Ne Obliviscaris Recording Studio Diary

[Tim Charles]

Hey guys!


Well, I've finally gotten around to setting up a studio diary on the forum!

It only took us til the 12th day of recording... but it's all good as there's still sooo much to do and so will be lots of news as we go along.

As you may have read elsewhere, all drums & bass have been completed and all is going well so far.

TODAY- we started recording guitars with Matt & Benji! As well as spending a bit of time setting up, we spent most of the day tracking rhythm guitars for our newest song which none of you guys have heard yet. It's sounding amazing so far which is really exciting.

Well after a very long day, I must be off to bed, but will be sure to update this daily, so make sure you check back regularly.

Feel free to through any questions at me or any of the other guys, and we'll do our best to answer them all as best we can.

Very exciting to be finally recording this thing!!

 

[Howdybums]

Sounds cool Tim, thanks for this

How are you guys gonna be recording the guitars? Amps, mics, mic placement etc.?

 

[Tim Charles]

DAY 2 OF GUITARS UPDATE

Hey guys!

Today, we finished off recording the intro & outro for our newest song which is coming along really well.

The rest of the day went into recording rhythm guitars for 'Tapestry of the Starless Abstract'. Some fans of the demo might be surprised we're bothering to re-recording the demo tracks, but I think when people hear the end result they'll see that this is really how the songs are SUPPOSED to sound. The songs are essentially the same (aside from a handful of small changes to parts), but hopefully everyone will agree that the performances and production will far exceed what we achieved 3 years back.

Sounds cool Tim, thanks for this

How are you guys gonna be recording the guitars? Amps, mics, mic placement etc.?

We are recording all guitars with a clean signal and a mic'd amp signal. We're thinking of using an ENGL 'Fireball' for the final guitar sound, but we couldn't get our hands on one in time, and so we have basically just set up a quick amp sound with a 5150 to track with and then once we've finished guitars, we'll re-amp all the guitars with the ENGL to get our final sound.

This means that for now our focus is less on the amp sound and more on the quality of sound coming from the instrument and also on getting the best possible performances from Matt & Ben.

Though, I say we'll likely use the ENGL 'Fireball' we will probably bring in a few amps when we're re-amping so we can try a few out, and we may also use different amps for different songs/sections. e.g. Clean guitar sections may use a different amp. We'll see how we go...

For those who don't know what re-amping is. Essentially you keep a recording on the clean guitar sound which you then re-route at a later time back into an amp, and into a mic to get the final guitar sound. One of the benefits of doing it this way, is that over the couple weeks of guitars we don't have to worry about the amp or mic accidentally moving 1 cm and changing the whole tone! Plus, clean signals are easier to edit and cross fade between takes etc. meaning that we have more options in regards to the way we record certain sections.

If people have any other questions, fire away! Even if I don't have time to respond straight away, i'll make sure I get back to everyone eventually.

 

[Pethical]

great stuff! looking forward to seeing/hearing more and more

 

[Casey.32]

I can't believe it's been almost 3 years since the demo

 

[poidaobi]

Good choice with the Reamping. Alot of guitarist don't like the idea but it's so flexible when it comes to choosing a suitable guitar tone.

 

[fifthwinter]

Nice work Tim!
When do you reckon an album title will be announced? (and cover art?)

 

[Svartwerk]

All in good time...which means most probably in the new year... as with the artwork also... thanks for the reminder, ha!

 

[GoofPig]

*cough* go to user_Poidaboi for reamping.
Best mesa tones I have found on the webz.

Trueness.

Btw.

Hi Tim.

 

[Tim Charles]

DAY 3 & 4 OF GUITARS UPDATE


Sooo.... another 2 days have passed and many an hour of guitar tracking has taken place in the meantime!

Tracking all the rhythm guitars twice, plus extra rhythm parts & harmonies etc. is pretty involved, but all is going along well.

