Wednesday, November 30, 2016

The word "possibly"

What do you know, ... In my previous post I expressed how I felt that most the tweaking is now done. Well, so I felt then. There was only that one song remaining ... I didn't have time to write about this yesterday evening, but yes, yesterday evening was the third tweaking eve. :)

Or let's say it was more about finetuning, while with tweaking I mean more audible changes all in all. So, what happened yesterday was that first I listened all the songs through, and made few notes while at it. To my surprise I had notes for 4 songs. So, into the work then ... these were rather small things that possibly only I care about, but it felt good to get them all done. It just took all evening long, but I got them all sorted out in the end.

Bit funnily I did not have time for the only song that I previously thought would need my attention. Well, I did say that I have to be careful about that song especially ... perhaps that explains how I felt with listening to it (more than once) yesterday: It didn't feel like it would certainly need some extra work, the way I thought earlier. But I did make a note about having to possibly expand one vocal part in a way; something that I will have to try out either tonight or tomorrow, friday evening. But that really should be all then. I feel confident about this, since I actually had time to listen the whole album from start to finish as final point yesterday and it felt all excellent to me now. I haven't had such a sensation with these scrutiny listening sessions yet, until now, and I think it's a great sign.

More later, possibly just one song inspection & experimentation and that's it ...

Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Final tweaking sessions almost ended ... possibly, yes!

Could it really be? Yes, it could. Quite surprising, but ...

Well, it was full tweaking evening tonight again, like yesterday. The result is almost identical, at least when looking at what I got done; 3 songs fully completed. Well, almost. The last one is a song that I like so much that I feel that I have to be extra careful with that ... so that might need one night sleep over it and returning to it for a while. But ... here's the catch: You'd think I have now 2 songs remaining, for tight scrutiny and detailed tweaking?

Guess what? I don't have. It's because the last two ones were dead easy cases, the only ones that went like this: I listened to the vocals alone, followed them precisely while at it and didn't find anything to be tweaked. Not even a bit. Nothing. Zero! And the funny thing is, that the other one of these two songs is the fastest song in the package, containing weird lines, sung fast, and with different voices / styles, too.

So, ... like the subject line states: This is possibly the final tweaking session, for now. How about that? There's only that one song that still needs some inspection and possibly minor tweaking. Nothing major, but perhaps something for getting it extra shiny. One thing is for sure, once again: Next up is ... listening sessions. Next few evenings shall pass with listening and checking how it all feels now.

Schedule is looking really good, that has to be said, too.

Monday, November 28, 2016

Final tweaking sessions started

This evening felt like ... as if I just finished second job for the day. Huh! But that's quite descriptive for the amount of tweaking & listening session I did tonight.

Spent the whole evening doing the final tweaks. I started going through the songs in working order (sidenote; which is not the order the songs appear on album) and I got 3 songs pretty much 100% completed. Two songs which were worked first took the most time. Third song took clearly less time, unsurprisingly - as the third song is one of the last songs I've worked with and it has been tweaked notably further. Exactly the opposite with the second song I worked with tonight - one of the first songs that got vocals recorded so there were clearly more tweaking to be done. And tweaked it was, much more than I thought ... no wonder it was a long evening tonight.

So, the art of tweaking shall continue tomorrow evening. Five songs to be completely checked (and tweaked as needed) from start to finish (from vocals point of view mainly). It could well take only lets say ... two more evening sessions like this one and then I'm quite far with the package, indeed.

PS: If you have too much time on your hands, count how many times I used the word "tweak" in this post. Ha ha ha ... and I shall not tweak this text afterwards! Tweaking the music is more than enough.

Sunday, November 27, 2016

Day of soundworks

I've listened the package few times today, as background music, in a relaxing way just to see if something catches my attention. Nothing major was spotted. After watching last two episodes of Game Of Thrones season 6, I went into looking some of the songs again and did some minor vocal tweakings. Got some things sorted.

