This is a great thread. I'm enjoying it.

Bruce

We spent all day today recording guitars. We had started to do it last week but the best amp we had was a VHT, which worked well for the metal record I recorded here last year, but was the totally wrong sound for this record. The VHT was a little to hard sounding. It did not really have much dimension or texture. So we arranged to borrow a Fender Deluxe, and that is working much better. I had heard that were were going to also get a 50 watt marshall, but it ended up being a "Valvestate", and I was not about to mess up this records with solid state amps. I have been so spoiled back at my studio in LA with my Jule Amps Brenda K. That amp is so easy to make sound great on records and so flexible that it makes working with other amps seem like a struggle, but the Fender Deluxe took a bit more work, but we are getting some fun sounds. We do not have a huge selection of pedals but a Line 6 delay modeler and an Electro Harmonix micro-synth are working hard to makes some cool sounds.


We have about 1 or two more days of tracking and then I start mixing which I am really looking forward to. We have managed to get a lot of cool unique sounds that are going to be really fun to mix. Lots of color and texture.

I got to have a day off to be a tourist yesterday which was nice. I always love just walking around Reykjavik and yesterday was Seafarer's day, so there was extra fun stuff to check out around the harbor, and over the weekend I got to go out with my friends here for an awesome lobster dinner.

Any one that has been in the music business for any length of time knows that it is riddled with struggle and heartache, but its always times like this when I get to hang out in cool places around the world, work on great music and make great friends, its all easily worth it.

Very cool. What a great gig when you get to experience another culture.

While it was local (well, in beautiful Tofino BC in a 4 Star lodge,) I spent 4 days recording Japanese singers. Warm, friendly, dedicated ppl. It was a lot of fun and one day I hope to get to do something similar to what you're doing, by going to another country for a session

quote:

Originally posted by Bazz:
While it was local (well, in beautiful Tofino BC in a 4 Star lodge,) I spent 4 days recording Japanese singers. Warm, friendly, dedicated ppl. It was a lot of fun and one day I hope to get to do something similar to what you're doing, by going to another country for a session

I think it way my work in the beautiful mountains of Canada that really got me thinking Globally. I was lucky enough to have a gig as a producer in Residence at the Banff Centre for the arts in Banff, Alberta and it gave me a great opportunity to work with amazing musicians from every corner of the globe for two years. Working with musicians from Cuba, Japan, Russia, Greenland and everywhere in between really opened my eyes to a lot of stuff.

We are doing some editing. Albert is a kick ass editor, so I am getting to hang out on the couch while he does most of the editing. I am loving this!!

Jule

We are done with most of the recording, so we are having a lot of fun adding extra colors to the record. The band has a lot of radio appeal but its really important to all of us that this be a work of "art" that can get played on the radio rather than a straight pop record. No real fear of that but we really want the record to have a unique feel.

We did a couple cool things I have never done before:

There is an Icelandic artists that makes and plays musical instruments made of stone, things like stone Marimbas. We got one of his rocks tuned to G. To make the sound a little more dramatic we placed it on top of the reverb springs of an old organ and played it there and then miced the speaker of the organ with an SM57. Its a very cool crazy sound. we put it in one of the most radio friendly tracks on the album.


The other thing we did was record a Fender Rhodes by micing the tines with a DPA 4011 into a pacifica and then compressed it about 20 dB with the nuke setting on a distressor. Its a totally unique sound that sounds pretty whacked on its own but blends into the acoustic piano and Glockenspiel tracks. Its going to be really nice once I EQ all the midrange out of it in the mix.

This is Skeli the bass player. he turned 17 last week.



One more day of recording and editing and then I have to start mixing this thing. I will have 5 days to mix the album.

It looks like a few of those keys did not survive the session!LOL

Great thread, I am enjoying these a lot!

so in 5 days we will get a clip or two?

quote:

Originally posted by Discolightning:
so in 5 days we will get a clip or two?

Well if you have a really good radio antennae, you can hear me interviewed on 101.5 Ryk FM and I will be debuting a track.

Aside from that, we are not sure when we are going to release the stuff out into the general public. I have to get it mastered when I get back to LA. I am sure we will get a track or two on myspace as soon as possible.

Finally we started mixing. Its going well. Its almost midnight, sun is coming through the window and its about time to sleep.

Since me sitting on my pudgy ass mixing a record is nothing to look at, here is a random funny Iceland pic.

Soundspell rockin' the vocoder in the Korg Microsynth.


In case you ever wanted to know what it looks like being interviewed by Icelandic radio.

They seemed most interested in the fact that Dave Grohl and I were in the same band at different times. Its was fun.

Still digging into mixing. I am little behind schedule so I have to kick some ass in the next few days. We did a lot of cool sound manipulations when we tracked so a lot of it is a balancing act. A lot of the are not traditional pop songs at all, many of the songs have lots of keys and not drums, so the big challenge is figuring out where the energy comes from, and how to hold the mix together. For processing I have 2 distressors, a Drawmer 1960 (with a busted channel) and Lex 480L, Eventide H3000, and a Roland SDE330, as well as all the console EQ and a few plug ins.

mixing in Iceland or at your place?

quote:

Originally posted by Discolightning:
mixing in Iceland or at your place?

Mixing in Iceland. It would be nice to mix in the comfort of my own studio, but Albert and I are doing everything together; all the production, engineer and mixing.

We just finished mixing the tune with the miced Rhodes tines. I think its the coolest sound on the record so far.

are you guys mixing ITB pro tools or OTB on the TL console?

quote:

Originally posted by lpkyer:
are you guys mixing ITB pro tools or OTB on the TL console?

On the console. I will mix demo stuff ITB sometimes, but any real masters are mixed on consoles for me.

I think I like the TL Audio board. I am still not really used to where the sweet spots are but its pretty music and I really like the ergonomics of it.

IF you were ever wondering what it looked like getting interviewed for Icelandic TV


My flight leaves in about 17 hours and we still have one and a half songs to mix. I have a feeling its going to be a late night. This made a tougher by the fact that I did not sleep too much last night. The weather here is perfect now which means its basically sunny all night. I think that had something to do with it.

Gotta get back to mixing. More later.

2:30am. We are just starting to do final edits before mixing the last tune. 14.5 hours until I leave. Looks like it going to be a late nigh!

Keep 'er up, cowboy! This is FUN, remember?

...Ronan...?

WAKE UP, BUDDY!!!

Burning midnight oil under the midnight sun, Cool!

Just curious, why didn't you mix the stuff at your place, was it b/c the other engineer and band were co-mixing? Just seems like you had to compromise more on the tools than you would have if you were at home.

hope you had a blast!

quote:

They seemed most interested in the fact that Dave Grohl and I were in the same band at different times. Its was fun.

Hey Ronan- We played with Scream back in the day- an amazing band. I don't know if it was you or Dave on drums at the time, but I remember it was a fun show and Skeeter was a great bass player. Here's a nostalgia link: www.myspace.com/massacreguysslc

BTW, I've really been enjoying the Iceland thread. When the Olympics were in SLC I met some guys from the Icelandic ski team. Really nice people.

Jon