Rock and Roll Diary Part I

This week is going to be crazy busy for me.  As such I'm not going to have a whole lot of time to talk about 40k or WFB.  That doesn't mean that I won't be posting though, but that I've got something different on my mind.  I will still finish part II of my IoB rant, though.  As I've alluded to in the past, I'm in a new metal band, Crusader, hot on the heels of dissolving the Psychobilly band that I was in, the Massacres.  This weekend we're going to be in the studio recording 4 tracks for our first EP entitled Rise of the Templars, which has been inspired by the mythology of the Knights Templar as well as the Blind Dead films.  I won't go on, but I'm sure my singer, Hoagy, can go into more detail in the comments if he cares to. 


With a mental shifting of gears, I thought I'd do something different with the blog this week- keep a journal of the time leading up to recording as well as the recording process itself.  I'll be snapping pictures and possibly even taking some video for the first time ever, provided I can get a good deal on a flip or something similar (if anybody has recommendations for a cheap flash camcorder with a decent microphone, let me know).  This week will be pretty self-serving, I admit, but perhaps a few of you fellow music enthusiasts will be interested in seeing what actually goes into the recording process.  I won't lie, it's a lot of work.  At the end of the day this is just something I've wanted to do for a while, to remind myself of how much I love and hate recording down the road. 

It's currently 4 days until recording and I've been busy most of the day getting shit done.  I have continued to obsess over making sure that the synth and string parts I have been programming for one of our songs is spot on perfect.  After about 80+ listens at this point, I'm getting a little sick of hearing it, but can't wait until I get my hands on the final live tracks and help out in mixing this stuff in. 

This is the synth only version of the song so far and the title isn't set yet.  Nothing is mixed, panned, or has been run through and EQ, so it may still sound rough.  The drums and bass are just in there for reference and will be replaced with live tracks in the studio.  Anyway, enjoy



Viking song by dethtron


Other than being busy farting around with that today I made my normal pre-recording guitar center stop.  I scored a set of new heads for my whole drum kit, which was the main reason for going.  Recording on old heads sucks and the ones I had, while still fairly new, were beginning to lose just enough tone to show on a good set of mics.  At the very least, I've got a good set of spares now.  While I was there I also picked up a new cymbal, Zildian's 10" trashformer.  It's a nice effects cymbal with a sound not entirely unlike hitting a small garbage can lid.  I'm slightly worried that since it's very thing and warped by design it won't hold up well.  I don't play super hard, but I have claimed a few cymbals as casualties over the years.  I wanted to pick up some new sticks, but they were out of my size, brand, and style, so I'll just have to make do with the last 3 pairs I have in my stick bag.  The stick bag was also replaced.  I was having zipper issues with the old one, so it was time for it to go.  All in all it was a fruitful, if more expensive than anticipated, trip to the music store.

Once I got home, I finished cataloging the head tension numbers of my Premier Signia Limited edition kit, using an evans tension drum key for all heads top and bottom.  This is something that I got recently and probably won't be able to live without from now on.  It's a great way to make sure that your heads are tuned evenly and once you know your numbers, changing heads takes no time at all.  Once the numbers were down, I changed all of my heads.  Dr. Girlfriend was home a little early, so I won't subject her to the monotonous noise of me fine tuning everything.  That will have to wait until tomorrow.