Vladislav, babu don hurt's me

Hiyaah!

I've been thinking about writing back here, but alas, procrastination and being busy has been a problem, as always. Thought I'd do a short update on what's generally up to get it over with. And because I'm sick right now and can't really do anything productive anyway due to the general lack of energy, and the fact that it sounds like somebody snuck a pair of LP filters in my ears. So no mixing for me either, unless I really want to kill myself later downstream.

I've been doing some work for some MoonTV stuff now. Generally it has been a very cool experience, mixing the live audio for the audience, composed of mainly us staff and the occasional friends of the bands, and also recording the audio from the desk and mixing it afterwards for the guys to put on the video. I won't say mastering, since I mainly just made it louder and did some little eq'ing. In any event, they're going to be up later, I might post some links on the ones I feel most proud about. Been using my trusty Profire 2626 and Pro Tools 9 for the recording there, so 8 channels going in, which has obviously limited my choices as far as what options I've got mixwise. Some amount of weirdness have gone on too, but hey, you deal with it accordingly and move on with it; it's how this whole doomed AE business and getting better at is is completely about anyway. And I guess why my problem solving masochistic self loves it so much, eh? Anyway, I digress. Mixing I've also done in PT (with only the stock plugins, fuu), but mastering I've done in trusty old Logic. It's funny, I've got this recent affair going on with PT and going "ahh, if only this was so easy in Logic", until I turn on Logic again and remember just why I dig it. Glad I can just use both!

And... no new gear purchases! Holy shit! What's this all about? In truth, I've been questioning my need for any special stuff. I've made some plans concerning an Apogee Duet 2 and Audio Technica ATH-M50's as a second pair of headphones (I'll be selling the K240 Studios). Some plugins too, mainly Cytomic's The Glue, will probably be added to my short list soon-ish. To be honest though, I DID buy a Magic Trackpad just recently. I'm absolutely floored with how effortless doing mixing and especially automation is with it. Tremendous workflow improvements are always cool. Just a hint, if you've got one or are considering one, enable three finger dragging right off the bat and hello Reaper-stylee scrolling-on-faders kind of thing. Nice. Not really missing the Frontier Alphatrack at all.

And considering gear, shameless self plug! Buy my Mbox 2 Mini (no PT9 license included) and my Wolf Jazzbass! Ask me on eg. Facebook for more. Will partially fund the Duet 2 with these things.

Generally life's been all good and smooth, having fun and doing cool stuff (key words include Boris, spinning dicks and lo two's). Also decided to really kick the band stuff into a more serious phase, and we just got a new practice spot. Gonna have a little test drive rehearsal next week or so. Aeghistus is also finally all edited for real, more info on that one when it's relevant. Just the mixing and mastering are up, and they won't be handled by me. Really got to use elastic audio like a boss on that one, and now consider myself unstoppable with it. Ha.

Also been checking out Slipperman's Recording Distorted Guitars from Hell for like, I don't know, the dozenth time? I still consider it an amazing goldmine of equal parts information, hilarious rants and humour. Do yourself a favor and czech it oot if you haven't already: http://www.badmuckingfastard.com/sound/slipperman.html

Saw Animals as Leaders and BTBAM live last week too. I need to get back to practicing guitar regularly, I was rather impressed.

Promise I'll be back sooner next time!

Summer and stuff

Well, what do you know, it's already summer and I haven't updated in two months. Surprising, ain't it!

I didn't land myself a job for the summer, and am currently bored enough to write a new update. You could say I'm having a summer vacation right now. Essentially it started a while back if you count from when the term ended at school, but I kept myself busy by recording stuff at the school studio (which is now closed), fighting the bureaucracy that is Helsingin Sosiaalivirasto and doing the odd live mix thing. Now it's essentially freedom time; feels good man. I've thought about composing some new stuff, getting (hopefully) better in Starcraft 2 and doing stuff I haven't had time for what feels for a long time.

Aeghistus is now retracked as it should be. And it's better than it originally was. All in all, a valuable lesson in many aspects - everything except the bass was retracked eventually, hard drive failure destroying the original vocals and so much shit going crazy it's... well, crazy. Now it's finally only a matter of editing the retracked vocals and sending them off to get mixed and mastered. Next album is going to be very different concerning workflow, pre-production and a wide variety of other, less interesting ways. Material's going to be posted when it's in a presentable form, meanwhile feel free to stalk the news feed at our home page.

