Hero From Afar

I started having some initial ideas for song #14, Hero From Afar, a few days ago. This is the penultimate missing song, save for intro/extro. Okay, since I’ve got to be on the Autobahn in about an hour from now (actually: should have been an hour before now), I’ll cut it short. Here it is. It’s starts out very electronic-poppish-Ayreonish if you will, but it gets a little heavier later on. Just a draft, okay? Don’t sue me :-)

Fuck yeah (just felt like saying fuck somehwere, sorry) :-)
Helge

Post Category: Making of Song #14

Add comment November 15th, 2008 at 01:17pmhelge

Drums, anyone?

Here’s “Lizards” with real drums. New roughmix, too. Have fun.

Helge

Post Category: Miscellaneous

Add comment November 5th, 2008 at 01:41pmhelge

What’s this about again?

This is site is a blog about the attempt to record a Prog Rock album at home, while learning the skills as we go along. We’re trying to document the progress we make, and also our mistakes. The project started end of 2006 and will probably, if everything goes well, have a finished album by end of 2009.

helge_at_voxager_study.jpg

In the download area you’ll find a couple of roughmixes. We’re posting everything that is nearly completed there, but be aware, that the final mixing and mastering will be done by professional mixing engineers once all songs have been recorded. The musicians are listed in the musicians area. On the blog main page, you’ll also find drafts, failed versions, vocal only stuff, and so on.

All in all, there will be 16 songs, plus intro and extro, and most of them are a little longish. They contain great guitars (played by Sven, not by me, so this pic here is a lie :-) ), lots of synth, and very good vocalists!

Hope you like it!

Take care
Helge
a.k.a. Zeitlos

Post Category: Miscellaneous

Add comment October 5th, 2008 at 03:29amhelge

An update of major proportions

NOT! :-)

Hey guys, I’m busy writing a novel these days, and this doesn’t leave me with too much time on my hands for anything else. But don’t hold your breath, I’ll be fully back on board again by mid of september or so. However, naturally I did have some time to buy a new computer. As usually, a Macintosh, because my beloved sequencer software Logic Pro runs on Macs only, and well, I’m not overly ashamed to admit it, I do like them apples bunches. Small, but nicely shaped apples, right? Who wouldn’t love ‘em? ;-)

Here’s a nice pic of the new computer at the voXager study. To the right, you’ll see the old G5. It’s in perfect health, so if you wanna have it at €600,- drop me a note. For an extra fifty bucks I’ll consider not deleting the porn folder :-)

neumac.jpg

Below there’s song 6 in a new version. Not much changed here. It’s just the first song bounced with the new intel Mac. I had to change a few instruments, but not too many. The guitars are now much wider, which increases overall transparency. I upped the mastering compressor gain by 1.5db, and the limiter by 2db. So perhaps this is already too loud. Do you hear distortion? I think there’s some, but hey. Somebody’s gonna fix that someday, right? Not me, and not today.

Cheers, and greetings to all you zombies :-P
Helge of voXager

PS: Titten sind Macht!

Post Category: Miscellaneous

Add comment August 8th, 2008 at 08:33pmhelge

Sitting in their strange contraptions

Really, these are only fake lyrics. I can do better than that. You know it. Don’t you? Say you do! :-)

So, I’ve worked a little on keys, harmonies, melody lines in this fucking complicated piece of progressive metal composed by Sven. I think that’s all there will be concerning keys, but there’ll be more vocals (more growling, more Henny), and a few more FX. But not today. So take these empty spaces and fill them with… yourself. And, err, the emptiness will fill you. Or whatever the guy says in the intro.

However, keep a Kleenex around and don’t make a mess. Have fun, you! :-)

If you’re looking for me, I’m gone fishing. NO. Rocking! Gone rocking.

helge_of_voxager.jpg

don’t kill me, don’t spill me, just thrill me,

yours faithfully,
Helge of voXager

Post Category: Making of Song #6

Add comment July 5th, 2008 at 08:35pmhelge

Nekkid Vocals

Hey everyone out there on the front! Today Henny was at the voXager study to record some serious vocals for song #4, Split Seconds. This time, unlike when we recorded in september, there were no viruses involved (virus as in a nasty cold), and the recording equipment chose to play fair as well. Of course I know this means, according to Murphy’s Law, something even worse will be happening soon — like, for instance, a large meteroite striking my house and hereby destroying everything that is voXager — we’ll have to live with that certainty, haven’t we? Are we men or mice? Mice, of course, what a question :-)

However, today, we’ve put the singing corner in the voXager study to it’s first real test and I must say it’s working even better than I had anticipated. The vocals recorded come in very clean and dry, and are generally a pleasure to the ear. Below you see how it looks if some serious action is taking place at the voXager study:

henny_singt.jpg

Unfortunately, this is the only kind of serious action taking place here at the moment (if you catch my drift), ahem… then again, steering the album towards completion is also very rewarding.

