Fourth song's guitars recorded

Phew. The fourth one, seemingly simple song (well, it is, really) but it was surprisingly demanding to get the guitars recorded. Took about 3-4 hours to get it done. This song is hardly even one minute longer piece than yesterday's work, so it's not that much longer - but it's the certain melodic passages and stuff that demanded more time and dedication.

What really matters is the end result and I'm satisfied. I just listened the bounce with drums and guitars only, as usual, and it's enjoyable piece. Very atmospheric. Very ... doomy, of course. :)

That was tiresome recording session anyway. Gotta see when I'll continue with the next song. It should be quite different case though, as it's one of the shorter / faster songs.

Is it 3rd rock from the sun?

After I came back home from a job interview and enjoyed some (damn) good coffee & light refreshments, I started recording the final guitars for the third song. This time it took about 2-3 hours to complete the guitars. Not just because this song is longer, but also because this one has more melodies and guitar harmonies. How did this one make me feel? I think I was grinning widely towards the end of the session. Recording went great and the song is just awesome ... it also has "the most brutal" section any M:D song has ever had. Yeah! Brief death/doom moment. If you heard just that part, you'd think the song is like that ... while in reality the song is soooo different than the "brutal" section. And so that this wouldn't be just writing about it, how it would feel - check out the short democlip below, and get a glimpse of doom fury. The sounds are altered quite a lot from what they are in reality, just so that this wouldn't ruin the actual material when it's ready someday. It's just drums and guitars in this demo, nothing else.

Short democlip from the 3rd song under works:



PS: This 3rd song is also a song which will get a special guest intro section. I originally was going to play the intro myself as a combination of guitar and spacy sounds, but I've asked one pal to do it in a special way. Or be a part of making the intro, delivering the guitar part but in a different way. We'll see what happens.

Second set of guitars completed

Just finished recording the next song's rhytm guitars. Much faster job (took only about 1-2 hours) and less sweaty task compared to yesterday, since this one is twice shorter song. But don't even think it's speed metal or something. Might be slower overall, hah!

I've recorded all the final guitars using the massive new plectrum I got only 2 days ago. Feels very fitting for this kind of music. Massive tool for massive soundscapes. ;) ... some riffs contain the sound of plectrum itself, intentionally playing it in a certain kind of way. Gotta see how it works out with bassguitar recorded - if it's good it's gonna stay that way. I have a feeling it might serve me great.

First set of guitars tracked down

Got the first song's final rhytm guitars recorded today. Sweaty task, but also enjoyable. It can be surprisingly hard to play so slow, especially for such a grindfreak that I have always been. It would be so easy to start going faster, faster ... but instead I'll go slower and slower.

I also went through the drums of the song and tweaked some sounds there, as well. Noticed something needing a fix and got it sorted out. Then adjusted a good demo volume level for just drums + guitars mix, and listening to the song just like that ...

How does it make me feel? Awesome. ^_^

Great to go on from here. Recording all the rhytm guitars for the rest 7 songs is not one day's task, but it depends on inspiration - could well be done already during this week, we'll see.

And as you can see in the pic below, I had a helping paw with the recording, too. Thankfully she wasn't handling the knobs and stuff. Just listening to the soundscapes ... see the tempo effect. ;)

Turning knobs

During past two weeks I've done some occasional soundtests, to make sure I've got the guitar sound I'm using for the final recording. To put the long story short; yes, I've got it. :) Today I got the confirmation after one more test. The guitar sounds pretty much the way I want it to sound right now and with the current equipment. It looks like I'm going to have more sound tweaking ahead with bassguitar sound, as I'm not at all sure if I got the kind of sound I'd want to have, yet.

I've also done some software drumtests - more work there as well, as I no longer have bandmate to handle that deparment. But it looks like I'm getting into the kind of sounds I envision for this material. I've got also some neat ideas for recording some otherwordly space sounds for the material ... but that's not the thing currently under works.

The next thing is ... going back to guitars. I'm going to start recording the final guitars for the songs now. Right after this blog post actually, sitting here with guitar on my lap. No idea how long it takes overall though, as my primary task in real life is intensive jobhunting on a daily basis. Another thing is, that the timing seems to be going nicely; just yesterday I received a little package from abroad, containing ... a single plectrum. Huh? Well, it's not just any standard plectrum, but custom made and quite a big one. Based on one day of jammin' every now and then, it feels like the best plectrum I've ever had (I've never been much a plectrum player but who knows now) ... see the picture below.

Welcoming the eternity of 8

Creativity burst is more than evident. How come?

I finished crafting 8th song base about an hour ago and ... once again really dig the result. This time it's not a typical doom metal song, in a way, it has a bit unusual rhytm to it and especially odd flow of guitars & bass. Hypnotic simplicity with two words.

Though as it's just a rough song base, it's hard yet to say how it will be in its' final form - it's already clear to me that this song will have a space domain in the middle of it. Currently it's 6-7 minutes long song.

Could well be, that I won't compose more new material for this package. The number of 8 feels like ... that's it.

Reality of 7th

Talk about inspiration ... I suddenly got the vibe to try out another new song idea I've had in mind, sort of hypnotic little piece. So I crafted drums and started composing. Composed the song from start to end in one short session - and then recorded the rough guitars & bass. Took bit over an hour all in all and now there's also song base # 7 ready. And I like it a lot! Weird little song. And probably the shortest of the pack since it's only bit over 4 minutes long.