For this article, I will explain the gears I used to record “The Beauty of Doubt”. I start with the guitars, then will come Bass, Drums and Synths on other posts.

For the guitars, I principally used my Gibson SG standard. It has a sound that I’m really in love with since the first day. I used it on almost all the titles excepting “Self-Mystery Girl”, principally for all the lead guitars cause it had a more sensual and luscious sound than my other guitars.

In addition of this guitar comes a Fender Stratocaster I used on clean tracks for “Beloved” and on all the “Self-Mystery Girl” guitars. The Fender Clean sound is iconic and fits with the coldwave sound I developped on previous albums.

I also used my Gibson SG Future on rhythm guitars for “Elegiac Frustration” and “Lustful Feelings” cause these songs needed a more rough and saturated sound, and this guitar is a good choice for this kind of sound.

For this album I made big use of Ebow, it’s an electronic device that makes notes endless. This effect is awesome and add a more dramatic touch to our music. You can hear it on the chorus of “Beloved”, on the ending lead of “Elegiac Frustration”, in the middle of “Lustful Feelings”, on the rainy guitars of “Endless” and on the dramatic final of “The Beauty of Doubt”. 5 songs on the 7 of the album.

For the effects, I only used analog pedals (except the Reverb one) from Marshall, Mxr and Electro-Harmonix. For the distorsion I used the Guv’nor that has a warm sound (even with a lack of treble) I really love with good low end. For songs “Elegiac Frustration” and “Lustful Feelings” I used the Jackhammer that has a more aggressive sound.

Now the Chorus Effect, it’s an effect I do love and never switch off, getting a richer sound. I used the MXR Analog Chorus that gives a warm effect without being too invading.

I also used on songs “Self-Mystery Girl”, “Endless” (on lead guitars), “Lustful Feelings” (on chorus lead guitars) the MXR Flanger. Very good pedal, always musical without drowning the guitar in its effect.

For the Delay, effect I also never switch off, I only used the Electro-Harmonix Memory Man. It’s an analog one, the sound is dirtier than a digital one (that I used on previous albums) but fits better in the sound by adding a luscious feel without drowning the guitar with its echos.

And at last, I used a TC Electronics Arena Reverb. It’s a digital one but I prefer Digital reverb more detailed and realistic adding space and air to the sound.

I forgot, I also used an Electro-Harmonix Bad Stone Phaser on the “Endless” rainy guitar, giving movement to the ebow lead.

22, 29th March 2018 :

Here is the last post of this studio report, we have already record all tracks and we’re now on the arrangements with the additional female voice.

Isabelle started with some arrangements for “Beloved”. It was very hard for her cause she’s not used of studio recording. The vocal track isn’t easy, it demands precision on the pitch and on the rhythm. After numerous takes we’ve come to what we wanted: Fragility and emotions. I can say that it add the perfect sense I wanted for this song and a new romantic dimension to it.

We tried to do some vocals on the songs “The Beauty of Doubt”, we find the good arrangements but too difficult for Isabelle’s voice so we call Amélie (who already sung on previous albums) that represents the logical and perfect choice for this song.

The pitch of this first vocal track is very high and I needed Amélie’s voice technique to reach what I want. It was not easy cause she didn’t know the song nor the score, it gets some time for Amélie to learn and fine it for a better result.

04th April 2018 :

Amélie came back to end the second vocal track. It’s easy for her after a day of rest, we need few takes to remind the part and it come very easy.

As I said, the choice of Amélie was the perfect choice, she add the perfect tragistic feel to this song and add a more lyrical dimension to this song. It was the emotion I wanted to enhance and enlightened for this final.

Now all the recordings are over. I could start the mix.

Many thanks to Isa and Amélie for giving me their precious time and their so lovely voice to my music. I love you!

And last but not least, thank you all to read this studio report and follow this important step for Lyncelia. I can say that these songs will be strong, hopefully the best I had written and the sound will be huge and better than ever.

…The End…

16, 18, 19 March 2018 :

Time to record the vocals, it won’t be easy cause I didn’t really rehearse the songs with the lyrics. I must be creative. During the weekly rehearsals of last months, we worked with Yann on older songs to get together and I had to let new songs off.

I start by the song “Beloved”, it’s the song I master the most. No problem with it, then “Self Mystery Girl” passed through without difficulties. I thought it will be harder.

For “Lustful Feelings” I had big apprehension cause it’s a strong title I mustn’t fail. I need some work to make it sound like I wanted.

More complicated with the song “The Beauty of Doubt”, I never sing it with the text. I had some ideas I should finalize on the run et it sounds pretty good without too much difficulties.

In the majority, the recording of the voice were good, I thought I will get some difficulties cause I didn’t really work the vocals. I think I will add some female voices to add some dynamics and more dimension to the songs.

…To be continued…

01, 02, 03 March 2018 :

After changing the strings on bass, I started the recording of these tracks. This a real pleasure to play bass on ColdWave music, I had much pleasure.

I used my only bass, a Yamaha TRB1005L. It’s an active bass with integrated preamp, it has a great sound very precise, some will say cold, but it suits so well to Lyncelia Sound.

This is also the first time I used analog effect pedal (on the previous albums I used the Guitar Rig software effects). On the board there is 3 MXR pedals (Bass Overdrive, Analog Chorus, Flanger) and a TC Electronic Arena Reverb.

I recorded the softer songs first and the difficult songs just after. This is at this moment that I noticed that I don’t practice bass enough cause I had huge difficulties to keep the rhythm on 1/8 notes at 130 BPM of the song “Self Mystery Girl”. I must work riff by riff to keep the rhythm on the whole song. I not satisfied and I will re-record it later.

I follow with the songs using Overdrive and some heavy parts remind songs from My Dying Bride.

I also finalize and finish the writing of the bass parts of “Lustful Feelings”.

05, 06 March 2018 :

It’s time to listen and check all the tracks. I had to re-record some Rhythm guitars on “Self Mystery Girl” (That I could rename “Self MYSERY Girl” cause I had acccelerate on the songs. I also re-record few leads on few songs. Now all sounds good and it remains to make the vocals.

…To be continued…

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…