JPKALLIO.COM in the studio

  It is 7.45am Wednesday morning. I am walking along the river Liffey. My feet are carrying me faster than usual, I must admit I am little bit exited. I am on my way to our rehearsal room at Volt to pick up our equipment and then heading to Trackmix studio in Blanchardstown. Back in July we won the Live and Unsigned night in the Pint and as part of the price we got a free day in the Trackmix studio. We must have been one of the last ones to get to go to Trackmix, as since then the studio used for the Live and unsigned nights have changed. Me and Qra had been there before while doing the interview with Michael Richards for this blog, check it out here, so I had a good feeling. One day can be little bit short, so we decided to splash out and pay for a second day our selves. We had prepared a list of songs, that was more than what we thought we had time for, but none of us had any idea what we would accomplish in the next two days, not even Michael. The list consist six songs, when I told this to Michael, I could see the doubt in his mind, but I assured him that if it looked like we were going to run out of time, we would start cutting the list from the bottom. But we had worked very hard on rehearsing the songs to have them as tight as possible, in the past month or so. We broke down the songs several times, trying to find trouble spots. We had all worked extremely hard on our own as well to have everything ready.

   After setting up and sound checking the drums, setting up guide guitar, bass and vocals that me and Qra were playing live in the control room, we were off. I did loose the track of time very early on in the day, but it must have been around mid day when we started the actual recording. It took Sebastian few takes to warm up, but after this most tracks were first or second take. Playing to klick is like second nature to him, which makes things in the studio so much easier. It is funny how human mind can play tricks, even though we knew we were well prepared, still there is that small bit of hesitation if every thing will sound ok. But when we first time heard back the first few notes of “Flying high” we knew we were on the right track. Sebastian can be very critical on drum sound, as any professional drummers should be, but when he first time heard him self through the studio speakers I could see Michael had won him over. I have worked on both sides of the controls in a several studios over the years, and I was impressed as well. He knows his way around Logig pro, but he also uses old school techniques, like EQing on the way in. But most of all I was impressed how he understood our sound.

   By 4pm we had drums and guides down and lunch over and done with. It was time for the guitars. I must say I did feel bit like a kid in a candy shop :-) Michael, being a guitar player him self, has some really nice guitars and amps, that he lets his customers use. The Gibson ES137 was one I found particularly hard to put down, I'm sure if you ever were in the Trackmix studio you have seen this beauty. Doubling and layering guitars can be a real art form on its own, and again the Trackmix studio has the tools for this job. But still I did bring in my Laney GH50L, that stood proud beside the Hughes&Ketner TriAmp and Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier. I told you, like kid in the candy shop ;-) At the end of the day one, we had done all the basic rhythm parts and doubled them. So it was time for a good nights sleep.

  The next morning we returned with charged batteries and full of enthusiasm, and even the fact that we got lost on the way did not dampen our spirits. I started my day with strong cup of coffee and guitar solos. I have bit of a love hate relationship with guitar solos... I love playing them, but hate the idea of them. Figure that on out... But in the six tracks there were two of them, in Misery and one in Forgive my self. Misery showcases the Gibson ES137's neck pick up beautifully and on Forgive my self my own Gibson Les Paul proved once again why it is my number one guitar. We also Beefed up some parts of the tracks with a third guitar track on the middle. The result is a guitar tone, which is the best electric guitar sound I have ever had on any of my recordings, but let me just make a few quick notes here. First of all guitar sound is very much a taste thing, so what works for me, probably would not work for every one. Also I am very heavy handed guitar player, and this does play a big part on the sound, if you attack the strings hard, the stronger signal drives the amp in a different way. All the amps went in to a Mesa Boogie cab that had Celestion V30s in it, and the signal went through a very nice Mic preamp and Michael’s magic EQ settings. So it was not any one magical piece, but a combination of things that resulted in the guitar sound that I am very happy with. I suppose what I am trying to say here is: that's what you pay for when you book your self in to a professional studio. Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention the Ibanez TS 808 tube screamer :-)

  We had the guitars done before 1pm on the second day. Next we recorded the Bass; this was something Qra was looking forward to as much as dreading. His past studio experiences were haunting him at the back of his mind, but he had been rehearsing his parts a lot. His trusty Epiphone Thunderbird bass was the tool for the job, it really has that growl and attack that is very much part of the JPKALLIO.COM sound. Michael had a Warwick bass head and a 4x10 cab. Qra was in bass heaven. And after all the worrying, he recorded almost all the tracks in one take. Bass done in an hour! I must admit that me and Sebastian were watching Qra’s fingers fly on the Thunderbirds neck and the hairs at the back of our necks were standing up.

  But I was very relieved that the bass was done, as it left more time for the vocals. And again I had been working a lot on them at home to be ready. Singing is always a difficult one, and the most temperamental instrument of them all. It can be affected so much by things like stress and tiredness, nerves and even what you had to eat on the day. But I could really feel the confidence I got from all the hours of rehearsing kicking in and managed to relax without any problems. And again most vocals were first takes. Good headphone mix that Michael set up really made things so much easier as well, I didn't need to ask for anything :-) After the lead lines we laid down some vocal harmonies, and me and Qra did bit of shouting as well. “That's nice guys, but how about you try it with bit more melody?” After we had done backing vocals for four tracks it was starting to get late, and Michael had the sense (and experience) to decide to start mixing the tracks. Again his working method is fast and lot of the work was already done during the recording.

