3rd Recording Session, 24 January 2008, Thursday (8.00pm - 11.00pm)

Wow! A journey back in time. Erm. This post is happening now as Syai and I kinda realised we had missed out talking about the 3rd recording session which was on the 24 January 2008 and we had wrongly labelled all the sessions... Er hup! Actually, it was solely my fault. Anyway... Moving on.

Song – Astray
Instruments Recorded – Syafiq (Acoustic), Kenneth (Electric Parts)

Recording Process
Ok. Basically this session was a long time ago, and my memory of what exactly happened is really quite vague. I do remember the difficult parts of this recording session. The first was strumming the acoustic guitar in time with the original strumming. It actually sounds easy, but it is a little harder than how it actually sounds. Like i've mentioned before, most guitarists strum in a rather random manner... so to actually perform what you did randomly before can kind of drive you crazy. Just look at Syai.


Anyway, the person who's sitting opposite Syai's is Flint from Bismuth. Just one of the many denizens you meet at the Musicforgood studios. He's kind of a chill dude (When we first met him, Flint said "I live in the West, I am a cowboy". To which we replied with a "WTF" look on our faces). Anyways... here's a link to Bismuth's myspace account, so you can listen to them. Some alternative shoegaze music (www.myspace.com/bismuthsg) for you. My favourite song is "Hospital Drive". Argh! That addictive guitar lick in the background..!

I wanted to really talk about why I choose the Fender Bassman to record the "Glittery" clean parts of Astray, but I had already mentioned that in a previous post. So in this post, I'll say a little about the Vox Amp which I recorded the distorted parts of Astray with (in the interlude at the end). For the distortion pedal, I had used my trusty Sansamp GT2 set to "Centre", "Hot Wired" and "California", to get the really overdriven sound I wanted. Here's the Vox Amp I used in its beautiful warm natural setting. :)


Just for info, this amp is used by two of my favourite guitar players, Mike Eizinger of Incubus and Jonny Buckland of Coldplay. The most unique things about a Vox amp is its slightly overdriven tone and its overwealming warmth, which many players love. I believe the Amp in the studio is a Vox AC30 CC. I use a Vox Pathfinder 15R at home too a definite recommendation for a budget amp for a warm "British" tone. But if you prefer, a heavier rock sound, I would recommend a Marshall CDR 15, which is what I used to own during my "metal" days. Both come with a distortion button, but the Marshall definitely has a heavier sound.

Anyway, yeah. That's really the highlights of the 3rd recording session. With all the tracking done, it was up to Rahmat to finish the song up with Vocals!

End
Well. My advice for this session is.... practice strumming in time with a metronome! Its really not that easy (unless you have been doing it frequently). :) That's all folks!