... into spacy elements

Started working with the additional space soundscapes / elements for the album. It's going to be bit different with the space sounds than in past few albums, in some ways. Mainly because there's not going to be that much space / scifi soundscapes this time - this is how I feel currently anyway. The difference might not be that audible though. It's connected with the chiptune element actually ... as the chiptunes sound quite spacy in many of the songs, especially in the way big bunch of songs start and end. It souds at times like it is the space soundscapes, instead of "just" chiptune playing ...

... well, I got some songs initially checked in tonight's session. Opening and closing songs will have space elements as well (not surprising, goes with the stories of songs, too). So I got them sorted for now, and also third song got some minimal space elements. Next song that will have space sounds looks like to be song number six. That's where I ended tonight's session, next up is song six.

I'm quite confident I'll get the album ready and released during March if no big surprises come. Perhaps the third week of March ... we'll see how things go. I think the mastering / mixing will be more demanding than anything else left to do.

1st full listening session and thoughts

Even that the material is not in its' final form (space soundscapes + mixing & mastering) I went and listened the full package from start to finish tonight. First time with the vocals I've recorded so far. To get the impression how it all sounds now, at this stage, with fresh ears. I'm glad to say I really enjoyed the listening session. It's really punishing package, but it's not just noise (is grind eva?) - there are some songs with some real hooks in my opinion. For grind freaks, anyway.

Hard to say yet if I need to record some more vocals or fix something, gotta let it be for some days and start thinking & doing some space sound experiments this week.

Oh and also; now that the trailer revealed what the extra factor is (chiptunes combined with grindcore) you can get the idea what I mean in past weeks / months by saying that I've been composing the songs "bit different way" than usually. Kind of. In some cases I've written the grind stuff first, then composed & created the chiptune around the grind ... but in most cases it's been the opposite way; I've composed chiptune first, then composed grind around the chiptune. I really like the way it came out, ... and as you can hear from the trailer, the material is certainly not "overproduced" but funnily it has more resemblance with the early SF soundscapes than past few releases. Vocal style is radically different from how Timo used to sing - but that shouldn't be any surprise. And you can also get the idea from trailer clip, that it will be quite challenging to mix that noisy stuff. But as always, I'm open to challenges. ^_^

Trailer time

Without further blabbin' this time, ... it's here. Trailer. The "extra factor" gets revealed. As well as album name, and a glimpse of album coverart. \m/

Final vocal session \m/

Yes, you read it right: I successfully recorded the screamy & extra vocal bits for the remaining songs tonight. The long outro song included, yeah. Came out all good, but as usual - after a day or two I'll listen it all with fresh ears and see how it all feels. But for now, I'm satisfied with the work I got done. Really happy about it.

And that's not all I did tonight ... I went and started crafting the trailer I've been thinking about recently. I thought I'd had time to only start making it, but I got it almost done. Well, at least the main parts of it. It looks like it's going to be quite a long for a grind trailer but there's explanation for that - it has a story to tell.

It could well be that the trailer hits youtube during this week. We'll see how it goes.

Bunch of work done

Busy weekend (friday eve included) so I only had time to continue with the vocalworks today. But don't let that fool you out, because I got lots of work done today. Really satisfied with the results, too.

During the morning hours I went through the first 6-7 songs of vocal recordings and recorded the extra vocal bits for them all - which means I will not be going through all the songs for third time (first time; sewer, second time; screamy + extra vocal bits). No longer need to record the extra vocal bits as I started recording them during the same sessions while I was recording the screamy / yelly vocal lines from 8th song forwards. The extra vocal bits is not totally different style as it's mainly a style for making the sewer vocals sound more strong where needed.

Then during this evening I recorded screamy bits and the "extra backup bits" for five songs. They came out very good, that's how my initial feeling was about the session. Currently only three songs have screamy vocal parts missing. Songs 18, 19 and 22. Out of those that number 22 is of course the long outro style song. While the other songs are clearly shorter and less demanding, it will be interesting to see whether 22 needs an eve of its' own for screamy bits.

With this rate I'll get the rest vocals recorded in coming evenings and then I'll start looking into the space / ambient sound elements.

The four spacemen

Tonight's session got finished about half an hour ago. It was a very good session, too! Got four songs screamed through (or should I say screeched, more like) ... and I really like the way the songs are shaping now. Some songs are such "straight to face" type grind blasters.

During past two screamy vocal sessions I also noticed a fitting third vocal style I'm already using here and there. It works nicely with sewer background vocals and it's used when the high pitched lunatic type of vocals aren't used. All in all, progressing very nicely.

