Studio Sessions - Take an insight

Guitar Set Up

We finally managed to progress with our record. The drums and percussions are done. The last two weeks, it was all about guitars. In this section, I will talk about our electric guitar set up.

Basically, we use my Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier amp with my Marshall A1960 cab. The sound settings for each chanel (clean, vintage for rhythm, and modern for drive) remained the same. So, I didn't change the sounds for this record.

What's changed, is the pedal board. Because of the fact that my brother and I play the same system in studio, we need to have a set up that suits both of us. That's why, we added in addition to my pedalboard, my brother's Morley Marc Tremonti Wah Pedal. And as well, we lose the wireless and work with wires again.

As a short overview, the following list shows which pedal are used.

• Morley Wah Marc Tremonti
• MXR Red Compressor
• MXR 90 Phaser
• MXR Zackk Wylde Chorus
• Bogner Ecstasy Blue Pedal
• Boss OD-1
• MXR Smart Gate
• T.C. Electronics Flashback Delay

That's basically it. 

The guitars we use, are few. I play my PRS McCarty and Fender Telecaster Mexican. Julien uses his PRS Custom 24. Though we play through the same system, you clearely hear the difference of the sounds by the two PRS. That's very important to creat a nice stereo sound.

Let's talk about the microphones we put in front of the cab. As you know, we are not fans of creating computerized sounds. Therefore, the sound of our guitar needs to be created directly by the amp itself, and of course its effects. So, we didn't worked with DIs. To catch the right tone of our amp, I put at one side of the amp, in position of 1/4 of the radius of the speaker, the Shure SM 57. That mic pushes the deeper and higher frequencies. I like that a lot. But to have also the nice warmth of the Mesa Boogie Heavy Metal sound, I put at the other side of the cab the Shure SM 27, in position of 1/2 of the speaker. Just listening to the sounds by these two mics in raw, makes you feel like your sitting in front of the Mesa amp. Bellow, you'll find pictures about the set up.

Julien is hitting for some songs his TalkBox. As usual, he playes it through his Mesa Boogie set up. We catch the sound coming through the hose with a Shure SM 57.

Julien and I share all parts - rhythm or clean. Same for soli. Sometimes, he does them, sometimes I do. Just like Myles and Mark do.

Hope, you enjoyed another insight into our work. Hopefully, I will be able to talk about the bass-guitars, accoustic guitars, piano and stuff the next time. 

Until then, take care and keep on rocking.

Enjoy Seasplash!

Studio sessions - Take an insight

Update Artwork

Hey guys, I’m back after vacations. I hope, you all are doing fine and had a good start into a great year!

If you recall the last post in November 2017, I talked about our artwork for our upcoming record. Unfortunately, we are struggling with some serious family issues since New Year’s Eve, so we couldn’t progress with our work. But in December, we were still working and made some changes on the Artwork. Further, we finished designing our new homepage. Check it out on www.seasplash.jimdo.com

But coming back to our updated artwork. As you may remember, the idea of the artwork in the first place was to show a human being broken down in front of a church in the middle of the night. In the darkest of the night, you would find a pair of eyes looking at you. The eyes symbolize the sense of being watched and controlled by religious and spiritual constitutions which form and influence our social system. The idea of bringing forward this statement still stands. But in a different way. 

By accident, a family member of ours shot a sensational photo which shows you a secret door within some ancient walls. The photo was taken in an old church. The door and its sculpture symbolize the eerie and incomprehensible purposes of the religious and spiritual constitutions. What is behind the door? What happens, if I start to wonder, trying to find out the darkest and deepest secrets of such constitutions. What happens, if I start to question their aims on the way to discover these things? That’s what makes the content of the record.

Now, the difference besides the new picture on the cover and the old idea is that we don’t want to give you already the outcome of the content of the record. Rather, with the new artwork we want to awake an emotion of curiosity and the urge to find out what’s behind the door. The cover already gives you an idea about what the content of the record is. But instead of giving you the outcome of our reflections, we now make you curious to find out what our thoughts and inputs are. You find the new artwork attached below and of course on our new homepage.

In short, we will proceed with our work. It’s going to be great. We’ll keep you posted about our work.

By the way, I’m getting more and more into Mark Tremonti’s PRS MT 15 amp. Maybe, I’ll buy one of these and write about it. But seriously, you need to check that amp out!

Thanks for still sticking with our band. 

Keep on rocking and enjoy Seasplash!

Studio Session - Take an insight

Artwork
 

Hey guys, I’m back. Today, I’m going to give you an insight into our artwork for the upcoming record. To be honest, we didn’t do a lot of recording the past month. Therefore, it wouldn’t make sense, to talk about recording stuff. But the idea about the artwork developed itself over the past month and we’ve been working on this. But first, I give you some information about the importance of artwork and why it is so important.

