Freaky Friday!

Hi y'all!

I decided to giva away a Friday treat... Two soundclips from the song "Former Member Of A Society". It's not completely finished yet, still have some backing vocals to do and it is only a rough mix, but what the heck!


Soundclip 1

Soundclip 2



I also wanted to show you my edit window for the song "universal Human" - and this is before we tracked vocals... Just for you diehard ProTools fans... Looks really cool, don't you think?

Well, have a nice weekend!

Cheers!

/ Airbag

Leadvocals finally done!

Last weekend we managed to get the leadvox on tape (disc...) We started out Friday night by going through the lyrics and vocal arrangements. We also had to finish the lyrics for "Former Member Of (A) Society" - (not quite sure yet if the A is going to last...) - We wrote the 3rd verse and then Henrik came up with this insane, but brilliant idea for the last verse, - Why not add some growling here?.
- Ehhh, what? Grrrowl? Hell yeah!
It all ended up much cooler in the end (Jonathan Davis style), but you will hear when it´s done!

We started out Saturday with some coffee and semla (Swedish delicatesse...) Then we began to soundcheck the Röde Classic. It went straight into my Focusrite Octopre, using compression and high-pass filter. Then via Lightpipe to Digi 002R. K.I.S.S. as my old sound teacher used to say...(keep it simple, stupid) As Henrik was a bit sore in his throat he had already been warming up his vocalcords with some Famous Grouse and honeywater. This worked surprisingly well!



We recorded "Hollow Soul" and then moved on to "Universal Human"... By this time our loved ones had returned from their walk, and my daughter Hilda 2,5 years old was very curious about what we were up to... It was time for lunch! Sofia and Sara made a marvellous chicken salad and we got started on some beer... We also agreed that we (me and Henrik) would make the dinner, tacos by the way... Well we then finished U H and moved on to Former Member.... Henrik is singing the highest note of his vocal range in the chorus of this song I think. It took a while to nail it, but he did a great job!


We both were happy with the result so far and now it´s up to me to record some harmonies. I will also be finishing the synths and guitars.
To the left - Hilda, trying to tweak some sounds...

Also featured in the pics is our newest member, Elias (Henrik and Sara's son), 2 months old. He proved to have some vocal ability at the end of the night, just like his father... Here he is sitting in Sofias' lap just chillin´!

I will post a clip or two from this session sometime this week, so stay tuned!

/ Airbag

Yikes!

It looks like we are finally going to record the vocals this upcoming weekend. We decided two weeks ago to do it, but as Murphys law always seems to f**k things up, I tried not to get my hopes up. Well, yesterday I got a phonecall from Henrik and I was sure that he would say; -Hey man, something´s come up.... To my surprise he said; -Before I say anything else, we´re coming up this weekend! I have a cold but I´m treating it with herbs and whiskey and shit!
Yes!!! So finally I can warm up the old Röde Classic.
We surely will be warming the sauna aswell... So stay tuned for some clips with vocals in the near future!

We also talked about the fact that it´s been almost a year since we recorded the drums... but it seems that time runs faster than ever...

Stay metal!

-Airbag

Guitarclips...

Here are two soundclips with guitars.

Outro for "Hollow Soul"
Last refrain and a part of the outro of "Universal Human"

No EQs, comps or fx added yet, except for some compression and some reverb on the drums for "Universal Human". Enjoy!

Right now I'm working on the "samplepart" of "Universal Human". It is built up around a drumloop with some weird synth sounds and Henrik whispering... It was awsome already as we did the preproduction... My hopes are that it will be twice as cool this time! I'm using Reason and my KAWAI K4 to get it together. I will post some clips when I'm done.

TGIF - cheers!

/ Airbag

Guitars, anyone?

Last weekend I treated my studio with some acoustic panels from Auralex. It made a huge difference! I also recorded all the rhythm guitars through the POD. I used my old Washburn KC-40V with a Jackson humbucker. I ran the signal through my BBE Sonic Maximizer and into the Digi 002R. I think I used the Rectifier ampmodel. I recorded two separate tracks for each song (left-right...).




Yesterday I borrowed a Marshall amp and a 4 x 12 cabinet from a friend. It was a 8100 - a valvestate model, but it worked out. I was actually going to borrow a valve amp (Marshall JMP modified by Folkesson) from another friend, but that didn't work out this weekend, so I did it this way. I miced the cab with two Shure SM-57s, one straight at the cone and one angled approx. 45 degrees. They both went to disk through my Focusrite Octopre using just a little bit of compression to defeat peaks. I once again used my Washburn KC-40V straight into the amp. It has a quite heavy distorsion, so I didn't have to use any dist pedal.


One of the songs can maybe qualify as a powerballad... Well, at least it has some acoustic parts so I recorded two tracks (once again left-right...) of my Stratocaster through the POD usig a clean sound with a little chorus and some delay. Then I miced my Washburn acoustic with a Röde NT-3 (I was going to use NT-2, but I couldn't find the shockmount... ;-).
I also recorded the intro solo to this song called "Hollow Soul" - using the Strat and POD - BBE --> Diggi 002R. Of course I used Dunlop JazzII picks for electric and Dunlop 0,78 mm for acoustic. Standard E-tuning.




I will update this post with two soundclips as soon as possible...
Here's a picture of the ol' bastard! Ain't she a beauty...? :-)

Next up is some keyboards and samples for me to do, and to set a new date for Mono to record the vocals. As he is soon going to be a father I'm hoping we can get it done before the birth.

Cheers!

/ Airbag

Drum & Bass

Here is a small soundclip from the bass recording. Equipment used is Cort Josh Paul Signature 5-string, DI box going straight into Digi 002R, split to POD (guitar) and via a BBE Sonic maximizer to the 002R. I think I used the POD Crunch ampsim with some slight distorsion... This is once again raw sound, not processed yet whatsoever... The drums has been treated with some comps and so on, just to tighten up as we record. BTW, I used a Dunlop JazzIII pick...

I'm really looking forward to this weekend as Henrik is coming up to record some killer vocals! Look out for an update next week!

EDIT: Due to illness we have to cancel this weekends session. DAMN IT! Henrik has a cold. We will try to set a new date asap.

I will begin recording the rhythm guitars instead. Stay tuned for more trouble...

Here's the bassclip

Back on track!!!

Finally! I've bought a house, moved all my gear (for the second time this year...) and now I'm ready to finish up the demo. I got started this weekend as I bought myself a new bass, a CORT Josh Paul Signature 5-string. It's a very versatile bass as it has an active eq, the Bartolini MK I system, so I can get almost any type of sound out of it.

I split the signal using a DI box which I had to pad 20 dB (the bass is really hot!), I had one signal going right into my Digi002 R, and one via the POD to add some cabinet feeling. If I'm not happy in the end I can always reamp the line signal through a real amplifier. Smooth...






My new setup.
Tascam DM-24, Mac mini, Digi 002R, POD, KRK V6.

Overview of the studio, cozy ain't it!

The guitars... and the piano, still not tuned...

I will add a soundclip of the bass as soon as I'm done.