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 Post subject: Mithras prepartion for the studio
PostPosted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 2:29 am 
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what kids of things do you guys do when gearing up for the studio? besides the obvious setting up of guitars and new drum heads yada,yada. what kinds of other things do you guys do to get geared up for recording? when in the studio and a part isn't being nailed right what do you do to relax a relive the stress to come back to that part?

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 Post subject: Re: Mithras prepartion for the studio
PostPosted: Mon Mar 08, 2010 3:52 am 
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Mithras Guitarist / Drummer
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We always tried to do stuff so challenging to us that we'd rehearse the songs for months and months in advance, even years in some cases :S The drums were always the hardest thing to record so I'll talk about them the most. I've recorded loads of bands in studios now, but I'll talk about this from the side of the musician and mainly drummer:

To get geared up for the studio I'd drum and drum more and more as we got closer to recording, reaching a peak then having a little rest for a few days to a week, then go into the studio. This meant I was more relaxed and eager to crack on, rather than drummed to death and sick of it (which was how I felt AFTER recording each record ;) )

When a drum part isn't played exactly right, I try a few times then come back to it later with a punch in. If I want to do the song in one take and I can't nail a part but the clock is ticking, I move onto another song then come back later.

On Legions we had two days to do all the drums and 'Wrath Of God' took 1.5 of those days, go figure! What wasn't working was that I had the triggers in my headphones and the slightest timing error on the feet was making me want to start again. It was like hell frankly. We turned the triggers off, and then it was a doddle after that and became more enjoyable. I could hear the entire kit acoustically anyway!

On Shadows, to make the studio recording easier after the pig of a drum session of 'Worlds' (which lasted about 80 hours over 5 days and nights), we started to rehearse in a "studio" situation, with us both wearing isolation headphones with a really good mix, clear triggers in my headphones and a click. We also built two studios to rehearse in! This meant we were actually rehearsing the recording process itself, and we often recorded our rehearsals. Many players choke up the moment they play alone, or play to a click, get familar with it asap if you're going to do that when recording for real.

All the above made it much easier for me in the end; and I spent less total time in the studio drum recording 'Shadows...' than any other Mithras record, probably 8-10 hours.

The last The Senseless album took a bit longer (maybe 15 hours) but only because I recorded one song every few days, i.e. I went into my studio and drummed away at a single song for 2 hours doing multiple takes, then listened through and picked the best parts. I then considered that song "finished". A few days later I'd do another, etc.

I never really have any trouble recording rhythm guitars, with 'Shadows...' it only took me about 8 hours to do all the guitars, I did four takes in total (two per side) but Lee decided to turn two of them off in the final mix as it sounded better. So it could have been done in 4 hours! I also barely played guitar for the 6 months leading up to the recording as I was drumming so much, which I really don't advise, ahem....

I always record the leads over the entire period I'm writing the record, so they're ready recorded when the album comes. I have been known to spend over 100 takes doing a single lead though...

I guess the main thing is not to lose your temper when recording, a really bad atmosphere in the studio can really ruin a recording.

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