50% through drums

That's right, I'm probably about 50% (or less) complete with the drums. I have finished recording the 8 songs that I will be playing on the album. There are still 3 songs left to play that my mate Tim will be playing for me. Why only 50% then? Because now comes all the post production work. Mixing mainly.

 I hijacked my parents house for the week and converted their poor lounge room into my studio. Monday - Tuesday I recorded the 8 songs but only miced up the snare, bass drum and toms. It was only rough micing aswell since I have every intention on replacing the sounds with better drum samples. So essentially every hit i made on the drums was just acting as a trigger for the sample I will add later on.
Then starting Tuesday afternoon and finishing up Wednesday arvo I recorded all 8 songs again, but this time I played along with the beats I had recorded previously and I didnt have any drums on the kit, just Cymbals, which I used 5 mics on. I Basically just air drummed all the bits that wern't cymbal hits.
Recording this way allows me to have zero bleed into the cymbal mics from the drums which gives me more control over volumes and sounds when I EQ the cymbals and drums.
 I have recorded numerous times in the past but this is the 1st time I have ever done it this way, not to mention the 1st time I've ever recorded myself.

So, I packed up my gear back to my house and have converted my own lounge room into a make shift temporary studio for the mixing process and the recording of guitars and vocals. Which means I can go back to work and do this after hours now.

Not going to bother uploading anything right now as I have been taking pics and videoing allot of this as I go, I will continue to do this right through and make post some shit at the end.

- Abna

Nothing to see here

I think I have hundreds of pages of information over the past 2 weeks. As a result I have gotten my self a decent reverb plug in (Lexicon) and a guitar plug in called Amplitube. I actually have heaps of new stuff as far as plug ins go but these are the 2 that have changed everything. I did some tests with the audio from the demos and I can make vocals and any instrument sound 10X better now as well as an array of effects and pedals I can now put over the bass and guitar using amplitube. Really looking forward to recording the album now.

Unfortunately this is still bit off. I know where I am doing drums now. My parents have let me hijack their home again for an entire week this time. I got such a good sound out of a room there last time that I was actually pretty happy with this outcome. So I will be going out to their 10acre block to record drums on the 28th of August and spending 5-7 days out there. One of the main things I want to do properly this time around compared to every other time I have recorded my drums in studios is tune my drums properly. Got myself a drum dial, and I will spend all day if I have to.

After that I am going to convert my lounge room into a studio for a month or 2 (whatever it takes really) to do guitar, bass, vocals and finally mixing. So that leaves me a month now (about) of rehearsing and other preparations. This includes building myself an isolation box for my amp. Going to start working on that next week hopefully. I'll post progression on this as I can, other then that the updates might be scarce for a month. But I am going to be videoing allot of the actual album recording though so don't worry there will be heaps when it starts. Cheerio

- Abna

Patience

Why patience? Because now things slow down on the album for a bit. My part of the pre-production is done for now. I have mixed all the songs to some extent for reviewing. I have listened extensively to each song (to the point of... I'm sick of hearing them) and I have written down every change that I think should or could be made to each song. Rather then make the changes and re-record demos, I am just going to keep a note of all changes I want to make and apply them when I do the proper recording. I have sent the song "Trees" to Tim so that he can record Naomi White doing some female vocals for me, the song is intended to be a both male and female song and I am yet to hear it with both so this is the only song that hasn't been reviewed yet. As well as this Tim will be reviewing the rest of the songs for me as well.

So the next part for me now is to try and figure out where and when I am going to record the drums for the album. I want to use my own setup to record this so I need a space that I can leave my gear setup in for a week (give or take depending on the circumstance), that has appropriate acoustics for recording and that I can play drums in at all hours of the night. Pretty difficult criteria to be honest. Until the day I start recording it'll just be rehearsing the songs every week on drums and guitar.

