Damn, the days just seem to roll by when it's summer time. So we actually had the first recordings already a week or so ago. We took two days with the crew saturday and sunday (7.-8.6) and laid down drums, basses and most of the guitars for three tracks. Those tunes were Kutteri, Terra Fungus and Hats and Ratchets.For once we got to start in time, as the guys arrived at Vantaa on 10.30 Saturday morning. One missed turn took the extra 30 minutes but no harm there. Toni, Perttu and Aki had taken the day to lay down the basis. Toni and Aki were the ones officially playing and Perttu was there just to strum along so the guys have an easier time to remember where they are in the song.
We were recording actually at Sami's home field, Perfect Sound, which proved to be an optimal place atleast if you ask me. The
drum set, a Kumu, sounded awesome and everything was set up so that things seemed to flow better than I've ever seen recordings go. Aki first set up the drums for an hour and then he banged the song to the computer within three hours or so. No major promblems or not much to point out there. The man knows his job! Some rhythm changes seemed to be a little difficult but that was all.Chuck handled the bass parts with almost the same precision. Which was actually a little suprise, as I heard he had had a hard time during the pre-productions last year. The silly sod had practised I'm guessing. The only hard times we had w
ere when the songs needed changes or when we had to tone donw the playing to fewer notes. The man really seems to have a hard time pluggin' just a couple of notes here and there, but after a while we actually got to record the fewest notes ever in an Indigoflood-song in the middle part of Kutteri, and Perttu actually added to the equation the next day with just some chords strummed. Are we loosing prog here or gaining dynamics? What the hell, atleast it sounded awesome!Before 07.00 p.m. we got done for the day and Aki headed home as he wasn't needed on sunday anymore. Me, Peb and C enjoyed a few brews and some pörpön as P calls it (cheapest possible bourbon, that is), and watched a T. Waits DVD.
Sunday started at 10.00. Tero was supposed to be there at 10, but he was a little late, so we started with Perttu's guitarparts. No problem there. Not much to say there. The man's a fuckin' metronome with the rhythm parts even in a massive hangover. Kudos to the bastard, that's what practise seems to do to a man. The official sound politics are still a bit open, as we just recorded the line signal and used computer generated amps to see what would sound best - small studio, limited resources = every trick is allowed if you ask me. Some Mesa Rectifier, Marshall JCM and Vox were atleast tried out, Sami has the specifics as he was the one turning the knobs. And the guitar changed from a Heritage Les Paul on the rough parts to a Schecter semi hollow body on the cleaner stuff.
I have to say that I though there would be some more messing around with the guitar sounds, but Mr. Sarhamaa had the whole shabang figured out. He's been working that studio for so long that he seems to know what fits where and when, so I decided to just bug out when everything was going smooth.
Tero tagged along actually before 11.00 in the morning too, so as soon as Peb was done, we got to Tero's guitars. He had a bit of a hard time getting in the mood after the long drive, but after a beer or two the man got in the zone. And as everything in the songs was pretty much decided beforehand, we basically just watched the music flow out of him. His own PRS-guitar was the main instrument and for the hard hitting stuff we relayed again on the Heritage Les Paul. Tero is definitely a more feeling based player than Perttu, so we needed a few more takes and he has also had the "pleasure" of cutting down solos, so some stuff needed to be settled on those matters, but altogether everything went down smooth once again.
I don't have the ears for for the perfect tempo or pitch yet, so it had been on Sami's shoulders for two days at this point and as he had a long week behind him, his role as a tempo-nazi had already loosened so much that we deicided to call it a day just before Tero finished all his guitar stuff. So around 7.00 p.m., after picking up the gear, the guys headed home.
Next thing up is going to be more on my side of the fence, as the session is going to include rest of the guitars including the extra touches to the guitar stuff, such as effects, maybe baritons and such, then we're gonna have a brainstorm on the possible extra instruments to be added and then finally do the vocals. Hopefully we get it done in a day with just Perttu and Tero needed, so beginning of next month we're hitting Perfect Sound again, to get a couple tracks completely done, so I can start looking for business partners for the future.
P.S. There were pics taken too, so as soon as Aki send them to me, I'll add them here too.