If my current calculations are correct, there are 8 songs left to be screamed with. Then some vocal finetuning session or two ... and then I'll have to start looking into the space soundscapes. I also got an idea for this whole album as I get it all done, but I might leave the idea for later use.

Oh, and I also got a really funny idea for trailer ... trailer that would also reveal what's the "extra factor" I've been talking since I started crafting this new album. The trailer would also showcase a short bit of grind madness you'll witness with this album, of course.

Ahead with four

Tonight's session was quite a heavy one, again. That combined with slight headache, all right ... yeah. But I got four songs worked. After I got the last song finished I was glad I got it done since the screamy parts certainly didn't help the headache. Not surprising at all. :)

Not much else to say except that there's still so much vocalworks to be done. Better not to think about the sheer amount of it overall, but keep doing it every now and then as days come and go. I'll stop here right now and go sleep this 'ache off.

Triple grind threat

So, I continued with the experimental vocal sessions tonight. Really rough, coarse vocals. Drinking water is the key and still, with my "not probably exactly 100% correct" singing style it's very demanding. It's wise to have numerous smaller sessions like tonight as it's such a demanding task to one's voice. Well, I got some work done tonight:

Three songs got more vocals recorded tonight. I got a vibe that I'll go all the songs through with this current high pitched sort of screamy style - after that I'll go all the songs through ... and possible record some low vocals for emphasizing certain parts and moments.

It will be demanding to get the overall sound where I want it to be - and with being able to mix and master it all in an ... let's say acceptable way. But I am confident I'll make it. It will certainly sound different than past few releases, but it's also easily recognizable as SF material - even with the certain extra factor / element added. It's at the same time "something old and something new".

Continuing them sessions

Only had time to continue recording the vocals yesterday. Actually it's more like going into experimental sessions first, for now. I knew what kind of base layer vocals (sewer style) I wanted, but now I'm experimenting first with what kind of vocals work best mixed with them. It's also about the overall sound, doing my best to keep it together - keep it under control sort of but at the same time letting it "grind out" sonically speaking.

I chose a really sweaty song for the first experiment. Or to be honest, this is not the first one since I have two short songs pretty much completed and the layered vocals in them are quite freaky, high pitched screaming with distortion. So I do have an idea what and how to experiment, but I also have an idea about certain songs having bit different vocals. Perhaps. Anyway, while the already experimented two songs are short bursts of grind, yesterday I went on with the opening song - which is the longest song of the pack. It's the song I happened to make very first, back in mid'December when I thought it would be whole new music project. And as it happens, both the opening and closing songs are long ones and they have awful long set of lyrics if compared to all the other songs. So, ... no wonder it took time and voice to complete vocal experiment on the opening song yesterday.

I'm not yet sure if it came out exactly the way I wanted - but initially I felt it's getting there and the layered vocals made the song feel more hectic. I guess it tells something about the style, if I say how my wife described me recording those vocals; she came from other room, with spooky face, stating that "wtf? you sound like a witch!" ... hah! It made me laugh as it's in a way quite a fitting description. Though unsurprisingly I wasn't exactly thinking about imitating some witches burned at the stake or stuff like that, but perhaps more like how Alan Dubin sounded during his OLD days. :)

Anyway; the experiments shall continue. The opening song might be a sweaty experiment (which is sure is even that it's not so furious than most of the other songs are) but it's also a good one for experimenting certain styles / vocal sound ideas at this stage.

Vocal recording session vol4

I forgot to write about this 4th session yesterday evening so I'll do it now: Yesterday's evening session was quite similar to 3th voc. recording session meaning that it was about one hour session, one long song, base vocals got recorded. That's it for the sewer vocal parts anyway.

While I've been recording these base layer vocals, I've noticed that some things might get bit tricky; there are bunch of songs where the grind parts are very noisy / chaotic - as supposed, yeah - add the extra element / factor (from where this whole album started) and it's at times even more noisy or should I say ... "full" of sounds. So compromises will probably have to be made. I was thinking about this already when I recorded the first song - in a way that the current guitarsound is kind of darker, softer if you could say so. It's not "wall of sound" type of guitarsound that comes straight to face. Choices have to be made, though while guitar is not "in the top of it all" so to speak, bassguitar sound is the other way - distorted and crumbling. Contrasting the guitars and balancing the certain kind of softness, yet leaving room for drums, the extra element and of course vocals, too. I don't think that the vocals would be loudest in the mix, either. Drumworks will be rather strong in the mix, which has always been my way / style of doing it - and it's also my vision of grind from day one; the beats. But if there's anything you can conclude from these thoughts, it's that I will have challenging times from mixing point of view. It will be interesting to see how it all sounds in the end.