  So about 8pm on Thursday night there were three tired but happy men standing on a bus stop outside Blanchardstown shopping centre with CD’s in their pockets. Even though the time had gone so fast, it was obvious to us that we were not holding on to a new EP, but the bones of an album and no matter what it would take, we'd be back early 2012 to record the rest.

  Big thank you to Michael for all the hard work he put in and making us feel so welcomed in his studio. We can't wait for the second chapter. Oh yeah, and we could not just talk about it with out giving you a taste;-) Here is one of the tracks from our recording session. This one is called Wasted Mind. Let us know what you think :-)

Wasted mind by jpkallio.com

 Also check out our studio video diary
  That's all for this week, I'll be back for more next week. Feel free to share our new song on Soundcloud and the video diary:-)
J.P.

On a shoestring project part 41

  Even though Sebastian was on his holidays last week, we've had a busy week. Our music has got around lot :-) First of all the Punk Britannia show played us on Tuesday and the show is repeated Thursday nightPunkrockdemo.com. After the weekend the show will be available at Studsandpunks.co.uk. Also we'll be featured at the http://www.1234punkrock.de and Tide 96.0 FM (Hamburg, Germany). Also a video of us in the King Kong Club semi-final came out:-) So here it is, let us know what you think.

  Now as I talked about this last week, our show at the Whelan's is only week away. We really hope you all can make it in. It is going to be a really cool night. We've been sticking up posters around town, but it's hard to get every where, so if you have any places where you would like to stick a poster you can either copy it from here and print it out or get in contact with us and we can drop them down to you (in Dublin). So here's the poster again.

  I have heard from quite few people in the past few months’ compliments on how we promote JPKALLIO.COM. To me this is great to hear as we do put lots of hours in to it. But at the same time, I can't stop wondering why isn’t everyone doing it? I do understand that there is the weekend worriers who just do it for fun, but if you do have any ambitions bigger than that, get to work! All the information is at your finger tips, right in front of your eyes. Internet is full of valuable advice; Google is a tool I use every single day. How did I get our music to these radio shows and podcasts mentioned at the beginning of this blog post? I found the radios and podcast shows on Google, I visited their website, I listened to their shows, while I was doing other work (writing blog, designing gig posters...) and if it sounded like we could fit the bill, I contacted them. Send nice email with bit of info on you (who you are, where you're form and who do you represent). Now I personally think that this is an important part: on the server where our website is (Thanks Greg for the space) I have also posted our E.P. Tracks as high quality mp3s, so I can include links to them on Email. I would highly recommend against emailing any sound files, unless you have been requested to do so. The links I send, the person can download the files if they like them :-) And if not, well at least it’s not going to fill their Email box. If they want a physical CD, I'll gladly send it to them, but if your mp3s are high enough quality, it is actually faster and more practical for podcasts and internet radio, as they would end up compressing your CD files anyway. I talked about the difference of commercial radio, independent and internet radio in the past and lot of people in the podcasts and internet shows are music fans, and if your music is good enough quality, they will be happy to hear about your band.

This actually leads to another thing: In the past few months I have heard stories of bands investing their hard earned cash to some studio time, but the results being not very encouraging. It can be tough work if you are new to it. The studio environment can be intimidating, especially if it costs several hundreds a day and the clock is ticking. But I know these bands and I know they are capable of producing good recordings... Just because there is a sign on the door saying it is a studio, it does not mean you will come out sounding good. Some of the best engineers I have worked with are able to produce a dissent recording with minimal equipment pretty much anywhere, and no amount of fancy recording equipment can make you sound good if the person using it can not use it. I have worked on both sides of the recording process and still do. My two cent on the subject is this: first ask for some resent project done by the engineer with the equipment studio you're going to use and pay for. You are paying lots of money! You won’t buy car without test driving it, you won’t buy new guitar without trying it, possibly reading reviews about it on the net. It is your right to hear what they can do, and if they have problem with this, just walk away! Fancy equipment is nice, but worth nothing unless the engineer has the skills. And when you schedule your studio time, by the love of all the goods of rock! Leave enough time for mixing. This is where you will make the magic happen. This is where you glue all the elements together. I remember working on a compilation CD I had a track years back, and talking to the engineer, this guy was a pro, been at it for years and knew his way around the desk and computer. He said you should spend as much time on the mixing as you do on the actual recording. At the time I thought it sounded bit too much, but years later I have come to realize the wisdom in his words. Even this can be bit excessive on most people budgets; it is something to keep in mind.

Well that was a bit of a rant again, but it just gets to me a bit when the artists end up being the payers in a business that would not exist with out them ;-)

Back for more next week!

J.P.

