I've been very busy these last few weeks on the music side. Not only as Solar Phasing. With my rock band Alchemic Journey we entered the studio on December 15th, as I announced here to start recording our first album.

Session - 1: Thursday 15 December 2022.

We had an appointment at the studio very early in the afternoon with Stéphane, our drummer. At about 2pm, we arrived with a car filled to the brim with equipment, mostly drums. This is the objective of the day, to assemble the drums, place the microphones, make a first recording of the drums, listen to the recording, correct the placement of the microphones, fine-tune the setting of the various elements, etc... until we are satisfied with the result. Our bass player, Jimmy and our singer Patrick will arrive at 5:30 pm, in order to make a global take of the sound. All together!

After a good coffee with a good local pear hooch, we started. Stéphane is in a cabin isolated from the sound. Me too, with my guitar. Eric the sound engineer and owner of Eloïse Studio worked hard to get everything ready for the arrival of the other musicians. Conscientiously and very professionally. I let them do their work. I didn't want to get in their way. So I quietly set up my guitar gear in a second sound cabin. And they did it easily.

Perspective from my sound cabin.

A short video about this first day.

Histoire sans paroles.. Alchemic Journey in Studio - December 15, 2022. Don't try to adjust the sound, there is no sound on this video, it's on purpose! :0)

I chose to connect my guitar to an external sound card that goes into a laptop where my Ik Multimedia software is installed. These are amp models, with effects, in pedal or rack models. I use the official Fenders one. And some other brands like Moller (T-Rex) or Fulltone (OCD), for the overdrive. The sound is really good! My patches have been worked on and refined in rehearsal. I know it will sound good. The advantage of this technology is to be able to save instantly the slightest setting. I control my effects and banks with my MIDI controller pedalboard, the Behringer FCB-1010, also connected to the external sound card, a Presonus Studio 24c. It's a radical choice, I assume it. I did my last gig on December 10th with this equipment too, obviously plugged into a tube amp head and a big Vintage speaker. & I've already done it in the past. I finally decided to do without my pedals (hardware). It's been two or three months already.

Live sound captured by a fan on our last December gig. This track is called: "More Rock Than Ever" (Plus Rock Que Jamais), and have 3 months, now. One of our last compositions.

The others arrived a good hour late, they got lost on the way. I'm not kidding. Patrick, who had come with us during the preliminary meeting where we had negotiated the deal for the recording, couldn't remember the place. They had to call to get directions from Eric. To find the number of the Studio, first. haha. After having a good laugh about their misadventure, they settled down in a good mood. And once the sound of all the musicians well adjusted in the headphones of each, we recorded some titles. They will be used for a first listening in order to correct the sound at the next session, already scheduled for December 21st.

We had time to do the first takes of:

All French compositions of mine, music & lyrics, for Alchemic Journey.

• Peux-tu me dire - Take 1 (Can you tell me)

• Peux-tu me dire - Take 2 (Can you tell me)

• Un Espoir (A Hope)

• Le Temps Qui Passe (The Time That Passes)

• Plus Rock Que Jamais (More Rock Than Ever)

For those who know a little bit about this stuff, playing in headphones, no problem with that, I often record like that at home, Solar Phasing or Alchemic Journey. But playing all in a band and all with headphones, there is a time of adaptation. It's not so "natural". Once in the bath, ok! Good! On the third session, we was like in rehearsal. Relaxed! :0))

We left this first session very happy. We had already made a lot of progress! It was not said that we would be able to record some tracks. And we did. I just had to get the files on the Cloud to listen to them before the next one.

As a reminder, the first step is to record all the drum tracks of the 10 songs that will be in this first album. All the takes are done live from the beginning to the end. The important thing is the Drums tracks, even if we also record the Bass, the Guitar, and the singer's Voice. These will be used as ghost tracks for the rest of the operations that we will start in February at our music basement.

No sound from these sessions at the moment. Perhaps soon! I can't say it.

I will try to resume the 3 more sessions we've done in a coming blog, or two, because there is a lot to be said for all the work done so far. Both humanly and technically.

More Music?

Don't worry, I will stop by.. I'm just very busy at the moment. I'm working too on some Solar Phasing project tracks. :0)

Much #Love to all of you! Thanks so much or all the support! :0)

#carnetderoute