Then later during the evening I finally received something I've been hoping & waiting for a long time. The certain intro one good friend thought he could contribute if he has time & inspiration for it. It took quite some time, yes, but time is not the key if compared to the fact that the intro is here! I listened to the clip and instantly liked it ... I knew already while listening to the clip, that as I combine certain space soundscapes as created by me; it shall turn out very nice, different intro to this one song. So I worked about 1-2 hours on the intro and built the spacescapes around it and got it all done late tonight. Really dig the result and the friend who submitted the intro, seemed to enjoy the final intro.

So, ... now pretty much all that is left, is still about vocals: I shall listen, listen, listen ... and listen the material during the coming week, and still possibly record tiny vocalbits and pieces for certain moments in the songs. While doing that, I can make sure all the vocals are "as acceptable as possible". Or should I say "as close to my vision as possible". That's more like it. Then I'll have to craft the final master version of the album - that shouldn't be more than 1-2 days job in this case, that's how I feel (and I'm basing that estimate on doing mastering experiments during this recording journey, every now and then).

6th December isn't that far away ... the date I'm aiming for release date. Actually it's only about 1½ weeks away. Still, it feels very realistic that 6th December shall be the date of release. I'm quite confident about that. I've thought already about a month ago, that the weekend of 3rd/4th December shall be the finalizing weekend. I've even taken day off from work on 5th December, so ...

Saturday, November 26, 2016

Background vocals, vol4

Phew, a long saturday evening session just got completed. Exhausting one, since it was the most demanding one out of these background vocal sessions. What might be easy for me to sing, since I've written the lyrics and arranged them according to how I see fit - it's not necessarily easy for someone else to sing them. That combined with the fact that I've created words all of my own, for describing the events in these space tales. What happens, is that the other fella ends up asking "how do you pronounce this word, what's this word!?" ... "well, I pronounce it like this, and yes, like this because as this word didn't exist before I came up with it, I am pretty much the one to define how to pronounce it or whatt?" ... "huh, ok!" ... so, yeah. :)

Tonight's session included two songs. Both of the songs got their "background" vocals recorded and the result is very good, expanding the music in the way I thought it would. Now I'll do some vocal tweaking (tomorrow) and then I'll start doing the very final things for the music. There's light at the end of this space tunnel, finally. Yes!

Thursday, November 24, 2016

Black is the space on thy black fridays

Something good about the manic black friday event advertising going on everywhere. Most of the offers feel like total "blaah!" for me, actually I've felt like that about everything I've seen. Until now ... black friday offer at CDbaby, 50% off from digital album distribution. Gotcha! Bought one instantly, you can guess for what. Yeah. :) Excellent way for spreading the one and only scifi doom message, based on past experiences.

Oh ok, I spotted something worth mentioning when it comes to this so-called black friday: Pretty good sales at Steam, it seems. Noted that many titles (if not all) on my personal wishlist were on sale. I think I gotta grab at least that latest Deus Ex ... for times after completing this M4D album. Before that, no gaming allowed. ^_^

Background vocals, vol3

Phew! Massive phew. The third background vocals session was clearly the most demanding one so far. Not surprising, considering  the song in question ... we started working on it already yesterday as planned, but didn't achieve what I wanted then. So, ... we continued tonight. And taking a night's break was worth it.

Now the result is awesome. I'd go as far as saying it's now even better than what I had originally envisioned. The song feels like it got all new life with the background vocals, so ... yeah!

Two more songs to go with background vocals. Until next time ... zap!

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

Background vocals, vol2

Went into next song on the list tonight, and even that this song has clearly more background vocals, it took notably less time than yesterday's session. So, we got the background vocals recorded nicely and it feels like they could well be the final ones in this case. That's how it feels currently.

I think the background vocal sessions will be all completed during this week, if we'll be able to work with this rate, one song per evening. Not all the songs will have extra background vocals, you see.

PS: Listened yesterday's session as the last thing for the evening and it feels very fitting after one night rest and with fresh ears.