The artwork per se is a very important factor to complete the whole product. At the perspective of a consumer, the artwork gives you a notion about the content of the product. It functions as a teaser to consume the product. Now, the artwork mostly reveals, about what the content of the product is going to be. By looking at the artwork, you expect something about the product and what could be insight. That’s why, you kind of want to consume the product. You are attracted to it and curious about its content. Therefore, the artwork and its content must be consentaneous. Though, there are bands and producers which like to mislead on purpose the consumer by creating an artwork that is not coherent with its content.

You see, the artwork about its content is so important because it is the first message you give with your product to a consumer.

As you know, our record has the story of a human being which searches for the truth. It questions its religion and its social system. On the path to find a personal convenient system, our person needs to break of its current social system in which she or he is trapped. Trying to break out, this person uncovers the dark side of the system, lays out the naked truth, and how perfidious and canting the system covers its flaws and its real aims.

To reveal the story in an exciting way on the artwork, we decided to work with symbols and imagery. The system in the story is represented by a church. To bring out the dark side about the system, the scene takes place at night. The diabolic content is represented by two towers of the church. In the scene you can see a person kneeling in front of the church. That person seems to be crushed. That symbols stands for the fight against the system and shows, how hard it is to fight against it. Further, we intend to draw a gaze of a person hidden in the dark night of the scene. That final symbol stands for the fact, that whatever system our person fights against, is made, controlled, and influenced by other human beings. A little hint of mine, take a hard look on the cover. Then you’ll find the hidden eyes.

There will be other symbols in the scene which refer to our band. For example, our brand will be implemented on the face of the church’s clock.

We are excited to present you soon the artwork.

Hope you enjoyed again reading this post. In December, I will give you the last insight for this year. Hopefully, it will be about the latest progression of our work.

Stay tuned for more information and take care.

Enjoy Seasplash!

Studio Session - Take an insight

Guitar Setup 

Hello dear fellows,

Our recording session is progressing. Now we’re coming to the more melodic part. After recording the drums, we do now instrumental things like guitars and pianos. Let’s start with the setup of our guitar rig. Basically, it’s the compound between my brother’s pedal gear and my stuff. That means, we take my Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier Head and my Marshall 1960 A Cab and put some pedals in front of it. 

 

As you know, usually I play all three channels – Clean, Vintage Drive, and Modern Drive. Same for this record, although the Clean channel has more gain than usual and is set to 100 Watt instead of 50 Watt. The latter is necessary to give the Bogner Ecstasy Blue Pedal the right punch. Before I explain the signal path through all pedals, you need to know that Julien and I share the system. We just plug different guitars and then record. Let’s go back to the signal path.

The guitar’s signal goes directly into the Morley Wah-Pedal. Leaving this, the MXR compressor and the MXR phaser ensue. Usually, I start with the compressor though the Waha pedal needs to be added at the beginning. After the phaser, my MXR chorus pedal represents the follow-up. Then the distortion pedals are up. First, the signal goes into the Bogner pedal. From there it heads into the Boss SD-1. Last but not least, the signal path ends up at the MXR Smart Gate which feeds thereafter the Mesa Boogie. Same as ever, my T.C. Electronics Flashback delay is plugged as a send-return-loop into the Mesa. 

The Marshall cab has two microphones installed. One is the Shure SM 57, the other the Shure SM 27. Both microphones working together produce the sound picture we want for the coming record. 

The electric guitars, we intend to use for the record, will be the PRS McCarthy, the PRS custom, Fender Telecaster, maybe a Gretsch or Gibson ES, and MusicMan Luke III. Hopefully, the latter is going to be in my rig.

I will show you pictures of the guitar setup soon.

Stay tuned for more posts.

Enjoy Seasplash!

 

Studio Sessions - Take an insight

The Smart Gate from MXR

Hey guys, I’m back after a short break. We are still recording and working on our next record. As I have already announced in the last post, I’m going to present in this one my latest addition to my guitar rig – The one and only MXR Smart Gate!

While working on the new songs, I realized that I need a certain gear to get neatness and distinction into my guitar play. As you know, I never needed a “Gate” in my signal path and set my things up as if I was playing with one. But with the speed and heaviness of my guitar sound for this record, I had no choice than include a solid “Gate” into my signal path. Of course, it had to be the one and only “Smart Gate” from MXR. Not only because I’ve always worked with MXR but rather because it is in my opinion the best working “Gate” you can buy. Though it is pricey, it gives you just that what you want for a “Gate”. You are always flexible to set the “Gate” to your current needs. For instance, imagine you are in a live show. You can play a high distorted song with an active humbucker guitar. The next song, you would play something with a single coil guitar. Because of the different noise pattern, the single coil guitar causes, the “Smart Gate” offers a three-band noise cut switch which is exactly made for this issue. So, you are able to switch the “Gate” on stage simply and modulate it to your current needs.

