Spleen Arcana

Playlist February 2010

// February 28th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Music

Still into Transtlantic and Magma last album which are absolutely great. I bought Talk by Yes and if it’s not a masterpiece and I’m not really a fan of this era, “Endless Dream” is a great epic track.

I played for the first time 666 by Aphrodite’s Child from Spotify, great to find this album there, it’s an awesome album! I enjoy a lot Bat For Lashes as well, her two albums are really beautiful, emotionnaly creative.

And I play a lot Neal Morse’s albums, Sola Scriptura is so great! It’s probably my favourite album from him. I came back to his last one, Lifeline, which is not as good but its eponym epic track is still awesome.

Feel free to share your playlist…

Playlist January 2010

// January 17th, 2010 // 5 Comments » // Music

Still a lot of music to start 2010 in the best possible way! So as you can see, Transatlantic’s new album is still on “heavy rotation” here! Sure it’s maybe not as good as the first two albums but it’s still my favourite 2009 album and a great epic progressive rock opus. Crises by Mike Oldfield… I didn’t like it in the past… Not really but somehow, I learnt to like it and now I can say that “Crises” is one of my favourite epics from Mr Oldfield. Elegant Gypsy by Al Di Meola is one of my favourite album at the moment, the guitar work is really awesome! I came back to The Incident by Porcupine Tree and I like it better than before, when I bought it. And there’s always some great classics like Pink Floyd’s albums…

As always, feel free to share your playlist…

Playlist November 2009

// December 2nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Music

Obviously, heavy rotation of November is The Whirlwind by the giant Transatlantic and the new release by the mythic Magma called Ëmëhntëhtt-Rê. Easily two of the best albums of this year in my opinion. The Whirlwind is a huge epic prog party with a fantastic production (Pete Trewavas bass sound is excellent, as his playing of course), I had a lot of expectations regarding this release and I’m not disappointed at all! Ëmëhntëhtt-Rê is a great release too, from the darkest side of progressive world, otherwordly enigmatic.

And I’m still listening to the last Porcupine Tree, Guilt Machine and some other titles :
- Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John
- Tommy by the Who
- Cosmic Egg by Wolfmother
- The Scope by Subaudition
- And a huge revival for the Flower Kings : Flower Power, The Flower King, Retropolis, The Sum Of No Evil, Back In The World Of Adventures…

Epic November, isn’t it?

What about your playlist?

M-Audio Oxygen 8

// November 23rd, 2009 // No Comments » // Gear

Some days ago, I found this used M-Audio Oxygen 8 for my new setup. With its 25 keys, it’s the smallest of the family (Edirol PCR50 and Fatar TKM88) but it’ll be great for small places like my new studio corner. The problem is there is no Windows 7 driver yet as it’s an “old” keyboard but it’s currently under development hopefully. I can’t wait because I’m seriously thinking about something (before recording the second album) which requires keyboards, a lot of keyboards…

Cockos Reaper

// November 22nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Gear

As you can read here, I added some days ago a laptop to my recording setup. I plan to use this laptop mainly to play my VST synths and record my demo tracks here in Paris. I will probably install my Samplitude Pro which I use for audio recording but my main “vst software” was Tracktion 1. Very simple software but I wanted to test something else : Reaper. I’m still in the “30 days evaluation” allowed by the daw and it seems to be a very efficient tool. I created a “project template” (left picture) which loads my most used VST synth with some custom icons. A feature which is really great is how you can manage tempo and time signatures changes. It’s so simple and you can easily render the click source as a .wav file so you can export it in another daw (Samplitude in my case). The fact is I will certainly add Reaper to my recording tools and use it to record my second album.

By the way, here is the beginnings of my new musical “home studio” corner in Paris :

It should evolves in the next days with a dedicated workstation (Studio RTA Mix Station), a USB audio interface and some other stuffs… Stay tuned…

First step towards second album recording

// November 12th, 2009 // No Comments » // Gear

And its name is : Toshiba Satellite L505-10P! Some weeks ago, I wrote about a mobile recording setup (and asked for your opinon in the forums here) but I was a bit lost in the laptop world. I spent a lot of times reading about laptop models and I finally decided to take the Toshiba road. I’m really excited about it because it means that I can start working on demos for Spleen Arcana’s second album. This model is a bit more powerful than previous model I thought about because I felt it would be safer for recording. You can read more about this model here.