We finished off the end of 'Tapestry...' and all of 'Of The Leper Butterflies' yesterday and then spent today working on 'Xenoflux' which is a fairly long involved song.

As much as possible we're trying to mute strings that aren't being used for a particular riff to increase clarity and get rid of as many excess noises as possible. Stuff like the pick or fingers clipping any unmuted or unnecessary strings is another focus. Aside from that, there is of course the analysis of the rhythm to make sure it's incredibly tight, and all the stylistic considerations to make sure the riff is being played with the right style/emotion etc. There are also lots of other little things that we're looking out for when tracking guitars as well.

Wonderful to be spending my days doing this at the moment.

 

[Reivas Genocai]

Very pleased to be hearing that guitar recording is underway...cannot wait for this!

So I do have a question!
What kind of instruments (in terms of brand and stuff like that) are Matt, Benji, Brendan and you using for the recording?

 

[steadyisgod]

Brendan with his steinberger bass. And Lab systems amp? Yes?

 

[VredDoesLights]

What Brendan really did to record bass was stand next to a microphone and make humming noises with the occasional high pitched pop and/or slap. Sounds alot better then the real thing I'm told

 

[Benj]

Hey i use an RG 7420 by Ibanez routed with EMG 707 and that's all.

Matt uses his custom made PRS, Dean and Fernandes guitars, Maton for acoustic.

We're tracking with a Peavey 51/50 and a 65 60 for distortion, Blackstar Artisan 100 and Bogner Ecstasy for clean tones.

All those amps are plugged into a Blackstar cabinet, picked-up with a Shure sm-57

Distorted parts will be re-amped with ENGL ( hopefully )

 

[Tim Charles]

DAY 7 GUITARS UPDATE


Hey guys!

Just a quick update, as after a long 10 1/2 hours in the studio today, I've got to head off to bed so I can try and recover in time to head back early in the morning!

Guitars are going well! At the moment we have completed 5 1/2 out of 7 songs for the rhythm guitars. The "rhythm guitars" basically included the "main" rhythm guitar part, and any other additional lead rhythm parts that aren't solos and/or typical "lead" parts. For most parts, we are double tracking the main rhythm part so that they can sit separately panned in the left and right channel. If there are any additional rhythm parts that we think will sit in the middle of the mix (pan-wise), then we only record that part once.

One of the biggest challenges that has arisen is one of TUNING. Being a violinist who has spent 20 years tuning an acoustic instrument by ear every day (I tune my A-string to a tuner and then tune the rest to that string by ear), this is something I'm really particular on. Very frustratingly, some of the guitars being used don't have flawless intonation across the whole instrument meaning that occasionally we'll come across a riff where the strings are essentially "in tune", but there will be notes within the chord that sound out of tune due to the small flaws in the instrument itself.

For one mellow section in 'Xenoflux' we actually spent TWO HOURS going through about 6 or 7 guitars to find one that could play the riff properly in tune! That was a frustrating morning I can tell you that. In the end, we finally found a guitar that could play the part in tune, and we got the part down and it sounds great.

Since then, we've had a few more riffs here and there pop up which have had tuning issues, meaning that occasionally we're trying to adjust to tuning to suit the riff (which sometimes works, and other times makes it worse depending on the riff), or other times we simply have to change guitars to something that will play the part.

It's times like this that I understand why big bands spend lots of money hiring amazing guitar techs to make sure all their instruments have flawless intonation across the instrument for every show and every day in the studio. But for now, we just have to manage as best we can and find something that pleases our ears before we lay down a final take of the part.

Overall, Matt & Benji are doing a fantastic job though! Hopefully we will be completely done with rhythm guitars tomorrow (or at least very close to), at which stage we'll get onto recording acoustic guitars & lead guitar (solos etc.)!

 

[Scourge441]

DAY 7 GUITARS UPDATE


Hey guys!

