Thunderstone » Dirt Metal Studio Diary

Thunderstone Studio Diary Part III

Another weekend spent at Sonic Pump studios. We kept on working with the first set of songs. This time Titus was at the studio as well, which was great fun. As can be seen from the dates of the earlier updates, we have some kind of time warp going on at the studio because my earlier post predates Titus’s by a bit more than a week, as can be seen from the stated dates, but I’m still talking about him curing it with booze. Curious.

Well, as I state in the beginning of the video, it’s late September 2008. Another peculiarity of time there because it’s early January 2009 as I’m writing this. I must be losing my grip. Oh no.

Anyway, from what I can see on the video diary, I didn’t get that much done during the weekend in addition to fooling around. Well, yeah, I worked on sounds and managed to get a distorted/overdriven hammondish sound to my liking, but that’s more or less the parts of that weekend that can be heard on the record. Luckily others were more productive and the weekend wasn’t completely wasted.

Our list of equipment didn’t change, so check below if you’re interested in that.

- Jukka

Finally I got the opportunity to travel to Finland for some more partying... no, sorry... some recording.

It went surprisingly fast and without any major problems, so that we even had time to check out some new song ideas and have a couple of beers. Some Finnish singers were invited to create a huge background choir were it was needed. Great work guys!! Now I´m really looking forward to the final mixing and some live gigs! Kippis!

- Rick

First of all, sorry about the delay in writing this. It has been a hectic two weeks and all of it in a nasty autumn flu.

Anyway, on the first weekend of October I flew from London to Helsinki as it was my turn to lay down some tracks for the upcoming Thunderstone album. I flew in a day earlier with a 38, 5 degree fever and a constantly running nose, which also meant that during the descent I practically became deaf. Resting for a day opened my left ear but I still could hear only a bit with my right one when I stepped into the studio.
Not the best possible beginning, huh?

Obviously, there wasn’t much I could have done with the ear issue, but I could have refrained from the typical Finnish booze mayhem the night before the actual recording day… I remember being so happy (and writing about it in the previous studio diary) that I wasn’t hung over during the Evolution 4.0 recordings. Now I was not only hung over like a troll, but also in a fever. Imagine how great I felt when the red light went on and the ‘tape’ started rolling…

Thanks to strong British flu medicine and a relaxed schedule the day turned out to be ok, however. It had been quite a while since I’d heard the first versions of the new songs and there was one schlager that was completely new, so it took me a while to get my chops straight. At the same time I really felt ‘in touch’ with the songs, as they are stuff that I really like. Hold on to your horses, folks! There’s going to be some killer riffery on this one!

We laid down bass tracks for five songs and on the second day also finished some songs that we had as leftovers from the ‘summer camp’ in July. I used my basic gear, a list of which you can see below. All in all, despite a feverish start, the session turned out to be a lot of fun and we actually got a decent amount of playing done. I will return to the studio in November to record the remaining tracks. Until then: Drink beer and get naked (although when it’s cold, don’t do it outside, or you’ll end up with a fever like me…)!

-Titus-

Bass Gear

Fender standard precision bass with EMG active pickups
Hughes & Kettner 400 amp
Hughes & Kettner 4x10 cabinet
Boss bass overdrive pedal
Akg D112 mic + Avalon VT-737 microphone preamplifier
Tube Tech MEC-1A for direct signal

HOLES
21.-22.9 Sonic Pump Studios, Helsinki, Finland

Recording at home is relaxing. You can sit down with nobody breathing behind your back, staring holes into your skull, making you think that the next take should be perfect so that we could move on. Just take your time and play your stuff with all the time that is needed to get the feeling right.

Still, when I arrived at the studio for the second time after our great summer camp, I was really enthusiastic about getting to work with Nino on a face-to-face level again. He’s got an incredible array of ideas and a good overall view into what we’re doing now, and that’s something I’m missing. This is my first record anyway and I haven’t been producing any bands either so it’s a completely new world for me. That’s why it’s really great to have somebody tell me where to concentrate and when. Like there’s no real point in working on a cool solo if you still need to compose new songs. Common sense stuff, yes, but sometimes you need to be reminded by somebody else about those things.

Well anyway, while Titus was treating his fever with the all powerful medicine called ethanol, I was sitting in the studio and laying out tracks to one really cool song that is gonna give Rick a nice amount of room to showcase his bluesy sound. The song is going to be a real ass-kicker, of that I’m sure.

Saturday was the bass day so I was doing other stuff like toying with new sounds and taking some video footage of the recordings. Bass tracks for 5 songs in one day, that’s something! On Sunday I was allowed back in the control room again with my keys, and we finished a few songs from the summer camp that were still hanging there only as riffs and ideas. All in all, I totally love the new material. It’s heavy in just the right way. Usually you know that a song is good if it gives you goosebumps, right? Well, I really know that for people with my tastes, Thunderstone is going to rock like nothing else.

It seems to be a customary thing to state what you are using for the recordings. My list is going to be a short one.

