08.01.2009 : STUDIO DIARY PART IV
Some vocals!! (1.12.2008)
Right, as soon as all guitars and bass were canned, we began with the biggest project, aka vocals! Jussi has been working on synths when ever he has the time and it seems that he'll soon be finished with that (Jussi??).. We started with a song that I felt would be the easiest, so that there'd be no major setbacks right upfront and make me feel that it's all going shit-faced. After all, I'd last sung at a gig (21.11.08).
Oh yeah, this time the melodies were left open on purpose. Well, I had a basic outline for them, but I left some "air" to them for the studio. Last time with "Sleep" we did the pre-production a bit too well, so there wasn't too much room to play in the studio. I needed to have an element of freshness in the guitars and especially the vocals, so that if I came up with something cool during recording, it would surprise me after I'd forgotten all about it! So I took a calculated risk and left it all up to the "feel".
Well, so much for excuses and on to the business at hand. Of course this way it made everything a bit more exciting and stressful; is it gonna work, will I sound like shit (again)? Listening back to yourself is the worst there is (inot counting watching yourself, he). But things rolled on nicely, mood was great and my damn voice seemed to work! I have less than ten rehearsals behind me with most of these songs. Nothing to it, but the best first day ever in studio! My singing was relaxed and for the first time I was in a good mood from it! Now this is something to be a bit proud of, dammit!
- Niko
Ok, so as mentioned I'm doing synths as and when I have the time. Very little as it turns out. Some songs are just .. I don't know.. difficult, that I have a hard time coming up with anything even half decent. So we came to the conclusion that maybe they don't really need that much synths in there? Anyhow, once again I got sounds out of whatever I could lay my hands on. I would have liked to use my analog synths more, but, alas, I found out that most of them are broken! So that's 3 synths down during this session.. (we always break something during a recording session). Crap. Next challenge for me is to try to learn what I played and how to apply that to live gigs! (Gear used: Korg Triton Extreme, Roland XV-5050, Clavia Nord Electro II, Clavia Nord Lead 2x, Roland SH-2000, Korg Wavestation EX, Yamaha AN1x, Akai SG01v, MAM MB3.. see if you can pick them ;)
Also, despite some ugly rumours flying around that we're sitting on our hands and doing nothing with the studio itself, let me assure you that we're doing all we can with the time we have. Which is not much, but dammit, it's still something! We got a new desk! Whee! A Toft ATB24 with some very nice EQs, let me tell ya.. And a new AD/DA converter, Lynx Aurora 8. (Is anyone even remotely interested in this??) This should, in theory, improve sounds by.. er.. lots. Come mixingin time, I can use some outboard FX and comps and all for mixing. I'm going to go for a "hybrid" solution here, ie. using plug-ins inside the computer and outboard for the main stuff. We'll see how that turns out...
- Jussi
More success!
We continued as with the other instruments, which means that we had 3-4 hours of active time in the studio after work. The mood was great so if I remember right, we got something like 4 songs down in the first 4 days. One day of rest in between the sessions and then on weekends we could do mostly full days, except on saturdays since Jussi has to work (because it's "such an importany day for business" or somesuch nonsense..). But after 3 o'clock we were rolling once again. On sundays we have the day all to ourselves. I left all the more difficult songs or the ones that I wasn't sure of the melodies for sundays.
- Niko
There's gotta be a shitty day there somewhere?!
Vocals began on the first week of December and we tried to maintain a regimen of two days of singing, a day of rest, two days singing and so on. Of course there were all kinds of "christmassy" things going on so one day off could suddenly be two days off etc. But the basic idea was that despite our deadline, we won't rush it and we're gonna just "feel it"...
I think it was on the third week of December and things were already hectic with preparations and obligations and all that crap. It gets a bit tiring with this hectic schedule of working first for 8 hours, then straight to the studio to work for some hours and going back home in the wee hours... repeat this for a few days in a row and you get the picture. (You're tired?? - Jussi) And remember that Christmas is coming. It was friday and I was already tired and pissed off and .. well, you can imagine that everything was just FUBAR. Nothing worked and I mean nothing. The end result: go back home, get some sleep and try again next day.