Monday, November 21, 2016

Background vocals, vol1

Tonight marked the first background vocals session. At first there were some problems reaching the type of sound / singing according to my vision, but in the end the results were pretty good. Not necessarily the final background vocals yet, for this one song, but definitely a promising start indeed. Really happy anyway that I managed to start experimenting with the background vocals already tonight. It's good to continue from this point during the coming days (read; evenings).

Sunday, November 20, 2016

Taking massive steps

Once again I can say I'm really, really satisfied ... with these things I've done during past few days. This weekend proved to be definitely important one in this sense. More important than what I thought beforehand. And I didn't even get into recording the additional vocals with another vocalist ... ! So what makes me so satisfied then? Expect a long update now ... perhaps longest update ever with M4D.

First of all; I listened the package through few times early saturday morning and during saturday afternoon I did yet another set of finetuning (them vocals of mine, yes). I also listened the package properly thinking about guitarsolos, and to my genuine surprise I got the feeling that I might not be recording not even one solo (or not even something faintly resembling a solo). It seems to me that the space / ambient soundscapes I have crafted into the songs work like solos would work in traditional heavy metal. If I would feel some song(s) would benefit from some guitarsolo, I would record some, but as I'm feeling the exactly opposite now, ... no point recording forced solos. And I just finished listening the package once again just some 10 minutes ago, and this feeling of "no need for guitarsolos" was even stronger. I gotta still feel about the matter, but currently it looks like the idea of guitarsolos shall be dropped from this release.

But the great thing about this listening session I just completed; for the first time I didn't hear anything needing fixing in the vocals! Nothing at all. Yeah! It means that recording the additional background vocals shall happen soon, perhaps during the coming week already, some evening sessions. I think the additional vocals shouldn't demand lots of time, but we'll see what happens.

Then the surprising element; I hadn't planned doing any graphics this weekend, but like I was recently saying - usually when I get the idea for graphics, it happens fast and intuitively. That's exactly what happened around midday, during this sunday. I got the vision for front cover, remembered certain photographs of mine and started working on it. While working intensively on the front cover I got the idea for expanding it in a certain way to the back cover too ... and in the end I got both the front cover and back cover (CD jewel case size) 100% completed. Yeah! And even this is not the end of creativity burst ... while working on the front cover, I suddenly got the idea for the album title. I liked it so much that I pretty much replaced the album title I have been thinking about lately. The new album title not just fits the space tales perfectly, but it also connects to the certain songs and it even connects to certain reoccurring theme on this album. Which seems to be ... time. Not necessarily in the way you'd think first, though.

Did you think that was all? Nope! I looked through the lyrics set I have had as working version and thought to look into creating a good looking lyrics package in PDF form (not jewel case size, but simply A4 sized monster). So I did. First I created graphics reflecting the debut album in a way, but with this new album's color theme - then used the picture as A4 sized background for creating a PDF file out of lyrics. Looks pretty good, and I even checked it's "error free" by following the lyrics during latest album listening/checking session I did. No errors there. 15 pages long creation, which I will plant into digital album sites as bonus material, where it's possible (f.e. CDbaby).

So, I've got good reason to feel really satisfied indeed, don'tcha think so? ^_^

Thursday, November 17, 2016

More vocals both recorded & finetuned

Tonight was a good one as I got lots of things done. Way more than I thought beforehand. Not only I worked through the longest song ("cosmic scale cloning") but I sorted out some vocalbits and pieces in two other songs, as well. 3-4 hours went fast. Really satisfied with the results, too. Didn't have time to listen the complete package tonight, not surprising. Well, I think I'll listen the whole package tomorrow evening ...

... I have a feeling that the extra vocal recording sessions could well happen during the weekend already. Still haven't felt like listening the songs with seeking possible guitarsolo spots. So, there are those two big things to be done. Then there's of course album coverart which I haven't even started yet (but if things go as they usually do, with graphics - the idea suddenly comes and I progress really fast with it).

Oh, and I'm still waiting for the intro from one friend. Supposedly getting it within a week, but that's not slowing down any of the work mentioned above.

Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Them names

Haven't had time to properly listen through the whole package tonight, but based on few individual track listenings I'm happy with the fixing session I did yesterday. Unfortunately I didn't have time to work on the final song's vocals tonight, but perhaps tomorrow evening.

