DEFCON 666

OK, so scratch the "soon" part from the previous update. Here's the news:

1) The songs for the next RADIANCE album are now finished, in their most basic form. I'm currently working on the details, tweaking things here, expanding on an idea there, adding layers etc. There's still a long way to go, but the pieces are systematically falling together now. It's a tied-together concept album like "The Burning Sun" and in it's current form about the same length as well.

2) I'm delaying the new website until we're closer to the release.

3) DEFCON 666? Yesterday, APOCALYPSE WARHEAD released a debut album called "Opening the Silos" -- I mixed and mastered the album earlier this year. I'd describe it as extreme death / thrash metal and it makes for a great -- probably the best -- Christmas present for the whole family! So check APOCALYPSE WARHEAD out HERE.

Progress

First off, sorry about the lack of updates -- it's been a busy summer. I've been working on the next RADIANCE album and an upgraded website to match, both of which are coming along nicely. The new website should be up soonish, information about the album will be revealed at a later time once we're closer to the actual release. I also moved my studio (and myself in the process) back to the capital area of Finland to begin my studies in astrophysics (which I did). I'm actually quite happy with the new studio room, it's considerably larger than what I had before and better acoustics as well -- the mixing phase should be less of a nightmare this time around.

Probably not.

In any case, more updates soon.

Noradrenaline

Noora Häkkinen, who did all the female vocals for "The Burning Sun", just released her latest solo album titled "Phase". Check it out HERE -- it is very well done.

As for myself, I've been trying to break free of the typical time & space -continuum to get more things done, and have had some success in the area .. Most recently I've kept myself busy mixing & mastering an album for a friend's project (still under works) and studying. Also did some changes in the studio: Got rid of some gear I didn't really need, and replaced it with more useful new acquisitions. Will post the details once the transformation is complete. Looks like I'll be writing the next Radiance album during the summer. The concept is ready and clawing to get out.

Guitar tabs!

The guitar tablature book for "The Burning Sun" is now finished and for (digital) sale as a direct download PDF file. There's a new section on the right imaginatively called "Guitar Tablature", scroll down and you will see the "Add to cart" and "View cart" -buttons under the tab book. You'll receive the PDF instantly once you've made the payment.

In fact, you'll receive two PDF files. I ended up making two versions of the book: The first version contains the full transcription for two 6-string guitars set in different tunings (G-standard & D-standard), which is how "The Burning Sun" was originally recorded. However, it is not the most practical setup if you want to actually play through the material without constantly switching between guitars. So I also included a second version of the book with altered fingerings, transcribed for a drop-tuned 7-string guitar. With this version, you'll be able to play through the entire album with a single guitar if you have a 7(/8/9)-string guitar.

Note: These books contain tablature & notation for the guitar only, no other instruments are included. It really was a mountain of work as it is, but ultimately worth it. Especially to all the guitar players out there interested in the techniques used here -- I really went to great lengths to ensure 100% accuracy in every detail. I hope it proves valuable to you.

Here's a random sample page for quality preview (click for actual resolution):

New year, new tricks

2011 is off to a good start -- I've been extremely busy, several interesting projects going on at the same time (not all of them music-related). A couple off the top of the stack: Working on the guitar tab book for "The Burning Sun" right now, it's coming along very nicely. Also working on a new set of audio tools, with which I will be producing my next album. Speaking of which, I hope to start writing the next Radiance album during the spring. More info later -- for now just letting you know I'm very much alive and working hard, as usual.

Also, my siberian husky just urinated in my studio. That's what I call honest feedback, if slightly harsh. Time to do some cleaning.

Guitar tabs?

Some people have asked me if there's going to be a guitar tab book released for "The Burning Sun". The answer is: I'm certainly open to the idea if there's enough interest for such a thing! It's a lot of work to put the notation together, so I would need a certain amount of interested people first to make the effort justifiable. So, if you want a tab book -- let me know.

Also, thanks for the great feedback everybody! Much appreciated.

Small update

I did some small refinements here & there and also added a couple of photos (see the new section on the right), which were kindly taken by Noora Häkkinen. The photos were edited and used here with her permission.

Backgrounds

Mixed with the power of a thousand energy drinks

Now that "The Burning Sun" is finally out, it's time to take a quick look back. What actually went into creating this album and what took so long?

Back in 2007, I had the basic concept of the album in my mind. I knew exactly what I wanted to do and what it would sound like. It was only a matter of translating the vision into notes, and it didn't take too long -- according to my project notes, I started writing for the album on 07/28/2007 and ten days later already had the basic structure and sections of the album written out. A month later, I had already recorded the final guitar tracks. I was working non-stop and would only pause to eat and sleep. The rest of the year went into writing and refining all the synths, orchestrations, additional layers and the tons of details present in the final version.

