#low res for these old tasty graphics

[jaffre]

you're exploring the dungeon and you find this guy wyd

[tylordory]

Breaking News: TDT Recording Update!

Stuff is happening!....

Well, it has been for a while I guess. Anyone who cares knows how long it’s taking to make this album. It’s no Chinese democracy but I believe I’ve been talking about an LP “coming soon” for about two years on stage now. Alas the actual recording process is in it’s final leg.

Guitar’s were re-amped by the BDP (Billion Dollar Pimp) Christer Cederberg and his trusty assistant Ola (a true beauty) a week or so ago. For the guitar nerds out there, heres a list of what was used on both mine and Christer’s end:

The walnut top Oni E-Scale (far left) and buckeye burl top p-90 equipped Oni E-Scale were used for the vast majority of heavy rhythms, solos, and cleans. The roasted flame maple necked strat covered rhythm on one and a half tracks as well as a few leads, cleans and solos. The rosewood Music Man Axis was used in the same capacity as the strat.

All DI’s were captured by the fantastic Creation Audio MW-1, tuning needs met by the Peterson Strobo Rack.

Christer re-amped the main heavy rhythms through an ENGL Savage 120 and an old school Mesa/Boogie Rectifier with an MXR graphic EQ and a Horizon Devices Precision Drive to tighten it up, both through a Mesa 4x12. Solos were run through a Marshall 1987 head with the Precision Drive and a germanium boost. There were a variety of mics on the cabs including a pair of Wunder CM7′s for rooms.  Preamp needs were met by an Aurora Audio Sidecar for the rooms and API (512/3124 style I’m assuming) pre’s on the close mics. I’m not sure what was used for clean guitar or the mid/low gain stuff but I’m sure it sounds tasty.

Onto vocals. 

Vocals have me nervous. Things are progressing very slowly. Not for a lack of trying or hours spent, but because of the scope of the vocals on the album. A little over a month sounds like a long time to finish vocals for 10 songs (~65 minutes of music) but when you notice that there are 95 tracks setup for vocals on one song things get a little more complicated.... Here’s to hoping I meet the mix deadline! By the way, our mix date is September 11th. No we aren’t edgelords who picked that day, it just happens to be when Christer is available and we aren’t the superstitious types. Anyway, a lot more 10-12+ hour days for me singing. Jebus take me now. Below is the space age setup I’ve been using for vocals:

As you can see, no expense has been spared for the acoustic treatment in the tracking room. Well, maybe we went a little cheap on the vintage Return of the Jedi quilt. Let’s face it, Jedi was no Empire.

The Beesneez Tribute 1 (far right: excellent u47 clone) is handling the bulk of the vocals. All lead vocals, lead vocal doubles and quads, screams, growls, and 1st line choir stuff (as in the main line on a particular choir part that is likely harmonized) will be through the T1. Harmonies have been specifically broken up between the other mics. The Beesneez Lulu (second from left: excellent km84 clone) will be handling all of the higher pitched and falsetto harmonies. An ever trusty Shure sm7b is being used for the lower pitch harmonies as well as any scream harmonies (think Devin Townsend). The Josephson e22s is being used as a utility color mic. It will be the least utilized mic on vocals because vocals are not the e22s’ forte. It is, however, a brilliant tom, snare, and acoustic guitar mic. The point of using all of these is to have vocal tracks that don’t compete for the same frequency and harmonic ranges as much as they would if I had used one mic for everything. This will, in theory, help separate lead vocals from the backing vocals prior to mixing. I’m also standing  at varying distances and off axis positions from the mics on double and quadruple tracked parts to further extend the tonal variance. Oh and my sweet JH Audio IEMs for le monitoring while I try to stay on pitch in vain!

My beloved Electronaut m63 tube pre into the Universal Audio Apollo 16 is what the mics will be running into before they’re sent Christer’s way.

There will be more info to come over the next few months. Song titles, the name of the album, art, all of that jazzy jazz. Side note: I deactivated my Facebook account as I entered the crunch time of recording this album. So if you think I deleted and blocked you, internet friends, don’t worry I totally didn’t pull a junior high move like dat.

- Tylor