And again it is Michael Day again in the Studio. We start to re-track some of the songs we tried earlier on. Time to go from the 'sketch' to the final version. Some of the vocal track for the songs were record almost a year ago, and Michael had some time to listen to his own singing. Also in that period of time he finished the recording of the Ulysses (his actual band) album: The Gift Of Tears. So he had some opportunity to work on his technique in the lower register of his voice. 

Today we started with what I thought was a simple song: My Princess, my Queen. But Michael told me it was one of the more difficult songs because it was in a low key. Lucky for him he had a lot of practise ;-) . Next up was The Virus, again he did a great job on this song, improving the vocals al lot. We also rearranged some of the lyrics to better fit the mood of the song.

After a wonderful diner (cooked by Annemieke, who took care of the catering that day ;-) we went for a third song that day, the second song on the album. We got through the choruses but after that I thought it was time to call it a day: Michaels voice was starting to lack some of its top end, and in the (heavy) chorus that's not a problem, but in the more open verses... I didn't want to stop, so I had to persuade him with the prospect of a nice glass of beer. Finally he surrendered. But: He'll be back... 

Today we see Michael Hos again in the Studio. Time to work on the last 2 songs that we haven't worked on yet. Scheduled for today are the opening song of the album and the last song on the album.

We start off with coffee and brownies (made by Annemieke) and after that we feel we can handle what is coming. We have a go at the first song that will probably be called: 'Golden Cage'. Michael found it a difficult song at first, but during the process everything found its place. We changed the order of the lyrics in the last verse and came up with a nice hook and vocal line for the last part of the song. Also the breakdown in the middle section of the song was sung beautifully by Michael: goosebumps.

Then: time to have a lunch break (unfortunately, no photographs but you have to believe us: it was good ;-)  Then we had some time left, so we started with the last song on the album. We didn't think we could finish it in that short time but it all went faster the we anticipated. Round three thirty it was time for Michael to head for home and we were done.

So: are we ready? No, what we have done now is sketching, is just trying to find some vocal lines and do some guide vocals. So Michael will have to come back and do it all again. We will listen to it intensely and rework the vocals again. Then we will record them for real. We might find that some of the guide vocals are good enough to make it on the finished album. More on this: next week. He'll be back...

Time for the studio to get ‘mobile’ again. We are of to record the Grand Piano. So we move our equipment over to ‘Muziek School Boedijn’ where Martijn Bos is a teacher. It’s the third time we record there so we know the room the piano etc. The piano was not in great shape for a long time, but a few months ago, it went through a major revision and it came out just sounding great. We are looking forward spending the weekend in the presence of this Asian black beauty (A Yamaha C3 baby grand :-)

Saturday morning Martijn had some teaching to do, so I had time so set everything up, check the microphones, we are using 5 microphones this time, 2 close-up near the hammers, 1 for grabbing the bass at the end of the piano, and 2 microphones further away to capture the sound of the piano in the hall. After that I pop outside to get us some fresh coffee to get us through the weekend.

We start with a simple song (My Princess, My Queen), just to get the feeling again. After that we record starting song of the album and 'Comfort Zone'. Then it is time for diner, we go out to an Italian restaurant for pasta and pizza. After we have recharged out batteries we record another song: 'The Virus'. Then it is time to go home have a beer and go to sleep.

Next morning (Sunday) we start again at 11 with some coffee, while all our tube equipment is warming up. Next song up is 'Outside myself'. Followed by 'Storm' and the closing song of the album. During the recording of that song , we have a great idea how to end that song, for I still was not happy with the way the album ended. And that worked out very good. And all because of this inspiring piano.... 

At 6 o’clock in the evening we are done recording the 8^th song. We wait for Martijn’s girlfriend Janna to arrive and the three of us go out for diner again. Very happy with the way the weekend went and how everything turned out. After diner we pack our stuff, cleanup and head for Martijn’s house again for a drink to celebrate the recordings. Leaving a happy piano player and happy recording engineer ;-).

