Guitar recording got off to a customary slow start on Thursday when I discovered that the two old set of D'Addarios I'd put on my Universe were producing some nasty resonances. Funnily enough, given all the grief we had recording the drums (including unwanted resonances) I wasn't at all surprised that something should go wrong for me at the start. What was a surprise was that the amp I am borrowing for these sessions was in perfect working order (after a bit of coaxing with some contact spray). Anyway, we managed to make good of a potentially bad situation by recording all the clean and jazzy parts on my beautiful Hamer studio, whilst I let another set of new strings settle on the Ibanez (Ernie Balls - they may be cheap, but they're damn reliable).
The next day I was eager to make up for lost ground and satisfy my metal appetite, and, relieved that the new set of strings weren't making any unwanted sounds, I started off with the distorted guitars for Phantoms. This one has turned out to be a real surprise for me. Even the rough mix (i.e. before the guitars are re-amped) is sounding beyond how I imagined it (this was another one that started life as a MIDI file). With the quad-tracked guitars it's heavy as hell in some places.
Then it was onto Blood. I suspected this would be a hard one to nail as it all depends on the timing being absolutely rock solid, but after a bit of warming up I managed to settle into the groove. What was slightly embarrassing was that we had a guy from Hungarian TV (who has reminded me to inform you that we are recording in Ajka, not Vezprem!) filming me recording this one riff over and over again until it was dead on time (with quad-tracking this is such a pain in the arse - it's not good enough to get it spot on just once). I must have looked like such a retard! Unfortunately he left before the multi-string tapping spectacular that constitutes the mid-section.
Having polished these two off, I was eager to sneak in another one before heading home. The final song of the day was Realm of Dreams. This one is a real heartbreaker and has some really sensitive moments on just a solitary electric guitar. I was trying to put myself in as sombre a mood as possible, but I had to put up with the mild distraction of what can only be described as "atonal Gypsy - free- jazz" kicking off on the stage next door. This strained my patience to put it mildly, but eventually we managed to finish this one off.
I should mention that I've been relying on the generosity of a number of Hungarians who have lent me equipment for the recording. These include Roomy (Without Face) who let me use his RG 7 string as a backup guitar, and Otis (I think that's how you spell his name- I find the Hungarian language unfathomable) who has lent me an acoustic.
Today we re-recorded Dreadful Angel and Born of Ashes. I'm especially chuffed with Dreadful Angel as it's sounding a lot slicker and tighter (even the rough mix is already sounding better than the demo, and that's without any singing, keyboards or bass! I suspect this is partly because we recorded Akos' own kit this time round, which sounds beautiful, so hopefully Brett won't have to use many triggers to augment the sound as he did when we used some beat up old practice kit on the demo). It also features an enhanced solo (pushing the realms of "tastefulness" to the limit perhaps, but hey; that's what the kids love, right?) and a few little extra quirky bits here and there. The jazzy bit is also sounding more jazzy as opposed to just random ambling.
So all's left for me now is to record the two hardest ones - Obscure Oblivion and Parfum, plus the album intro, then it'll be Julie's turn.
Wish me luck!
Tom
The next day I was eager to make up for lost ground and satisfy my metal appetite, and, relieved that the new set of strings weren't making any unwanted sounds, I started off with the distorted guitars for Phantoms. This one has turned out to be a real surprise for me. Even the rough mix (i.e. before the guitars are re-amped) is sounding beyond how I imagined it (this was another one that started life as a MIDI file). With the quad-tracked guitars it's heavy as hell in some places.
Then it was onto Blood. I suspected this would be a hard one to nail as it all depends on the timing being absolutely rock solid, but after a bit of warming up I managed to settle into the groove. What was slightly embarrassing was that we had a guy from Hungarian TV (who has reminded me to inform you that we are recording in Ajka, not Vezprem!) filming me recording this one riff over and over again until it was dead on time (with quad-tracking this is such a pain in the arse - it's not good enough to get it spot on just once). I must have looked like such a retard! Unfortunately he left before the multi-string tapping spectacular that constitutes the mid-section.
Having polished these two off, I was eager to sneak in another one before heading home. The final song of the day was Realm of Dreams. This one is a real heartbreaker and has some really sensitive moments on just a solitary electric guitar. I was trying to put myself in as sombre a mood as possible, but I had to put up with the mild distraction of what can only be described as "atonal Gypsy - free- jazz" kicking off on the stage next door. This strained my patience to put it mildly, but eventually we managed to finish this one off.
I should mention that I've been relying on the generosity of a number of Hungarians who have lent me equipment for the recording. These include Roomy (Without Face) who let me use his RG 7 string as a backup guitar, and Otis (I think that's how you spell his name- I find the Hungarian language unfathomable) who has lent me an acoustic.
Today we re-recorded Dreadful Angel and Born of Ashes. I'm especially chuffed with Dreadful Angel as it's sounding a lot slicker and tighter (even the rough mix is already sounding better than the demo, and that's without any singing, keyboards or bass! I suspect this is partly because we recorded Akos' own kit this time round, which sounds beautiful, so hopefully Brett won't have to use many triggers to augment the sound as he did when we used some beat up old practice kit on the demo). It also features an enhanced solo (pushing the realms of "tastefulness" to the limit perhaps, but hey; that's what the kids love, right?) and a few little extra quirky bits here and there. The jazzy bit is also sounding more jazzy as opposed to just random ambling.
So all's left for me now is to record the two hardest ones - Obscure Oblivion and Parfum, plus the album intro, then it'll be Julie's turn.
Wish me luck!
Tom
