Studio Log Part 5: Tracking guitars, whining about intonation problems and HAND SWEAT

[ahjteam]

whats with the breast cancer awareness ribbon 2:30 forward?

 

[Toni S.]

Great video dude!

oh, and about the screen recorder: http://camstudio.org/ get that one, it should be one of the best. Hit me up if you get any troubles.

 

[arvoitus]

Nice video. I enjoyed watching you play and talk, but too bad there wasn't much useful information in the video.

 

[Everybody]

im lovin the hell outta these videos

 

[Erkan]

In anyway a blood relative of Devin Townsend and got some of his talented blood?

YOU DID NOT JUST DO THAT! Connecting me to Devin Townsend... you make me feel like a demigod. Haha, on a more serious note: eh, I don't have much serious stuff to say other than thank you good sir, I humbly bow before thee. You should look forward to next part then, which is the bass guitar! I usually don't walk around bragging about me being able to play all the instruments myself but I guess I should start admitting to myself that I've got some talent at least But there's always people who are better and I certainly know my place.

whats with the breast cancer awareness ribbon 2:30 forward?

Haha funny you thought about it too. I use that rubber band to mute the 2 lightest strings when I play rhythm stuff but then I noticed it kind of looked like the breast cancer campaign thingy. Oh well what the heck, guess I could support that because... well you know, breasts are nice. Breasts = tits!

Great video dude!

oh, and about the screen recorder: http://camstudio.org/ get that one, it should be one of the best. Hit me up if you get any troubles.

Thanks, I'll try that one out. Sure is going to come in handy when making editing and mixing videos.

Nice video. I enjoyed watching you play and talk, but too bad there wasn't much useful information in the video.

Thank you! Yeah I have to agree on that, the last couple of videos have just been "hey, look at me play!"-type of videos but the educational and informative stuff is yet to come so just keep looking forward to it Next part for example, is about bass tracking but I also talk a lot about strings. It gets a bit boring but I felt the need to really stress the fact that new strings are VITAL to a good sound for this type of music.

im lovin the hell outta these videos

Thank you sir More is yet to come and there will be a lot of useful information in the editing and mixing phase. It also makes me really happy when I hear that someone learned something from my stuff or simply that someone enjoyed watching them. I'm still a whelp - to put it that way - in this "business" so to hear that I actually managed to teach someone something is really rewarding.

 

[Chris_P_Critter]

Very interested to see your take / approach to the mixing element.

 

[Waterboy]

Very kewl of you to (once again) share your journey with us.
I always love watchin' these type of videos - and yours is no exception.
Nice sounds all the way. Good job.
Thanks for sharing with us!
Take care

Scott

 

[Uladyne]

Dude I'm totally gonna buy the fuck out of your CD when its done.

It would totally work without vocals because the music is so baddass, but if you want any vocal contributions hit me up, I'd love to contribute in any way shape or form to such a baddass project, and I can't play any instruments well enough to be of any use to you, so vox are all I can offer, haha.

 

[beneatheremains]

man, your music is great, a gifted guy, no doubt i'm very interested to hear the final album version
and your kick sound is awesome, can you share some info... what chain and samples used ?

 

[SoClose]

sounds killer. excellent work. you should get a mac with logic. your world would evolve leaps.

 

[SavageDoom]

This is absolutely epic. I must compliment you on your playing and the music you have written. I must also, however, speak strongly against adding vocals. I feel the music is definitely interesting enough without them (I hadn't even thought of vocals until I read Uladyne's post) but overall, vocals would distract one from the music underneath. Also I find maybe 95+% of potentially good music is ruined by vocals and becomes unlistenable. Partially due the fact (as far as I'm concerned) getting good vocals / acquiring a good vocalist is likely difficult. Taste also then comes into it as one person might prefer a different style of vocals etc. People also seem to complete everything in their project and seemingly react in a way similar to "Oh, what can I add now?" "Vocals!" and they rush to find a vocalist in an almost "any vocalist will do" fashion. (Also seemingly trying out many and picking the best one is rarely good enough.) The result from what I have always heard (in recorded material) has always been terrible.

I suppose I'll also have to mention that this is all my opinion so that an argument doesn't ensue...

Nevertheless, I do recall reading that you want to do this completely on your own and do everything yourself, so perhaps there's hope yet.

 

[visceral]

I have to agree...leave out the vocals.

Prime example (IMO), I listen to periphery a lot less since the latest vocalist. Their music is awesome though!

 

[GarethSE]

HAND SWEAT HAND SWEAT HAND SWEAT HAND SWEAT HAND SWEAT HAND SWEAT HAND SWEAT HAND SWEAT HAND SWEAT HAND SWEAT HAND SWEAT HAND SWEAT


and as for savagedoom i have been telling erkan this for ages and got offered to do the vocals and turned it down because i felt NOTHING could do this shit justice, and from the clips erkan posted i fear i have been proved right, but hey, it's his art, not ours.

