Karl Daniel Lidén - Audio Engineer Extraordinaire

Unprovoked nudity

2010-07-25T20:49:00.003+02:00

Okay, listen up all you people following this blog (yes, all 3 of you).
I suggest you follow me on Twitter instead. I'll pretty much be laying this blog to rest since I'm always way too tired to sit down when I get home (which is always late) and start writing a whole essay summarizing what went down in the studio that day. Most of the time is spent discussing shit anyway. Literally.

My Twitter feed will be a bit more up to date, witty and less of an anxiety source for me.
I know, it's annoying as hell with all the #'s, RT's, @'s but what are you gonna do?

twitter.com/karldanielliden

SWITCHBLADE - "S/T 2009" - COMPLETED

2009-06-19T16:51:00.010+02:00

The 5th installment in the Switchblade album series is now 100% done. The mix was wrapped up late, late tuesday night at my own Tri-Lamb Studios and was mastered the very next day by Magnus Lindberg @ Tonteknik, Umeå, Sweden.

But that's not all, folks. There's actually a whole day of fun-packed excitement I haven't reported (it was a hectic day).
This past saturday we re-entered Studio Gröndahl to record the last few overdubs; Hammond & piano - the fairy dust sprinkles, so to speak.
Not much to report though, it all went pretty smooth and we were outta there in just a few hours. On the leslie cabinet I threw a pair of MD421's on the horns, a R121 on the bottom and a UM70 for the "complete picture"/room ambience. The piano was captured with a RCA 77-DX, R121 & UM70 with everything going through API 3124+ pres. I was going for a pretty gritty, eerie sound and mission accomplished.

This self titled (well, of course) gargantuan beast of an album, which consists of three tracks generous in length, will be released 09/09/09 on Trust No One Recordings.
It will tear your head off and spit down the severed spine filled hole, I shit you not. The material is top notch, the production is excellent (if I may say so myself) and the mastering injected it with the extra shot of rabies needed to completely set it off.

SWITCHBLADE - "S/T 2009" Studio report, day 6

2009-05-07T13:23:00.004+02:00

Semi-slow on the updates, I know.
Anyway, day 6 - the last day of tracking - was spent doing vocals and Anders nailed the whole album in just one day. That's a pretty strong effort if you ask me. A solid performance as well. We also did a few extra guitar overdubs, eerie harmony type stuff.
One thing I haven't mentioned which isn't all that common, is that since the album was not recorded to a click track, in order to do guitar dubs with ease (which can be really hard when the music is at such a slow tempo), the basic tracking at Gröndahl was filmed and then later synced to the audio in Pro Tools so Johan could simply watch the performance at Gröndahl and play along to that, providing both a better vibe as well as being time efficient as hell.
Those hi-tech kids and their gadgets...

The plan was to rest for a few days before starting the mix process, but that plan lasted about 2 hours from when I got home.

To be continued.

As previously stated, weird surroundings outside Version Studio.

SWITCHBLADE - "S/T 2009" Studio report, day 4-5

2009-05-02T21:50:00.006+02:00

Recordings have resumed - this time at Version Studio to do guitar overdubs/vocals/bells n' whistles/etc.

Arrived at the studio yesterday early afternoon and after a few hours of setting up, we were rolling. First up was guitars which we tracked with an assortment of highly classified microphones going into my beautiful API A2D preamp. Johan utilizes 2 heads (Orange/Sunn) and 2 cabs (Matamp/Sunn) so it's quite a rich, thick tone. I don't wanna toot my own horn too early on, but at this point the guitar sound isn't heavy, it's beyond heavy. It's a very brown sound.

Anyway, today we finished all "heavy guitar" overdubs and just before calling it a day we started trying out vocals.
I'm afraid that's about as exciting as it gets right now.

Interesting surroundings outside Version Studio.

SWITCHBLADE - "S/T 2009" Studio report, day 3

2009-04-26T10:13:00.012+02:00

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10:13

Last day of basic tracks @ Gröndahl. Got to bed at 2am yesterday/today and the alarm clock went off at 8am. Metal.
Right now we're sipping the morning cup o' joe and gearing up to start tracking what will be the opening track on the album.
If time permits we'll also track a mostly guitar based interlude that'll tie together track #2 and #3. If not, we'll track the whole thing at Version Studio.

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11:27

After a slow start we've now started recording the albums opening track.

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21:52

We've now evacuated Studio Gröndahl. All basic tracks have been recorded. We resume recording this coming friday (in 5 days, that is) for guitar overdubs & vocals.

