Day XX.

After writing the last blog entry we also recorded some clean vocals during the same night. And yes, I did the singing. The purpose was to test how clean vocals would suit to some songs at certain parts and if I could get proper sound out of myself. So, we tested different things and ended up doing demo clean vocals for three songs. The vocals sounded pretty decent and we’ll hear next week how they sound like by the real (guest) vocalist Mr. X. The other guys arrived later and the rest of the evening was spent drinking which ended up to meatball fight that ended me choking Markus. After that we decided to go to sleep and called it a day.

Ville F. /INSOMNIUM

Day XXX.

We woke as early as 10 am and started to work more with Niilo’s growls. None of us was not feeling that great but what can you do? Leave the crying to pussies, that’s right! While Markus and Vänni concentrated on Tekken 4, Niilo started shouting and I started “producing”. After few hours we had nailed one song successfully. I have to say that writing the lyrics was again something, which was left to the very nick of time and we were not able to get our shit together until the same day we started to record the vocals. So…we had some thinking to do with the vocal arrangements. However, in the end the lyrics turned out great and Niilo took last minute panicking like man and delivered awesome growls. After “producing” the first song, the hangover started to get the upper hand and it was time to open the sparkling wine. Like I would “produce” anything without it, hah! We also made mutual decision to go and see Finnish Punk/Hardcore band Abduktio’s 10-year anniversary gig to the Vastavirta club in the evening. Before that we still managed to get vocals right to one other song with the appreciated help of the assistant producer Kalle Nurmi. Great success! Then we started really get wasted with help of numerous beverages. Timo Isoaho came to have a sneak preview and later on Samu joined us after visiting shortly home. After that it all turned into chaos and at some point I found myself Bar Inferno’s backstage with Anthony and JV from Machine Men?!? Great guys as always! I have also some vague memories of us dancing around strip pole but it was probably only a bad dream. Or was it? Consider it as one until photo material proves it otherwise.

Ville F. /INSOMNIUM

Day XXXX.

We woke fresh as always with decent three hours of drunken sleep behind us. Not nice but life hardly ever is. I think Samu had pretty much similar feeling back at home. Since he was not yet around we recorded basses to the last song by ourselves. After Samu showed up we started to do vocals to the last song. After few hours of shouting we were ready and started to back our shit together and ate some pizza. It felt like being child when you have had really good play with your mates, which eventually turned out boring and ended up with cleaning up the mess you had made. Well, everything ends sometimes and we all were also very eager to go home back to our normal lives. We were tired but at the same time we knew we had given again all that there was to give and I must say that the ending result sounds pretty damn good. However, the job is not done yet. We’ll do some more vocals next week and after that it’s time to do some keyboards with Aleksi Munter from Swallow the Sun in Jyväskylä. Then we do have to mix this crap together and even master it. So, you won’t be getting rid of us anywhere soon. Stay tuned from new episodes of osaaminen!

Ville F. /INSOMNIUM



Niilo at work, with Zyklon shirt as always...



Producer 1



Producer 2

Day X.

Hell-O!

This week has been dedicated to Niilo’s growls and basses. Niilo arrived studio on Tuesday, picked some bass gear from Aadolf (http://www.diabloperkele.com/) and rest of the day was spent in search for the ultimate bass sound. Niilo and Samu ended up using 4*10 Hartke cabinet, Ampeg SVT-3 Pro head and Niilo’s Warwick xxx? bass. Good choice. We record total of 4 bass tracks to have some choice when moulding the final bass sound: direct signal, output signal from the bass head and two tracks with different microphones (Subkick and Sennheiser 421).

I arrived here yesterday evening and currently we have 7 tracks with bass and 3 tracks with vocals. Since we don’t have that tight schedule we are able to work with decent pace. This way we don’t stress Niilo’s voice too much and get the best out of him on the tracks. We will also have a guest vocalist on this album and we’ll let you know more about it later.

So, we celebrated our accomplishments yesterday with some whiskey, beer and sauna and planned for our future adventures in the exiting world of bass playing and growling! Ville V. and Markus will join us tonight evening. The day when the all hell broke loose.

