Sunday 30.11.2008
Ari was sick again, so Sami had to work a little harder today. OP had wrote some great lyrics to one song. We started trying out OP's arragement and it worked like Ari's 4wheel drive :) Ville joined us and we got his approval. One more song was still without arragements, so we started working with it. We all had lots of great ideas and it didn't took long to finish the song. Our "to-do" list is still pretty long, but at least we have 90% of the lyrics and arragements ready. We need to get everything done by 17.12. because the mastering is booked 18.12. No problem! Who needs sleep anyway...
maanantai 1. joulukuuta 2008
Technical Notes for Vocals
For those who might be interested, we are using the following gear for vocals:
- Shure SM7B
- TL Audio 5050 Ivory II (compressor on, fast attack/release, GR 1-4 db)
- RME ADI-8 Pro
Ari's Diary
Ok, so I got sick during/after the "mini tour" we had with OG/PP. It started on sunday on our way from Oulu to Helsinki. My voice didn't work at all and I had a terrible cough that kept me awake about 5 nights in a row... So thats why I had to keep my mouth shut for a week and hope that my voice would get better.
So far I have done three songs. I was not so satisfied with the sound I had on one of the days. Anyway, I have decided that on this album and I should have a little "punk attitude" on my vocals. The most important thing is that the emotion is right and my head explodes every time I open my mouth.
Thursday 20.11.2008
I had a long day before going to the studio. I woke up at 05.45, woke up the kids, make some breakfast, went to the basement to do some pushups and exercise my abdominal muscles. After that I drove the kids to school and kindergarden, drove to work and finally after work drove to the studio at 17.30. I managed to take some chiken nuggets with me so I ate them in a hurry before singing and first it felt like the nuggets are coming straight out of my ass when I started the work.
Anyway, we had a great production team today. There were Santeri, OP, Riku and our new drummer "Elvis" (name changed).
Everybody had great ideas about the vocal arragements and I had a good drive also. This was the first time I had the "luxury" to sing my own lyrics on one song :) After five hours of straight screaming and 1,5 litres of Pepsi (no Freeway Cola today, what a bum) we had 3 songs done. The songs that we did were Overcrowded, UFO and Core. Only one song got me frustrated but I managed to score that fucker down. I have been lazy with the videocam so no videos for this day sorry. I promise to do something for the next studio diary entry.
Monday 24.11.2008
Winter is here, luckily my Suburbans 4wheel drive works fine :)
I had a great weekend with my family. On saturday we went to Flamingo and swimmed our asses of. The snow storm hit Kivistö sunday and didn't stop unting this morning. My two boys got sick so I stayed with them the whole day and did some work from home. It should be easy to sing some Dauntless stuff at 17.00 but usually when I'm feeling great it's not going to work at all.
The night went fine though we did only one song (work title Gojira) and listened through all the songs we had done and fixed some things. Santeri was recording and producing. The other guys arrived to the studion sometime after 20.00. The trains were stuck etc... I was home again at 22.30.
Tuesday 25.11.2008
I had quite atrocious day at the office today. I also heard who's the new singer of Amoral. I dont know what to say. It's interesting to hear the new Amoral songs for sure!
I also checked Norther's new video clips from their Canadian tour and almost vomited on myself because the videos were so fucking abortive. Well, thanks anyway. I arrived to the the studio at 17.30 and there was no one around. After waiting a while I got a call from Sami who told me that it will take an hour when he gets there and the reason was once again the fucking blizzard of oz. So, I waited and decided to eat my lunch which was tunafish and gottage cheese. This is on tape too, whoa! It's so interesting I know ;)
Finally when Sami, OP and Riku got to the studio with the keys we started to fix some parts and Santeri had done a few new lines to UFO, so I did those first. After that we listened song by song everything once again and fixed quite a lot of Sami's vocals and I fixed my own parts that needed more force or better pronunciation. Now I'm home again at 23.30 and I'm once again eating tuna and gottage cheese. I feel tired and think that we didn't do anything today but when you think it over we actually had a quite nice day at the "office" once again. The next recording day is sunday and there's only two songs left without vocals. It will be harder because we don't have all the lyrics and arragements for them. Our producer Ville is finally back from Moonsorrow's Canadian tour and will very likely join us again.