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SWITCHBLADE - "S/T 2009" Studio report, day 1-2

2009-04-25T14:28:00.009+02:00

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14:28

Alright, a few quick words as we're right in the middle of recording. Got up at 6:30am yesterday (I seriously haven't been up that early since bebop was the latest craze) and jumped in the car and arrived at Studio Gröndahl at 8am. Started setting up and sometime around early evening the first takes dished out. We got to bed sometime around 1am so it was about a 17hr work day. Far out. Heavy. Intense. You get the idea.

For the gear nerd I can say that the studio has a real schmoergasboard of exotic/fabulous/vintage mics, mic pres, outboard. To get your saliva glands working overtime I can inform you that mics for drums include Neumann U47FET/M149 Tube, Coles 4038, Gefell UM70, Royer R121, RCA DX77 among the usual suspects such as Sennheiser MD421, Electro-Voice RE20, etc going into Neve 1081, API 3124, Chandler TG2, Trident & Spectra Sonics mic pres.
Guitars are rocking Royer R121's, MD421's, etc and bass is being picked up by SM7 and MD421.

So far the basic tracks for 1 of 3 tracks has been done (perhaps another one as this current take of track #2 is sounding pretty good so far).

Lunch break.

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20:21

Right now recording a section that, if it were any slower or heavier, it'd be standing still.

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01:43

...And we're done for the day. The basic tracks for 2 of 3 tracks are now completely done.

SWITCHBLADE recordings begin.

2009-04-23T17:23:00.003+02:00

Oh yes, tomorrow me and the lads enter the fabulous Studio Gröndahl to record the fifth installment in the SWITCHBLADE album series. The first three days will be spent recording the basic tracks; drums, bass, guitar. On May 1st we'll enter Version Studio to record overdubs (more guitars, vocals and miscellaneous bells n' whistles). After that we'll take a week or two off to clear our heads and then it's back to Studio Gröndahl for the final mix. OOOOH YEAH.

KAUSAL - "In Dead Cities"

2009-03-29T23:56:00.002+02:00

Oh yeah, I almost forgot: I recently (just last week) completed the mix of the upcoming debut album "In Dead Cities" by Stockholm post-rockers KAUSAL (featuring members of A SWARM OF THE SUN, COME SLEEP & LIBRAH). The album was recorded in Stockholm at Version Studio and I did the mix at my own Tri-Lamb Studios. The album will be out as a digital release on Version Studio Records within the next few months.

SWITCHBLADE - "S/T 2009"

2009-03-18T21:27:00.004+01:00

Yes, here it is - the spectacular update I was promising.
I am very pleased to announce that I have been hired to record & mix the 5th album by Swedens premiere bitterness squadron; SWITCHBLADE.

Recordings will commence on April 24th at one of Swedens finest recording facilities; Studio Gröndahl.
The release date is set for September 9th, 2009 on Trust No One Recordings.

It is going to be one devastatingly bleak, bitter & heavy record.

Don't worry, it's coming

2009-03-08T01:46:00.001+01:00

Updates have been few and far apart, but I promise you, there's an update of major sweetness on the way.
Stay tuned and stay in school.

Best albums of 2008

2008-12-30T23:04:00.006+01:00

The moment you've all been waiting for is here.
In my humble opinion, here are the best releases of 2008:

01] Bohren & Der Club Of Gore - Dolores
02] Portishead - Third
03] Satyricon - The Age Of Nero
04] Melvins - Nude With Boots
05] Woven Hand - Ten Stones
06] I Are Droid - I Are Debut
07] Disfear - Live The Storm
08] Nine Inch Nails - Ghosts I-IV
09] Earth - The Bees Made Honey In The Lion's Skull
10] Black Mountain - In The Future

Honorable mentions:
+ Torche - Meanderthal
+ Meshuggah - obZen
+ Opeth - Watershed
+ Zozobra - Bird Of Prey
+ The Haunted - Versus
+ Mike Patton - A Perfect Place [OST]

I know the blog's been pretty slow lately. I'm currently mixing an album of post-rock goodness featuring Erik of A Swarm Of The Sun and Anders of Come Sleep. Expect a summary of the recording & mix to appear within the next few weeks.

Erik laying down the mad guitarz.

Stay hard.

A SWARM OF THE SUN - drum performance.

