UMK 2016

Last weekend I went to Finland to write and record a new song together with Rasmus and Jeanette. The goal was to enter UMK 2016, the starting point into the Eurovision Song Contest!

Rasmus is my good friend from Studio Blue, and Jeanette was the one who contacted Rasmus and started the song writing project. Rasmus then wanted me to be a part of the project, and I was of course delighted!

We worked really hard and we spent about 50 hours of writing, composing and recording during the 4 days I was there. The deadline was 2015-09-08 at 12:00, but we managed to get the song demo package ready the day before that and got it delivered in time before I went to the airport and back to Sweden!

The song we wrote is called Never Alone, and if we don't make it as far as to the ESC we will continue working on it and probably release it later. Unfortunately we cannot share any sounds yet due to the competition rules.

Were the magic happened

Two tired guys

The Dream Team - Rasmus, Jeanette and I

The point of no return - Demo package delivered!

I Wish I Was A Fish - "Emma"

Just released; the music video for I Wish I Was A Fish's "Emma"! Most parts of it was recorded at Studio Blue, and I got to be the assisting sound technician to Carin Hallin, who was the producer.
I can be spotted in this video at the beginning, and also when recording the hand claps!

Press play on tape below! :)

oh, almost forgot... Today is my 40th birthday! :)

"Satisfied" is now available on Soundcloud!

During the second year at Studio Blue we all had a music production project to manage from start to finish. My project was to record and produce my song "Satisfied", that I made for a Propellerhead competition at the end of the summer 2014.

This is the final result can be heard here, enjoy! :)

Music Production Project @Studio Blue

My education at Studio Blue is soon coming to an end, and last Monday it was time to turn in the final mix for the music production project,  a project that I've been working on the whole second year! (although not full time!)

The purpose of the project was to manage a complete music production from start to end, with the following deadlines:

• Turn in a demo of the song you will produce
• Make a chord sheet for the whole song
• Write music scores for melody and bass, both handwritten and computer made
• Make a plan for all musicians rehearsing
• Make a plan for how long the recordings, rehearsing, mixing etc. should take
• Make a plan on how you will record the different instruments / vocals
• Make a plan for how you will do the mixing
• and finally turn in a final mix of the produced song

Handwritten bass score (That was a lot of eights... )

In my case I wrote a song called "Satisfied" for a competition hosted by Propellerhead in August 2014, just before the school started, and that song was a good choice for this project as it contained several acoustic recordings (electric guitars, bass, vocals, drums and an acoustic guitar). This was also the first time I wrote a song in the metal genre, so it was fun to try something new!

It can seem that one school year is a very long time to produce just one song, but we were only allowed to do recordings for our projects during the 'recording classes', and editing was done during the 'mixing classes', along with other tasks and exercises. We also had to use ProTools 11, which I do not have access to at home so I could only work during school hours. All students in my group also shared the studio time for all their recordings, so the schedule was pretty tight.

The project went along just fine, with no major hassles, though I had to re-record the bass, and also change vocalist during the progress, but as I had added some extra time to the time-plan it was no problem!

The song will be released soon, but if I haven't released it in a week, just wait longer! ;)

The Master mix on Audio CD, and ProTools project folder on DVD.

Mixing @Studio Blue

It's all coming together...  Music project deadline in a week and exam in four weeks! Time's running. Fast! :O  Got to do some mixing in the big studio this morning, and the mix is evolving nicely. It's funny how +/-0.1dBSPL really can make a difference to the mix. Expect the release pretty soon! :)

Getting satisfaction with Satisfied

Re-amping @Studio Blue

Stayed a bit extra at school today to help my classmate Paul with re-amping of some metal guitars in his exam project! \m/

AB-stereo with Line Audio OM1, as (almost) usual. :)

Paul in command

Peavay 5150 amp

One position of the cabinet

Vocal recording @Studio Blue

Assisted my classmate Selma today during the recording of Madeleine Jangklev, singing to Selmas version of "Ain't no sunshine"! The setup was AB-miking with Line Audio OM1.

It was nice seeing Madeleine again, hadn't seen her since last year when she sang on my own song "You". As always she did a great job and was really professional and easy to work with! :)

Selma - Producer in charge

Madeleine Jangklev

Vocals recording @Studio Blue

Recorded the new vocals today for the Satisfied project, which also were the last things to record so I will soon be entering the 'mix state'! The vocals were recorded with AB-stereo using two Line Audio OM1 mikes, and I'm really happy with the result and can't wait until tomorrow when I get to select the best takes!

I also did record myself for the "pre-chorus" vocals, hopefully it will be good enough to use. ;)

Thanks to Mr Christofer Kohn for the vocals, and Mr "Roberto" (a.k.a Rasmus Klåskas ;) ) for driving Protools, and Carin Hallin for taking the picture! :)

Where the magic happens...

 

Bass recording @Studio Blue

Did some bass recording for the Satisfied project with Billy the Fox from Fox & Paradise Productions today, since I wasn't satisfied with the previous recording made in January.

