THUNDERSTONE: Studiodiary part 1 available!

05.09.2008

THUNDERSTONE has issued their 1st studiodiary from the recording of their new yet untitled album:

"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.

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!"