Time to do some singing again. Not by me, but a true vocalist! Today we record a song with Esther Ladiges on vocals. The 5th song on the album will be called 'Comfort Zone' and she will do the vocals. 
Although this is the third IXION album that she sings on, she never stops to amaze me: first line sung: Goosebumps! I don't know how she does it, but also Peter Boer suffered from them :-). A difficult song, asking for a small, yet warm and full voice. But again she delivers: the song calls for a fragile, yet controlled voice and it is there! Beautiful! 
We recorded this track in their own studio during my visit to their home, I needed some distraction after my first week work after the summer holydays, not a good sign (the holydays, not the studio ;-)
There are 2 more songs on the album featuring Esther, and Peter and Esther will record them together over the next month time. 

And I almost don't dare mentioning it: but I finally have a date planned for recording Martijn Bos on Grand Piano... we have been trying to fit that into his busy schedule for almost a year now. I'll keep you posted.

And Annemieke and I started working on the Artwork for the album. More news will follow...

The wrath of the score eating pet-rabbit and the revenge of a violin hating printer. Or: how to record violin on a progressive-rock oriented project.
Today Irma Vos is here to record violin, viola and 5 string electric violin. But that wasn't easy. I contacted Irma a year ago, and due to several circumstances we were not able to find a recording date. But we managed to find another day. However, Irma's pet rabbit ate the violin score I had sent her. My printer had died, so I couldn't print them again on short notice. So I went to see Gerben Klazinga (he lives just a couple of kilometres away) and somehow his printer didn't agree with the parts I had written, for it only wanted to print every other line... But in the end we managed to get all the scores together again, and on this rainy Sunday afternoon we finally got to record some violin.

For Irma I had 2 songs planned, one with violin and viola in a classical setting, followed by a electric guitar solo in the same song. And a surprise for her: a theme in the first song. We started with the classical bits, played very nice on the violin, but what a beautiful sound from that viola! Brilliant. We doubled a couple of tracks just to make it sound more like an ensemble playing. Then 5-String electric violin! I wanted some sort of solo emerging from the classical piece, but didn't want to fall back to guitar or synth. Let's try something different this time, a nice solo, leading to a theme supporting vocals and again doubled by viola. In this last part you'll hear her folk influences.

Then for the first song of the album, a theme I had originally planned on synthesizer, but thought it would be great to have that on viola. Again we went through some trouble with the scores, but in the end we ended up with a nice viola-synth duet.

Irma is in a punk-folk band and also a great fan of heavy metal. And then playing classical stuff on Ixion...
I am very happy with the results, and Irma: thank you for your effort, enthusiasm and musicianship. 

And an other recording day. Cello this time, and again Linde Faber is here to play that beautiful old instrument. Linde also played on Talisman, and she liked it al lot, so when I asked her to help me out again, she jumped to the occasion.
We have 3 songs scheduled for today: 2 rock/prog songs where the Cello is the lead / solo instrument and 1 more orchestral/classical section in a heavy rock song, featuring the cello as the solo instrument, just before the electric violin kicks in (more about that in some later session ;-)
We started with some coffee, and after that tried some microphones, we both agreed to use the tube microphone (more warmth) and had a go at the first song. We did make some small changes to the arrangements which made it better fit the song.
Everything went very well, and by lunch time we had 2 songs done and 1 song left.

Revived and well fed we started on the last song, the title song of the album. And we both suffered a bit from a after lunch dip, so it took us a little more time to get through this song. I also had some different options for different sections of the song, so Linde tried them all and we settled for the parts that best fit the song (the original parts, which proves that most of the times your first ideas are the best).

Linde did a great job, playing passionately, with a warm tone, and concentration. 

And it is a good thing that Linde like cats, for our cat Dorus definitely liked her!

Today I received a large email from Peter Boer. He send me the recordings of a guitar solo for the fifth song on the album. It was recorded at his home studio "the Granny Attic" and featured Eveline van Kampen on guitar.
Eveline is the guitarist in the progressive rock band Illumion, in which also both Peter Boer and Esther Ladiges play. Peter on bass-guitar and Esther on vocals.

Eveline is the second (guest) guitarist to perform alongside Gerton Leijdekker who will play most of the guitars on this album.
So back to the guitar solo: the song is a bit of slow to mid tempo song with a bit of a "depressive mood" to use Eveline's own words, but the handled it great! A nice smooth flowing solo, dark and with some rather bizarre choice of notes (but that is her trademark, and you get what you ask for ;-)

Thanks, Eveline for this contribution to my album, I am very happy with it.