Big thanks to Billy and his modified (bypassed EQ, bypassed volume knobs and a female stereo output jack) J & D bass for a great performance! :) \m/

Drum recording @Studio Blue

Assisting Carin when recording Frida Svensson on drums. Three toms, a kick and one cymbal was set up and miked. AKG 480 as AB mikes, and Line Audio CM3 for the close mikes. Afterwards we recorded some hand claps as well, and even I got to be in front of the mikes! :)

Carin adjusting the mikes

Listening if the current mike positions sounds good

Frida drumming

Vocal tryout @Studio Blue

Vocalist nr2 tryout session in the B-studio today, for the Satisfied project. We both were satisfied (pun intended! :) ) with the result and the final recording will be done in Thursday next week. Until then I will also write a fitting second vocal part.

Thanks to Christofer Kohn for making the air pressure variations. Visit his Soundcloud-page here!

Recording of Mr Kohn.

Friday fun @Studio Blue

What is the best way to spend a friday evening? Recording Frida Svensson in the studio of course! ;) This time I was assisting my classmate Carin with a simultaneous recording of grand piano and contrabass.
AB miking with two Line Audio OM1, pointing at the piano, and a AKG480 pointing at the bass. We also recorded the bass via it's contact mike. At the same time as the recording they were doing some video recording for an upcoming music video!

It all went very well, and it was a catchy song that's still playing in my head. :)

Recording of temporary vocals in the control room

Shooting for a music video

Vocal Recording@Studio Blue

Tonight I recorded the vocals for my school project song call "Satisfied" at Studio Blue. I used a pair of DPA 4050 microphones in AB-configuration. Thanks to Leo for the vocals, and Rasmus for helping me in the control room. \m/ :)

Guitar recording @Studio Blue

Guitar recording session nr2 for my school project "Satisfied" was made today. Rasmus played the centered distorted electric guitar and Carloz played the electric guitar solo and also the acoustic guitar for the break and outro.

Both recordings were done in stereo with a set of DPA 4050 microphones. The amp of the electric guitar was made through a Peavey 5150 hooked up to a 4x12" cabinet, with only two speakers active.

Next on the ToDo-list is vocal recording.

Recording Carloz on acoustic guitar

Recording for a commercial@Studio Blue and Hayati Kafe & Jan Allan with Carefree Big Band@Jano

At lunch time, me and some of the other students gathered at Studio Blue to take part in a video and photo shoot session for a new Studio Blue commercial! The cool thing is that my song "Satisfied" was used during the shoot and will probably be featured in the final video! \m/
We recorded some drums to the pre-recorded guitar tracks and tried to look as natural as possible as they were filming. It's hard to act natural on command! ;)

Movie stars Selma and Rasmus

Alex and Jonas with the project leader, and Rasmus looking innocent :)

Later this day I want to Täby as usual and made the stage ready for a 19 people big band!

Tonight's performance were Hayati Kafe  & Jan Allan together with Carefree Big Band. We got to be in the auditorium once again and we used up all 8 channels on the mixer for piano(stereo miking), electric guitar, electric bass, vocal mike, a talk mike and two mikes for supporting different brass solos. The drums and most of the brass were loud on their own and were played unsupported.

Me tweaking the audio

The Stage

Jan Allan playing the trumpet

Hayati Kafe singing

Grand Piano Recording @Studio Blue

We had a special task today, and that was to record a number of  piano pupils playing the grand piano at Studio Blue. The age of the pupils were from the age under 10 years up to over 65!

Later we will edit the recordings and maybe put some effects on them, and all tracks will be compiled on a (non-commercial) CD.

It was really fun to meet many new people, most of them (if not all) without any experience from a recording studio! They all did a great job! :)

The Dynamic Duo

Recording and editing@Studio Blue

A long day full of music recording and editing! Started in the morning with a vocal recording practice session for my own music production school project song called "Satisfied". Also made a quick recording of myself, singing a vocal demo for a Swedish song that's in the making.

Got to use one of the mixing rooms pretty much the whole afternoon, and spent the time trying to find a good kicks and snare for the "You Remix". Oh, I'm still searching. ;) Also made some changes to "WTF?" and also put together a quick demo of the Swedish song-to-be. Still not sure what the name of the song will be, but it will probably be "Ensamheten" (the loneliness).

In the evening I had a reservation to use the A-studio, so I continued to work on the "You Remix".

So that was about 9 hours of work today. :)

Practice vocal session in the B-studio with Leo.

Afternoon editing of a three different songs in the small mix room.

Continued editing of 'You Remix' in the A-studio.

Acoustic guitar recording@Studio Blue

Today at school we recorded acoustic guitar for a classmate's "music production project". Using my classmate's own microphones the setup was AB miking with Line Audio OM1 for rhythm chords, with an additional Line Audio CM3 for mono recording of the melody part.

Needless to say; good fun in the studio! :)