In the mean time I have a couple of other projects in the works that are keeping me busy.
One is Lachlan's song which I have helped him finish writing as far as guitar parts go. Virtually all I have done is made some riffs out of what he described to me and sung for me. I'm going to go record all the instruments for him and record Lachlan singing it. In response to an offer made Lachlan has decided that he would like Tim (Robinson) to come produce it for him. When this song is finished we will post it up somewhere for all to hear.

The other project I am about to start is a completely different style of music to what the album is. I recently acquired a couple of plug ins that have on board oscillators and filters usually used for electronic music. I'm going to try my hand at making an industrial style rock song. Guitars, Drums and electronics mixed together. I will probably come out the end with two versions... a pure electronic version and the industrial version.

By the way, Scott put up a couple of clips from recording the 'Bottles' Demo the other week that you can check out. I also put up a very short very rough sample from the Pre-Chorus of Lachlan's song "Broken Peace"

Demoing 'Bottles'

Demoing 'Bottles'

Sample of Lachlan's song

- Abna

Lachlan's Song

Lachlan (my 10 year old son), has been watching me write and play music his whole life. My recent deep dive back into music has seen him also get right into it. Apparently him and a mate at school are going to start a band (I don't think the other kid even owns an instrument lol). Weather that endeavour comes to fruition or not is one thing, but the upside is it means Lachlan wanted to write a song. So he wrote one. To be honest I don't know what to make of the lyrics, I don't know what the influence is haha. We asked him and he said it just came to him. Hopefully nothing to worry about but I'm just over the moon to see him create something. AFI style lyrics :P

Here is he's work he did. Translation below

Broken Peace

Verse 1

I see a man with knifes, and an arsenal of guns

He cut the rope of the chandelier of peace

The broken bits lay on the evil filed floor

Pre Chorus

This wonderful thing has been reduced to bits

This wonderful thing has been reduced to bits

Chorus

The evil things are named

The soldiers of the evil world

The remains are sad, the remains

The broken bits of happiness are named broken peace

Verse 2

I lay on the floor with my family

I believe the bits, the broken peace

Will remake it’s original form

The soldier bursts through the door, got his gun

Shot everywhere inside my house

Bridge

Is hope still here, Because it does not look like it

Is hope still here, Because it does not look like it

Is hope still here, Because it does not look like it

Is hope still here, Because it does not look like it

So yeah I just wanted to share that.

As for Abna stuff... nothing much has changed since my last post. Still mixing demos. One thing that is probably worth mentioning, the song 'Bottles' has and is changing allot. It was a song written by myself with the help of the band I was in at the time 'Nevertheless'. It was played by 'Nevertheless' and to be honest, the song suited the band and went well in our set. Now, it just doesn't suit the rest of the album but I really want to use it. So Scott Deakes (good friend and the bass player from nevertheless) and myself are in the process of changing and producing the song so that it suits the album without losing it's original feel.

Also I have 2 songs that require lead breaks and I am rubbish at lead breaks. One is a old style punk song and the other is a more steady epic rock song. I have some people in mind to ask, BUT if you are interested in contributing hit me up.

- Abna

Ready for editing

I managed to get the drums all finished for pre-production last weekend. Came to the conclusion that I am far too violent when I drum seeing as I walked away with 2 blood blisters, a regular blister, a football sized bruise and lump on my left leg, cramped wrist, and generally sore muscles.  It was a good test run for the real recording, and I learnt a whole heap about what to do next time and what not to do next time. I chucked up a short clip of me writing drum parts to a song so you can see the set up that I use in my kit and the set up I used to record with.

I am going to do a quick mix on all 10 songs, then go through and fix some guitar parts that no longer fit since I recorded drums. Just some rhythms have changed or whatever. Then time to produce some more. This will involve listening to them over and over again, changing bits I feel need changing, adding bits that should probably be there, editing transitions, cutting songs down etc etc etc. Basically just making the songs better. Wherever I can't roughly edit the song changes I will just make a note so that I know to include the change during final recording.

Since some people have been telling me they cant wait to hear something I put a short snippet of one of my new songs up. This is an unmixed recording, basically exported it straight out of the program the night after I recorded it. the drums are the only part that's finalized in this sample, it's called 'Just a Dot Pt1', it was written for my son Lachlan.