Then something inspiring, kind of ... for the first ever time with this album, I named the current working/listening tracks just to see how the song titles "look" in a playlist. I like what I see, and the vibes I get from the titles. Oh yeah. Interested to see? Well, here goes!

Monday, November 14, 2016

... and some signals were detected

Went through seven out of eight songs tonight. Listened them carefully with headphones and yes, noticed things that I wanted to fix. And I "fixed" them on the fly, re-recording some tiny bits and pieces here and there. It's funny how suddenly you notice something that sounds like a clear error, yet it's not really error but still something that demands to be fixed. There was one such case tonight. Pretty happy with tonight's work, only one song remains for working tomorrow evening; the longest one. Oh yeah, and what was I fixing again? Vocalworks, of course.

After tomorrow's last vocalwork fixin' session will come few "whole package listening sessions", checking how it feels then - and while doing that, checking also if there would be room for some guitarsolos or something else, perhaps.

Sunday, November 13, 2016

Listening ... for signals

Didn't record any extra vocals during the weekend, but instead listened the whole package in its' current form through few times. And it was good to do just that, since I spotted at least something needing fixing in the vocals. I shall record some lines again during this coming week and see that I get it all sounding the way I want it to. Perhaps getting into recording the additional vocals (not my own voice) next weekend.

I'm still not sure if I'll craft some guitarsolos for some of the songs, I guess we'll see about that in coming two weeks or so.

Big part of weekend went kind of into enjoying some live music. Saw 5 bands, most notably Pentagram and shot video set of all the bands. Only two bands' video set is already at youtube. In case if you want to check out some live stuff at youtube, here's my playlist for bands I've seen live.

Friday, November 11, 2016

Vocals recording, vol8 (and then some)

Finished recording the vocals for last song about an hour ago. Turned out really good again if you ask me (and why wouldn't you ask, huh). Listened the result once only, and then went straight into checking all the songs through in Reaper - checking and finetuning all the songs' vocal volume levels, and made all new bounces for each song.

So, ... now I have the first vocal demo package. And now I'll listen the package through few times to see how it works and if there is anything to fix in the so-called basic vocals. If there is, I'll try to do the fixes during the coming weekend - and if there isn't, I might start recording the expanded vocal lines.

I've started to feel that I'll get this package ready for releasing in December. I definitely want to get it finished before christmas. And I think I'm now aiming for a release date like ... 6th December. It would feel great to get it released on Finland's independence day. Yeah.

PS: Getting some nice inspiration tomorrow evening as I'm going to see Pentagram and some other bands. Mmmmm.

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Vocals recording, vol7

Just finished tonight's vocal recording session. Let's begin this by putting initial feelings here instead of ending this blog post with it: How do I feel right now? I'm feeling amazing! So, yes - you can get the idea how tonight's recording session went. ^_^

Tonight's song under work was (and is) massive one. The longest one (11 minutes or so) and I knew beforehand what to expect - work. Simply because the lyrics are quite long, I've written some tricky words for me to spell (remember, I'm finnish, english is not my native language) and it's a long song. At the same time I was excited to get working with exactly this song and these lyrics. Because I remember how I felt when I first wrote these lyrics and then arranged them with the music. Even that I did arranging "mentally" (singing in my mind only) I was grinning as I noticed there were some magical sections. Sections where the music and the lyrics make an awesome mixture ...

... and as I dived into recording the vocals, I could sense that magic there. I thought this will turn out "pretty good & enjoyable". Then, as I got the song finished (about half an hour ago) and bounced a demo of it, went listening and expecting "pretty good", I almost started laughing! Because it felt so damn great to me, not just "pretty good" or anything like that. There's this certain ... let's say space doom magic in there. Ha! Like that wasn't enough, I followed my intuition once again (when I was recording the vocals) and again sort of mini repeat verses were born on the fly. And I have an idea for expanding them bit more sonically speaking as I get these initial vocals recorded first.