And what a difference a day makes! Or can you really tell when it's a sad song and the engineer is crying... After this, things went smoothly. My voice works and the mood is there. As I'm writing this diary, Christmas hooplah is over for this year and we're well on our way with the backing vocals. All I can say is that for the very first time I'm satisfied with my singing.
- Niko
Some facts about the backing vocals!
A few guest vocalists popped in the studio during the sessions to sing backing vocals. Once again Heidi did her parts so damn good that we were left stunned! Rainer growled and Tuple howled their (and our) heads off. A very big thank you for you guys as well! We salute you! It's time for the rest of the backing vocals, some synths, misc things, mixing and mastering (nothing to it, then! - Jussi).
Hold on to your butts, it's gonna get bruised! har har...
- Niko
FROM THE ARCHIVES:
09.12.2008: STUDIO DIARY 2008 PART III
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
03.12.2008: STUDIO DIARY 2008 PART II
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
07.11.2008: Studio Diary 2008 Part I
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24.05.2008: IN EUROPE PART 5
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
13.05.2008: In Europe part 4
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
02.05.2008: In Europe part 3
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28.04.2008: In Europe part 2
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
25.04.2008: In Europe!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.12.2007: A look back into the year 2007
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.12.2007: Katsaus menneeseen vuoteen 2007
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21.08.2007: Studiodiary part 4
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20.08.2007: Studiopäiväkirja osa 4
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28.07.2007: Studiodiary part 3
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28.07.2007: Studiopäiväkirja osa 3
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
26.04.2007: Studiopäiväkirja osa 2
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
26.04.2007: Studiodiary part 2
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20.04.2007: Studiodiary part 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17.04.2007: Studiopäiväkirja osa 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
09.04.2007: Gig experiences from the drummer's point of view
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15.03.2007: Keikkafiiliksiä rumpalin näkökulmasta
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22.01.2007: A Few reviews! (Finnish) / Muutama levyarvostelu
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19.01.2007: Studio diary! / Studiopäiväkirja
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19.01.2007: First entry! / Ensimmäinen merkintä!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some vocals!! (1.12.2008)
Right, as soon as all guitars and bass were canned, we began with the biggest project, aka vocals! Jussi has been working on synths when ever he has the time and it seems that he'll soon be finished with that (Jussi??).. We started with a song that I felt would be the easiest, so that there'd be no major setbacks right upfront and make me feel that it's all going shit-faced. After all, I'd last sung at a gig (21.11.08).
Oh yeah, this time the melodies were left open on purpose. Well, I had a basic outline for them, but I left some "air" to them for the studio. Last time with "Sleep" we did the pre-production a bit too well, so there wasn't too much room to play in the studio. I needed to have an element of freshness in the guitars and especially the vocals, so that if I came up with something cool during recording, it would surprise me after I'd forgotten all about it! So I took a calculated risk and left it all up to the "feel".
Well, so much for excuses and on to the business at hand. Of course this way it made everything a bit more exciting and stressful; is it gonna work, will I sound like shit (again)? Listening back to yourself is the worst there is (inot counting watching yourself, he). But things rolled on nicely, mood was great and my damn voice seemed to work! I have less than ten rehearsals behind me with most of these songs. Nothing to it, but the best first day ever in studio! My singing was relaxed and for the first time I was in a good mood from it! Now this is something to be a bit proud of, dammit!
- Niko
Ok, so as mentioned I'm doing synths as and when I have the time. Very little as it turns out. Some songs are just .. I don't know.. difficult, that I have a hard time coming up with anything even half decent. So we came to the conclusion that maybe they don't really need that much synths in there? Anyhow, once again I got sounds out of whatever I could lay my hands on. I would have liked to use my analog synths more, but, alas, I found out that most of them are broken! So that's 3 synths down during this session.. (we always break something during a recording session). Crap. Next challenge for me is to try to learn what I played and how to apply that to live gigs! (Gear used: Korg Triton Extreme, Roland XV-5050, Clavia Nord Electro II, Clavia Nord Lead 2x, Roland SH-2000, Korg Wavestation EX, Yamaha AN1x, Akai SG01v, MAM MB3.. see if you can pick them ;)
Also, despite some ugly rumours flying around that we're sitting on our hands and doing nothing with the studio itself, let me assure you that we're doing all we can with the time we have. Which is not much, but dammit, it's still something! We got a new desk! Whee! A Toft ATB24 with some very nice EQs, let me tell ya.. And a new AD/DA converter, Lynx Aurora 8. (Is anyone even remotely interested in this??) This should, in theory, improve sounds by.. er.. lots. Come mixingin time, I can use some outboard FX and comps and all for mixing. I'm going to go for a "hybrid" solution here, ie. using plug-ins inside the computer and outboard for the main stuff. We'll see how that turns out...