2008-09-16T23:47:00.005+02:00

Since about mid-2007 I've been helping my friends' band A SWARM OF THE SUN out by performing drums for them during recording sessions (since they are a duo sans drummer) and this past weekend it was finally time to start recording what will be their debut full-length - titled "Zenith", and let me tell you, these kids (okay, they're the same age as me) are going places. The material is just crazy strong and I'm proud to have been a part of it. I just know the record is going to slay. It's everything from minimalistic and frail to bombastic and crushing.

The sessions were/are held at Erik Nilsson's (guitars/keyboards) own Version Studio located in Stockholm, Sweden. Erik is also the guy who has graced my own "band" (well, it's just me) VAKA's album "Kappa Delta Phi" with both guitars & vocals on several tracks.
Anyway, we started out friday evening setting up drums and mics and we started recording shortly thereafter. I was actually not engineering this session which was pretty nice - being able to just concentrate on playing drums (and it's also the reason this blog entry is pretty short & straight to the point). Gave up for the day around midnight and continued mid-day on saturday and again kept at it til around midnight. On sunday we took it pretty easy since only 2 tracks remained. So lots of breaks, fart jokes (and other high-end comedy material), eating embarrassing amounts of snacks, summarizes sunday pretty well.

So that's it. I highly recommend you check out A SWARM OF THE SUN on MySpace and listen to a few tunes of their "The King Of Everything" EP - it's good stuff I tells ya! And the album is going to be even better. :) "Zenith" is due for release early 2009.

DOZER - "Beyond Colossal" - COMPLETED!

2008-07-26T16:50:00.005+02:00

Yes, the album is finally 100% done on my part. To celebrate, an ice-cold Corona with a twist of lime was thoroughly enjoyed in the scorching heat that is now over Sweden. M-MMM! I think I deserved it.

The only thing that remains before "Beyond Colossal" is ready to be unveiled before the public is mastering, which will be done by John Golden of Golden Mastering.

It's been looong long days in the studio recording, and loooong long days in the studio mixing, but I am really proud of the end result.
The sound is just MASSIVE. I can't wait for you all to hear it.
Release is set for early November on Small Stone Recordings.

Time for another Corona.

DOZER - "Beyond Colossal" - Mix-a-roo

2008-07-16T16:14:00.003+02:00

Dear diary,

For those of you still following this thing I can inform that I'm about 70% done with the mix. So if nothing disastrous happens (great, I just jinxed the whole thing) getting it off to mastering on time shouldn't be a problem.

It's taken a lot of time but in the end I think it'll be a sweet sounding album.
For those curious about the general vibe/feel of the album soundwise I can say that, for me, the aim was to have a very "full" and natural sounding album, meaning warmth in the guitars (and not just cutting everything under 100Hz), lots of natural ambience on the drums and getting a mix with some impact to it. So far I think I've succeded.

Back to mixing.

DOZER - "Beyond Colossal" - Yada yada

2008-07-01T18:17:00.004+02:00

Yes - finally.

I know updates have been non-existent the last weeks or so, but I actually have a pretty good excuse and that is that I was hospitalized for 4 days (and went back & forth to the hospital preceeding days). Got home two weeks ago but have been feeling so-so, so last week was when I first felt I could get some work done.

I don't know how interesting going into nerd detail on the mixing process is to read about. Something tells me very few will find "added 5.4dB @ 80Hz with a Q of 1.4 to the U47FET kick" interesting, so I'll write as if talking to ones grandma.

Started off as usual with the drums. The kit utilized for this recording was a Ludwig Superclassic with 26" bass drum, 14" rack and 16" floor tom. Most people go "26" bass drum! Fuckin' a!" but few realise that in a dense thick mix where EVERYTHING is supposed to be fat, heavy and rich in low end, getting a 26" bass drum to cut through - and sound good, mind you - is not easy.
When we recorded "Through The Eyes Of Heathens" I had brought both my 22" and 26" bass drums with me and the 22" actually sounded bigger than the 26". Go figure.
If you're making a drumsolo album, or one where the bass & guitars don't occupy so much room in the mix, then it's definetely easier to get a 26" to actually sound like a 26". The bigger the drum - the less attack/impact you get (if it's not tuned waaay down but then all you get is a clicky bass drum).
But it looks cool, and we all know that's all that matters.

Next up was bass and I found a good sound pretty fast. Being meticulous when placing mics pays off. Same with the guitars. Ended up using only the Revox 3500 and Fat-Head ribbon mic for 90% of the guitars and the API preamp provided perfect punch/bite. I had a SM57 up as well "just because" and I seriously cannot fathom how it gets so much use on electric guitars. It sounds like a complete and utter turd.