KORG OASYS
A few switch pedals, power cable and audio cables.
Keyboard stand and a comfy chair.

21.-22.9 Sonic Pump Studios, Helsinki, Finland

Recording guitars has never been this fun!!! Once again, the new Thunderstone is HEAVY! And since my roots with playing guitar are in trash metal, I’m in seventh heaven with this new stuff! Also my new Engl amplifier helped me finally get the sound I’ve been looking for several years.Funny thing was that sometimes I spend couple of hours by looking for the perfect sound, but this time I just put the mics up, turned the amp on and that’s it. I didn’t even bother to move the mics, which usually helps to find a better sound. Seems that the whole band got this rock’n’roll attitude going on. And I love it! We have also lowered our tuning with some songs (from normal D to dropped C). And because of that, I feel the band is not the same anymore. But don’t be afraid, it’s still Thunderstone, just heavier than ever before. I know, same thing with every album, but what can I say...IT IS HEAVIER THAN EVER BEFORE!!!

That’s all for now. Here’s my gear I used during this session.Esp MK-II Customshop ”Thunderstone” model, -Nino-

Esp MK-II, Esp Eclipse.
All guitars are equipped with Emg 81 and 85
Engl Invader 100 amp
Engl Cabinet
Boss Noise Suppressor
Shure 57 + Avalon VT-737 mic preamp
Akg 414 + Focusrite Red 1 mic preamp

THE GREAT DRUMS OF DOOM!!!
18.-20.8.2008 Sonic Pump Studios, Helsinki, Finland

Every time I start the recordings of a new Thunderstone album I’m full of energy and enthusiasm. And every time I’m getting closer to the end, I’m totally exhausted and burned out. Memories from the time that I was starting to mix Evolution 4.0 and almost lost my mind came up as I started to build up Mirka’s ”spaceshuttledrumkitfromhell”. I soon realized that the input microphone list would be longer than ever before! Mirka wanted to get back his rocket toms in the set and also use both bass drums instead of playing with double pedals. So the final amount of microphones was 24! We have come far from the days when Beatles used only 4 mics?.

Like on the previous albums, Mirka recorded the drums just with the backing tracks, meaning that no one from the band played with him in the studio while recording the drums. We used the demos we recorded earlier in the beginning of July for the backing tracks. This was the first time Mirka actually heard also vocals while tracking the drums down. He said that the feeling was better than ever before because now he really got the picture what’s going on with the song.

During these sessions we recorded drums for 5 songs and the rest will be done in October. Before that, there will be a lot of composing work and pre-production for the rest of the songs. Well yeah, some guitars, basses and keyboards have to be recorded before our Swedish singing bird Rick will come to Finland and finish the vocals for the songs.During these sessions we recorded drums for 5 songs and the rest will be done in October. Before that, there will be a lot of composing work and pre-production for the rest of the songs. Well yeah, some guitars, basses and keyboards have to be recorded before our Swedish singing bird Rick will come to Finland and finish the vocals for the songs.

We spent the first day just building up the mics, squeezing the perfect sound and fooling around. I wanted to keep the feeling totally relaxed because I know that musicians play much better if there is no stress or hurry. In the next two days we recorded drums for 5 songs and the result is once again unbelievably punchy and heavy!!! I know I’ve said this before, but once more: THIS ALBUM WILL BE A LOT HEAVIER THAN ANY ALBUM BEFORE. No more wimpy stuff. Posers should leave the hall...now!!!:-)

OK, there’s not that much to tell about the actual sessions. Mirka played like hell, drums sound great and while writing this, I have just finished recording the rhythm guitars, but more of that later.

Stay tuned for more diary shit and take care!

-Nino-

Ps. Almost forgot, the technical stuff of course! Here’s the microphones I used on the drums (from the drummers point of view):

1. Bassdrum right / Shure Beta 52
2. Bassdrum right / Yamaha Subkick
3. Bassdrum left / Shure Beta 52
4. Bassdrum left / Yamaha Subkick
5. Snare / Shure 57
6. Snare bottom / Shure SM81
7. Tom 1 / Shure Beta 56
8. Tom 2 / Shure Beta 56
9. Tom 3 / Shure Beta 56
10. Tom 4 / Shure Beta 56
11. Rocket tom 1 / Shure 57
12. Rocket tom 2 / Shure 57
13. Hihat left / Shure SM 81
14. Hihat right / Shure SM 81
15. Ride / Shure SM 81
16. Splash / Akg C 568 EB
17. Overhead left / Akg 414
18. Overhead right / Akg 414
19. China left / Akg C 568 EB
20. China right / Akg C 568 EB
21. Ambience XY / T-Bone RB500
22. Ambience XY / T-Bone RB500
23. Ambience room 1 / Neumann U89i
24. Ambience room 2 / Neumann U89i

I recorded all the drums through SSL 4000G+ mixing desk with a very small amount of EQ and no compression at all. This time I didn’t use 2 inch tape recorder and we went straight to Pro Tools with 44.1 / 24 bits. Enough for studio wanking... off I go to sleep!