The other project I'm involved in right now has now had everything but the vocals tracked. There are some logistical issues right now, which we'll have to figure out something to do with soon. I'll also handle the editing as soon as I feel up to the task, as there are some difficult things to be pulled off. I'm very interested in hearing the end results, that's for sure. Working with the band has been both a breeze and a pain, and I really want it to sound as amazing as I can make it.

And no gear updates! What the fuck! I'm going to have to do something about it soon, because after all, no new toys to play with is a sad way to spend your summer. I guess the only things worth mentioning that have changed in some manner is the fact that I'm using both the HD650's and Pro Tools 9 more. I realized just how much my room sucks right now, and I need to make some changes. I hope that my procrastinating ass is done with AT LEAST dealing with the first reflections when summer's over. We'll have to see about that...

As far as normal life is concerned... I don't know if anything has happened actually. Another "what the fuck!" -moment. I need to do something about this living thing obviously, it's becoming blatantly obvious that I'm still far too much of a nerd for my own good. This actually reminds me, I've been reworking some less-than-productive patterns in my ways of thinking, and it's some good stuff. Nothing I'll start babbling on about in here, but it's been a fruitful thing in many ways. Actually, I think I'll make this stuff a more important priority, because it's going to be both difficult and awesome. But that's about enough of the pseudo-intellectual stuff.

By the way, I actually tried to make this update a bit more laid-back by not trying to analyze everything I write as hard but... I think I failed. I don't think I want my blog to be so strict and "business-oriented". In a way it's cool to instantly know what things you're going to write about, but it becomes so boring to people who just want to read thoughts of "some dude who does the music stuff" instead. I know I'd rather. But who cares, I promise I'll make a conscious effort from now on. And I'd like to have pictures, that'd be fun.

Also, listen to Supercar.

Viridian

I sure do feel like I'm just lazy, but even though it's probably partially true, mostly I've just been too busy to think about updating. Anyway, I decided I'll do an update now, because I'll be less busy for a little while now. I still do have to get myself some work for the summer, study a ton as I'm applying to university again and stuff like that though, but I'm giving myself some leeway for now.

Since this blog seems to focus mostly on gear, I think I'll start from there. I actually managed to invest quite a pile of money on new stuff, and most of it has already seen quite a bit of use. I think I'll just list stuff I got and comment on them a bit, since I don't really feel like rambling about them more than what I feel is necessary. To be honest, I haven't really been GASing hard for anything special in a while, which is a nice change! It's gonna be back for sure, but I feel I've also started to question my choices and think more seriously about whether I really need this or that that much after all.

So anyway,

Sennheiser HD-650

First of all, I got myself a new pair of headphones. What can I say, they sound amazingly detailed compared to my old AKG K-240 Studio's, and feel much more comfortable even when wearing them for longer periods. I've actually forgotten I was even wearing them a couple of times, and only noticed when I feel the wire getting tighter as I'm making progress towards the door... The only negative things I can think about these is probably the flimsy build; I seriously think that something as expensive as these should've been built more robustly and feature less plastic or plastic-y parts and materials. They're also somewhat hyped in the bottom end, but I don't dislike that. It feels familiar, actually, since both the monitors I'm using (Yamaha HS80M) and the AKG's both certainly have no abundance of bass. Overall, a very good purchase, and I've happily even mixed some less critical things on these, and after some auditioning on other familiar systems, the mixes translated no problem.

Mbox 2 Mini & Pro Tools 9 Crossgrade

There's not really anything special about these I guess. Just got myself Pro Tools 9 the cheapest way it was possible. The Mbox 2 Mini has seen quite a bit of usage as a mobile interface, since it's far easier to carry around than my Profire 2626. Pro Tools 9 is what it is, and I like it for that. It's not going to be my main choice for a DAW any time soon, but I'm considering to switch editing duties there. And I'll happily mix a session I get as a PT project file right there in Pro Tools, rather than going through the tiring process of shifting stuff into Logic. Anyway, I need to record some stuff with it and see how I like it.

