Sources of Light @ r20

Contents hide
  1. Gear
  2. Software
  3. Recording process
  4. Tracks
    1. Calling Out a Name
      1. Timing
      2. DAW stats
    2. Waiting for the Stars to Fall
      1. Timing
    3. Shine
      1. Timing
    4. Castles in the Sky
      1. Timing
    5. The Haunted House
      1. Timing
    6. Fair-weather Friend
      1. Timing
    7. Still Alive
      1. Timing
    8. Without You
      1. Timing

I recorded an album called Sources of Light, released in October 2024. I started recording it and finished . Here are some probably fairly boring details about the recording process, gear and music.

Gear

Software

Of note: I did not use Line 6's software to load any IRs, but not for lack of trying. Line 6 does not support Linux and I absolutely could not get the USB interface to do the right things through my Windows 7 VM.

Recording process

For all recordings, I used Ardour v6 on Ubuntu Studio. Almost all of the production effects were from Calf Studio Gear plugins.

Since I'm on Linux, I used QjackCtl to manage audio connections. It mostly worked without a hitch. Since I basically left Ardour open for a year straight, it would seem to crash occasionally, and then Jack would get all weird and I couldn't open connections to it. A reboot fixed all problems, like always.

All guitar effects, pre-amps and modeling was from a Line 6 Go stomp box. I recorded directly into a Scarlett USB audio interface (no external cab). For acoustic guitars and vocals, I plugged the microphone directly into the interface's XLR input.

Minimal automated effects were used, except delay/reverb for vocal tracks, and a few weird things like the ring modulator at the end of The Haunted House, or the very first synth chord in Calling Out a Name. Fader automation was used extensively.

All rhythym/clean guitars were doubled, one panned hard left (90/10) and the other hard right (10/90). Lead vocals were also doubled in the same way. Acoustic guitars were also doubled and panned12. This hardcore doubling was a bit of an experiment. I think I liked it, even though it made recording take quite a bit longer.

To handle all the track doubling during the mixing phase, I created audio buses in Ardour and redirected the outputs of the doubled tracks to the bus, and then redirected the bus output to the master track. All automation was then only done on the buses; the doubled tracks were not touched except to set the panning. So there were a lot more tracks/buses to handle in Ardour than otherwise. Basically every instrument that I doubled would actually have three "tracks" in the DAW interface instead of just one. Which was obnoxious but I think it made a difference in the resultant mix. At least to me.

Drums were programmed using Hydrogen v1.1.1 with the FLAC GSCW-1 drumkit. I did very little to the drums except increasing the gain of the kick, snare and hi-hat. Otherwise I did absolutely nothing to them production-wise. Largely out of pure laziness. And also because over-produced drums annoy me.

In all cases I recorded all instruments, one at a time, from start to finish. Then the vocals, then I would do a rough mix, then program the drums, then finish mixing and any other post-production effects (that was pretty rare, though).

Tracks

Calling Out a Name

Listen - 8:23

This has no specific inspiration, except maybe some kind of Metallica, or other semi-thrash metal type of thing. I just wanted something "heavier" and faster as an opener.

The solo was inspired by that one rad part in Reb Beach's solo in Seventeen. Everybody likes Winger, right? Maybe I still had some Winger stuck in my brain from my cover of the solo from Easy Come Easy Go a few years back during my 2022 music projects.

Timing

Instrument Start End
Electric guitars
Keyboards
Bass
Vocals
Drums/mixing

DAW stats

Waiting for the Stars to Fall

Listen - 12:33

This song is basically half overly-gratuitous instrumental sections. But I think they sound cool, so I guess it's okay. There are two separate piano solos, and the first third and the last third of the song are separated by a four minute instrumental. And it ends with a one-minute piano solo. A bit eccentric, perhaps.

This was inspired by twice over by David Maxim Micic. He at one point was in a band (horribly) named Destiny Potato with Aleksandra Radosavljevic (although she later left), who later formed a duo with Roman Arsafes called Above the Earth. They wrote a song called Trapeze that was pretty neat, and the intro rhythm (begins at 0:27) was just something that was stuck in my head and I ripped it off for Waiting for the Stars to Fall.

David Maxim Micic has a solo album called BILO III which has a track called Daydreamers which has the lyric (also sung by the aforementioned Aleksandra Radosavljevic):

Looking at stars,
Waiting for them to fall

Which I thought was pretty cool, so I wrote a song entirely around that line.

Some other random notes/trivia:

  • I accidentally ripped off the last bar from the last bar of Guns 'N Roses' Think About You from Appetite for Destruction. I say accidentally because I didn't realize that little arpeggio was from something else until I randomly listened to that album again and then the recognition hit. But by then it was too late. Alas.
  • I got sick recording the vocals which is why it took so long to record them. I basically spent two weeks not recording. Eventually I got fed up with waiting and just went ahead even though my voice was still a bit scratchy.
  • The guitar interlude which starts at 6:30 required me spending about five days honing my technique since I couldn't really play the riffs I had written. Eventually I got barely good enough to play them up to tempo.

Timing

Instrument Start End
Electric guitars
Bass
Keyboards
Vocals
Mixing
Drums

Shine

Listen - 4:38

Inspired (in mood and tempo) by Dance With Me! by Nospūn. I was listening to a great deal of their debut album Opus at the time and I wanted to write something more uptempo. Certainly Dance With Me!'s little piano riff at the beginning is analagous the clean guitar riff in Shine.

Timing

Instrument Start End
Electric guitars
Bass
Keyboards
Vocals
Mixing
Drums

Castles in the Sky

Listen - 6:33

I look up to the Heavens
to see the stars live and die
while sitting on lonely thrones
in their castles in the sky

This was inspired by Jason Kui's song The Creator/The Destroyer, specifically the part at 3:12. I thought that riff was totally rad and I liked the i-V progression.

Timing

Instrument Start End
Electric guitars
Bass
Keyboards
Mixing
Drums

The Haunted House

Listen - 6:00

Timing

Instrument Start End
Electric guitars
Bass
Vocals
Mixing
Drums

Fair-weather Friend

Listen - 4:36

Timing

Instrument Start End
Acoustic guitars
Electric guitars
Bass
Vocals
Mixing
Drums

Still Alive

Listen - 8:07

Every album needs a ballad, and I'm not particularly fond of ballads, so this is as ballad-ish as this album gets. It's slow, in a minor key and in 3. Therefore it's a ballad.

The structure of this song was loosely inspired by Breaking Benjamin's Forget It from We Are Not Alone. Which is kind of a forgettable song (how very titular), but it has a structure which I thought was kind of neat. Each verse is in a different key, a half-step higher than the previous. Still Alive does a similar thing, the verses are in F♯m, F♯m, G♯m, B♭m, Bm, Em, F♯m. Not quite as monotonically increasing as Forget It, but it kind of starts that way.

I'm particularly proud of the pinch harmonic in the early part of the solo. I worked hard on that. And that's not even a joke. A couple takes were ruined because I didn't pinch good enough.

Timing

Instrument Start End
Guitars/Keyboard/Bass
Vocals
Mixing
Drums

Without You

Listen - 16:02

Timing

Instrument Start End
Electric guitars
Acoustic guitars
Bass
Keyboards
Vocals
Mixing
Drums
  1. The two other guitars in the acoustic guitar "trio" at the end of Without You were not doubled
  2. The acoustic guitar solo in Fair-weather Friend and subsequent leads were also not doubled
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