I just installed Reaper actually to run some vsti like the great Elektrostudio vintage package which I had on my USB drive and never tried it yet. I have to install Samplitude Pro as well to record drums and vocals. At the moment, I’m using the Asio4all driver to test Reaper and the laptop. The next step is a USB audio interface for a better sound quality, thinking about a Focusrite Saffire 6 usb to record vst synths, bass and guitars (and the great thing is I could use my RME Multiface if I get an Express card to record the drums and vocals which will be recorded at Le Refuge). I’m still not sure about programming. I like to create some demo drums tracks to work on the songs and I’m searching for ideas about this…

To be continued…

PS : Debut album is still available for free for registered members (register here) : The Field Where She Died (128kbps) (1604)

Playlist October 2009

// October 22nd, 2009 // 2 Comments » // Music

October 2009 : Some old prog rock classic of course… Moving Waves, great album which is not just the crazy “Hocus Pocus” song, the 23 minutes long epic “Eruption” is just excellent! QE2 by Mike Oldfield became one of my favourite albums from the artist, his guitar sound and playing are fantastic. Some vintage electronic prog with Force Majeure by Tangerine Dream (one of my favourite) and Heaven and Hell by Vangelis (epic!!). There’s always some place for an Iron Maiden album and actually, it’s Dance Of Death, not my favourite one but still good (and the classic Live After Death which is great!). At last but not least : The Incident of course! Album of the year? One of the great albums of 2009 for sure!! (I have to wait for Transatlantic’s album to talk about “album of the year”, or not…). I can’t tell that it’s my fav Porcupine Tree album but again, high quality modern prog rock, I love “Kneel And Disconnect/Drawing The Line” – Perfect!

I just discovered Bat For Lashes and I can’t stop listening to Two Suns on Spotify. A multi-instrumentalist/songwriter/visual artist with a great voice, beautiful melodies and arrangements.

As usual, I’d be curious to know YOUR october playlist…

Mobile recording setup

// September 20th, 2009 // 1 Comment » // Gear

Thinking about recording Spleen Arcana’s second album lead me to the conclusion that I will need a mobile recording setup. I plan to set up a new home studio in Paris but I will have to record vocals in le Refuge as recording vocals is really too loud to be recorded here I guess.

So it’s probably time for me to buy my first laptop? I could use my new RME Multiface audio interface with an HDSP cardbus to use it on my desktop and then on my laptop. I found this Toshiba Satellite here, which seems to be quite good (Intel® Core™ 2 Duo, 4096 Mo, 250 Go sata hd…).

Today, even cheap laptops are more powerful than my actual audio PC, it’s amazing even if my audio PC is not so powerful anymore. I will need to upgrade it for my next album by the way.

Any opinions, ideas about mobile recording setups are welcome…

Now playing : Tangerine Dream “Force Majeure”

Playlist September 2009

// September 13th, 2009 // 11 Comments » // Music

These days, I mostly listen to the last cds I bought, all the albums in the picture on the left are new in my cd collection. I received my signed preorder of Guilt Machine. I was really curious to hear this new Arjen Lucassen’s music. Well, it sounds like Ayreon with one voice (a great, versatile, voice by the way) and a different, more subtle, drums playing. It’s not so different and I like it for being not so different!

Beside Guilt Machine, I’m in a Santana’s mood. I’ve always loved his guitar playing and all those latin percussions everywhere… It sounds like nothing else! Festival is not his best one but I like it, it brings some light when needed and Moonflower is fantastic!

Still into vintage epic synths music too with Force Majeure by Tangerine Dream (strangely one of my favourite), Heaven And Hell by Vangelis and Oxygene by Jean-Michel Jarre. Epic, spacy and organic… I can’t get enough of this music!

Feel free to share your playlist!

Custom 77 China Girl Raw Power

// September 7th, 2009 // No Comments » // Gear

Custom 77… I introduced you this quite new French brand guitar some weeks ago here.

As I got back a small amp (Vox Pathfinder), I recorded a small video to show how this SG Jr copy sounds. Keep in mind that the sound comes from my digital camera and that I played on a very small amp at low volume. I used my EH Big Muff into a Maxon AD999 analog delay and also a MI Audio Crunchbox – Feel free to share!

The more I play this guitar, the more I like it! Its P90-like pickup is really fantastic! It’s aggressive in a good way with a really nice warm tone that I looked for quite a lot of time. I guess I’ll play it a lot on my second album…