to be able to concentrate and experiment with different amps, settings, effects, feedback stuff etc without someone breathing behind my neck.
When the drums are ready, the next thing would probably be Tuukkas guitar or Jesses bass. The only problem there is to find a place to record, as we can't continue in the same place as where the drums were recorded. I always want to record real amps, it's actually harder for me to find good sounds on POD;s, emulators, whatever etc. So normally, we've recorded guitars and bass on our practice flat, but now we don't have one :S
Three days behind, drumtracks to nine songs in the "can" so to speak.
The recordings have gone well, no technical problems or such so far. Had some problems with my right ear one day, but luckily the sounds were checked before and it didn't affect tracking. Besides, "Pet Sounds" was tracked and mixed in mono and with only one ear :P
It's been tough tho, really tiring. Long hours, about 8-10h per day of meticulous tracking, bad sleep, eating junk, sometimes forgetting to eat. Me going "Hmm... the fill that's between the second bridge and chorus, that first snare hit sounded a little weak, it wasn't muscular PAM but a piAMh, let's do it again" x 100. But in the end it's worth being a little anal in this stage. Rather that than realizing later you've passed some poor takes though that's going to take three-four hours to fix into a sort-of-ok take, or just redo the take and have it all over in 5 minutes. Or worse, pass a shitty take and in the mixing stage realize it's unfixable.
Some songs have got last minute changes eventhough we've done a very extensive pre-production. But it's just some things that won't even come to mind when the song is fresh and you're working on it intensively. These things suddenly comes to mind when you've let the song grow on it's own for a while. Two tracks got improved so much that all of the drumpatterns got changed, and by that one songs status was improved from "possible bonus" to the same status as all the other songs.
No song is ever 100% "done", if someone claims it that, then he/she's lying/in denial. But as long as you realize when it's done enough, it's good to let the song live, not to rush to the studio soon after the song is done. Depends on the genre of course.
Did some small sound experimenting yesterday. In one song, a drumpart is supposed to have a low-fi sound, so I taped a piezo microphone on a juicebox and used it as a mic to get a boxy, weird ambient sound. Then I plugged my half acoustic Schecter guitar into a mic preamp with the gain turned way up, turned the humbuckers and piezo on full on the guitar, and used it as a second mic to the juice box. It sounded really, really interesting. I'll probably do more of this stuff on one song that we'll record today or tomorrow :)
But now there's only five songs left. Decided to take today off, so we'll continue tomorrow. We're expecting to get all the drumtracks ready by tuesday, as the pace so far been around 3 songs per day.
Then I'll start to sort out and prepare the drumtracks. I always gate by hand, so there's a lot of work cleaning up the tracks. I've still got a cast on my foot, I might get rid of it in early May, so I'm trying to leave my own guitars until then. When I record guitars I want the freedom to be able to do it myself, to be able to concentrate and experiment with different amps, settings, effects, feedback stuff etc without someone breathing behind my neck.
When the drums are ready, the next thing would probably be Tuukkas guitar or Jesses bass...
Fräss-tätätätä-fräss-tätätätä-pischhh
The recordings have gone well, no technical problems or such so far. Had some problems with my right ear one day, but luckily the sounds were checked before and it didn't affect tracking. Besides, "Pet Sounds" was tracked and mixed in mono and with only one ear :P
It's been tough tho, really tiring. Long hours, about 8-10h per day of meticulous tracking, bad sleep, eating junk, sometimes forgetting to eat. Me going "Hmm... the fill that's between the second bridge and chorus, that first snare hit sounded a little weak, it wasn't muscular PAM but a piAMh, let's do it again" x 100. But in the end it's worth being a little anal in this stage. Rather that than realizing later you've passed some poor takes though that's going to take three-four hours to fix into a sort-of-ok take, or just redo the take and have it all over in 5 minutes. Or worse, pass a shitty take and in the mixing stage realize it's unfixable. But listening so intense is tough, when the day is done, your brains is just mush and you hardly know your own name.
Some songs have got last minute changes eventhough we've done a very extensive pre-production. But it's just some things that won't even come to mind when the song is fresh and you're working on it intensively. These things suddenly comes to mind when you've let the song grow on it's own for a while. Two tracks got improved so much that all of the drumpatterns got changed, and by that one songs status was improved from "possible bonus" to the same status as all the other songs. No song is ever 100% "done", if someone claims it is, then he/she's lying. But as long as you realize when it's done enough, it's good to let the song live, not to rush to the studio soon after the song is done. Depends on the genre of course.