Ville F. /INSOMNIUM




Bass head, thanks for the loan Aadolf!



Bass microphone setup



Mr. Bass player in the evening, Kalle moshing on the background



Mr. Bass idol early in the morning :)

Day 17.
8.4.09

We haven’t been idle for one second on last two days. The guitars are now pretty much done. And the story goes like this:

Monday was a long day with 15 hours of sonic labor. We did most of the lead guitars there are on the album. It was already far past midnight when we decided to call it a day and headed for bed.

Tuesday (day 16.) was no lesser than the day before. Another 18 hours of guitars. Actually we would have more days scheduled for this job but as the playing mood was on we decided to go on as long as it felt natural. The day begun at 9 am with analysis of Monday’s recordings and we found very little to correct. It was time to move on. Two pans of coffee and tuna bread kept the motor running as we recorded Friman’s lead parts to the remaining songs. Niilo has yet again composed a monster on this album. It required several takes to get all the black metal speed picking parts correct. The contrasts are vast, fierce blasting in one verse and then a solemn acoustic guitar on the next part.
Samu dropped by at the studio at noon. We made some effort to create a new sound for clean and semi-distorted guitar leads. That happened quite easily: we just added VOX Big Ben tube overdrive before the Rectifier’s clean channel. The sound is quite retro, but fits certain parts very well. It took couple of hours to record all clean leads, but the process went smoothly. Some of those tracks will be flooded with effects in the mix and recording them turned to be great fun. Then I was time to get back to actual leads…
Niilo’s monster had haunted Ville F. few hours before and now I went through the same torment. Some long legato melodies that have been composed on computer now made flesh on the expense of my middle finger. I was tapping till I had blister on it, but we got it all done. After that I had two guitar solos to put down. Friman acted as my producer on those and brought some common sense to the arrangements. I’m pleased with the result.
Rest of the evening went in just listening through the takes and recording some long notes with Amfisound guitar. Sustainiac pick-up turned to be the answer to our calls on that task. It was 2 am on Friday morning when we were done. We had sauna and absorbed few glasses of red wine. I fell asleep instantly when I crawled to my bunk.

Today started with analysis of what we had done. One lead part and on rhythm guitar part didn’t survive our judgmental ear and needed to be retaken. That was done with no troubles at all. Then the last episode with electric guitars was to get some feedback to the rhythm tracks on two specific songs. I picked the shorter straw and went to the studio room that held the guitar cabinets. Friman wrinkled his brows with expression of malicious joy as he translated some tuning instructions to me from behind the sound-proof glass. I stood in front of the cabinets with a wireless transmitter on my guitar and broke the hell loose. My ears were ringing as the studio headphones tried to compete with the noise of two screaming cabinets. It’s a manly feeling despite the unhealthy volume. We got the job done in quarter of an hour. Nice.
Now the loud part of the guitar session seems to be done. Now it’s Friman’s time to sit behind the glass as we’re recording the acoustic parts. The amount of acoustic guitars has diminished considerably since our second album but there is still some parts on almost every song. Kalle has a great sounding old Guild and that proved to be the optimal weapon to the task. We just re-stringed it with some Teflon-coated Elixir medium gauge strings and the sound was there.
We’re bound to get the acoustic guitars done this afternoon. Then we’ll head home for the well-earned Easter semester. The story goes on next week when we proceed to bass recordings. Stay tuned on low frequencies.





Caught somewhere in time during the seemingly endless lead guitar recordings.



"Lissee tortimia"



Too many long days indoors makes this hippie look like a goblin.



Behind the studio glass. Is it a sleeping bag or a rather long hair implant?



Recording the acoustic guitar.