Vocals is definetely what's taking the longest as there's a lot of harmonies going on. Way more than ever before.
There's also less dubbed vocals since it gives the vocals kind of a robotic feel. It can sound cool here n' there (and there are dubs), but dubbing everything as a rule (which we did a lot in the past) is gone. I guess harmonies has taken that role until we get tired of that and go back to just dubbing everything again, mwoaha.
And I'm (again) happy we got a hold of a Neumann U87 to use for the vocals - not a sign of sibilance/harshness even when adding distortion. Just all around aural sweetness. Yay!

Neil Fallon, metal pup, Tommi, Fredrik, Beef cake.

Yes, that is indeed Neil Fallon of Clutch fame. He graces the album with 2 vocal performances, and I'm telling you, it's goosebumps galore. He re-eeeally hits the spot.
I was amazed how incredibly tight his performance was. The dubs are just insanely tight in both pitch and timing. It really makes the vocals cut through like a hot knife through butter. And this was like on the third take (with the first two being mainly for me to set mic pre gain), mind you. I don't mean to sound like Mr. Fan-boy Deluxé, but seriously, he just totally slayed. All of us were smiling from ear to ear. You just wait - creaming of pants is guaranteed.

DOZER - "Beyond Colossal" - Post-recording bla bla

2008-06-08T23:20:00.002+02:00

Dear diary,

I know I promised more photos, but those will just have to wait a few more days as I'm fresh back from the emergency room as I'm writing this, so yeah, I'm quite exhausted. To make a long story short, it seems my body doesn't like me. At all.

Anyway.. on wednesday we were joined in the studio by Jocke (I can't remember his last name) who laid down Hammond on one track (the one without drums & bass). It's the same guy that played on the Revolution Rock & Agents Of Ahriman albums by GREENLEAF. The track is quite dark and a bit melancholy, so don't expect 70's heavy rock organ masturbation all over the place. It sounded phenomenal to say the least and I'm extremely happy with the sound we got. The leslie cabinet sounded so good it's not even funny. All I can say is goosebumps, maaajor goosebumps.

Johan also rejoined us on wednesday to redo the bass for a few sections that were slightly out of tune (as I wrote earlier, it's pretty much impossible to detect when it's just drums & bass).

Thursday (last day of recording) was spent recording the last of the vocals and the last of the guitars, then we listened through the material to see if we felt anything more should be added (and of course we added some more stuff. more is more).

So now I'm back in Stockholm and as soon I feel a bit better I will start mixing this thing.

Stay tuned, rock on, stay in school... aaaand so forth.

//Daniel

DOZER - "Beyond Colossal" - Day 20-22

2008-06-05T23:04:00.002+02:00

Dear diary,

Sorry for not posting the last few days, but the cold I thought had gone away came back - with a vengeance. So it's been long sweat covered nights with my whole body just aching like hell sprinkled with massive headaches. Good times (no, not really)!

But onto the news. The recording process is DONE! I'll post pictures and more in-depth news tomorrow cause right now I'm just too tired and have to start packing everything up for the trip back to Stockholm early tomorrow morning.

DOZER - "Beyond Colossal" - Day 19

2008-06-02T23:11:00.005+02:00

Dear diary,

Aaaaand we're back! These 3 days off definetely did everyone good. Even though I'm still down with fever & headaches, spirits were up and I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say that today we got twice the amount of work done that we did in the last few days before the break. Everybody was just mentally exhausted and what's supposed to be fun had almost started to become a chore.
So, today: guitars & vocals! B-I-G surprise, I know. I think Fredrik only has 3 songs left to do vocals on and guitar-wise we're starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel too.
Tomorrow there's actually going to be something else recorded except vocals & guitar, but I'm keeping it a secret for now, so expect pictures and all around fun stuff tomorrow. Yaaaay!

DOZER - "Beyond Colossal" - Day 17/18

2008-05-31T11:13:00.003+02:00

Dear diary,

Sorry for not posting the last two days, but the second I got back home (= you relax) the cold I've been fighting the last week struck out in full bloom and I got sick as a dog with really high fever, nausea & pretty bad muscle pains.

Recordings resume monday, so please check back then.

DOZER - "Beyond Colossal" - Day 16

2008-05-28T21:48:00.004+02:00

This man is sex personified.

