DEUTERONOMIUM STUDIO DIARY
GUITAR SOLOS
A few words about guitar solos… For the first time in my life I recorded the leads at home. This way I had much more time for the retakes and no one was sitting behind me watching the clock. Well, at least it works in theory. 
After I got the final drum tracks (final tempos & arrangements) I had about one week time to record. In order to keep a relatively normal day rhythm I had a few hours in the evenings, plus a few hours of daytime in the weekend. Not much after all but somehow I managed to survive with a fairly satisfying results. The idea was not to play “too accurately” – as a matter of fact it could be the concept for the whole album. 
I was a little worried about the technical aspects, though. Many things could go wrong. Luckily I made only one small (but time consuming and frustrating) error. Two really difficult solos were recorded with wrong settings. This was very annoying because I had just spent the last 30 minutes for retakes… But now I can happily say that on the next day I really nailed the most difficult solo!
For the recording I used my Line6 Toneport UX1 device and Pod Farm amp software. I recorded two tracks simultaneously, one was the plain signal which was then re-amped in the studio. The other track was a normal distortion sound for a reference. I lowered the distortion level so that I would have to play better in order to make it sound good. Not very fun but shoud be rewarding! I can’t wait how the final results sound!
-Kalle
DAY 8 Wednesday, April 14, 2011
This was a short day, as we got all the rest vocals recorded already by noon. Then we made backup copies of all the recorded material – just in case.
The next thing will be mixing the album, which will happen in May 3-6. Arttu will be cleaning the tracks before that, so there’s no need to spend any time for editing then.
Another great news is that the album cover artwork is ready. The picture was created by a very talented finnish artist Kirsi Salonen. So now Manu’s got plenty of time to work with the album layout. We should also take new promo pics soon, and they will be taken by our label owner and friend Lasse Niskala, who is a great photographer.
DAY 7 Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Third recording sessions started with listening a few songs from a finnish hc-punk band Delta Force, and when checking the album cover booklet, Manu noticed that the drummer is his classmate from elementary school!
Miika started with one of Manu’s songs and despite the fact he’s got some sniffle, his voice is in good shape. After that it was time for another of Manu’s songs, and man, it was a tough one! Around million words to shout into a 4-minute song that also is pretty fast and progressive one… But in the end also it worked out pretty well, for both Miika and Manu.
In between we went to a pizzeria close to the studio, but the pizza there was a disappointment – it looked great but had hardly any taste in it. Well, we got our stomaches filled at least…
Next one in line was Miika’s song that has a pretty long, doomy ending in it. Besides normal shouting, there’s also some spoken parts full of feeling in the end of the song.
We did a bit shorter day today to spare our voices so we can also give our best tomorrow. One complete song and some parts from another one are still waiting for vocals.
DAY 6 Thursday, April 1, 2011
The day started in not-so-good feelings, as when we arrived to the studio, we noticed that for some reason all the vocal tracks we recorded yesterday had disappeared… Or then it is just April 1st, we’re fooling you and everything’s fine in studio.
We continued from where we left yesterday, making the final fixings and additions for the vocals in opening track. After that we did a couple of easier songs – vocal-wise, that is. Actually they were easier rhythmically, but just as intense – shouting your lungs out all the time! The main vocal style on this album is aggressive thrash shouting, with some growls, screams, shrieks and yells as well as some semi-clean melodic vocals thrown in here and there as a spice. Also some spoken parts will be found on the album, but we’ll tell more of that soon…
Kalle’s song kept on haunting Manu – while recording his vocal parts to that one, he got a bad headache and started feeling really sick – almost throwing up, most likely because of lack of oxygen in his brains, caused by intensive shouting… Due to this he had to leave rest of his vocals to the next sessions. Miika still continued, and got his vocals done for a couple of more songs before his voice started being pretty tired. However, we were well ahead the planned schedule, so there’s no need to try and get any more vocals recorded today. So we decided to leave the rest for the next sessions, that will take place between April 13-15. Until then…
DAY 5 Thursday, March 31, 2011
Miika started the day with one of Manu’s songs and nailed the first guitar on the first take! The other one went pretty much in the same way, so he seems to be in very strong playing mood today. He got all the remaining rhythm guitars (4 songs) recorded in one and a half hour. Job well done! After that he played a guitar solo into one of his songs, a part that we call by name “läl-läl-läl-läl-lieru”. In the solo we used a Marshall JMP-1 rack pre-amp.
At this point it was time to enjoy microwave thai meals and coffee and ice cream as dessert. After eating Miika played clean guitars and one extra guitar into album’s “slow&sensitive” song. When starting to adjust the sound for the extra guitar, Arttu, the Wizard of Watercastle, said “ok then, now we’re about to make some art”. We tested a combination of SansAmp PSA-1 rack pre-amp and T.C. Electronic G-Force rack multieffect for the sound, but finally we decided to use an old Colorsound Supa Wah-Fuzz-Swell pedal, ’cause with it we got really twisted and disturbing sound we were looking for.
Kalle came to studio at 1.30 p.m. with the solos for two last songs. The lead guitars will be re-amped using Marshall JMP-1 pre-amp and the Egnater head. The cabinet is the same Marshall 4×12″ that we also used for rhythm guitars. After getting them re-amped Miika played one more lead into one of Manu’s songs. Then all the guitars were recorded, so it was the time to start recording the vocals.
