torstai 23. tammikuuta 2014

Some serious mixing and fixing

UUH... Finally time to give update from Mausoleum Gate camp! The debut album of the group is almost complete! Just finnished the second complete revision of the mix , and now we are in the middle of heavy listening session! We are playing the recording for the trusted persons, and possible parties involving the release of the album. The idea that we have extended listenings at this point, is that we want to have some input on sound poltics and stuff, just in case there are some unadressed problems etc. And othervise because we have listened the stuff too much, just some comments how it comes out!

What took us so long, even though most of the stuff were recorded few months ago? Cannot really say, but things sometimes need time! And of course there were tons of other stuff to do as well! And for me the tricky thing was also to get the keyboard parts right, choose the right vocal takes, best solos etc. We had this idea, that we want to have record that sounds like it is band playing live, although we don't have facilities good enough to do it live. The basic idea was to record and use long takes and leave some obscurities on tracks, as long as they are not too bothering. Like you have some tiny time differences and stuff when you play live. I think the result sounds quite "played" and lively, although I really have to dig into the mastering of the record.. Revision 2 we are currently checking out was done by me, but Not sure if I do it myself, or if we have budget, somebody else does it?!? We'll see...

Now some stuff about the album and the music itself. There are 6 tracks, totalling 40 minutes of music! For some this might sound low running time, but for me the rule of the thumb is that once the record fits in one 12" vinyl, the lenght is just right.. and this one sits in quite nicely! Then the music itself! Well like you might expect with Mausoleum Gate, TRADITIONAL AND OBSCURE HEAVY METAL! But in a way I thing we went bit further to the Obscure Direction than before. I think all the involved parties took more risks in playing vise than before... Especially I think Rythm section plays more freely than before, which is maybe heard also with more natural drum sounds than before. Talking about sounds, the guitar sound for my money is really great.. All you need is single channel tube amplifier and then you have to nail it with playing (Laney GH50L and Marshall JMP 2203 was used)! And by the way, we only used three keyboard instruments on the album : Mellotron , MiniMoog Model D and Hammond C3 organ! Talking about old-school...

When the stuff will be out then? Hopefully if everything goes well during the spring! And if everything goes accoding to plan both cd and 12" vinyl, but things rarely go hahahah!

- Wicked