Over the coming weeks I'm probably going to start approaching some people to contribute towards some of these songs in the form of vocals, guitar parts etc. Would love some extra input on these songs so that they can be the best I could possibly make them. Not trying to sell a million records here just wanna make some sick music.

- Abna

Number 10

Last night I finished writing the 10th and final song that is going onto my album. Pretty exciting moment for me I guess since I get to start fiddling with these songs and making them sound even better then they already do. I decided to stop at 10 songs for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, a lot of the songs that I have written actually go for quite a while. Off the top of my head they probably average 4.5 minutes long, there are some 6mins in there as well as a couple of 3.5 minute ones. Nothing below that though. So length wise it'll probably still be 13 songs worth crammed into 10.
Secondly, I noticed from some of the records I have bought, that the ones that only have 10-11 songs I know more of. You tend to get right through the album in one listen without turning it off to go do something.
I suppose a third thing is I felt like I had a good thing going with the songs I have been writing and I didn't want it to end abruptly while I was trying to write more. It's called quiting while your ahead.

I actually got this album written a lot quicker then I thought I would, I have been working on it pretty much every night. Evidence of this:

Used up all my QUT paper I had from uni in Queensland lol.

So, whats next? Work's pretty full on at the moment so in a couple of weeks I am going to go set my drums up out at my parents house (they live on 10 acres) and start recording drums for pre-production. Not going to spend ages getting the sound right. Just set them up, mic them up and record 10 songs. Should get it done in a couple of weekends. Then I will record all the guitars and bass for pre-production as well as the vocals.

But like I said, that may have to wait a couple of weeks. In the mean time I'll probably type up all the lyrics properly off my scribbles and start going through some drum riffs in my head.

Here's the song list, In order of first written to last written.

1. Bottles
2. Just a Dot Pt.2
3. Everyday
4. Costume
5. Original Flame
6. Passing Through
7. Just a Dot Pt.1
8. Trees
9. Define your Life
10. Standing True

and to my few friends who had actually heard the original 'Just a Dot Pt.1' back in the day and are wondering why I am not using that: it was crap, plus I can't even remember the lyrics nor half the song. So it has been re-written, from scratch.

After I type up all my lyrics I am going to post them up. Dunno where yet but it'll be somewhere
Cheerio!

- Abna

Groove Juice

Unfortunatly, I am working both Saturday and Sunday this weekend. The exciting part of this weekend is, I sent Tim the demo versions of 'Bottles' and 'Just a Dot Pt.2' and he is recording drums for them with his own gear up in Sydney. I can't wait to hear what those songs are like with drums.

Meanwhile, along with the song writting I have been doing, I am starting to rehearse some drum bits and prepare my kit for recording. To start with I found some reviews on this 'Groove Juice' cymbal and hardware cleaner. I have some very good cymbals, but they are in pretty bad condition and need a polish. Gave it a go:

It's not getting rid of the white marks from the drum sticks I used to use but the cymbals are coming up polished. It'll do I guess for now.

- Abna

Equiped

Well, after laying down allot of tracks over the last week I have come to 2 conclusions. I really like "Just a Dot Pt 2" way more then I thought I did... and I really liked it before, and my Earth Angel cover.. is boring. So rather then try and make it better, I'm going to scrap it.

Which brings me to my next point; I have changed the way I am going to go about this. First I am going to go through ALL my originals that I had already written prior to now, change them where they need changing and scrap them where they need forgetting about. I'll probably hang on to lyrics for future songs, since they ment something to someone at the time of writting. As each song is completed I will be recording a demo version (or pre-production version). This is for listening back, handing out to select friends... whatever is needed for feedback. Won't spend heaps of time getting good sounds, it's purely for producing. After those songs are done I'll move onto writting new ones.
Then, after the songs have been produced, I'm going to record them properly. This will be a longer process since I'm going to spend some time making sure the songs are done right and sound right. Once they are recorded, i'll probably get them mastered and then put them into an album. Anyway, if you read this then you'll find out all this along the way.