Today Michael Hos stepped up to the microphone. Ulysses’ singer agreed to perform again on this next Ixion album. This time I have more songs for him, on Talisman he appeared on 3 or 4 songs, this time he will sing on 6 of the 8 songs. 
We started with the vocals for the second song on the album. Trying to get a feel for the song and trying to fit the lyrics into the song, we spend some 3 hours singing, listing, planning and plotting. We agreed to double the length of the chorus of the song, trying to make the vocal lines fit better.

It was also the first time I could try the new (updated) equipment on vocals, and both Michael and I agreed that it sounded great. The new microphone also went well with his voice, which still is something of a gamble, not every voice suits every microphone.

We will have more of these meetings, trying to craft some nice vocals for each song. Going through a test session, and then coming back in to re-record the official vocal tracks. It gives us a chance to see what works and what doesn’t and to get used to new ideas.

The next one to climb upon the "Ixion recording stage" is guitarist Sylvester Vogelenzang-de Jong. I know him from the progressive rock band "Ulysses", occasionally I do their live sound. 
He is not to replace Gerton Leijdekker, who will contribute to this album also, Gerton will again be the main guitarist for this album, but I thought I would add some extra flavour to the sonic landscape with some guest guitar players.

Sylvester played solo's on the songs called The Virus and the second song (not yet titled) on the album. He plays a custom build 7-string guitar. While Gerton is more into the melodic side of playing, Sylvester comes from the hard rock and heavy metal music scene. For the Virus he had prepared his solo in advance, so it took little time to get the right. We took a short break to enjoy a nice lunch and went back into recording mode again. The other solo however proved more difficult, when working on the song at home, Sylvester had a hard time finding the right mood for the solo, but when we started recording and discussing what the track needed, the ideas came very quickly, and after that it was just a question of trying to get the ideas out his head in to his fingers.

In the end we ended up with to very nice solo's, different from what was done on the previous Ixion albums, still very much an Ixion atmosphere, but with a "metal" edge to it. 

After that, adding the proper echo and EQ made the solo's blend into the songs. It was very nice to work with Sylvester, and I am happy with the results.

He will come back again, to add a solo to a third song, and to play a little outro in a song we recorded today. After he left I found out that we missed that part today...

Today I got some new recorded parts for 4 songs. Knight Area’s main keyboard player and composer, Gerben Klazinga, played a couple of keyboard solos for these songs. For some of the solos he found inspiration in the tracks that I had already played, and he wrote and recorded some nice synthesizer solos, loosely based on my solos. 
Very recognizable as Knight Area solos they remind me of his work on their latest album ‘Under a new sign’, but also with hints of IQ’s Martin Orford and our Dutch Arjen A. Lucassen. 

On one song he replaced a synthesizer solo with a Hammond solo, also a very good part, but I will have to re-shape some of the sound-scape of the song in order to make the song fit round the solo :-). 

On the other three songs he used his all-time favourite: the plug-in computer version of the Prophet P-600. With this instrument he can easily create his now famous "signature-sound". But you will have to wait until the release of the third Ixion album to get a taste of his sound, unless of course you buy his latest Knight Area album.

Today Rob 'Machinator' Spigt dropt by to deliver the modified T.Bone SCT800 tube microphone. 
After a warm-up of some 2 hours I was able to do some comparing vocal tests. I had some tests with the un-modified microphone, my Rode NT2, so with some new recordings I was able to do a fair 'shoot-out' and I must admit I was blown away by the results!
It is unbelievable that this is the same microphone, of course it isn't. 

So again, what was modified?
The power supply to feed the tube was modified into a FET driven one, resulting in a more powerful low end, capacitors replaced with ELNA Cerafine, some resistors removed from the signal path or replaced with high grade ones. And the valve is now driven with something resembling a 'variable mu', not quiet but close.
If you want more detailed information check this page: Modifying a SCT800 these are the modifications in Rob's own words.

All in all the improvements are great. I do think it sounds better then the Rode that cost me more (including the T.Bone modification) than the T.Bone.

Here are some audio samples to compare the original and the mods. The last two recordings were made on the same day (almost the same moment) and the original was made some weeks before. So there are some differences in performance, but I think the evidence is clear:
Original T.Bone vocal Track: TBone orignial
Vocal Track after modifications: TBone modified 
And for comparison a vocal track with my Rode NT2: Rode_original 

Yesterday I got my Modified M-Audio Delta 1010 Soundcard back, and after a 'burn in' of some 24 hours I was now able to do some comparing between the old and the new stuff. 
And indeed it has all improved enormously: much more open sound, more air, more and tighter basses. There is only one conclusion I can draw: Rob Spigt did a very good job. Check this page: Modifying a Delta 1010 and TL-Audio 5051

We had some problems with the pre-amp last week, some distortion in the compressor stage, but that was resolved after putting back some original component, it seemed they were not in the signal path and were used to drive the compressor.