Videos
So far I have done three songs. I was not so satisfied with the sound I had on one of the days. Anyway, I have decided that on this album and I should have a little "punk attitude" on my vocals. The most important thing is that the emotion is right and my head explodes every time I open my mouth.
Thursday 20.11.2008
I had a long day before going to the studio. I woke up at 05.45, woke up the kids, make some breakfast, went to the basement to do some pushups and exercise my abdominal muscles. After that I drove the kids to school and kindergarden, drove to work and finally after work drove to the studio at 17.30. I managed to take some chiken nuggets with me so I ate them in a hurry before singing and first it felt like the nuggets are coming straight out of my ass when I started the work.
Anyway, we had a great production team today. There were Santeri, OP, Riku and our new drummer "Elvis" (name changed).
Everybody had great ideas about the vocal arragements and I had a good drive also. This was the first time I had the "luxury" to sing my own lyrics on one song :) After five hours of straight screaming and 1,5 litres of Pepsi (no Freeway Cola today, what a bum) we had 3 songs done. The songs that we did were Overcrowded, UFO and Core. Only one song got me frustrated but I managed to score that fucker down. I have been lazy with the videocam so no videos for this day sorry. I promise to do something for the next studio diary entry.
Monday 24.11.2008
Winter is here, luckily my Suburbans 4wheel drive works fine :)
I had a great weekend with my family. On saturday we went to Flamingo and swimmed our asses of. The snow storm hit Kivistö sunday and didn't stop unting this morning. My two boys got sick so I stayed with them the whole day and did some work from home. It should be easy to sing some Dauntless stuff at 17.00 but usually when I'm feeling great it's not going to work at all.
The night went fine though we did only one song (work title Gojira) and listened through all the songs we had done and fixed some things. Santeri was recording and producing. The other guys arrived to the studion sometime after 20.00. The trains were stuck etc... I was home again at 22.30.
Tuesday 25.11.2008
I had quite atrocious day at the office today. I also heard who's the new singer of Amoral. I dont know what to say. It's interesting to hear the new Amoral songs for sure!
I also checked Norther's new video clips from their Canadian tour and almost vomited on myself because the videos were so fucking abortive. Well, thanks anyway. I arrived to the the studio at 17.30 and there was no one around. After waiting a while I got a call from Sami who told me that it will take an hour when he gets there and the reason was once again the fucking blizzard of oz. So, I waited and decided to eat my lunch which was tunafish and gottage cheese. This is on tape too, whoa! It's so interesting I know ;)
Finally when Sami, OP and Riku got to the studio with the keys we started to fix some parts and Santeri had done a few new lines to UFO, so I did those first. After that we listened song by song everything once again and fixed quite a lot of Sami's vocals and I fixed my own parts that needed more force or better pronunciation. Now I'm home again at 23.30 and I'm once again eating tuna and gottage cheese. I feel tired and think that we didn't do anything today but when you think it over we actually had a quite nice day at the "office" once again. The next recording day is sunday and there's only two songs left without vocals. It will be harder because we don't have all the lyrics and arragements for them. Our producer Ville is finally back from Moonsorrow's Canadian tour and will very likely join us again.
Videos
torstai 20. marraskuuta 2008
Bass Re-Amping
Friday 14.11.2008
We gathered some bass related gear (thanks Siuhu!) and started to search for the ultimate sound. We used Machine Head's "The Blackening" as our loose reference, because I happen to have one of the bass tracks and it sounded great. We ended up using the following gear:
We also tried these pedals instead of Ibanez: Boss ODB-3 and Digitech Bass Driver. It was not hard to choose the Ibanez, because it had the character we were looking for. I would have prefered a 4x10" cabinet (the lows are tighter), but it was not available at this point. I will split the signal anyway into DI + amp, so it's not really a problem.