Everything that was on my list has now arrived, meaning I'm completely set up now. Also had an unexpected arrival: my old Marshall quad box.

Got all my Mic leads sorted:

And all my Mic stands:

Also, I found I needed a spit gaurd thingo infront of my vocal mic. I was getting allot of popping sounds. So I did what allot of industry professionals do and made my own out of a coat hanger and stockings. Apparently when Bec was in the supermarket my daughter asked out loud why daddy wanted black stockings (with people around). So I fashioned a pop filter:

Pretty much can't wait to go and record some drums for these demos. I know so far these blogs have been very 'techy' and all about gear and less about music. But that'll settle down now. Next blog will have an audio sample in it. One short peak of one song i think :P

Drums

Well I have agreed to help my wife's youth group out with music on drums since they are struggling to find a drummer. So I'm gonna go set my drums up out at my old's house since they live on 10 acres. I can practise the songs and then practice my songs that I am recording also. I might have to give the kit a bit of a service for recording. New skins, make sure nothing rattles etc etc, I think the last bunch of massive rain we had may have got into the garage and into my gear.

So for the rest of this week: practise songs and continue to work on 4th song for recording, as well as laying down all the guide tracks for those. Hopefully next week my stands arrive and I'll be able to start.

The 4 songs I'm starting with are
'Costume' - Music by Adam Pank, Lyrics by Tim Robinson
'Earth Angel' - Originally by 'The Penguins', re-arranged by Adam Pank (pop punk cover)
Just a Dot (Part 2) - Music by Adam Pank and Tim Robinson, Lyrics by Adam Pank
Then 1 more which is still undecided.

My wife thinks I should just muck around and do a short Australian TV commercial cover lol. Like the cottees song or weetbix or something stupid and make it rock. I'm not keen but it would be short and easy. Thinking about adding a 3rd original to be honest.

Also.. probably worth mentioning... I put a dint in my new guitar. It fell onto the corner of my desk, and it made me pretty angry for a few days. So annoying.

- Abna

Allot of new stuff that I know little about

Finally get to start the real fun. Record some songs, listen to them over and over until I decide I don't like it and make it better, get some feed back on how they can be better.. then record them all over again. Going to be slow while I'm learning how to use the software/hardware. I havn't had much time to play with it yet due to work, only the late hours of the night. I'm actually working so much at the moment that i had no time to mow my lawn.. now its a jungle and I have to pay to get it done because I still don't have time.
So I was trying to learn how to use the movie maker that came with Windows 7 so made most the blog in video form this time around. Few things to note that I will try to change for future.. the microphone on the webcam is crap and when I play stuff to loud it goes all muffled and stupid. So apologies for that.. now that I have microphones I will probably use them in future. Also.. new to windows 7.. havn't figured out how to put my own pics in the desktop slideshow yet.. so Tim's practical joke of putting spice girls.. S club 7 and other assorted genius's on my desktop is still present.

Also, if anyone actually has experience using Cubase or similiar recording software.. or has suggestions for some useful plugins etc message me.. more input the better really.

Broke

So, I've spent some money... actually I've spent most of it. Spent some time with my friend Tim Robinson over the Easter weekend and since he knows 10 times as much as I do about what I'm doing he helped me sus out some gear. I don't have any of it yet but it's all on order. Tim has built my new computer, the graphics card is a monster truck (overkill but overkill is better then under kill) so he sent me a teaser.

I ended up deciding to mic the drums not trigger them, which means many microphones, so I won't bother listing everything that's on its way right now, I'll just update as they come.

So I'm currently focusing on 2 originals and 2 covers. The 2 originals are decided, one of which Tim will actually play drums on since I can't lol.. It's not from lack of trying just he wrote the drums for it way back when I wrote the song. The 2 covers... undecided. I had some ideas, but none of them sounded any good changed from their original version. I have 1 cover that I'm pretty solid on, it'll be a 'Me First and the Gimmie Gimmies' style punk cover of "Earth Angel" by 'The Penguins'. Won't be using the original key, gonna do it in the same key that "Marvin Berry And The Starlighters" do it on 'Back to the Future'. So I need ideas for a 2nd cover for now. Feel free to facebook me an idea or something you've always wanted to hear covered.

