At last, the thing I was waiting for, the recording of the guitars. It’s the quintessence of Lyncelia, guitars are dominating and bring all the melodic dimension to my music.

On the previous albums I used my old Lâg Arkane from 2007, for these sessions I only used my new guitars; My Fender Stratocaster, my Gibson SG Standard and my Gibson SG Future bought 3 years ago. That brings a sound less cold, more voluptuous and Rock.

It’s been 2 years I want a more organic sound, warmer and less digital. With these guitars and analog pedals I use instead of the internal effects of Guitar Rig software I reach this goal.

On my board there is my old Marshall Guv’nor and Jackhammer distortion, a MXR Analog Chorus, a MXR Flanger M117, an EHX Bad Stone Phaser, an EHX Deluxe Memory Man TT1100 Delay and the last one a TC Electronic Arena Reverb that is the only digital pedal.

And last detail (but not least), on few songs I used an Ebow. It’s an electronic device that gives endless sustain and add a more dramatic mood to my music.

I had some difficulties on few songs cause I used to play faster than the tempo and on the solo for “Self Mystery Girl”. My Stratocaster has a default on the neck with false intonation on few notes at the end of the neck.

The other songs had no difficulties, except on few overdubs and on the Ebow part on the song “Endless”. I had tomake a one shot track to keep the sound during the whole song.

Now the guitars tracks are over and remains the bass parts to record.

…To be Continued…

20, 21, 22, 23 February 2018: Recording the Drum Machine:

We come at the step I detest the most, the recording of all the Drum Machine elements.

This is extremely long and boring; For all song I must export an average of 20 tracks one by one only for the Drums parts. I wanted to make it like “Sound Design” by mixing several drums sounds for the snare and the toms and by the way it demands more time to export.

I mixed the sounds of my TR505 and the VST Drumazon from D16Group (a TR909 emulation) to get a more modern, electro and percussive sound. The Drumazon is a really good plug ins, very versatile and with a really good sound. Of course I add some effects with a slight distortion on the Kick and the Snare by using a plug in from D16 Group (Redoptor preamp).

For one song, I also used the Nepheton Drum Machine (still from D16 Group, I love their stuff). It’s an emulation of TR808 with big low end on the kick drum.

For a while, during this time spent exporting, it allows me to listen to old CDs I listened when I was at high shool (Machine Head “The more things changed”). I’m getting crazy and I’m just waiting one thing impatiently, to begin the recording of guitars.

…To be Continued…

19th and 20th February 2018: Recording the synthesizers:

We start these sessions for these 7 songs + 1 cover with the recording of synthesizers tracks.

The majority of these tracks comes from my Access Virus TI that is my principal synth, and then there is few tracks from VSTi like Native Instruments Massive and Arturia Minimoog V (the first version, not the mini V). I just think that I really should more use these VSTi cause they are quite good but I largely prefer to use hardware stuff cause I prefer tweak buttons than the mouse of my computer.

It also demands to rework and clean all the MIDI Tracks, to finalize it and to quantize all the note length.

This process consist to turn MIDI tracks (that contains only informations and pilot synths) to Audio tracks (real audio sound). This is a long and tedious process cause Audio exports are in real time, 1 track = The length of the song and I have more than 1 track per songs. This is quite long but it allows more comfort for the mixing session.

…To be Continued…

Today I start the recording of 7 new songs. For the moment there is only 4 songs complete with the lyrics, the 3 others has no text yet but I decided to also record them and I will add the vocals when the lyrics will be complete. This is the first time that I start a recording session without finished all the songs.

Actually I don’t talk about a new album cause I decided to release the songs one by one here and on the web regularly to have more contents to share with you instead of releasing an album every 3 years et no music left to share in between. Maybe when all the songs will be finished I could make a digital album with these songs and perhaps a very limited series on CDs.

For me the album format is more and more unadapted to our modern life (even if I still like, listen and buy albums, I’m an old fashioned guy). Today in 2018 this format is getting old for underground artists, we can’t permit ourselves to release songs only every 2 years, this format is less adapted and useful as it was just 10 years ago. Now we must always create and share our creations regularly with you to give show you the permanent evolution of our projects.

The recording sessions is decomposed in several steps that I will developed throughout further posts:

1 – Synthesisers:

Consist of exporting all the MIDI Tracks into Audio Tracks.

2 – Drum Machine:

Consist of exporting all the drum parts into Audio Tracks.

3 – Guitars:

Recording of the Rhythm and Lead Guitars parts.

4 – Bass:

Recording of Bass Parts.

5 – Vocals:

Recording of all the voice and vocal parts.

6 – Mix:

Making all tracks playing together with each instruments at its place.

7 – Mastering:

Making all instruments tracks being one song, and making all songs being coherent with themselves.

…To be continued…

En ce mois de Février pour ce deuxième article de cette retrospective concernant Lyncelia, j’ai choisi de mettre en lumière le titre “Lovelorn” issu du premier album.