Ville V. / INSOMNIUM

Day 15.
6.4.09

Hello again! Days pass by quickly here, and sometimes it feels like being in “Groundhog Day” –movie. There has been significant progress though, and the myriad of guitar tracks is slowly turning into songs. Looking good, and sounding even better. Here is a review about past few days at Fantom Studio:

Thursday (day 11.) was by far the most hilarious day of the session this far. We spent the noon editing and recording the rest of the rhythm tracks. The framework of the songs was already on tape and we wanted to search for a bit clearer and less distorted tone for some additional rhythm guitars. We got what we wanted pretty easily. The plan was to spend the evening and night recording those parts, but all of a sudden he plans changed.
Finnish rock band Egotrippi had scheduled a concert to the TV-studio next door, and notification of that gig came to our attention late in the afternoon. That canceled all loud guitar recording for the evening. As a compensation for the wasted time the TV-studio owner Juha Torvinen bought us a crate of beer. You don’t really need a crystal ball to tell where it leads to…
With the aid of some liquid nutrients these two ingenious guitar heroes decided to compose a “Finnhits” -style pop tune. Composing the masterpiece took almost ten minutes, and recording it a bit less than that. Drums were programmed in no time and basses played with some crappy axe that just happened to be here in studio. Lyrics turned to be and epic adventure saga about the life of our beloved drummer Markus “Nekro-Sukram” Hirvonen. Then the vocals were done in half an hour nevertheless it demanded a considerable amount of whisky. Solid professionalism. Our bellies were aching of all the laughing when the show was over. Despite the enormous hit potential this song clearly has it will not be released. Ever. For our ears only. It was great fun though.

No more monkey business on Friday. We put down some additional melodic rhythm guitars and then took the quest for the clean tone. It was a bit tricky part at first. Single coil pickups seemed to take lot of interference from the studio equipment resulting in unacceptable hiss on the background. After some unorthodox electrical solutions we found a trouble-free signal pathway and the burning red “rec”-light was on again. I have been a Les Paul –fanatic for the last good decade, and pretty much thought that Strats and Teles should be left for old school vintage guys. That opinion changed now, at least with the clean tone. ‘60s Fender Stratocaster through Rectifier’s clean channel resulted in a bright, clear and highly sonic sound. I think we’ve done pretty well with clean guitars on the previous Insomnium -albums, but now the sound is even better. Unless we really make effort to fuck things up in the mixing, you can expect to hear something beautiful.
I left for home on the Friday night for I had some things to attend to in Joensuu. I picked Markus up on the way home and he was clearly touched by the song we had made for him. A gesture of caring and friendship in form of blasphemy and insult. That’s the way we do it in Insomnium ☺ Ville F. stayed at the studio to put down some more clean and rhythm guitars.

Saturday was a day off for us weary musicians. Samu and Kalle (Samu’s assistant engineer) did some editing and volume automations, but we were on leave. The shitload of editing in the studio doesn’t always derive from crappy playing, even though it isn’t entirely unknown concept to us. There is just much to do to turn the dozens and dozens of guitar and drum tracks into a complete song. And we’re not even the half way there yet…

I drove back to the studio on Sunday afternoon. 400km of highways resulted in one fat speeding ticket. The policeman mentioned also a few praising words about “the heap of shit” I was driving with. The car is running ok, but Tuesday’s accident doesn’t make it look too impressive. Maybe I should take train or something next time…
Ville F. had completed the clean guitars and the rest of the additional rhythm guitars when I got back here. We went through the songs a few times and ended up with a conclusion that it was time to move on. I’m really confident about this material. The rhythm section is now heavy as hell, and clean guitars sound pretty damn good too. Even the mere dry signal with no effects sounds soothing.

Now it’s Monday. Grey, dull and rainy day. It doesn’t matter, we’re isolated from the world outside. The next phase is to record all the lead guitars. Not a particularly small task to do given the nature of our music. The recipe for lead sound is pretty much the same than with rhythm guitars: Les Paul –style guitar through a pretty hot Tube Screamer and Mesa Boogie Solo Rectifier head with 4x12” Mesa cabinet.
One major task was to find the right tool for the specific job. We ran into the complex subject of intonation, and solving it in optimal way took some time. The variables in play are the guitar used, scale length, type and condition of frets, fine-tuning, string height, tension and gauge, and finally the playing touch. Now the stars seem to have aligned the right way and the red button is on. The drink for tonight will be coffee and we will be working late. Expect next chapter on Wednesday when the lead guitars are done. Over and out.