You'll have to believe me when I tell you that the improvements are big! ;-)

So what is this about re-recording bass-guitar and clean guitar? 

Well, the problem is: I have had my tube-pre-amp 'pimped' and it sounds incredible now, much and much better then it did before, much more 'open', tighter, more punch. So in order to take a leap forward, I will have to take a step back.

Through contact with Peter I found a guy who modifies both HiFi and Studio equipment, his name is Rob 'Machinator' Spigt. He upgraded some of the components to 'Audiophile' grade components and did some clever tricks with the way the tubes are driven, running them on a higher voltage, providing more gain and more open sound. They might not sound as good as some 'Boutique pre-amps', but we are definitely playing in an other league now with these upgrades.

He will also 'pimp' my Soundcard, getting rid of (what others said) the ' hazy and congested sound'. So there will be another improvement. 
I am waiting for a Tube - microphone I have ordered, I will do some of the modifications myself, but the I will send it to Rob to take care of the electronics, see what he can do.

Check out his website www.machinator.nl for extra information. 

Now that the basic rhythm tracks are laid down its time to start on some of the melodic parts.
I recorded the clean guitar parts using my Ibanez guitar through a Line6 Pod Pro, and from there into the TL-Audio tube pre-amp for compression and some equalizing. I used a Voc AC30 emulation from the Pod, nice and clean, just like Queens Brain May used to record through. 
The tracks are OK, there is 1 song I am not sure about, I guess I'll have to wait how the vocals work out on that song, so I might have to revisit that song later.

I also re-recorded the heavy rhythm or crunch guitar parts. I am not sure whether they will make it into the final album, but the guitar tracks that were on there now were just demo tracks, most of the times the timing was sloppy and the guitar sound was not what I wanted.
If they don't make it into the album, they will at least serve as a good basis to record Piano, Vocals en Solos with.

OK, next in line was me! Drums being done and all that, it was time for me to record bass-guitar and Moog Taurus bass-pedals. And today I finished the last tracks. It took me some weeks, for my only 'window' for recording was in the evenings after work, or in the occasional free weekend.

I started with bass-guitar, but after two songs I was not quite happy with the results I was getting. Something missing, but could not really find out what it was. Then I realised that the valves (or tubes) in my TL-Audio pre-amp might be the culprits. They must have been in there since the day it was manufactured (some 15 years ago?), so I ordered some replacement valves and noticed the difference right away: more punch, a bit more snappy, and still warm. Not as tight sounding as the Focusrite preamp (yes, I tried that one also), but the Focusrite lacked the warmth and growl that I was after. New valves were definitely an improvement.

So I had to go back and re-track the songs I already recorded, but that was very easy since now I knew what I had to play. Most of my time went into figuring out what I played on the demo tracks. I had written some of the parts in Midi, and for others I just notated the cords. But on some of the songs I had absolutely no clue what this guy was playing. Was it really me who wrote that stuff? Pretty brilliant, hah, hah.

It also included some pretty fast stuff, like Dream Theaters' John Myung, I would not compare myself with him, but listening back to the tracks I had written for some songs, I immediately knew where I had found the inspiration.

On the demo songs I had played a lot with a pick instead of plucking the strings, for I was after some 'snap' and attack in the sound. But I found myself plucking every song this time, for some 'cooked strings' together with the new valves and some tinkering with the compressor, provided al the snap and attack I wanted.

After recording the guitar I it took me a couple of evenings to record the bass-pedals, it took some time before it worked flawlessly again, it's an old instrument and very sensitive to dust. But after a thorough cleaning session and some fine-tuning of settings and sound I was ready to record. No further problems, still a beautiful instrument.

I might come back on some songs, where I will replace the bass guitar with a Fretless bass. But that is for later.
And to finish it: here is the tech stuff: Bass guitar (Warwick Streamer 5 String) through TL-Audio VP 5051 Valve processor, and Moog Taurus bass-pedals through the TL-Audio (in this case by-passed the equalizer section).