Dear diary,

You'll never guess what we did today? We recorded guitars & vocals! Yes, it's true! We now have a total of 5 whole days left to complete EVERYTHING and there's tons of work left to be done, so things are gonna get hectic to say the least.
We've also discovered that the bass is slightly out of tune on one track (which you don't really notice until you start putting guitars on top of it), which means it needs to be redone, which means time will be lost setting everything up to try and get the same sound as we had before (believe me, it's not just to set everything up and think "Yeah, the mics were kinda standing like this". When you're close-micing a cabinet every milimeter and slightest angle of the mic changes the sound). Then of course there's the actual playing & recording.

For various reasons we're taking a break during the weekend and I think it'll do everyone good cause right now everybody's pretty pooped. You're just mentally exhausted from all the hard work. So hopefully we'll resume monday morning with the new found strength needed to pull some late shifts the last few days.

This sounded exactly as how it looks; interesting.
Believe it or not, there's actually thought behind this setup.

DOZER - "Beyond Colossal" - Day 15

2008-05-27T23:20:00.002+02:00

Dear diary,

Todays entry will be quite short as I have a cold that just won't quit. Feel like complete poo every other day only to feel almost back to normal the next. Up and down, up and down.. quite irritating I must say.
Anyway, the day went as follows; Did guitars. Did vocals. Ate salad. Insulted each other with extreme profanities (as we always do). Spoke to each other in fake german accent. All the regular everyday studio stuff.
The guitars for Exoskeleton Pt.II and the drum/bass-less track are now completely done, and I think they're done for a third yet untitled track too. The vocals for said untitled track are also pretty much done I think.

Tomorrow: More guitars & vocals! Yaaaay!

DOZER - "Beyond Colossal" - Day 14

2008-05-26T19:44:00.002+02:00

Captain's Log, stardate 23.9, rounded off to the... nearest decimal point. We've... traveled back in time to save an ancient species from... total annihilation. SO FAR... no... signs of aquatic life, but I'm GOING to find it. If I have to tear this universe another black hole, I'm going to find it. I've... GOT TO, MISTER!

Finished up (almost) all the guitars for Exoskeleton Pt. II and the intro (we seem to be stuck on those two songs) and that was pretty much it.
We actually re-did all of Fredrik's Fender guit overdubs as we weren't really that happy with the sound (after many hours in the studio your judgement isn't at it's best), and I'm glad we did cause we managed to get a sound that instantly made me and Tommi look up at each other with big happy loving smiles.

Also hooked up one of Bengt's toys - a Fender amp and a really old beat up Pearl cabinet with just a 12" driver in it for some other flava and it sounds suprisingly good.
It's also funny how ones preference can change so heavily over the years. 10 years ago the sound of a Big Muff made everybody go "Yaaaay!", now it's 9 times out of 10 "Nay!". We've tried it many many times during these sessions but each time we skip on it.. I think it's been used like maybe one time or something, and I don't think it'll get much more use either. Just too much mud and flabby low end for my taste.

DOZER - "Beyond Colossal" - Day 13

2008-05-25T20:17:00.003+02:00

Dear diary,

Recorded vocals for the albums intro and guits & vox for a so far untitled drum & bass-less track (all other tracks are 100% drum & bass techno music - we do everything for the kids). Vocal-wise there's definetely a whole lot more harmonies going on than in the past. If you're heard Exoskeleton Pt. II you know what I mean, but don't worry, I think the majority of tracks will have the patented balls out Yoda vocal stylings of mister Fredrik Nordin intact. So it's not all just for ze girls.

The whole weekend has gone by at a pretty moderate tempo, managed to get a respectable amount of work done without getting stress-induced ulcers. Yay!
Tomorrow we're starting with the fun stuff guits - meaning harmonies, solos and allround weird overdubs and after lunch it's vocal time again.

And lastly, if all goes as planned, a very special guest will appear on the album laying down vocals. I don't wanna say too much, but it's definetely on the same "Yaaaay!"-level as when we had Troy Sanders of Mastodon doing vocals on "Until Man Exists No More" from the "Through The Eyes Of Heathens" album...

DOZER - "Beyond Colossal" - Day 12

2008-05-24T23:10:00.002+02:00

Dear diary,

Started laying down vocals today and first up was Exoskeleton Pt. II, a track you may or may not have heard on the DOZER / BRAIN POLICE tour split EP released last year. We finished about 90% of the song, all that remains is the shouty-esque lead on the choruses. And the Neumann U87 did not disappoint, the vocals sounded velvety smoooooth. Not a sign of sibilance or harshness in sight. It's gonna work baaaajoooodifooly!

