New songs

Just a little update, we had Paul Berryman in the studio on Sunday. We spent the time working on a couple of song ideas he has for the album, and I can say they are going to sound great!

Malfunction

Yesterday I managed to break one of the monitor speakers! The tweeter decided it just no longer wanted to work. So here is the culprit:

Album Progress

As this blog is new, we should take the time to let you know where we are up to.

Basically we have been seriously working on the album on and off for the last 3 months, before that we had spent most of 2008 tweaking things in the studio, recording bits and pieces as ideas came and just getting a good (as best we can) work flow up and running. We try to spend time in the studio at least once a week, sometimes more.

That work flow essentially works like this: I get an idea for a song, I work out a rough structure for it, I then record almost all the guitar parts, then I put a guide vocal track down. After all of that we then leave the song alone for a couple of weeks (sometimes longer) and then come back to it and decide whether anything needs to change with the structure, now that we have something we can actually hear in its somewhat entirety. This is important because sometimes in the heat of the moment you might think you have just recorded something amazing and/or perfect, but when you come back to it with "fresh ears" you may have a different opinion. Once we are happy with the structure I then do the final vocal tracks, then we add any extra guitars or changes, then other instruments, then drums and finally we do the mixing and mastering etc.

To some this may seem a little disjointed, but it works for us and that's what matters. When you own your own studio you can get away with this :)

That being said this is where we are up to: We have now completed the final vocal tracks for 4 songs and are sounding great, and the other songs are in various stages of the above process.

I should also take the time to thank Trond Holter for his advice on the vocal tracks. Thanks again man!

Rock on!

Mark.

Welcome

Welcome to the Mark Hamlet Studio Blog! Here we will be posting about our time recording the album 'Virtual World' at Virtual Night Studios. Keep checking back for info, pics and video!

As the posts go up please feel free to comment!