During this period, the first serious problem raised it's head. With the very large amount of virtual instruments I was using for the album, I was dealing with constant crashing of my audio workstation due to the memory limitations of 32-bit software. At the same time, I was running out of computing power because the project was steadily growing into megalomanic proportions. There was a period of nearly two months during which I couldn't practically do anything, because the project wouldn't run for more than 5 minutes straight. In early 2008 I found the solution to my problem: I ordered some parts and now had two networked workstations working in parallel, since the project couldn't be run by a single computer anymore. The work could continue!

I soon had the instrumental tracks of the album more or less finished, but was still lacking all the vocals. Since I had already done everything else myself, I figured I'd pull off the vocals as well with some practice. So for around six months straight, I spent hours nearly every day at my rehearsal room, practicing my singing. Even with the very heavy nature of the music, I wanted strictly clean vocals -- that was an important part of the vision I had for the album. I also knew exactly the type of voice I wanted for the album, and so I was mostly practicing on material from singers with that particular type of voice -- mainly, stuff from Mats Levén. While I was making great progress as a singer, I eventually realized what any vocalist can tell you: It takes a long period of time for your voice to "grow". The vocal cords won't change overnight, in the same way that you won't become the Hulk by going to the gym for a few months even if you do everything right. There is no shortcut around time and experience, and doing the vocals myself (to my high standards) would mean delaying the album by years. That was out of the question.

So, since I needed someone else to do the vocals -- why not ask the guy I wanted to sound like in the first place? Late 2008 I asked Mats Levén whether he'd be interested in doing the vocals for the project. He was. By accident, I had also bumped into a Finnish female vocalist by the name of Noora Häkkinen. I was immediately impressed by her voice and wanted to have her voice on the album -- she agreed as well. It felt like the pieces of the puzzle finally fell together. Due to some scheduling problems, the vocal tracks weren't recorded until late 2009 -- but the tracks were great, and the final phase of the production could start. Anticipating this, I built a new audio workstation, jumped over to the glorious world of 64-bit and never looked back.

2010 was spent solely in post-production. I had a 50-minute project with 460 (!) tracks of audio, where everything would need to fit together in the mix and still sound good without anything else falling apart. All this with my relative inexperience with audio production. However, I insisted on doing the mix and the master myself, because I knew exactly what the album needed to sound like and no other mix engineer would ever get the insane number of details and nuances of an album like this "right" (read: the way I wanted them). I also didn't have the Metallica-esque budget required to do a mix of this size in a state-of-the-art studio. After months of trial and error (incl. a lightning strike trashing the workstation once), I finally had finished the mix that I felt worked best for the album. It definitely was a tedious learning experience, but the lessons learned will help me in all my future work.

So, this is why it took over three years to complete "The Burning Sun" (although you have to take into account I was also doing months and months of touring with NECROPHAGIST at the same time). I'm sure the album could've been completed in half the time had I avoided all the issues and nonsense involved, but it got finished nevertheless and my motivation never faltered during the three-year period. It feels good to finally bring the project to a completion and I'm certainly satisfied with the results. Still ... I hope my next project doesn't take three years to finish!

The Burning Sun

After over three years of nerve-wrecking work, the RADIANCE debut album, "The Burning Sun", is finally released. Point your browser to music.radiance.fi or click on the album cover to listen to it. If you like what you hear, you can also buy it in practically any digital format you could possibly desire. For best sound quality I recommend the FLAC format, because in addition to being lossless it's also in the original 48kHz/24bit master quality.

"The Burning Sun" is a single, continuous 49-minute track (although it is divided into seven tracks for practical reasons), featuring great performances by vocalists Mats Levén (KRUX, ex-THERION, ex-YNGWIE MALMSTEEN) and Noora Häkkinen (NORADRENALINE). Produced, mixed and mastered by myself. Special thanks for their help during the completion of this album go out to Mats Levén, Noora Häkkinen and Tuukka Laitinen.

Enjoy the sound.

Restraint

I made an experiment: What is the absolutely cleanest possible website design I could come up with? The parameters: 1) All necessary information should remain on a single page, with nothing hidden behind redundant links. 2) If an element does not have a functional purpose, get rid of it.

You're looking at the result. Unfortunately, I had to break rule #1 once (since the actual music content / store is hosted elsewhere), but other than that -- I'd say it's pretty clean. I'll be adding more content as time goes along.