Studio Diary 2006

Pictures of the sessions can be found under media/pics (last update 21.5.06)

Day 1
2.5.06

We entered Studio Watercastle at 11AM. Very sunny day and lots of playing to do. First couple of hours went by tuning the drums and we started recording straight after Arttu´s lunch break.
Now, the time is half past seven and I´m writing this diary on my home computer. We managed to record drums for 10 songs today. Tomorrow only one song to go and my part is finally over. heheh.
Jarmo didn´t show up but the rest of the guys were present (doing nothing useful) :)

~Henri

I decided to pay a visit to the studio because I wanted to see what is going on. Henri played drums... and I watched and listened how he played drums.. a fascinating story.

~Vesa

Day 2
3.5.06

Came here in the morning to record the final drumtracks.One fast double bass song, which won´t be on the official album but recorded it anyways. :)
One track had so lousy drums that even Arttu couldn´t fix it so had to do it again. heheh. No, just kidding. Couple of slight mistakes that were easier to play again than handle with pro tools. It´s one of the only fast double bass songs that made it to the album.
Tero started doing his thing at noon. He just started the fourth song "Losing Time"
just now. Still a few hours left today.
Very good pizza in "Alan Pizzeria" btw.

~Henri

We don't use Pro Tools for correcting mistakes :D

~Vesa

Tero playing "Wingman"(.mpg)

Day 3
4.5.06

Tero played a few songs and I played a few guitar tracks too. Now I have a headache and I'm little tired. Tomorrow I'm gone so you guys have to manage to survive without me.

~Vesa

It´s evening, Vesa got a pretty good start today in recording rhythm guitars. I think he completed the rhythm tracks for four songs. He can´t come to the studio tomorrow, so we will be having a bass/drum track editing day. I have two full tracks and a couple of little bass things left to record. Things run smoothly, long hours of playing in these busy first days are sometimes nerve-wrecking, but anyway... Jappe and Henkka are here beside me too. They are relaxing. Meaning: they are drunk.

-Tero

Vesa´s only mistake in the recordings(.mpg)

Day 4
5.5.06

Today Tero finished his parts and we got to listen to some drum sounds that were almost the way they´ll be on the final mixing. Have to tell you that it sounded really good in this stage already. After that Jarmo came to the studio to sing the finnish "Yövartio" and hard rocker "Life On Fire". It was maybe the most confusing situation when we found out that we recorded too long verse in "Yövartio". I can´t figure out how we didn´t realize it the moment we played the instruments in it. Really weird.

~Henri

Day 5
6.5.06

Today I recorded more rhythm guitars and this session was more comfortable than last one. Maybe I had some studio stress.... Some slight problems with guitar intonation in one song for some reason. I have to check this out later but still we managed to record it. Jarmo sang three songs and he really kicks ass and ProTools. This fragile piece of software crashed when he screamed few loud high pitched notes! :D Tomorrow we have more guitars.. sigh.. maybe some acoustic guitar stuff too.

~Vesa

Extra nice mood in the sessions today. This was the first day that everyone were hanging around in there so lots and lots of laughs the whole day through. My cheek is aching :)

~Henri

Jarmo singing "Ivory Tower"(.mpg)
Chatting in finnish(.mpg)
Vesa recording "Streams Of Madness"(.mpg)

Day 5
7.5.06

Today is sunday! Sun is shining and birds are singing in the woods. We are sitting here in the studio and I recorded basic guitar tracks into two songs. Jarmo is singing Access Denied and I had my lunch break. Saarioinen is the worlds greatest pizza maker company!

~Vesa

A quiet sunday at the studio. Jappe is having a day off, Henri is also away and will maybe come back some time later in this afternoon. So now it is just Arttu, Vesa, Jarmo and me. Jarmo finished the main vocals for one song, Vesa seems to be starting to record clean guitar parts now. I just hang around and watch happily how things are getting done.

~Tero

Terve.

~Jarmo

Behold! Jarmo wrote something! That was a surprise... Maybe the longest line you'll hear from him. The guy prefers singing to writing... (That means "hello", by the way) :-)

~Tero

Back here again. Vesa seems to have started the final round of rhythm guitars. Lots of tracks played on top of one another. Sounds absolutelu heavy!

~Henri

And its absolutely HEAVY to do this....

~Vesa

Vesa doing some rough guitars!! (.mpg)

Day 6
8.5.06

Today I started to exercising and left car home. Really good weather for cycling. Jarmo finished vocals for "Between the Lines" and gave us great laughs with his 30 second scream in the end of the song :D

~Henri

More guitars.... :D OK, acoustic guitars are done. Still a few songs to do tomorrow with really hevi guitar rytmi muna river banks. Jarmo is going to sing Delta, may the force be with him!