Another fantastic thing about the “Smart Gate” is its refinement of adaptation on your play. That means, you can easily let a note decay without hearing the “Smart Gate” working depress noise. On the other hand, it perceives short intervals of thrashing riffs to make them clear again. Even if you switch between heavy distorted and clean sound characteristics, you don’t have to adjust the settings on your “Smart Gate”. Just let it work. It understands the differences of your play and what you really want to do.

It’s a fantastic gear which I recommend to everyone! Soon, you’ll get a sample to hear. In the mean time check out the YouTube video of MXR.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xpcEsUzYeq8


In the next post, I’ll give you a complex insight on mixing drums and give you some tips.

Stay tuned for more information!

Enjoy Seasplash!

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Studio Sessions - Take an insight

Hi everyone,

Here I am with another insight into our work. The last time, I talked about the microphone set-up on my brother's drums. With this post, we want to give you a little impression on how we work. Because the drums aren't fully recorded yet, I intend to give you a little impression on how we work. 

But before I start, I want to give my deepest symapathy to all aggrieved parties of Chester Bennington's death! 

Now, coming back to a little bit more cheerful issue. Take a look into the recording session from past Monday.

As usual, before continuing with recording, we check out if everything still sounds as it should. Then we test the monitoring / In-Ear-System. This is always one of the most important checks we recommend because it is so necessary to hear the sound perfectly clear and without distractions. That's the only way to achieve precise and flowing recordings.

Screening for drum issues

Checking out the Monitoringsystems

Controll the all settings and mixings for the AW1600 and the monitor mix.

 

As you know, we process the recording step by step. For this record we start with drum recordings. Then we overdub all the rest like guitars, keys, voices and further stuff. But coming back to the drum recording phase. Gilles does not record every song solely and by heart. Sometimes, we accompany him with accoustic guitars for examples (you see me playing there on the left). The attendance brings the huge advantage to provoke a flow while playing. That brings out more the dynamique and emotion of a certain song.

Rehearsal time

One point that marks professionalism is reflecting and rehearsing stuff. That was something we had to learn the hard way. But for the procedure of our new record we have to rehears and discuss every take, to give you the best music we produce. 

Though this post hasn't been a review nor gives it some new information, it still gives you a deeper insight into our work. And who knows, maybe the description of your work makes you considering your way of recording.  

However, I hope you enjoyed it reading again. Hopefully, in the next post I can give you another insight of a different phase of recording. Besides, I'll give you a little review about my latest purchase, especially for this record; The MXR Smart Gagte!

Don't miss out on this post. Now, I do a little pause and be back again in September. 

Still have a great summer and keep on rocking!

Enjoy Seasplash!

Studio Sessions - Take an insight

Set Up Drums

Hey guys. Let’s continue with our studio session for our new album. As I have given you a little review about the Shure SM27 microphons, as well fort he JBL LSR 308 active monitors. In this section, I want to give you an insight to how we set-up the drums.

First, my brother Gilles uses for this recording session a different set up of his drum. Besides the usual stuff like Snare, Kick, High-Hat, Ride, he plays with only one Mid-Tom and one Floor-Tom. On top, he uses two Crashes, one China, and one Splash. Let’s consider the microphone set up.
 

Of course it makes sense to use the Shure SM27 as Overheads. I put them on the right and on the left side of the drum (A/B). It is important to have a space of 0.5 meters between the top of the Crashes and the Overheads. I pointed the Overheads in direction of the Snare though it should slightly catch its sound. Overheads need to catch the sound of the whole drum, but specially the sound of the Crashes. I don’t put a solely microphone for the Ride, but for the High-Hat. This so, because the one Overhead sucks the sound of the Ride directly into it. Therefore, I only need to put a little PG 81 on top of the High-Hat. Actually, I can’t give you the right advice to set up the microphone for a High-Hat. I only recommend to experiment and vary with the position of the microphone. Find out what works for you the best.

For the Kick, I place a Beta 52 in the middle of the Bass-Drum. This so, because I want to have the aggressive Kick a little bit more directly into the microphone and still catch the boom and sound of the Bass-Drum. Of course, I could use a Beta 91A (uniform half-cardioid polar pattern) for the kick and put the Beta 52 on the outside of the Bass-Drum. But I prefer only to use one microphone. 

For the Mid-Tom, I use a PG 56 and for the Floor-Tom a Shure PG 52. 

For the Snare, I put on top a Shure Beta 98DS, and the bottom I put a PG 56 as well. In my opinion, it is necessary to put two microphones for the Snare not only for the heavier bam, but also for the sound. The Beta 98 gives your Snare the perfect snatchy crunchy sound which is sustained by a deeper bam of the PG 56. So you see, it is impossible to get out of one microphone a precise mid-high-end sound and at the same time, you need a precise low-mid sound to adjust delicately.
And here we are. The set up for the drum is done. We started recording a few weeks back. Let’s see when the other instruments will be recorded. If that’s the case, I will give you another insight on the set up.

Below, you'll find some pictures to see, how we set up the mics on the drums.

Have a nice summer and take care.

Enjoy Seasplash!