All in all it was a pretty relaxed day, took it pretty easy with the vocals as you don't want your vocalist to blow his voice out on the first day. Had a nice relaxing lunch spent eating burgers and ice cream (in combination, of course) and we headed home pretty early so I got to spend the day with my lovely wife who's visiting for the weekend and Tommi I think went fishing (which, as we all know, is code for in-depth studies on the physics of the brown gold).

Sorry about the lack of pictures, we simply forgot to snap any. You know they'd all just be of metal pup anyway, so...

DOZER - "Beyond Colossal" - Day 11

2008-05-23T20:28:00.002+02:00

Dear diary,

Today was a pretty slow day. It's friday so you're automatically in chill out and don't stress-mode. Finished up the basic rhythm guitars for all the songs, then Fredrik swinged by to start laying down his twangy Fender guits. You can see in the photo above just how happy he is. The Fender + Gibson combo is a real winner. You get the thick fullness from the Gibson and the attack and actual string sound from the Fender. It's baaaaajoooodifooool!
And for me it's happy day 2000 as my wife is coming to visit me for the weekend here in Borlänge, so it's yeeeeeeee-haw! in camp Karl Daniel Lidén right now. She's also bringing the U87 mic from Stockholm, so tomorrow we will starting recording vocals.

DOZER - "Beyond Colossal" - Day 10

2008-05-22T20:10:00.007+02:00

Dear diary,

Since today was almost exactly like yesterday we decided to pique your interest with another video. To be played at maximum volume.
We now only have 2 songs left when it comes to basic rhythm guitars, then on saturday Fredrik will start laying down vocals.

I can snitch the schedule to you as it looks now. The recordings will continue for 2 more weeks, then I have til mid-July to deliver a 100% ready mix whilst at the same time working my regular full time day job. It's going to be tight. Re-eally tight. Where the mastering will be done is still undecided, but we're leaning toward a special little place who has produced some excellent sounding albums.
The album (I think) will be released in October on Small Stone Records and a European tour will follow in November, if I'm not mistaken. There you have it. The latest scoop.

Ta-ta for now, children.

PS. It's now possible to add comments to this blog without registering with blogspot! Yay! DS

DOZER - "Beyond Colossal" - Day 09

2008-05-21T20:44:00.004+02:00

Diary dearest,

Guitars, guitars and more guitars. That's what we recorded today. The only thing really new from yesterday is that I've discovered that the chair I'm sitting in while recording gives me a pretty hefty cameltoe. The incline of the seat makes me slide down little by little, and after about an hour or so I got a cameltoe that puts many to shame.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot - we found a Neumann U87! Yeeeeee-haw! It's exactly what I want for Fredrik's vocals, though I have to say it's still a gamble - I haven't tried the U87 on Fredrik's voice before and he does have a pretty "special" voice that's difficult to find the perfect mic for. That being said, the U87 is still pretty neutral so I think it'll do a nice job of capturing his luscious voice without adding or subtracting too much. I think it's a pretty safe bet. After all, it's done the trick for about a zillion vocalist for maaa-any many years.
Either way it'll definetely outperform the Neumann TLM 103 - the only other option we would've been stuck with if we hadn't scored us a U87, and that one I definetely do not like on Fredrik's vocals.

Tommi's girlfriend dropped by to say hello.

DOZER - "Beyond Colossal" - Day 08

2008-05-20T19:57:00.007+02:00

If the above video is on the fritz, go here: http://myspacetv.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=34570629

Dear diary,

Continued laying down guitars today aaand... that's pretty much it.
We're about half way done with the basic rhythm guitars, then it's time to start changing up the sound - trying different mics, amps, cabs, etc to give each track it's own little flava; from melancholic slide guitars á la Soundtrack Of Our Lives to ultra distorted screeching (no, not that guy from Saved By The Bell) guits, and everything in between.

100% posing - no actual recording took place during the capture of this photo.

BTW, there's a few unposted photos in the pics section of my MySpace profile if you're interested; http://www.myspace.com/karldanielliden.

Time for apple pie.

DOZER - "Beyond Colossal" - Day 07

2008-05-19T20:41:00.003+02:00

Dear diary,

I know I said I'd post another vid today, but there were no golden Kodak moments today. Tomorrow I'll post one even if it's of paint drying.