To give you an impression of just how good the vocals are that we recorded today, I’ll show you a small part from the song — Henny’s vocal submix only. Hope you enjoy it:

So, what’s left for this song?

- Clean male vocals
- Growls
- Acoustic guitar (the one you hear in the previous demo is fake from a guitar sampler)

Piece of cupcake, right? Yup, totally ;-)

Have a nice week
Helge

Post Category: Making of Song #4

Add comment June 29th, 2008 at 09:24pmhelge

Sectors of Greed

Now we’re getting serious flak. Brennan is being chased down all the sectors in the Commonwealth of Planets, while he’s still unsure if this is a nightmarish dream or for real. This is the heaviest and proggiest song so far, and it’s the first one on this project that was written by Sven — not the last one, however!

This is still a very early draft version, but the guitars, the bass and the drums and some of the keys are already near-final. You get an idea of where this is headed. Have fun:

I certainly hope that you like this one. I for one do (especially now that the drums are so pretty fucking cool :-) )

Helge
don’t sue me, yadda yadda and so on and so forth :-)

PS: I’d like to continue the tradition of greeting someone who is dear to my heart. Winke, winke Lala :-D

Post Category: Making of Song #6

Add comment June 17th, 2008 at 05:02pmhelge

Ship arrived on Moon

Hey everyone, we have a new version of song #5 song up on the site. It’s hugely improved: guitars re-amped, a new drum mixdown that couldn’t be clearer, exchanged some of the more mundane sounds for vintage stuff, and finally, a muchly improved mixdown of Laura’s great vocal tracks. Head over to the Download area and listen to Ship of The Moon (Version 31). This is the final roughmix before the pro mixing & mastering engineer lays hands on it sometime later this or next year. Enjoy!

Helge

Post Category: Making of Song #5

Add comment June 2nd, 2008 at 12:09amhelge

Thank you for the music

Yeah, I know, that’s the title of a song by a swedish 1970’s pop group. Yeah, I sorta like them. Yeah, you all had your giggles now, so just let’s get it over with, will we? :-D :-D :-D

Today, dear Ms. Void, I’m going to give you an update on something we’ve not touched in nearly a year. It’s song #4, “Split Seconds”. Yes, lo and behold! We’re making progress on this long forgotten front.

I’ve just started putting together this song’s final audio project. It has nice drums and Sven’s cool guitar shreddings, but no vocals yet. I’m almost certain, though, that Henny and I recorded the female parts of the vocals sometime in september, but I can’t seem to find them. Yes, sue me! Dang!

Anyway. What we have here is not a polished roughmix — it is not even close. It’s just all the instrumental tracks thrown into the audio project and twiddled with volume/panning a little until nothing is wildly off of anything. No reverb, delay, no automation, no fancy FX, no nothing. I’d like to show you with this song how proper mixing can turn a confusing concoction of instrumental tracks into a coherent whole. Watch this place over the next few days, there’ll be updates!

To come to a conclusion, I’d like to tell you why I came up with this blog entry’s title in the first place. That’s easy: Because this song has it all. Jean-Michel Jarre, Abba, Dimmu Borgir. In this order. Listen for yourself:

Right? Right??? ;-)

So I say… thank you for the music, guys, and keep it coming :-)

Helge

PS: I’d like to greet someone who’s dear to my heart. Winke-winke, Lala :-D

Post Category: Making of Song #4

Add comment May 7th, 2008 at 11:53amhelge

Song #3: Sister dear, why did you come along?

I don’t really know why Sissandras — that’s Nopileos’s sister — came along. But I came along these pages today to upload the latest version of song #3, “Wheel in Space”. Yeah! Many things have happened on this construction site, most notably, the addition of Cheryl’s exciting voice to the song. Also, there are new shiny drums, a few more melody lines, FX and a somewhat better mixing. However, let’s not forget that this is still a WIP — meaning, work in progress:

Have fun!

Helge

Post Category: Making of Song #3

Add comment April 14th, 2008 at 05:39pmhelge

Next Posts Previous Posts


View in iTunes
Podcast-Feed

Calendar

August 2010
M T W T F S S
« Jul    
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  

Categories

Links