Voice Of The Soul Album Blog |
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Feb 24 2008, 02:46 AM
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Hello everybody,
As some may know I'm the main songwriter in a Heavy Rock/Metal/Progressive Band in Nottingham, UK and we are finally starting the incredibly long but exciting process of recording an album. I want to keep updates with photos, videos, audio and other snippets of the process to help people get an idea of the troubles that come up when recording and the successes when you know it is heading in the right direction. So in 5 months time we want a complete album and the road starts now. So what's key to recording an album? Sure equipment is important but so are rooms for recording in and most important of all the songs  We have half the songs written for the album and half in skeletal form with me finishing the writing off in the next month or two. So for this here are the parts we are recording and where.Vocals - Anechoic Chamber (This is a multi million pound room at Loughborough University which has zero reverb so you get the vocals incredibly clean and this allows us to add effects as we wish and basically get the most natural sound out. Guitars - We record these in the practice room. I have a JCM800 half stack so 4 microphones (1 for each speaker) and we can get 4 different versions of the playing and mix these in with each other to get our desired effect. Bass - Again in Studio/Practice Room we use a large bass cab and mic it up (1 mic for each speaker and a few room mics) and again we create our mix with these. Drums - Home Studio with fully miced up kit and overheads and other atmospheric mics round the room. Just so we can get ideal sound. We also add keyboards into our songs and synths but these are just done by plugging keyboard into computer via a mixing desk later in the song recording process. So. How do we get from an initial idea of a song through to it being completed? I write a riff usually that I hear in my head. Being able to hear sounds and spot notes is very useful as you can tab out the melodies in your head/dreams etc. This will then focus you usually in a specific key where you can look for specific riffs that are catchy and good to sing over for the verse and chorus. I will then create a bridge to break things up a bit later in the song but I wont necessarily do Verse Chorus Verse etc. It depends on the song in question how it comes to being complete structure wise. I add lead sections and solos after I have come up with lyrical ideas and completed all of the rest of the music. When I finish the song I tab it all out in Guitar Pro and this allows the rest of the band to have a reference of what they are required to learn and how the song sounds. The other guitarists will then give me some ideas to improve the song usually and the drummer will come up with some idea of how the drums will sound and will record drums in midi format. Basically he has inputted each sound of his drum kit at home onto a keyboard so he can press keys and it will do the sound from the relevant symbol or snare etc to create the drums in audio. He will then send this back to me for further commenting by me. The first song we are recording is L'Hymne De La Mort. It is a heavy song but we recorded it the same way as all the others. It started out as a Guitar Tab file that is attached below: 
L__Hymne_De_La_Mort_l_.gp5 ( 74.13K )
Number of downloads: 96This was then changed by the drummer to add drums and sent to me as an audio file to give me an idea of how the drums would sound when they were recorded properly and a few keyboard ideas were thrown in. The audio file can be heard below: 
LHDM.mp3 ( 6.47MB )
Number of downloads: 178From here we can have a template for recording with. So we will firstly record the drums properly and not from sounds attached to keyboard keys. But that is for another time. We will have some pics and videos throughout especially in the Anechoic Chamber. Let me know how I can improve this blog and I will try and update every so often in this thread. © Paul Butcher - All material -------------------- Gear Guitars:- Caparison Horus Snowcloud, Parker Nitefly M, Parker Nitefly SA, Gibson SG, Parker P10e, 40 Year Old Spanish Acoustic Amps:- Framus Ruby Riot 2x12" stack |
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Feb 24 2008, 02:08 PM
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Cool.) Looking forward for next updates
Have you tried to contact kris, about blogging topic? -------------------- my youtube account with riffs and ideas: https://www.youtube.com/user/Phoenygzus
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Feb 24 2008, 03:25 PM
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QUOTE (OrganisedConfusion @ Feb 24 2008, 03:06 PM)  Yeah apparently a function is being implemented within the next month. So I'm doing it within here for now Ohh.. dats kuul... init?  Ill support you by blogging myself maybe:) *thinking about the name... dreaming about the fame.. * -------------------- my youtube account with riffs and ideas: https://www.youtube.com/user/Phoenygzus
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Mar 5 2008, 03:28 PM
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Well have you started to record ? Are you recording one instrument at a time starting with drums ?
I would suggest putting in a Di-Box when recording bass guitar...Than mixing it up with the sound of amp..Also I don't think you need one mic for every speaker (if you have 4x10)..Two mics for amp will do the job..Di-box part of sound will be important for final mix although it does not sound good on its own.. 
-------------------- For GMC support please email support (at) guitarmasterclass.net
Check out my lessons and my instructor board. Check out my beginner guitar lessons course! ; Take a bass course now! |
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Mar 5 2008, 03:49 PM
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Just do whatever you want
But if youre gonna record it let me know
--------------------  But still I want answers, what's the point, what does all this mean? |
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Mar 5 2008, 03:59 PM
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QUOTE (OrganisedConfusion @ Mar 5 2008, 03:31 PM) My post above is the start of our recording progress on track one. We are micing up the Bass Amp now to record bass. Is that a bad way to go about it or not? We tend to do drums first, then orchestra/strings, guitars, bass and finish with vocals. I will mention to drummer about DI Box as I think he has several so we will do that. And yeah we are using 2 mics per cab. No idea why I said 4 lol No its not a bad way..I just recommend when recording bass for album to go through DI-Box as well , that way you will have the dry bass sound AND the sound of it going through bass amp..Mixing both will give you great results in the final mix..Character of the sound from di-box is very different from the one from the bass amp..It tends to give more definition to the sound..Of course you can color it a little on mixing boards eq too.. For me logical order would be : drums, bass, guitars , keys , vocals , percusions and other effects Cheers mate -------------------- For GMC support please email support (at) guitarmasterclass.net
Check out my lessons and my instructor board. Check out my beginner guitar lessons course! ; Take a bass course now! |
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Mar 5 2008, 04:56 PM
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QUOTE (OrganisedConfusion @ Mar 5 2008, 04:02 PM) Very helpful comments Infact that is probably what we have been missing this whole time I will record two bass tracks. One through DI Box and one with a miced up bass amp. Awesome advice. Thanks a lot Thats why I'm here And thats how I recorded bass for my first album.. Cheers mate -------------------- For GMC support please email support (at) guitarmasterclass.net
Check out my lessons and my instructor board. Check out my beginner guitar lessons course! ; Take a bass course now! |
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