- Jussi
More success!
We continued as with the other instruments, which means that we had 3-4 hours of active time in the studio after work. The mood was great so if I remember right, we got something like 4 songs down in the first 4 days. One day of rest in between the sessions and then on weekends we could do mostly full days, except on saturdays since Jussi has to work (because it's "such an importany day for business" or somesuch nonsense..). But after 3 o'clock we were rolling once again. On sundays we have the day all to ourselves. I left all the more difficult songs or the ones that I wasn't sure of the melodies for sundays.
- Niko
There's gotta be a shitty day there somewhere?!
Vocals began on the first week of December and we tried to maintain a regimen of two days of singing, a day of rest, two days singing and so on. Of course there were all kinds of "christmassy" things going on so one day off could suddenly be two days off etc. But the basic idea was that despite our deadline, we won't rush it and we're gonna just "feel it"...
I think it was on the third week of December and things were already hectic with preparations and obligations and all that crap. It gets a bit tiring with this hectic schedule of working first for 8 hours, then straight to the studio to work for some hours and going back home in the wee hours... repeat this for a few days in a row and you get the picture. (You're tired?? - Jussi) And remember that Christmas is coming. It was friday and I was already tired and pissed off and .. well, you can imagine that everything was just FUBAR. Nothing worked and I mean nothing. The end result: go back home, get some sleep and try again next day.
And what a difference a day makes! Or can you really tell when it's a sad song and the engineer is crying... After this, things went smoothly. My voice works and the mood is there. As I'm writing this diary, Christmas hooplah is over for this year and we're well on our way with the backing vocals. All I can say is that for the very first time I'm satisfied with my singing.
- Niko
Some facts about the backing vocals!
A few guest vocalists popped in the studio during the sessions to sing backing vocals. Once again Heidi did her parts so damn good that we were left stunned! Rainer growled and Tuple howled their (and our) heads off. A very big thank you for you guys as well! We salute you! It's time for the rest of the backing vocals, some synths, misc things, mixing and mastering (nothing to it, then! - Jussi).
Hold on to your butts, it's gonna get bruised! har har...
- Niko
FROM THE ARCHIVES:
09.12.2008: STUDIO DIARY 2008 PART III
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
03.12.2008: STUDIO DIARY 2008 PART II
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
07.11.2008: Studio Diary 2008 Part I
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
24.05.2008: IN EUROPE PART 5
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
13.05.2008: In Europe part 4
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
02.05.2008: In Europe part 3
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28.04.2008: In Europe part 2
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
25.04.2008: In Europe!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.12.2007: A look back into the year 2007
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
14.12.2007: Katsaus menneeseen vuoteen 2007
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21.08.2007: Studiodiary part 4
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20.08.2007: Studiopäiväkirja osa 4
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28.07.2007: Studiodiary part 3
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
28.07.2007: Studiopäiväkirja osa 3
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
26.04.2007: Studiopäiväkirja osa 2
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
26.04.2007: Studiodiary part 2
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
20.04.2007: Studiodiary part 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
17.04.2007: Studiopäiväkirja osa 1
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
09.04.2007: Gig experiences from the drummer's point of view
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
15.03.2007: Keikkafiiliksiä rumpalin näkökulmasta
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22.01.2007: A Few reviews! (Finnish) / Muutama levyarvostelu
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19.01.2007: Studio diary! / Studiopäiväkirja
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19.01.2007: First entry! / Ensimmäinen merkintä!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