M-audio Axiom Advanced 61

I seriously don't really know what to say about it, since it's the first non-shitty midi keyboard I've owned. Beats the shit out of the LPK25 I've also got, that's for sure (and not a surprise). Does what it's supposed to do and I like the feel of it, which is one of the main reasons I got it for. I'd tried the older Axiom series keyboards earlier and liked the feel of them the most, so it felt like a good choice to go with.

Wolf Jazz Bass & 7-string baritone Telecaster

Got these from a group order, made in Korea and cheap. Build quality is how cheap instruments are built, so no surprises there. The Jazz Bass is surprisingly good, and I'll definitely be keeping it for a while. I'm still on the fence with the Tele. It looks good and plays well enough, but then again sounds meh and needs quite a bit of work to make it an actually gigworthy instrument. Luckily, I've already gotten offers for it if I decide to sell it, so I'm in no hurry to see if I decide to like it or not.

Wangs VT15H & Biyang CO-10

The Wangs is a cool 15 watt tube head, supposedly based on a modified JCM800 circuit. Sounds good to me, I just need to get myself a cabinet to use it with. I've been trying it with my flatmate's 2x12" and it sounds pretty convincing, at bedroom levels at least. The Biyang is apparently from the same manufacturer (based in China), and as I already own some of their pedals, I already had an idea what it'd sound like. And it delivers. The attack and release are weird, it most definitely is not transparent and overall it sounds somewhat bad compared to other compressor pedals I've used. And that is exactly what I wanted. Lo-fi goodness, oh yeah.

And last but not least,

Macbook Pro 15" 2,2ghz i7

So much processing power. I haven't run out of cpu even once yet, and don't think I will too soon. And it looks so pretty compared to the early 2008 model that it replaced...

I got some other things too, such as a Korg Monotron and a Danelectro Cool Cat Tremolo, but I don't consider them interesting enough to write about.

Since my last post, I've also been doing more mixing gigs. I still feel like I'm constantly improving, and I even mixed my best gig yet some time ago, which I got a bunch of compliments for. Needless to say, it felt very good and reassured me that I'm indeed progressing. I also did some gigs that I honestly don't feel sounded as good as the others, partially because they were my first times with extreme music (most of it was black metal and death metal) and partially because the venues and gear were foreign to me. Which is something I most definitely have to learn, and the experience I gained is still very valuable.

I've also finally been recording things again! And that is not all gravy, since one project I'm working on needs to have all of the vocals retracked. My external hard drive (Lacie d2 Quadra) broke down completely, and obviously after first panicing I sighed with relief, realizing that I'd routinely made backups of the material. As it turned out, backups of everything else BUT the vocals, since the files were elsewhere and I hadn't used Logic's "copy external audio files to project folder" save setting. Live and learn - the hard way. We begun the retracking a while ago, and the first song is now done, and as soon as we manage to book more studio time, we'll work our way through the rest of the material.

The other project we've now tracked drums and rhythm guitars for. Both turned out really nicely, and I'm quite happy with how it's sounding right now. We'll be continuing with bass as soon as we can, then moving on to lead guitar and vocals. I'll probably upload some wip snippets when it hits a phase when everything is tracked, it starts to sound more coherent and I've got a raw mix going.

Life in general is going ok, I'm just so busy that I constantly feel more tired than I'd like to. I've had to skip class just so that I could rest for a while and sleep properly. I guess it's just how it has to go right now, otherwise I'm not sure I'll be able to reach the goals I'm aiming for. This morning was a laugh for example, as I hadn't had time to do the laundry in a while. After I woke up I realized that I had to go commando for the day or think of something genius. I decided to do the laundry, and after the program finished, I dried a pair of underwear with a hair dryer. Genius indeed.

I guess I should also mention that I moved to Itä-Pasila halfway through December, and it's going pretty awesome here. Haven't held a housewarming just yet, but it'll eventually happen. We've also got some new band stuff in the works, could be interesting.

That's all for now, I think I'm going to sit back and watch some Liar Game.

Learn to swim

Soo.

I sort of forgot to update. Oops.

Well, in any case, I thought I'd give a little update on what's going on. I've been quite busy with things musical and non-musical. I've also bought some new toys, with more to come after I decide to pull the trigger on them.