Did some small experimenting yesterday. In one song, a drumpart is supposed to have a low-fi sound, so I taped a piezo microphone on a juicebox and used it as a mic to get a boxy, weird ambient sound. Then I plugged my half acoustic Schecter guitar into a mic preamp with the gain turned way up, turned the humbuckers and piezo on full on the guitar, and used it as a second mic to the juice box. It sounded really, really interesting. :)
But now there's only five songs left. We'll continue today and probably tomorrow. We're expecting to get all the drumtracks ready by tomorrow, as the pace have been so far about 3 songs per day.
Then I'll start to sort out and prepare the drumtracks. I always gate by hand, so there's a lot of work cleaning up the tracks. I've still got a cast on my foot, I might get rid of it in early May, so I'm trying to leave my own guitars until then. When I record guitars I want the freedom to be able to do it myself, to be able to concentrate and experiment with different amps, settings, effects, feedback stuff etc without someone breathing behind my neck.
When the drums are ready, the next thing would probably be Tuukkas guitar or Jesses bass. The only problem there is to find a place to record, as we can't continue in the same place as where the drums were recorded. I always want to record real amps, it's actually harder for me to find good sounds on POD;s, emulators, whatever etc. So normally, we've recorded guitars and bass on our practice flat, but now we don't have one :S
Three days behind, drumtracks to nine songs in the "can" so to speak.
The recordings have gone well, no technical problems or such so far. Had some problems with my right ear one day, but luckily the sounds were checked before and it didn't affect tracking. Besides, "Pet Sounds" was tracked and mixed in mono and with only one ear :P
It's been tough tho, really tiring. Long hours, about 8-10h per day of meticulous tracking, bad sleep, eating junk, sometimes forgetting to eat. Me going "Hmm... the fill that's between the second bridge and chorus, that first snare hit sounded a little weak, it wasn't muscular PAM but a piAMh, let's do it again" x 100. But in the end it's worth being a little anal in this stage. Rather that than realizing later you've passed some poor takes though that's going to take three-four hours to fix into a sort-of-ok take, or just redo the take and have it all over in 5 minutes. Or worse, pass a shitty take and in the mixing stage realize it's unfixable.
Some songs have got last minute changes eventhough we've done a very extensive pre-production. But it's just some things that won't even come to mind when the song is fresh and you're working on it intensively. These things suddenly comes to mind when you've let the song grow on it's own for a while. Two tracks got improved so much that all of the drumpatterns got changed, and by that one songs status was improved from "possible bonus" to the same status as all the other songs.
No song is ever 100% "done", if someone claims it that, then he/she's lying/in denial. But as long as you realize when it's done enough, it's good to let the song live, not to rush to the studio soon after the song is done. Depends on the genre of course.
Did some small sound experimenting yesterday. In one song, a drumpart is supposed to have a low-fi sound, so I taped a piezo microphone on a juicebox and used it as a mic to get a boxy, weird ambient sound. Then I plugged my half acoustic Schecter guitar into a mic preamp with the gain turned way up, turned the humbuckers and piezo on full on the guitar, and used it as a second mic to the juice box. It sounded really, really interesting. I'll probably do more of this stuff on one song that we'll record today or tomorrow :)
But now there's only five songs left. Decided to take today off, so we'll continue tomorrow. We're expecting to get all the drumtracks ready by tuesday, as the pace so far been around 3 songs per day.
Then I'll start to sort out and prepare the drumtracks. I always gate by hand, so there's a lot of work cleaning up the tracks. I've still got a cast on my foot, I might get rid of it in early May, so I'm trying to leave my own guitars until then. When I record guitars I want the freedom to be able to do it myself, to be able to concentrate and experiment with different amps, settings, effects, feedback stuff etc without someone breathing behind my neck.
When the drums are ready, the next thing would probably be Tuukkas guitar or Jesses bass...
Fräss-tätätätä-fräss-tätätätä-pischhh
Thursday, April 8, 2010
DEBUT ALBUM RECORDINGS KICKED OFF TODAY!
We've proud to announce that we have started to record our debut album! As usual, we're beginning with drums. Today was the first day at the studio, setting up Pete's drums, micing and soundchecking them. Tomorrow we'll start to record!
We're all very excited about this new album. It will be more metal, volatile, personal and stronger than anything we've ever done before. There's a whole lot of new stuff that we've been experimenting with, both soundwise and musically. The band has been really exited about the new stuff and can't wait to get it out there to everybody!
We'll record 14 songs of which 12-13 will end up on the album and as usual, Jonas will record and produce. The tracklist consists solely on all new material! More info as the project progresses, so check back! We'll also try to keep a journal in our blog about the recordings!