…My Beloved, Lost Forever…

Ce titre est basé sur le mythe d’Orphée qui après avoir perdu sa bien-aimée Eurydice va braver l’inconnu et la mort pour la retrouver. Une fois cette quête accomplie il devait la guider jusqu’à la sortie du royaume des ombres sans se retourner. En proie au doute, il se retourna, il vu que sa bien-aimée était bien derrière lui mais celle-ci lui est désormais enlevée et il perdu son amour pour une seconde fois et pour l’éternité.

Le texte est un des premiers que j’ai écrit pour Lyncelia et pose les bases de mon écritures, à savoir des phrases par moment indépendantes, très imagées et ancrées dans la description de sensations qui forment un ensemble homogène qui met en lumière des idées et des phrases fortes. Le thème est également un de mes thèmes favoris à savoir la recherche de l’amour perdu.

Cette chanson (écrite en juillet 2008) est un peu spéciale et “à part” dans l’ensemble de la discographie de Lyncelia, c’est un titre qui ne présente aucune parties de guitares, tout à été joué à la basse. Bien sûr on retrouve les deux parties distinctes et complémentaires qui restent ma marque de fabrique avec une partie rythmique et une partie mélodique. La batterie présente des sons de type TR909 avec beaucoup de reverb et un effet flanger sur celle-ci pour avoir une sonorité dans le style du titre “Faith” de The Cure qui constituait, à l’époque, une influence essentielle dans la conception du son Lyncelia.

…à suivre…

On this month of February for this 2nd article of this Lyncelia retrospective, I choose to enlighten the song “Lovelorn” from the first album.

…My Beloved, Lost Forever…

This song is based on the myth of Orpheus. After losing his beloved Eurydice, Orpheus will dare and defy death to get back to her. Once he completed this quest he should guide her through the kingdom of shadows without looking back on her. Doubting he looked back, he saw his beloved behind him but she was taken and Orpheus lost his love for the second time and for eternity.

The lyrics is one of the very first I wrote for Lyncelia and put the start of my writing, some independent sentences, very imaged and marked on the description of sensations. It forms a text that enlighten strong ideas and strong sentences. The topic is one of my favourite, the search of the lost love.

This song (written in July 2008) is special in Lyncelia discography cause there is no guitar parts, all was played on bass. Of course there is two distinct parts that represents my trademark with a rythm part and a melodic part. The drums features TR909-like sounds with lots of Reverb and Flanger effect on it to get a sound in the style of “Faith” from The Cure that was, at this time, an essential influence in the conception of the Lyncelia sound.

…To be continued…

Cette année 2018 célèbre les 10 ans de Lyncelia.

Pour célébrer cette décennie de musique, de passion et de partage avec vous, j’ouvre une nouvelle catégorie d’articles où je vous raconterai des moments importants, des chansons, photos, videos ou autres, qui ont fait l’histoire et la vie de Lyncelia et permis à ce projet d’aller plus loin.

En septembre, je publierai une compilation en forme de best-of des 3 albums agrémentée de reprises, de démos ou autres venant de mes archives personnelles.

Donc, j’ouvre cette célébration avec le titre “Assigna” de l’album “Lovelorn” (2010).

Cette chanson fait partie des titres que j’ai composés juste avant de créer Lyncelia. “Assigna” m’a permis de trouver le “style Lyncelia” et de me rendre compte que la ColdWave et la musique Gothique faisait partie de moi.

Cette chanson m’a aussi permis de savoir que Lyncelia n’est pas que de la musique mais un moyen d’exprimer ce que je ressent au plus profond de moi et que c’est aussi une sorte de développement spirituel et personnel qui jalonne ma vie et me donne de l’énergie pour aller de l’avant chaque jour.

This 2018 year celebrate the 10 years of Lyncelia.

To celebrate this decade of music and passion, I open a new topic category where I will tell you some important moments, songs, pictures, videos or whatever else that make the history and life of Lyncelia and allowed this project to go further.

In september I will release a compilation of the three albums and I will add some covers and demos of songs from my personal archives.

So, I open this celebration with the song “Assigna” from the album “Lovelorn” (2010).

This song is part of the few songs I wrote just before the creation of Lyncelia.
“Assigna” allowed me to find and tune the “Lyncelia style” and find my way in ColdWave/Gothic music and told me that this music is a real part of me.

This song allowed me to find that Lyncelia is not just music but a way to express what I feel deep inside and is also a sort of spiritual and personal development that marks what I live and give me strength every day.

Last week we’ve done an interview for Venus in Black Webzine (french language only).

I answered the questions of Mrs Davina L; We talked about the origin and the presentation of Lyncelia, the meaning of the “Unbound Pleasure” video and about the future projects.

You can read the interview here:

http://www.venusinblackmedia.com/pages/interviews-news/interviews-musique/interview-de-lyncelia.html

Venus in black is a french webzine about Goth culture made by passionate people about the Goth scene, it was a great pleasure to answer her interesting questions.

The “Unbound Pleasure” Video is now available!

This song tells the story of a young and innocent girl about to discover a new part of her with new sensations. She’s between apprehension, and excitation to become the girl she’s never used to be.

Many thanks to Isabelle and Chloé to make this video possible and real. Thank you Girls!

#SapphicLove #LGBTPride