On a shoestring project part 10

   I survived the Halloween weekend, hope it was ok for you guys as well. Once again it is upwards and onwards. I am getting closer and closer to the start of the actual recording of the album. Rehearsals have been going great, the songs are taking their shape, but more so I can hear an album. I think sometimes people forget this, I have made this mistake in the past... When rock music started to become more and more available in LP format, artists started making albums. Now when home recording has become so accessible for most people ( what used to be a price of a studio for one day, now you can buy a basic home recording equipment), The market has been exaggerated by millions of CD's or download albums ( Not a bad thing in my humble opinion, makes every one work harder to stand out). I did the mistake once thinking more is better. An album that had 14 tracks and a running time of over an hour. I must say, listening back to the album is hard work. Don't get me wrong, individual tracks are good, lots of great moments. But as an album it is little bit disjointed and too long. The standard running time of LP was 45 min. And I still think that best albums are around about this length. Also the collection of songs need to work as a unit, making a good album is little bit like making a film. Set of scenes that put together makes sense, keeps you interested and leaves you wanting more. This is very much what I want to achieve. And dare I say this loud? It would be nice to be able to release it as LP as well some day...

   As the idea of this project is to achieve a professional quality CD with a minimum budget, the home recording rout was always the first option. But let’s look in to this for a minute. The direction that the music has taken in the past few months is pretty solid rock album, drums, bass, electric guitar and vocals. And lot of the tracks would benefit from really classic sounds. I have considered in the past few weeks whether or not I should try to get to a professional recording studio for some, if not all of the recording. But this would blow the budget well out of portions (and possibly bankrupt me). I don't think I would benefit from spending my money on mediocre or budget studio, but the top studios still have some of the "toys" that create that exquisite in the sound. So what would they have? Well... Good studio would have great sounding acoustically treated rooms (never under estimate acoustics!), they would have a selection of microphones that I could not even dream of, and I once had the pleasure to record my own voice for one track with AKG C12. This is probably my favourite vocal microphone; at least I haven't got my hands on a better one yet. This I must say was magic... The detail was just out of this world, it was warm, clear, listening back felt like being in the room during the performance. But this microphone comes with a big price tag... in Thomann it is currently going for €3599... The other great industry standard is Neuman U87, Neuman certainly knows how to make rery nice microphones! The next thing in the signal change would be the microphone pre amp, maybe some nice Neve, Avalon or TL Audio. The smoothest compressors in the world, maybe a good old fashioned analogue tape machine. Selection of studio monitors, and of course an experienced engineer that could take all the stress of recording out of my hands... But as mentioned above, this would come at a big price... Even with the dreaded “R” word hanging over our heads, the studios of this standard would be charging anywhere from €500 up to €2000 a day... And let’s face it, if I had that kind of money to throw around, this blog would not be about recording an album on a shoestring budget.

   So I have a laptop, nothing fancy but OK, Acer aspire 5738Z, I have a Shure beta 57 a, a very good industry standard microphone, I have matched pair of Octava MK 012 small diaphragm condensers and I have access to pair of Shure SM 58. I also have friends who could possibly borrow me more microphones for a short term. I've been doing lots of research in the past few months on recording equipment, trying to figure out what would be most suitable for my needs and what would be the best value for money, without compromising on quality. And this is what I have in mind: I would need enough inputs to record drums, and hopefully something to spare. So minimum eight, and I would need XLR microphone inputs, and at least few with phantom power. And a silent operation would be a bonus. So the winner at the moment is Zoom R16 (follow the link for manufacturer’s site) It works as individual unit, as an interface for computer and also as a controller for your recording software. I think it is a genius of a device, and the feedback and reviews have been great. But obviously I will not know for sure until I get my hands on one. In Thomann they are priced at the moment at €345, Waltons in Dublin are selling it for €385, and for my friends in the states side Sweetwater are selling it for $399. But there is a great little store here in Dublin called the Goodwins, on Capel Street. I have bought lots of equipment from them over the years, and their service is brilliant! About year an half ago I bought a guitar amp from them and it had a problem in the valve sockets, and they ordered a replacement straight away and gave me another amp while I waited for the replacement. And I do like supporting a local shop especially if they try to compete with the internet giants. The list price in Goodwins is €359, and I am sure they can negotiate few Euros anyway, and if there is any trouble, the shop is with in walking distance from me, and I don't need to be posting stuff back to Germany while the project gets delayed by weeks, if not even months. Also I need some sort of studio speakers for mixing. And I have my eyes on ESI Near05 active speakers, in Thoman for €175 for a pair. I haven't found anything in Dublin to compete with them at the moment, but I am also keeping my eyes on Gumtree for second hand studio speakers around that price. Also I would like to get an large diaphragm vocal mic, and as the C12 is out of question, AKG has a budget range of microphones that are supposed to be great value for money. So the microphone in question is AKG Perception 120, and again in Thomann for €85 which I think is a bargain. If I was to invest more money on it, I would recommend looking in to Neuman TLM 102 (€555 in Thomann), Or TLM 103 (There is a second hand one on Gumtree at the moment for €500, a bargain!)

Anyway, that’s enough of window shopping for now; Let me know your thoughts and suggestions on my shopping list.