Just a quick update, as after a long 10 1/2 hours in the studio today, I've got to head off to bed so I can try and recover in time to head back early in the morning!

Guitars are going well! At the moment we have completed 5 1/2 out of 7 songs for the rhythm guitars. The "rhythm guitars" basically included the "main" rhythm guitar part, and any other additional lead rhythm parts that aren't solos and/or typical "lead" parts. For most parts, we are double tracking the main rhythm part so that they can sit separately panned in the left and right channel. If there are any additional rhythm parts that we think will sit in the middle of the mix (pan-wise), then we only record that part once.

One of the biggest challenges that has arisen is one of TUNING. Being a violinist who has spent 20 years tuning an acoustic instrument by ear every day (I tune my A-string to a tuner and then tune the rest to that string by ear), this is something I'm really particular on. Very frustratingly, some of the guitars being used don't have flawless intonation across the whole instrument meaning that occasionally we'll come across a riff where the strings are essentially "in tune", but there will be notes within the chord that sound out of tune due to the small flaws in the instrument itself.

For one mellow section in 'Xenoflux' we actually spent TWO HOURS going through about 6 or 7 guitars to find one that could play the riff properly in tune! That was a frustrating morning I can tell you that. In the end, we finally found a guitar that could play the part in tune, and we got the part down and it sounds great.

Since then, we've had a few more riffs here and there pop up which have had tuning issues, meaning that occasionally we're trying to adjust to tuning to suit the riff (which sometimes works, and other times makes it worse depending on the riff), or other times we simply have to change guitars to something that will play the part.

It's times like this that I understand why big bands spend lots of money hiring amazing guitar techs to make sure all their instruments have flawless intonation across the instrument for every show and every day in the studio. But for now, we just have to manage as best we can and find something that pleases our ears before we lay down a final take of the part.

Overall, Matt & Benji are doing a fantastic job though! Hopefully we will be completely done with rhythm guitars tomorrow (or at least very close to), at which stage we'll get onto recording acoustic guitars & lead guitar (solos etc.)!

You guys didn't intonate your instruments before you went in? I'm not sure what kind of bridges each player has but it's generally not that difficult unless it's a Floyd Rose or something.

 

[Tim Charles]

You guys didn't intonate your instruments before you went in? I'm not sure what kind of bridges each player has but it's generally not that difficult unless it's a Floyd Rose or something.

Of course we did. Matt's guitar was actually serviced and the intonation done on it 2 days before we entered the studio to record guitars. Fantastic intonation on a guitar is still very difficult to achieve though, even when it's done professionally.

And with guitar intonation it's actually impossible to have everything perfectly in tune. (A friend of my cousin actually did a whole thesis at college on guitar intonation with that being the final conclusion) This is not a big deal with most riffs, but occasionally when playing very complex chord patters it can be hard to get every note sitting well enough in tune to get the required overtones that really add a lot of tone and ring to the instrument.

 

[Scourge441]

Of course we did. Matt's guitar was actually serviced and the intonation done on it 2 days before we entered the studio to record guitars. Fantastic intonation on a guitar is still very difficult to achieve though, even when it's done professionally.

And with guitar intonation it's actually impossible to have everything perfectly in tune. (A friend of my cousin actually did a whole thesis at college on guitar intonation with that being the final conclusion) This is not a big deal with most riffs, but occasionally when playing very complex chord patters it can be hard to get every note sitting well enough in tune to get the required overtones that really add a lot of tone and ring to the instrument.

Ah.

Maybe for the next album everyone should just go fretless.

 

[jussstin]

I noticed on last.fm there was a NeO track called 'Black Noise - DRUMS ONLY'. Is this possibly what the 'B' and the 'N' in OPWBN stand for? If so I'm going to have a stab that the 'W' stands for 'Within' or 'Writes'.

 

[Svartwerk]

...no comment, heh, although we use working titles for tracks in progress.... and as for the "w" attempts, unfortunately I can confirm that is incorrect...