We're all very excited about this new album. It will be more metal, volatile, personal and stronger than anything we've ever done before. There's a whole lot of new stuff that we've been experimenting with, both soundwise and musically. The band has been really exited about the new stuff and can't wait to get it out there to everybody!
We'll record 14 songs of which 12-13 will end up on the album and as usual, Jonas will record and produce. The tracklist consists solely on all new material! More info as the project progresses, so check back! We'll also try to keep a journal in our blog about the recordings!
Finally the Phoenix will rise from the ashes
^ New album in the works!
YIHAA!
Aah, feels good to say that. Yes, we're finally got over the treshold and started to record our first debut album! I actually wrote a silmilar new story four months ago, put it aside and meant to release it during the first week of February. But then somebody tried to kill us and the other neighbour bands that we're practicing in the same building. I wish I could say "well, that sort of things happens", but hmm.. well, actually, it does.
So this project has actually been in the works for a while, as the preproductions were done last fall and the recordings were slated to begin in the first week of February this year. But as you may know, fate intervened a week before the recordings were scheduled to start. In the midst of practicing our new songs, a teenager on a hissy-fit tried to kill everybody in the building where our practice flat was, lit the first floor on fire and we had to save ourselves by jumping out the second floor window of our practice flat. Jonas broke his foot pretty badly because he already had a twisted ankle from before.
This meant we lost our rehersal space, our cheif recording engineer had a busted foot and shortly after the fire incident, our bass player left the group. Needless to say, all the plans for the record went to shits. As there wasn't much time to patch up our combuste plans, we decided to put it on hold and concentrate on the tours.
Now the phoenix has risen from the ashes. New bass player and today was the first day at the studio. A lot of the mics and the gear we record with was held in our old practice flat and were transported to different temporary storages after the fire incident. So we headed out with Pete to Porvoo and Espoo to fetch the stuff that we needed. Then we headed to the studio and started to set up, replace the skins on Petes drums and tune them. Tuned them half step lower than before.
It was kind of creepy as some of the gear reaked of ash and smoke. The smell was aweful and almost traumatic. Luckily the gear worked ok and it was smooth sailing technically. Had done extensive sound planning already last summer/fall, mic up accordingly, connect everything, fine tune the mic placements, sound check, fine tune placements some more until satisfactory. Got everything sounding like it should, very true to it's source, which is nice, I'm not a big fan of sample replacements, amp emulators or any that kind of crap.
The new gear I got for these sessions worked excellent and just like it should. Very happy with them!
Tomorrow we're beginning to record this behemoth. It will be excellent.
Now South Park and some food. Be excellent to each other. Peace.
/Jonas
YIHAA!
Aah, feels good to say that. Yes, we're finally got over the treshold and started to record our first debut album! I actually wrote a silmilar new story four months ago, put it aside and meant to release it during the first week of February. But then somebody tried to kill us and the other neighbour bands that we're practicing in the same building. I wish I could say "well, that sort of things happens", but hmm.. well, actually, it does.
So this project has actually been in the works for a while, as the preproductions were done last fall and the recordings were slated to begin in the first week of February this year. But as you may know, fate intervened a week before the recordings were scheduled to start. In the midst of practicing our new songs, a teenager on a hissy-fit tried to kill everybody in the building where our practice flat was, lit the first floor on fire and we had to save ourselves by jumping out the second floor window of our practice flat. Jonas broke his foot pretty badly because he already had a twisted ankle from before.
This meant we lost our rehersal space, our cheif recording engineer had a busted foot and shortly after the fire incident, our bass player left the group. Needless to say, all the plans for the record went to shits. As there wasn't much time to patch up our combuste plans, we decided to put it on hold and concentrate on the tours.
Now the phoenix has risen from the ashes. New bass player and today was the first day at the studio. A lot of the mics and the gear we record with was held in our old practice flat and were transported to different temporary storages after the fire incident. So we headed out with Pete to Porvoo and Espoo to fetch the stuff that we needed. Then we headed to the studio and started to set up, replace the skins on Petes drums and tune them. Tuned them half step lower than before.
It was kind of creepy as some of the gear reaked of ash and smoke. The smell was aweful and almost traumatic. Luckily the gear worked ok and it was smooth sailing technically. Had done extensive sound planning already last summer/fall, mic up accordingly, connect everything, fine tune the mic placements, sound check, fine tune placements some more until satisfactory. Got everything sounding like it should, very true to it's source, which is nice, I'm not a big fan of sample replacements, amp emulators or any that kind of crap.
The new gear I got for these sessions worked excellent and just like it should. Very happy with them!
Tomorrow we're beginning to record this behemoth. It will be excellent.
Now South Park and some food. Be excellent to each other. Peace.
/Jonas
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