Next I'll be recording the other vocal layers, screamy & shouty parts, etc. And then there's the space soundscapes, too, yeah.

Vocal recording session vol3

Tonight's session was pretty tight and short if compared to previous massive ones. Well, that was my plan, too, as the last remaining songs have long set of lyrics. Pretty much four times longer lyrics than average song of the new songs - and average song has 10-20 lines of text.

So, ... it took me about one hour and I got other of the last two remaining songs sorted when it comes to sewer vocals. Really like the way the base vocals came out again. Had an urge to record some screaming for certain parts, but I'll leave the screaming fun for later sessions. First gotta complete the sewer stuff. Getting there, as it's only one song with long lyrics left at this stage.

To be continued, again.

Vocal recording session vol2

After a good set of wintery jogging and stuff I continued recording the base vocals, meaning the so-called sewer vocals which will form the base layer of vocalworks. It went exactly like yesterday, meaning that I consumed lots of water and kept singing in sewer style. While completing some songs I had a really great feeling, like here's a real grind gem for me personally, whoa now!

I got 9 songs' base vocals recorded in today's session. Only two songs remain, currently lacking any kind of vocals. I left them undone for now, as together they contain clearly the longest set of lyrics and even that I've drank lots of water, I don't wanna ruin my voice by doing them tonight. They will be done during the coming evenings, I bet. Better have multiple sessions as I'm not in any hurry.

In any case, this is progressing in a great way, methinks.

Vocal recording session vol1

I did mention "vocal experiment sessions if I'm inspired" earlier, right? Yeah, I know I did. I thought I'd at least do some experiments with styles and soundscapes regarding vocals recording. I thought already weeks ago that I'd record these SF vocals in a specific, experimental way, too. So yes, I did do several short vocal experiments around 11 am today. What happened, is that I found the sound and settings much faster than what I thought. It took perhaps 30+ minutes only. After that I ... was like "ok, let's go and try record some vocals, then!" .. and that's what I did.

It was a long session. Closer to 9 hours today, quite a saturday all right! Full day's work practically. I kept singing & recording and drinking water. Record a verse, take few sips of water, record a verse, take ... repeat, repeat ... repeat. In the end I was stunned about the amount of work I got done, really: 11 songs now have base level vocals, or should I say one layer of vocals. And what is funny, it's that they are done in true sewer vocal style - meaning this is a real return to roots album, hah! Though I can say my skill for sewer vocals seems to be much better these days than it was years ago. Perhaps not doing them at all has improved the skill, ha! You see, the last time I used sewer style was "the awakening" release in 2002. But this will be different though; back then I had nothing else but the sewer vocals and it was rather flat in that way.

Back then I also didn't know much about recording layered vocals, I was only starting to understand all that bit better then (and first time tried layered vocals on "menacing ep" 2003 with Taito on vocals). Now ... I have this idea that the sewer vocal style is the base of the vocals, and I'll do different screamy / shouting / nutcase'ish vocals as another layer. I already tried this today with 2 songs and the result was something I really liked a lot. It means a lot of vocalworks though, 22 songs is practically at least 44 songs, if recording all the lines twice. In some cases I might end up having three layers of vocals so ... lots of vocals to be recorded. It'll be both challenging and rewarding - and of course fun.

I'm planning to continue recording the sewer vocals tomorrow. If things go well, I might be able to get all of them recorded which leaves the other vocal styles to be recorded in coming days & weeks (or weekends).

Oh ... and some visual evidence below. In space no one can hear you grind ... or was it scream? ^_^

Graphics & Coming sound experiments

I spent few hours yesterday evening working with graphical set of lyrics. Got it all sorted out pretty good already, I think. The lyrics package in PDF format is about 24 pages long. Even that some of the songs have very short lyrics. Well, on the other hand, some of the songs have long(er) lyrics. The amount of pages could had been notably shorter, but it's about the graphic nature of the package.

I might start doing some vocal recording experiments during the coming weekend already. Depends on inspiration. The same goes with crafting space soundscapes. Even that I have a certain kind of vision already forming for the space soundscapes; rather short soundscapes. No forced spots for space soundscapes, only using them where the soundscapes genuinely fit and enchance the music. That's the aim anyway.

... and then back to drawing board.

Continued crafting the artwork tonight ... and 'twas a great success, too. Now the album back cover artwork is pretty much 100% finished. Yeah! Not bad at all considering I started from a scratch, didn't have anything else but the idea to go for. Turned out very good and it works great together with the front cover artwork, too.

Now the album artwork is very near complete. I might still tweak the front cover, but I'll let it brew for some time now, I think.