Sins of the Father

Next track in the can, I think. I say I think, because I've had major issues with timing on this one, and I'm still not convinced. I've done this several times now, leaving a track thinking its all perfect only to come back to it a few hours later, to find the timing all over the shop. I can heartily recommend leaving your work and coming back to it as, it seems particularly with audio that familiarity breeds contempt.

The problems started when I took the bold decision to record the drum track first. Enter Bonhamesque sounding 1964 Ludwig kit from Master Picks, all good, BUT when you put down a drum track in isolation you have no idea how you are going to structure the song around it. I had to get some guitars in there quick, Page-esque vintage Brit with my LesPaul (There's a pattern forming here?). The drum track was recorded again with the extra guitar prompting and then I did a cut and paste marathon stitching stuff back and forth. The end result was good but with some misalignments with the tempo track. I struggled on. Bass, then various lead lines etc. The similarity with anything Led Zep was killed with some scary choral samples and of course when I started singing......

Fun track to work on but hope it still sounds OK in the cold light of day.

Its just a name

For the second album I thought I'd break with tradition and come up with the artwork and name before substantially completing the music. This new tactic seems to be working as it's got me thinking more about the album concept and where I want to go with the music.

A few hours in Photoshop later, here it is: 'End of Ecclesia'.

The concept is dark, belief, grief, fear, sin. All that 'good' stuff. Lots of etheral pads, choir voices, and heavy guitars. Think Yes meets Black Sabbath.

First track finished

I've been playing around with this Spanish guitar riff for about 8months and I've finally got to do something useful with it. It's played on my nylon string Raimundo Classical which I've had since aged 15. Have to say it sounds bloody awesome with D'addario Classical strings. I also made a marvelous discovery that Waves X noise filter banishes all the nasty background hiss and hum from the mic. Brilliant.

NI's B4II gets wheeled out for some serious tonewheel action along with the incredible Guitar Rig 2. I worked out how to remotely run the 'virtual' leslie during playing which gives the Hammond a live feel during recordings. 4fronts Truepianos also makes a fleeting appearance.

The first track is complete I've christened it La Iglesia ('The Church' in Spanish). Straight instrumental with the church bell sample from Freesound project taking centre stage. The guitar solo is unashamedly Yngwie inspired although without his speed, agility or knowledge of the fretboard.

Preparation, preparation, preparation

Its a been a massive uphill struggle to get the home studio ready to record the second album. Somewhere during post mastering 'Freed from Anguish', Cubase SX threw a massive wobbly resulting in major PC clear out, defrag, and reinstallation of Cubase along with all the VSTs. It's been worth it though despite still suffering with hideous audio drop outs during playback with mutliple effects/VSTs.

Since the first and second album I've managed to acquire 2 or 3 new guitars, a Line 6 Pocket Pod and the Waves Bundle which all want to make an appearance on the new album.

I still can't help thinking that this process would be so much slicker if I had an engineer on hand who could run SX rather than me spending 10mins recording and 10hours fiddling with software. I'm hoping the productivity ratios will improve this time around......