Started with guitars today and nailed the sound pretty quickly. It actually sounded really good first time we pushed up the faders, but since we (okay, mostly I) just couldn't leave it alone we had to tweak it and put up a few more mics.
Ended up with 4 mics on the cab; Revox 3500, Fat Head ribbon, Shure SM57 and a vintage Sennheiser mic of unknown model (I could google for it, but I'm tired from sitting on my ass all day).
So far I'm very happy with how everything sounds. I'm especially happy of how everything just fits together. The drums, bass & guitars all have their own place and there's very little of them cancelling each other out.. but yeah, only done 2 rhythm guitars so far, so there's plenty of time for that to change when all zillion overdubs are in place.

We've also had a really weird thing happen. We first noticed it when we were recording the bass, and today it was back. Right in the middle of recording the sound went from crisp to pretty dull, or well, not dull, but dull-ER.
First we just thought it was a tired battery in the distortion pedals or the preamps acting up after getting too hot, but as always it's the absolute last thing you check - the cables. The cable going from the the control room to the guitar amp. So I'm glad we found the error and hopefully we're rid of that fault forever (fingers crossed).

DOZER - "Beyond Colossal" - Day 06 (Never trust a smiling gädda)

2008-05-18T23:04:00.005+02:00

You wanted video - I bring you video (and why it's rotated 90° counter clockwise I have no idea what so ever. Deal with it).
It's a shorty, but a goodie. I'm afraid Johan is the quiet shy type, so you'll just have to enjoy his rockin' backside (and what a nice backside it is).
In the clip you'll hear a short snippet of one of the new t00nz. One of my personal favorites, actually. Good stuff indeed!

We finished the last of the bass today and quit for the day quite early. Not really much more to say I'm afraid.. oh yeah, we had thai food for lunch.
And.. hmm.. sorry. I'm drawing a blank here.

Tomorrow we start laying down the mad bad guitarz, yo. The goal is to have an ultra-saturated, fat, heavy sound that makes you feel like you've just had a ten course meal once you hear it. We'll see if we manage to pull it off.

And oh yeah, on a serious/desperate note (this is mostly directed towards the swedish folks reading this), we're in need of a Neumann U87 post haste, so if you own one or know someone who is willing to rent it out, do not hesitate to contact me asap.

"Jambalaaayyya!"

DOZER - "Beyond Colossal" - Day 05

2008-05-17T20:03:00.013+02:00

Dear diary,

Mr. Ampeg cabinet with his friends Revox 3500, Shure Beta52 & SM57.
I really hate to admit it, but the SM57 which I normally despise actually
sounded quite good in combo with the other two.

Today we nailed the bass sound. I'm glad we didn't just settle but took our time to get it right. It sounds so evil it's not even funny..
if you were to drain Satan of all his evil, it still wouldn't come even close to the evilness of this bass sound. That's how evil it is. So lock up your kids/wife/pets/vintage collectable lp's cause it's definetely dangerous to be exposed to the sound of this bass.
Okay, I might be exaggerating a bit, but you get the idea.

Johan trying to look bad-ass, but not really pulling it off.

I'd say we're about 60-70% done with the bass. We actually got most of the songs done today, but we're gonna listen through 'em tomorrow and decide what parts needs just a little bit of different flava, so it's not just satan 666 all over the place.
You need the soft girly stuff too.
The stuff you can dance to.

Rock n' roll slippers. It's how the pro's do it.

And oh yeah, I almost forgot, when we got back from lunch an all too familiar smell that reeked of gear turned to a crisp reached our noses, but upon closer inspection it all SEEMED to be okay (knock on wood).. so yeah, we'll see.. it'll probably go up in flames when we turn it on tomorrow.

Happy Tom(mi).

DOZER - "Beyond Colossal" - Day 04

2008-05-16T23:14:00.003+02:00

Dear diary,

Today we entered Rockhouse Studios in our hometown Borlänge to continue the recordings of "Beyond Colossal".
First up - bass. The day (or well, evening-night) was spent trying to get a decent bass sound, but we failed miserably so we'll continue bashing our heads against the wall tomorrow. "Yay!"
We actually tried the exact same set-up as we used on the Exoskeleton Pt. I & II recording, but instead of gold we were for some strange reason served a big bowl of poo.
I've always thought bass is one of the hardest things to record. Getting that thick deep (yet firm) low end and a good tight fuzzy distorted midrange that cuts through without everything just ending up a big gooey... goo... is a bitch.
So yeah, more tinkering with that tomorrow.

