Studio Session - Take an insight

 TalkBox and acoustic guitar setup

Hey dear fellows,

 

I'm back with another insight into our work. The past month, we could keep up our pace and recorded a lot of stuff. For instance, all piano, synthis, TalkBox, and accoustic guitar parts are done. What's left now, are bass-parts and vocals which we intend to record within April.

In this post, I explain, how we record the TalkBox and how we set up microphones for accoustic guitars. For synthis and pianos, I don't have to explain a lot. It's mostely plug and play, though we always plug stereo for controlling. 

Let's start with the TalkBox part which only Julien recorded. The set up remains the same, as we use the TalkBox for live. You fix the hose to a Shure SM 57! That’s it. The sound is produced by Julien’s Mesa Boogie Dual Rectifier with the most powerful channel he has. What’s different to our older records is the fact that we now recorded the TalkBox for each song stereo. That pushes the TalkBox-sound a little bit more in front of the mix. 

The acoustic guitar parts instead were quite complicated to find the right set up. If you didn’t know, in studios you usually use to record acoustic guitars at least two signals. One to focus on the strike of the strings, the other to catch the sound of the whole body. The third track mostly takes the DI of the guitar. Though we could have worked with three tracks, we wanted to try something new. Because we use different acoustic guitars with different electronic and sound systems, we left out this possibility. But still, how to catch the strikes and body sound? The body sound is easy. We installed the SM 27 and pointed the membrane slightly turned away in place of the neck and body’s end of the guitar. It’s important to note here that we didn’t set any kind of filter on the microphone itself. But how to solve the issue with the focus on strikes? After trying different things, I installed a SM 57 and pointed it from the bottom of the acoustic guitars onto the strings. Both mics together produce a fantastic sound. As I told you before, we used different kinds of acoustic guitars. Throughout, we used our Takamine 6-String for rhythms and solos. For special sounds and special parts, we used my Yamaha 6-String for finger picking parts. It just sounded somehow lighter and easier than the Takamine did. For one song, we use the Yamaha 12-string. Because its boy is much different than the body of the others, I couldn’t record with the microphones. It sounded awful!  That’s why the 12-string was recorded over its electronics and DI. 

Bellow, you find two pictures showing the setup of the TalkBox and the microphones for the acoustic recording sessions. In the next session, I hope to talk about vocal and bass recordings. 

Until then, stay tuned for more information and keep on rocking.

Enjoy Seasplash!

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!