Master Friman on duty.



The settings to go with. Figure out the tubing and preamps yourself :)



Subduing the ESP.



"Eiköhän mennä vielä kerran..."



Cathode ray sunshine burns!


Ville Vänni / INSOMNIUM

Day 10.
1.4.09

We’re back in business, and it’s yet again time to share some studio events with the outside world.

We came back to the studio on Sunday evening. I drove from Joensuu and picked up Ville F. on the way. It was almost 2 minutes to midnight when we loaded in the rest of the guitar gear, dismounted the drums and set up some amps and cabinets. Nothing special.

Monday (day 8) was spent entirely on the quest for the optimal guitar sound. We tried different combinations with heads: Koch Multitone, Framus Cobra and Mesa Boogie Single Rectifier. The variables in this equation are not so simplistic though: we went through six different overdrives to be used in front of the amps, five guitars, two different cabinets and six different microphone options for them. The result is somewhat complex. Eight hours of tweaking resulted nothing but conclusion that we were close but not there yet. Mesa needed new tubes, no substitutes would do. Samu made a few phone calls, and finally hook up with a guy who would have matching tubes for the amp. It was already evening, so Samu headed home and I went to get the tubes with Ville F.

The guy we were after lived on the other side of the town in a suburb. He had some kind of a shop there, but there was no sign on the door that would implicate that. The place resembled the store in “Pulp Fiction”. No samurai swords though, just endless piles of boxes containing tubes, vintage HiFi stuff and top end wine and whisky bottles. We got what we had come for but the whisky section was out of our reach.

The rest of the evening was spent on guitar and amp maintenance. Ville F. recorded some demo leads and I was the guitar-janitor of the house: re-stringing, fine-tuning and re-tubing. After 3 liters of red wine and few beers the optimal guitar sound was found. Mission accomplished. Cozy studio floor soothed us to a beautiful sleep.

Tuesday started with realization that we may have been drunk, but we were not deaf. The solution was found. Samu just went through the microphones and EQs and that was it. The rhythm guitar solution for this album is following: ESP, Gibson, Amfisoind and Schecter guitars through Boss Noise Suppressor and Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer. Then the signal is split to Mesa and Framus heads, both amps driving 8 ohms to their own 4x12” cabinets. Sweet.

Someone asked us about the strings we use. The recipe is GHS Boomers 60-010 on all distorted guitars, Blue Steel 52-010 on Fender Stratocaster (clean guitars) and 70-017 on the Schecter baritone. And speaking of strings, I ran into some trouble getting 70-strings for the baritone. I drove to downtown while Ville F. was nailing down some guitar parts. I got the strings ok, but crashed my car on the way back. Not my fault though, some local guy was a bit too concerned about his cell phone and didn’t notice me slowing down for pedestrian walkway. It resulted in a minor whiplash and a bit shorter car. Gladly I didn’t have any guitars in the trunk…

We had a long and busy day putting down main rhythm lines for five songs, and it was already 10pm when we finished. Samu made the basic setups ready, so we could record and play in turns after he left home. 13 hours of playing per day will get this album ready in no time! The guitar sound is best we have had this far, heavy, clear and distinctive. So the day was clearly a positive one despite the traffic accident.

This Wednesday started with some depressing news: the insurance company announced that my car was fucked up almost beyond repair, and they’d rather pay me off than fix the car. I’m glad that the same didn’t happen to me...
The afternoon was troubled with some editing, and it was already 2pm when we got to play. Ville F. nailed down the opening song and the mood was lifted again. Now we’re recording the remaining rhythm lines as I speak. One more crate of beer, two more songs and three more liters of red wine to go. Then we can call this a day.



Great heads on the shoulder



"Tortimia" to boost up the signal



Cabinets



Framus cabinet



Mesa cabinet



Guitars let to right: Amfisound custom guitar, Les Paul Studio, Fender Stratocaster 60, Schecter Blackjack Baritone & ESP K-500



Writing the diary



Some nice lyrics

Ville Vänni ja Ville F./INSOMNIUM