Oh also, seemed like a good idea; my cousin Shelly is going to design a logo for Abna. Should be sweet

- Abna

Progress..

Well in response to my last post, I have achieved the 4 things I set out to do.

I have been doing a ton of overtime so I went and bought the same guitar (kind of) that I had last. It's a Epiphone anniversary Les Paul. It has Gibson pickups in it, and it's not black like my last one.

In addition to this, and this wasn't really my plan when I left the house, I bought an amp, its only a 5watt valve amp so it's good for writing and practicing in my house, but if I do want to go loud enough to get over a drum kit or something I can hook my Marshall quad up to it. It has allot of balls for its size and it sounds amazing. It's a brand called Blackstar. It was founded by 4 of the designers from Marshall.

To set up my studio, I got a bunch of prices for different pieces of gear that I actually sussed out a while ago with a good friend of mine Tim Robinson. Figured out how much I needed, asked the bank for it... and they threw it at me. Apparently the excessive amounts of hours I've been doing at work make me a superstar.

3rd thing on the list was to find all my songs. I found them, have gone through it and realized some of them are rubbish, some of them are great and some of them are in between and could use work.

In the last few weeks I have bought allot of new albums (some are actually old) and quite a few tickets to different gigs. Gonna be pretty sweet.

So the goal for the next couple of weeks:
1. We-write some of the originals I found
2. Make a list of some potential covers (gonna do this to get used to the system and gear I'll be using.. plus its fun)
3. Build a new computer because this one is rubbish
4. suss out some gear.. in particular, decide weather I'm gonna mic my drums up or use triggers

Also here's a quick vid showing you what my new guitar and amp sounds like (yes I am aware that I mumble allot)

- Abna

Need a plan

 I have several things to sort out in order to kick this off....

1. I need a guitar again lol..... 
 I had a guitar... I have had many guitars. I lost my last guitar to a fellow band member. I lent it to him, after a year or something I asked about it, he said something on it was broken and he needed to get it fixed for me. another few months after that I parted ways with that band and it wasn't until 6 months later that I remember I owned a guitar (I know this seems strange but you have to realize I was drumming for this band not playing guitar, so at the time I was rarely playing it). Could never get hold of him to chase it up.
So, I've been putting money aside and I am going to go buy the same guitar again, Epiphone Les Paul. Going to borrow an amp off someone while I am writting.

2. I need more money to set up a studio...
So I'll get it.. somehow. I have paid off several loans and currently don't have one. Might hit the bank up for another. Once I have these funds, I should have enough to get the gear I need for demoing my music.

3. Find all my old original music..
I have all the songs that I have written and liked stashed in a folder with lyrics and chords somewhere. It pops up every time I move house. I must find this book so that I can use some of my old originals as a starting point.


4. Download a shit ton of music...
I need to overload myself with plagiarism .... I mean inspiration.




Going to go to Sydney in the next couple of weeks to buy the guitar, will be sussing out the remaining cash this week.




- Abna

In the begining....

So it begins...
I have been planning on doing something like this for a while now, and I decided to go for it. I'll give you a little bit more of an explanation then the description implies; I have been playing music for most of my life, I have been deeply into listening to music for ALL of my life. I was going to tell you all the stuff I had done in regards to playing live in original bands yada yada yada but it's not important to be honest. What's important is what I plan on doing with the rest of my life in regards to music. I came to the realization that I had started to push music out of my life with everyday normal things (work etc), so in an effort to revamp my passion, I am going to be writing music, producing it, recording it, getting people I know to help out and play different things in it and then.. sharing it. Might take some existing songs as well and put my spin on it. Quite frankly I don't mind if nobody reads or follows these projects as they unfold. It's for myself and my family in a sort of public diary type of way.


- Abna