Lyrics

It has been almost four weeks now with the flu. During that time I have not been able to sing at all, and although I have been getting better little by little, it will still take a while to be able to do so in a normal level.

Meanwhile, I have been writing the lyrics. In Finnish. I have finished one song. Another one is half way through. Six more to go. So, it will take a long time until I can really progress with the recordings.

Keyboards

I caught a flu two weeks ago, and have not recovered ever since. Somehow I managed to get the keyboard parts ready despite of the fever and the runny nose. I ended up using Roland JD-XA throughout, I recorded the organ parts with JD-XA's digital part through SansAmp and Strymon Lex and for some spacey sounds I used the JD-XA analog engine via Flashback X4. I am satisfied with the results, so I think that I can conclude that I have finished all the instrument tracks for the album.

So, the next step will be to write lyrics and start practising the vocals. I think that I have an idea for  space opera style lyrics and concept for the album. Think about some Ayreon albums, 2112 by Rush or Talvikuningas by CMX and you get the idea. The bad thing is that I have not written down a line of it so far.

I have also been thinking about the language. I have written lyrics for two albums before, and to be honest, I have not been too happy with the results. I have been thinking that perhaps I should switch from English to Finnish for a change and see how it goes.

Guitars: Solos pt.2

I had really productive day yesterday and I recorded rest of the solos. So now I'm done with all guitar parts, I hope.

The next thing to do is to play the keyboards, which means some Hammond-style organs and synthesizer pads and effects. For the organ, I think that I will try out Strymon Lex with some distortion pedal combined with a synth instead of my trustworthy digital Hammond - organ drive - Ventilator combo. The Hammond is capable of producing a truly impressive sound, but I am kind of tired at it at the moment as I recorded Operation Majority's latest album with it not so long ago. For the synth parts I will most probably start with either Rolad JD-XA or Ambika. We'll see.

Yes, I have not discussed the vocals so far. I have some ideas for the melody lines, and I have absolutely no lyrics. So let's not discuss that any further.   

Guitars: Solos pt.1

Played solos for two songs this morning. Enough with that!

Here is one of them!

Guitars: clean parts

I recorded all the clean guitar parts today. Twice. I already practised it yesterday. I had recorded three songs already when I found out that the guitar was in tune with itself but not with the other instruments. Well, I think the end result got better and better on each iteration.

I have not mentioned it before, but I have one extra song in the album that I have not planned at all beforehand. It will be a spacey bit in the mood of Planet Caravan and alike. Let's see how it turns out. At least the guitar parts turned out fine.

And now the guitar solos... I'm not very enthusiastic, they are usually a pain to record. I end up sounding like a poor man's Iommi, and not in a good sense.

Bass: Pt. 2

I finished the bass tracks last Thursday. It took me four days to nail all songs down. In the end everything went very smoothly. The parts in the faster songs were just as difficult as I imagined them to be, so I had to spend a full day per song to record them. I do not play bass very much, so I had to restrict the playing into maximum of two two hour sessions per day to prevent damaging my hands.

Next week will be spent recording the clean guitar parts, some guitar effects and the solos. The solos will be a pain to record as my playing technique is what it is. 

Bass: Pt. 1

If rhythm guitars are the dull part, recording the bass must be the most fun part in the process. Just do your best Geddy Lee impersonation and take a few takes and you're done! Seriously. No offence to any real bass player, but I think bass is the easiest instrument to end up sounding good and lively without having a tremendously good playing technique. What I have learnt during past sessions is that the more you try to do fancy stuff and the more you just have fun, the better the end result sounds.

My original idea was to try LSTR fuzz with SansAmp Classic and try to find a kind of N.I.B. sound for the album. However, half-way in the process I accidentally dialled in a sound that reminded a lot of Steve Harris' sound, and after a few tests I decided that that's the way to go. So now I'm playing all the Iron Maiden licks that I can think of!

The only difficulties so far have been related to tuning. I'm using the drop c tuning (all strings full note down, and the lowest two full notes down), and with relatively loose strings it makes the tuning and intonation a bit iffy to say at least. I can not trust the meter, I just have to tune by ear, and sometimes even riff basis.

The bass I am playing is a Fender jazz bass copy hand built by myself from the parts that I gathered around the Internet.

4/7 songs done.