Miika started with the melodic vocal parts. There’s not a lot of them on these songs, but still some. To the end of one song Miika and Manu sang some “punk monk choir”. And to the end of that “slow&sensitive” song Manu shouted his lungs out (maybe that gives you some idea of how sensitive that song finally is)…
Before calling it a day they got vocals recorded for the opening track of album, a really furious and thrashy song.
DAY 4 Wednesday, March 30, 2011
It’s the first day of the second recording sessions. The day was started by Manu recording the remaining bass parts, that one tricky riff in Kalle’s song and one complete song. Manu had been sweating at home with that one riff and made a new bass line for it, that actually made the whole part sound more groovy. All the basses were recorded by noon, so it was time for a lunch break.
With our stomaches filled with always so delicious microwave meals it was time to start seeking the right sound for rhythm guitars. We were testing both Koch, Egnater (by Rocktron) tube heads and Mesa Boogie tube combo, as well as SansAmp and Marshall pre-amps. We really liked the sound of Egnater head, so we decided to use it for the rhythm guitars, and record one rhythm guitar with Miika’s Gibson Les Paul and the other one with Manu’s Gibson Explorer. Explorer has a Seymour Duncan bridge pickup, so it’s got a pretty much different sound than Miika’s Les Paul with original pickups.
Around 2 p.m. Kalle showed up. He had been recording his leads and solos at home, so we wouldn’t need to spend so much time for guitar recordings in the studio.
Now that you can hear the songs with the guitar harmonies, they really start to get their shape – and what we hear, brings smile on our faces! By the end of the day Miika had played rhythm guitars for 8/12 songs. It’s good to continue from this tomorrow!
DAY 3 Friday, March 18, 2011
Manu is not known as the quickest possible guy to wake up in the morning, so he needed to get a couple of big cups of strong coffee before being able to start working. After that he started the day with one of songs he had written. After getting a couple more songs recorded it was time to have a lunch break, so we headed towards Damaskus, our long-time favorite kebab place in Jyväskylä. There we met J-J and his wife Mariana, and enjoyed the buffet offerings like kebab and pizza. With full stomach and good feeling we returned to the ääri of the sorvi.
During the afternoon Manu faced two riffs that almost broke his nerves… Almost? He had figured out the rhythm in them a bit incorrect way and that caused some extra challence when the mistake was noticed while trying to record the riffs. It was not too easy to change the counting in your head after training the riff incorrectly for weeks… Well, he finally got the first of them played and moved on to next songs. But after getting basses recorded for a couple of more songs, the other problematic riff came ahead. After trying to get the rhythm and counting for this fast riff in Kalle’s song for around 45 minutes, they realized the bass recordings couldn’t be completed during this day, so Manu decided to go on and leave the difficult riff ’til the next recording sessions. It’s funny that this same song was the easiest one for J-J to play in… Manu got one more song recorded before it was the time to call it a day.
By the end of the first recording sessions we had the basses played in for 10/12 songs. The next sessions will be on March 30 – April 1, when the plan is to record the remaining bass parts and at least all the rhythm guitars, maybe some lead guitars too. Stay tuned for more updates on the making of Deathbed Poetry – Hope Against Hope! Until then…
DAY 2 Thursday, March 17, 2011
The second day in studio started by recording drums for one of the most difficult songs in these sessions. This song, composed by Manu, took a bit more work but no real problems, more like getting the little drummer boy warmed up first. Next one in line was Kalle’s composition, a real thrashy fist-in-your-face piece. For J-J it was a piece of cake – the second take of that one was really great playing and we were really satisfied with it. Day’s third song was a bit more complicated again, and surprisingly it was again one of Manu’s compositions. The other guys keep on wondering why can’t he just learn how to count to 8, instead of counting to 5, 7 or 9 most of the time. But hey, what can you expect from a bass player – 5,7 and 9 are close enough to 8, right?
All drums were recorded a bit before 2.30 p.m. Then we listened all the drums through just to make sure there’s no need to make any changes or fixings in them, before dismantling the drum setup and starting the preparations for bass recordings. Manu got basses recorded for two songs today, so he’s got 10 more to go tomorrow.
DAY 1 Wednesday, March 16, 2011
We started the recordings of our fourth album at Studio Watercastle in Jyväskylä on Wednesday, March 16. It was great to work with studio wiz Arttu Sarvanne once again – it felt like coming home when we arrived to the studio. At first we went to a local music store to pick up a new snare drum. Or actually two of them, so we could compare the sounds of two different snares, a brass Gretsch and a wooden Sonor. After trying both of them, we ended up using the Sonor in these sessions. After tuning the drum kit and finding good drum recording sounds, it was time to unleash drum artist Kontoniemi. He started really well, playing in a furious way. By 4 p.m. he had already played the drums in for four songs with some help of Miika’s demo guitars. We were really excited about the intensity of his playing!
For sixth songs J-J played demo air drums for Miika’s demo guitar, that’s something new!
By the end of first day of these sessions we had drums recorded for 8/12 songs. Not bad, huh?
3 Comments 16 March 2011 Manu