The microphone choice wasn't very hard either. We tried Sennheiser E602 first, but it cut way too much mids. AKG was a clear winner this time. It didn't took very long to find a great sound, because we didn't have too much gear to try out. We wrote some lyrics while re-amping the sound. Next thing to do is to record Ari's vocals. At some point we need to re-amp the guitars, but it's not possible yet.
We gathered some bass related gear (thanks Siuhu!) and started to search for the ultimate sound. We used Machine Head's "The Blackening" as our loose reference, because I happen to have one of the bass tracks and it sounded great. We ended up using the following gear:
- RME Fireface 800 out
- Little Labs Redeye (re-amp box)
- Ibanez PD7 Distortion
- Hartke HA5500
- Hartke 115TP (15")
- AKG D112
- MS Audiotron Mic Pre
- FME Fireface 800 input
We also tried these pedals instead of Ibanez: Boss ODB-3 and Digitech Bass Driver. It was not hard to choose the Ibanez, because it had the character we were looking for. I would have prefered a 4x10" cabinet (the lows are tighter), but it was not available at this point. I will split the signal anyway into DI + amp, so it's not really a problem.
The microphone choice wasn't very hard either. We tried Sennheiser E602 first, but it cut way too much mids. AKG was a clear winner this time. It didn't took very long to find a great sound, because we didn't have too much gear to try out. We wrote some lyrics while re-amping the sound. Next thing to do is to record Ari's vocals. At some point we need to re-amp the guitars, but it's not possible yet.
perjantai 14. marraskuuta 2008
Vocal Recording Pt 2
Friday 7.11.2008
We had a in day off in the middle of our Kuopio and Oulu shows, so we decided to go to cottage in Mikkeli and record some vocals. It was not a very productive day because cottage + sauna = alcohol. We got some new lyrics and arragements done, so it was still more useful than going back to Helsinki.
We had a in day off in the middle of our Kuopio and Oulu shows, so we decided to go to cottage in Mikkeli and record some vocals. It was not a very productive day because cottage + sauna = alcohol. We got some new lyrics and arragements done, so it was still more useful than going back to Helsinki.
Vocal Recording Pt 3
Tuesday 11.11.2008
Back at the studio. Ari is sick, so Sami did his vocal parts for three songs. The vocals sounded really good! Aggressive and melodic at the same time. Great stuff! Hopefully Ari will get his voice back next week. Most guitar tracks are still missing + lyrics & arragements for three songs. We are going to re-amp the bass on friday.
Back at the studio. Ari is sick, so Sami did his vocal parts for three songs. The vocals sounded really good! Aggressive and melodic at the same time. Great stuff! Hopefully Ari will get his voice back next week. Most guitar tracks are still missing + lyrics & arragements for three songs. We are going to re-amp the bass on friday.
maanantai 3. marraskuuta 2008
Vocal Recording Pt 1
Sunday 2.11.2008
The situation is currently like this:
We ate some pizza and Sorvali had to leave after that. We still had plenty of time left, so we decided to try out some vocal arragements with real lyrics. We got something done but most part it was pretty frustrating. We called it a day and I went home and did a rough mix for the possible guest vocalist.
The situation is currently like this:
- Riku's needs to record most of his guitar parts.
- We have done almost all the lyrics but we know only 40 % what goes where.
- Half of the vocal arragements are still unclear.
We ate some pizza and Sorvali had to leave after that. We still had plenty of time left, so we decided to try out some vocal arragements with real lyrics. We got something done but most part it was pretty frustrating. We called it a day and I went home and did a rough mix for the possible guest vocalist.
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