 

[drew_drummer]

Hand sweat is something I've never suffered when recording, but I get it a lot when we play live. I guess it's environmental for me.

 

[SavageDoom]

but hey, it's his art, not ours.

Most certainly agreed.

 

[Uladyne]

I totally agree that the music can easily stand on its own, but if he's already planning on adding vocals, I just want to let him know that I would be interested in lending my services, just in case he may want them, haha.

For the record though, and slightly off topic, I just received my Periphery CD in the mail yesterday and I actually dig the vocals. There are a few parts here and there that seem a bit odd, but I was totally expecting to be annoyed with them. Not the case at all!

 

[drew_drummer]

NO VOX! NO NO NO NO!!

Please.

 

[departed]

always look forward to seeing these, great playing erkan!

your voice reminds me of a less american sounding David Schwimmer, Ross from Friends haha

 

[kev]

Very nice Erkan. Please let me know your address so I can ship you a new keyboard

 

[Erkan]

Dude I'm totally gonna buy the fuck out of your CD when its done.

It would totally work without vocals because the music is so baddass, but if you want any vocal contributions hit me up, I'd love to contribute in any way shape or form to such a baddass project, and I can't play any instruments well enough to be of any use to you, so vox are all I can offer, haha.

I have no idea what kind of vocals you can do and I'm sure they're great but I always prefer to work with people IRL. I think it's such a hassle to do it over the net, especially when I have no written lyrics myself and no determined rhythmic phrasing to follow for the vocals so the vocalist pretty much gets free hands on this. My vocalist is pretty versatile though so I don't think I'll need external help but I really appreciate it man Thank you so much.

man, your music is great, a gifted guy, no doubt i'm very interested to hear the final album version
and your kick sound is awesome, can you share some info... what chain and samples used ?

Thanks, warms me up to hear that (good thing, it's quite cold here today!) I will describe the processing later on when the mixing phase begins but for now, all I can tell you is that it's nothing but the ordinary Comp and EQ but the sample makes a LOT of difference on the kick. As I may have mentioned my kick mic sucks badly so I pretty much rely on a 50/50% blend with a sample. The sample used is Faderhead's Tama Starclassic kicks (there are only 3 samples of it) but I have modified it and made it less rumbly and tried to tighten up the body. Worked quite well. I'll probably make a little tutorial in how to customize your own kick sounds too and show you how I edited that kick to fit me

This is absolutely epic. I must compliment you on your playing and the music you have written. I must also, however, speak strongly against adding vocals. I feel the music is definitely interesting enough without them (I hadn't even thought of vocals until I read Uladyne's post) but overall, vocals would distract one from the music underneath. Also I find maybe 95+% of potentially good music is ruined by vocals and becomes unlistenable. Partially due the fact (as far as I'm concerned) getting good vocals / acquiring a good vocalist is likely difficult. Taste also then comes into it as one person might prefer a different style of vocals etc. People also seem to complete everything in their project and seemingly react in a way similar to "Oh, what can I add now?" "Vocals!" and they rush to find a vocalist in an almost "any vocalist will do" fashion. (Also seemingly trying out many and picking the best one is rarely good enough.) The result from what I have always heard (in recorded material) has always been terrible.

I suppose I'll also have to mention that this is all my opinion so that an argument doesn't ensue...

Nevertheless, I do recall reading that you want to do this completely on your own and do everything yourself, so perhaps there's hope yet.

Hey man, I hear ya. This is not the first time I hear someone say that and to be honest it does feel a little sad to hear that. From the beginning I knew I wanted to make a complete record with vocals and everything because I want this music to carry out a message to people in the form of my vocalist's awesome lyrics. It was never my intention to make yet another instrumental record but I can totally understand how most of you have become used to my music without any vocals - because up until now there hasn't been any vocals in any clip I've posted (almost)! I don't seem to have been affected by this "getting used to"-factor because I always knew I wanted vocals, but I can really understand you guys have.

All I can say is, I'm not 100% sure if I'll release an instrumental and a vocal version because I feel like that's a bit of a whoring out thing, just to make as many people as possible listen to my music. It just feels wrong but we'll see. With that said though, I do happen to think my vocalist adds to the music rather than subtracts from it so I'm pretty happy with him. He doesn't sound like a "look at me, I can do a long fry scream for 30 seconds with no volume at all"-singer, he pushes and screams his lungs out (without hurting himself I may add), and it really pushes everything forward. I like it, and it fits my vision, I think it'll turn out good.

always look forward to seeing these, great playing erkan!

your voice reminds me of a less american sounding David Schwimmer, Ross from Friends haha

Oooookay, now even my voice is being compared to David Schwimmer. Well, I don't know what to say... "thank you" or "you're so mean!!"? I guess it's cool to be "compared" to a celebrity. At least it's not some scandalous scrub I'm being "compared" to

Very nice Erkan. Please let me know your address so I can ship you a new keyboard

Haha Kev! Yeah I guess I could use a new keyboard, but I've grown used to that f*cker It even has a spiral cord, like old telephones you know. It's really retro!