We have lift off!
The recordings for the third Ixion album have started. All the songs are written, so it is time to get into the studio and into recording-mode.
The first one to record is Emile Boellaard playing drums. We have 8 songs to record and 2 and a half day to spend in the "Knight Area Studio". We recorded Talisman there also, and we like the sound of the mixing-desk, they got a Hill Concept 6400, and it sounds very well.
We started round 16:00 on Friday, and got the first sounds into the computer by 18:30, so time to take a break and go for diner. After a refreshing meal, we returned to the studio and recorded the 2 ballads or quieter songs of this album. We also started on a third song, but by 22:30 we both were very tired and headed for home, took a glass of wine, and longed for a good night sleep and then back again tomorrow.

But next morning disaster struck: the mixing desk would not start properly, no matter what we tried, flipping switches, hitting it with a baseball bat (just kidding). It would not launch. So what to do now? We knew the desk needed servicing but we had not expect it to die on us. There was a Behringer desk in the rehearsal room and we tried that, but it didn’t come close to the Hill sound-wise. So I phone some music shops whether they had some pre-amp I had on my whish list (and this seemed like a good excuse to buy it), and if I could come and get it right away. We were lucky with the third shop, so off we went to The Hague to get a Focusrite OctoPre LE pre-amp, which could replace the desk as a recording front end. We only used the pre-amps from the desk, so did not need the extra flexibility of the desk. 
By 13:00 we were back in the studio, hooked up the pre-amp and we ready to record again. We did some quick checks to see if we could tell the difference, we could! The Hill sounded a bit warmer, but the Focusrite had more air and sparkle, but sounded very, very good, left the ‘B’ mixer leagues behind.

We then realized we were not going to get all the songs recorded in this weekend. So we focused on the songs that had piano in it, so I could make an appointment with Martijn Bos to get the piano recorded. At least we would have the real drums on those tracks.
So we went on and recorded the opening song, and two songs called "Storm" and "Garden of Eden". 
We did not rush because we knew we were going to need an other recording session, so we took our time and concentrated on getting everything right.
We took Gerben Klazinga (owner of the studio) out for diner (despite the failure of his desk) and went back in for the evening and did a third song for that day. 

Sunday we still thought we were going to need an extra session, because the most difficult and challenging songs were yet to come. During the recording of Talisman we spent one whole day on ‘Cortez’, and it seemed we had 3 ‘Cortez-songs’ on our hands here.
Both because the drumming was difficult and complex, and because the score I had produced for Emile was not always that clear and simple ("sorry again for that, Emile"). 
So we went into this day with very much the same approach as yesterday: "let’s see how far we can get".
But by 18:00 the impossible had happened: we were ready and done! We even had time to enjoy a meal, cooked by Annemieke, at my place. And back to the studio to clean up, remove everything and by 21:15, I had everything in my studio and Emile was heading back home again.

Looking back you can say we were lucky we could record the 2 'ballads' on the Hill, benefiting from its warmth and recording the more up-tempo songs through the Focusrite, giving it punch in the high end and clarity.

Emile is also a very LOUD drummer, often he would exceed 120 dB! It does give a tremendous power and punch in the drum sound. Also very good as a work-out ;-), but you don't want to be in the same room with him when he is recording, he told me he also plays jazz, so he actually play quiet.

So here is the tech stuff:
Two songs recorded through a Hill Concept into a M-Audio Delta 1010 and Cubase SL3.1
Six songs recorded through a Focusrite OctoPre Le and a Focusrite Penta pre-amp into a M-Audio Delta 1010 and Cubase SL3.1.
Kick drum microphone: AKG D112 , snare (top): Shure SM57, snare (bottom) Shure SM87, overheads: Rode NT2 ,toms: Sennheiser E604.

September 24th 2006

It is 3 months now since Talisman is officially available and it is about time to start on the next project. Writing the story and songs for Third Hemisphere (still the working title for the next album) is done. I have been busy with that the last year and a half. 

I have got 8 songs and some 55 minutes of music, and at the moment both Michael Hos and Esther Ladiges (the singers on Third Hemisphere) are working on the songs, trying to get a feel for it and see if it is something they can work with and relate to.

If we don't have to change anything drastically, I will go into the recording studio with Emile Boellaard somewhere in the next couple of months to record the drums.