And yes, I will try to be a bit better with the whole posting photos bit.

DOZER - "Beyond Colossal" - Day 03

2008-05-14T22:48:00.008+02:00

Last day of recordings at Studios 301 (sniffle, sniffle).
Started off listening through all the material to see if anything
needed to be re-recorded but fortunately it was all good, baby.
Proceeded to overdub the toms on some songs just to emphasize
and make it sound even more powerful (or well, that's the idea anyway).

To give you an idea of how it's sounding so far I can only say
that it's quite Albini-esque. Then you decide if that's good or bad.
I think it's good. Really good. Excellent, actually. Really excellent.
We ended up with around 20 mics or so on the drums, six of them being just for ambience.

So now it's time to go from the posh Studios 301 to one that is...
not quite as posh.
Guitars/bass/vocals will be done at the good old Rockhouse Studio
in our hometown Borlänge. For those of you keeping score you'll recognise that it's the same studio as the first two Dozer albums was recorded in.
What will be different is that I am bringing a bit more posh gear
(API preamp & a quite nice selection of mics) to keep the rest of the recording of the same high level of quality as Studios 301 provided.
I'm basically gonna bypass the entire studios electronics, so it should turn out good.

Last but not least, big thanks to the staff at Studios 301, especially studio manager Ian Agate!

There won't be any updates tomorrow as we don't start recording until friday, so check back then.

So for now, stay in school.
//Daniel

DOZER - "Beyond Colossal" - Day 02

2008-05-13T22:50:00.010+02:00

Dear diary,

Today we recorded drums. Good bye.

No, just kidding.
We started off an hour later than planned as we awaited the arrival
of Olle and his new happy ride cymbal.
The day ended up exceeding our expectations - all drums are now
recorded (we think/hope).
All that remains is to listen through the material tomorrow
with a fresh pair of ears and decide if any re-takes are required.
We're also gonna do some tom overdubs to get that hip sound
you hear all the kids talking about.

The lunch break (and all over breaks for that matter) were spent
doing what men (ok, boys) do best - discussing the brown gold.
And lots of it.

Time to hit the sack (the bed that is, not the nutsack).

DOZER - "Beyond Colossal" - Day 01

2008-05-12T22:53:00.005+02:00

Dear diary,

So, day 1 has come to a close.
We started at around 10am setting up drums and mics and after
a lengthy soundcheck actual recordings started at around 7pm,
only to come to a halt about 2 hours later when the ride cymbal
deceided to break.

The studio used is Studios 301, located in Solna, Sweden.
It has a live room that is an old converted movie theatre,
so the sound is H U G E to say the least.
The arsenal of mics is quite lovely and the console is a Neve
VR Legend, so prepare for major audial bliss.

I'm desperatly trying to come up with something "witty" to write
but I'm so tired it's not even funny, so yeah.. no funny stuff today.
Maybe tomorrow if you're lucky.

More photos and spectacular action shots to follow tomorrow.

And so it begins..: DOZER - BEYOND COLOSSAL

2008-05-11T18:13:00.003+02:00

Tomorrow (May 12th) the recordings of the 5th DOZER full length, tentatively titled "BEYOND COLOSSAL" begin.
The first 3 days will be spent tracking drums in Studios 301, Solna, Sweden, and then it's off to Borlänge for guitar/bass/vocals.

So be sure to check back tomorrow around midnight Swedish time (which is around 6PM US east coast time) for details and pictures of day 1.

Nooo, no, no

2008-04-12T11:31:00.000+02:00

...this is not going to be one of those cheesy blogs were every mundane detail of everyday life is being analyzed to infinity, but rather a public diary for the work I will (hopefully) be doing within the audio engineering realm.

Picture this:
I record and/or mix a band. I write about the process and post it here. Easy, huh?
The aim is simply to write a few words, post a picture or two (and maybe even one of those "videos" I hear the kids talking about) on how whatever it is I am doing (recording, mixing) is progressing. So now you'll be able to get a steaming fresh update on how your favorite band's new album is coming along. Isn't that just swell? I think so.
And oh yeah, the occasional rant on gear is pretty much inevitable. In fact, expect total geeking out whenever a posh piece of hardware is being used.

But who are we kidding, we all know it's only a matter of time before this space is cluttered with stories of my trip to the grocery store, what kind of laundry detergent I prefer, how to bake the perfect cinnamon bun, "it's what's on the inside that counts", and so forth.