~Vesa

The recording of vocals for "I failed you" have been postponed until now, because the lyrics have been undergoing some slight changes. Jappe just came up with two new lines to replace some problematic ones. That, although, lead to a long discussion about English grammar. :) Now they should be OK...

~Tero

It's my time to write something in here. It has been a long day and recordings are going forward. I recorded basic synth tracks to my computer a few days ago and they are waiting for the transfer among the others. Some solo parts still to go. Mixing is still ahead and a lot of work still to be done.

~Jappe

Jarmo singing "Delta Sunrise" (.mpg)

Day 7
9.5.06

Wohoo! My rhythm guitar parts are done! I don't know when I will play solo parts. Maybe next week or tomorrow some solo spots if I have a right kind of mood... Today we recorded some background vocal stuff and tomorrow some more. Maybe I have a chance to get my might voice to this album.. :D

~Vesa

Day X
14.5.06

Okay folks! A couple of days has gone with no diary enries, but we have been busy  recording background vocals. Jarmo has been on fire and screaming his lungs out :) We had one quest apparence for female vocals and Jarmo had a very interesting afternoon of vocal consulting in a tiny room. It was hard to see what happened there, but we sure heard it! Jarmo was very polite and tender ;) We had a little break this weekend and tomorrow we are going to continue with background vocals and it is also time to record all guitar and synth solos, so heavy fingering ahead of us.

~Jappe

Day 10
15.5.2006

First day back at studio after a four-day break. Scheduled for this day were lead/solo parts of keyboards and guitar leads. At morning, keyboard tracks recorded earlier were transfered to the final product. After that Jappe did some solo work. Now it is 3 PM and Vesa has started to play some tricky guitar lead parts. He is using an overdrive pedal and a lot of swear words.

-Tero

Vesa is tilutiluting (soloing) his ass off. Arttu is in a big role muting open strings while Vesa plays. Ivory Tower is not the easiest one to do soloparts. Jarmo is chilling today. He´s coming again tomorrow to finish his vocalparts. General mood is hilarious in here, we live for dirty jokes. Vesa is repeating phrase "Enhän mä mikään Luke ole" I don´t have a clue what that means. Henri said masturbation!!!!:0 Hehehe... Chuckle...

~Jappe

Co-producer Henri on the studio sofa: "yeah, it´s good if it is good"... And he went to sleep.. We make ourselves useful here...

-Tero

I´m an important guy around here. :D
Vesa played some really cool solos today. He still has a couple coming tomorrow.

~Henri

Day 11
16.5.2006

I finished all of my guitar parts. I had to drink one beer because this studiowork is so depre.. stressing. Only one song is missing background vocals and I don't know anything about this midi-keyboard stuff. Maybe Jappe knows what he is doing...

-Vesa

A minute and a half of Vesa and Jappe playing the solos to the album!!! (.wmv)

Day 12
17.5.06

Mixing begins. This is the moment that we´ve been waiting for. To finally hear the songs with the sounds that they deserve. "Wingman" is the first song to go through Arttu´s processing. We left the studio at 7 pm and still some keyboards and vocal mixing for the song left to do tomorrow.
Jarmo sang the remaining backing vocals earlier and Vesa also got his voice on one song on the album.

~Henri

Day 13
18.5.06

Ok. Seems that the first raw mixes are ready of "Wingman" and "I Failed You". We are very pleased :)

~Henri

Day 14
19.5.06

Today "Ivory Tower" and "Losing Time" were worked on. The raw mix of Ivory got finished, but it still needs some minor changes... We´ll return to that tomorrow. Some heated arguments about sound levels and stuff... Basic guitars, synths, essential drum fills... People sometimes want to emphasize different things on the songs. And, depending on the question, there is always 2-4 guys with strong opinions around... So far, we have managed without anyone getting a black eye, so we´re doing great. :)

-Tero

Day 18
23.5.06

There have been a couple of relatively uneventful mixing days... I spent a couple of hours at studio today around noon. "Between the Lines" was mixed. It seems like an easy one, no real problems in that song... We spend more time trying to get the feeling right to certain songs, especially "Delta Sunrise" and "I Failed You". It only depends on very small details. Also, the opening on one of the tracks has to be rethought. It seems our first solution was too similar to the opening we came up with for "Losing Time". Henri was around too, enjoying the energetic atmosphere... He did not really come, see and conquer... He came, ate and slept. The studio sofa is just too comfortable.

-Tero

YEAH BEIBE! That is very usual comment on everything nowdays. Sometimes it is  very hard to concentrate when you have heard the song 100 times today and there is some silly looking bandmates around. There has been alot of goofing around when we have shot some weird videoclips. Fortenately we have still made a really good job with mixing (big thanks for Arttu, he is a hard-working guy). I am starting to feel really good about the album and sounds are better than I ever expected.

- Jappe

Day 20
25.5.06