So what exactly was it that kept me busy? I've been re-tracking some guitars for an upcoming album that I recorded and am also mixing. Actually, I already mixed it once, but the end result wasn't really pleasing enough yet, and had some problems with instruments clouding each other. I also ended up taking out far too much lows, which resulted in a thinner mix than I would've liked. All thanks to my absent-mindedness which made me forget to check the room controls on my monitors when we switched rooms with my flatmate. The room I've been living in since August is tiny, so I've had to put my monitors both near the walls and corners, resulting in low-end boostius maximus. So needless to say, I thought everything sounded boomy and eq'd it all out, when it really was just my shit room acoustics fooling me. And as my headphones, the AKG K240 Studios, are really bass heavy, they didn't make me realize my mistake either. Good thing I referenced with other setups. Also made me really happy that I'm moving out of my current apartment soon and made me add new headphones to my G.A.S. list.

I've also been gaining some more FOH-experience under my belt; did my first rap gig, first (and second) theater gig, the latter pair forming my first tour as well. Have to say, they did a lot of good to my live mixing confidence and again, made me learn a lot more about doing live sound. Perhaps the most important two words: gain staging. Other things I realized:
- Gain staging.
- Rap vocals are hard.
- Stay away from digital Spirit desks by Soundcraft.
- Eq can also be your enemy.
- As can compressors. See first one.
All in all, I feel like I'm progressing noticeably on every gig. Wonder how many experience points I still need to level up?

And yeah, I did spend some money too to keep myself entertained and to make mixing more fun. First off, I got a few plugins from Stillwell. Namely, the 1973 and Vibe Eq, Major Tom and The Rocket compressors and Event Horizon limiter. I've mostly been experimenting with the eq's and compressors, since my use of limiters's limited (ehh) to the master bus. The Event Horizon though also works as a clipper, which I have a bunch of uses for. I really like the compressors, especially The Rocket, which is a simulation of a 1176 (Major Tom being along the lines of a DBX 160). The Vibe Eq I also found to sound very pleasing, boosting with it just sounds... pleasing? compared to the stock Logic eq. That's not to say that the Logic eq is "bad" or anything. They're different tools with different (although similar) uses. All in all, good purchases and I'm finding a lot of use for them.

I also spent some money on new controllers; the Frontier Alphatrack Pro and TouchOSC for my iPod Touch. And I kind of regret getting the Alphatrack now... I mean, TouchOSC costs about €4 and it does everything the Alphatrack does, plus it's wireless and can be set up to do even wilder things with different layouts. I guess I might as well sell the Alphatrack now and get a 8 fader controller later. I realized that I prefer the faders for setting up balances and that the fader automation is just a bonus for me, which is quite the opposite of what I thought.

Well, in any event, back to work and life and things. I'll try to make my next update a little sooner. I already got myself some presents, but I think I'll get a few more!

By the way, do listen to 凛として時雨's new album (still a Sigure virgin?). It rules.

Retarded first post

Hellooo.

So, after being sick for the three days now and being bored out of my mind, I decided to start this blog I've been thinking about for a while now.

As you might have guessed (especially those who know me), the stuff you're going to see me ramble about here is going to be focused on music. So those who stumble upon this blog searching for the latest fashion tips, you're going to be disappointed. As if I had money to invest in clothes after getting this pedal and those plugins and these new cd's and... You probably get the message already. Besides the obvious focus on gear, since I'm such a nerd and constantly suffering from G.A.S. (suffering but enjoying too, whyyy), I'm also going to post about making/recording/listening/studying/playing music, since hey, that's what I'm trying my best to do! So you're probably going to see e.g. studio/recording session posts, posts about the odd gig here and there, trying to overcome a writer's block I seem to constantly get when I really would need to shred some new RIFFZ and other things that don't quite classify as cool but will hopefully be interesting enough. And probably slight bits about my personal life as well, since I guess I'd like to make this blog interesting for those too who've got no interest in my issues with certain DAW's or which brand and gauge of strings I prefer to use on my guitars and so on.

Oh, and this blog is going to be in English mostly, since it's the language I feel most comfortable with when typing stuff like this. And less language barrier issues I guess... as if this blog is going to attract a lot of readers anyway, haha. But who knows, maybe you'll see the odd Finnish bit occasionally as well.

Ps. The layout sucks for now, so please ignore it until I get inspired to make a total overhaul.