There! :)

Wednesday, November 9, 2016

Vocals recording, vol6

Another evening, another vocals recording session completed. Yeah!

This time I thought this track could be rather sweaty task, but it turned out to be quite easy instead. The explanation for this, I think, is the reason that this particular song has stuck to my mind with its' oddly fun repeat verse since its' creation. As I went through the song first before recording, I noticed that the arrangements I made late last summer were pretty much perfect. I didn't have to any fixes at all, just straight into recording from there. And ...

... the recording went smoothly. As with the other songs, I recorded layered vocals. Yet this is also one of the songs where some more vocals shall be recorded later, that's the idea anyway. Perhaps even already next weekend if time permits and the initial vocal recording have already been completed.

Two more songs to go, recording vocals. I have feeling they will be more demanding ones to work with. But I've been wrong in past, so who knows? One song per evening seems to be go amount to work with.

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Vocals recording, vol5

Recorded vocals for next song on the list tonight. Bit funnily as I thought beforehand that this one should be rather easy task, not time consuming at all ... this turned out to be more demanding in some odd ways. It was hard to get the kind of emotionless, monotonic sound and approach needed. But in the end it seems I succeeded crafting the base vocal tracks for this song. While I say "next track" and this being number five on working list, it's not song number five on the album. :)

Three songs remaining, if this goes on like this I might be quite far next weekend already.

Monday, November 7, 2016

Vocals recording, vol4

Another evening session of vocals recording got completed about half an hour ago. Yeah. As I got home from work, I suddenly got an idea for making a little twist to the song's vocals I recorded yesterday - a sort of mini verse, and I went on recording it first and trying how it goes. As usual with following intuition, it worked awesomely! Yesterday I had a feeling like the song would need something more, but I didn't know what it was. Then today ... the idea came and I knew instantly that it will fill the void. So it did, too.

Then I went looking into the song I started working late yesterday - it's longer song and the lyrics are quite long, too. I thought it would take lots of time to get the vocals recorded but ... well, it wasn't more than some 2+ hours which isn't much at all. Considering I sang & recorded the lyrics twice, with two different vocal styles. And with a little surprising twist in the vocal style, too ... came out surprisingly good, methinks.

Now half the songs already have vocals recorded and as I've done small fixes here and there - these might well turn out to be the final vocals, too. That's how it starts to seem to me now. Feels good, especially considering that I'm recording the main vocals myself. This project is quite a massive project for one man project, yes, sure, but I'm not complaining. Not even a bit! ^_^

PS: Recently I played 2 song demos (containing vocals) to a good friend to see how he reacts to both the music and especially to the vocals. I didn't quite know what to expect, really. He was "very positively" surprised by the vocals - liking the sound of my voice, and he said that it's definitely very different sounding combination (layered vocals), unique to some extent. And fitting for space tales. Ha! Not bad reaction there. :) But the main thing is - as always - that I myself love what I do. Everything else is bonus.

Sunday, November 6, 2016

Vocals exp...recording, vol3

Continued working with the vocals tonight. It's no longer feeling like I'd be experimenting with recording the vocals, as I found a working combination of layered vocals. Result is quite fitting considering the space theme of M4D - at the same time you could say it has some distant reminders of how the vocals were in past, but at the same time you could say it's quite different than how it used to be back in 2011. So far I've been recording the vocals alone, but I have a plan of adding yet extra layer of vocals ... for certain moments / points in the songs. You could call it Celtic Frost influence, but it still should be quite different, too. :)

I got vocals recorded for one new song tonight. I also re-recorded partially one of the other songs with vocals from past sessions. Now three songs have vocals. I still don't know if these will be the final vocals, but it's a good start for "getting there" ... trying to kind of combine traditional doom metal vocal style, and sort of doom/death vocal style. Mix in some Cynic influence (vocoders) ... yes, sounds like quite a soup. And then there's the idea of additional layer of vocals ... Huh. We'll see, we'll see ...

I also started recording bit different vocals for next song tonight - gotta continue with that in next session.

One thing is certain, though: This thing is progressing. Again.