I can’t believe I didn’t write here since August! Anyway, I’m still working on SAII, finding new ideas, inspired by new influences. I’m working more on sound in itself than anything else actually and it’s very exciting!
Time for December playlist! Strong Pink Floyd mood these days… My three favourite albums remain Dark Side, Wish You Were Here and Animals – Such a perfect trilogy! Beside Pink Floyd, I received two great obscure gems some days ago : Armageddon’s eponym album, wild vintage heavy prog, and Hoodoo Man by Birth Control, excellent Hammond driven progressive rock.
What’s on your playlist? Any proggy Christmas albums? ;) (I like the Jethro Tull Christmas album by the way)
Back from Lyon with David’s drum tracks on my hard drive. It was a great recording session though very intensive. Actually, it seems that we had a lot more to do than for the first album. We both feel that drums have gone further and David had many great ideas. I was always asking for more and he did a really great job! I can’t wait to hear the result on my studio speakers and start to mix the drums. Actually, they already sound great. Unlike the first album, I won’t tweak the drums so much. David’s drumkit sound is stunning! Very open and natural. We worked hard on every parts, spending hours and hours in this small dark room searching for the best fills. We hope you will enjoy the result as much as we do. Next step is the vocal recordings and then bass recordings.
Tama Starclassic from above. We are particularly glad of how the snare, the kick and the second tom sound. This time, I recorded the snare with two microphones and it sounds so much better! We used three Shure SM57′s and one SM58, one Sennheiser e609, two Oktava MK012′s and one Shure Beta 91. A better set of microphones than what I used before.
Toshiba Satellite in action with a M-Audio Fast Track Ultra 8r which worked smoothly with a very crystal clear sound. It was great to record drums with Reaper for the first time, it worked flawlessly!
Drum recordings will start on Saturday. I’m leaving Paris à 6am for Lyon where I’ll record David at his rehearsal room. Unlike Spleen Arcana’s first album, this time David will play on his own drumkit, a Tama Starclassic, which is a far better model than mine. So I guess we’ll find a better sound!
For gearheads, my recording setup will consist of my Toshiba Satellite laptop with a brand new M-Audio Fast Track Ultra 8r. I’ll also bring my Joemeek VC1Q mainly for its compressor that I’m used to put on the kick or snare. My daw of choice remains my faithful Reaper.
Stay tuned for upcoming updates from the drum recording sessions…
I received yesterday a distortion unit I wanted to try for a long time, a MXR Distortion +. It’s a vintage model, according to its serial number, from 1979. So it’s the second “block” logo version. You can find a good article about differences between models here. I guess I’d like to try the orginal “script” version but I read that the block logo sounds smoother actually. Anyway, I did some recordings using it on my current sessions and I am quite amazed by its sound!! I dare to say it’s probably the best distortion unit I have had. Actually, I wouldn’t call it a distortion, it’s more of an overdrive with a bit more gain than a TS9 for example, more open sounding. I may record some parts I already recorded with my Supa Fuzz because it sounds better sometimes, depending of the song. The fact is both are truly complementary. I recorded a quick video playing stuffs randomly to show you how it sounds (the funny thing is that you hear more of the acoustic sound of the guitar than the distortion itself but you’ll get the idea) :
The last weeks, I spent a lot of time searching for a new guitar lead sound. Now I only use my Supa Fuzz replica made by Lumpy’s Tone Shop which is a great warm and full vintage fuzz. I don’t use my Tech 21 British anymore. I tried a HBE Germania treble booster to go with it and add some bite but it didn’t really fit my “no amp” set up. However, I found by coincidence a great sound by stacking my Big Muff after the Supa Fuzz : Huge fuzz with endless sustain! A bit noisy though… But it’s the best combo I’ve ever tried actually (better than using a TS9 as a booster). I recorded many lead parts for the longest track of album too and it sounds quite different from my first album. I think I won’t add too many guitar tracks but time will tell…
I tested an Electro Harmonix Bassballs today as I was searching for a kind of wah bass sound for a particular part of “the longest song”. I didn’t play too much with it yet but I’m not sure that it’s what I’m looking for. Maybe I should try a Q-Tron someday. Anyway, I’ll spend more time tweaking it tomorrow and see if it will do the job.
