Modhan Recording Diary Day 6/7! And we're done...

Hello folks, thanks for sticking it out to the end! Well, we're done. Album is all recorded, edited and mixed. Huge thanks are due to Garry Boyle for his amazing efforts on the engineering and mixing fronts. It's been a real pleasure for all of us to be working with someone of his calibre, and he's a top bloke to boot!


The last two days have mainly consisted of watching and listening to Garry working with the raw audio that we recorded over the previous days. Takes have been played around with, microphones have been praised, and we've ended up with precisely what we wanted: a record that sounds like Modhan live, but with that extra depth and dimension that the studio can offer. We're delighted with the result and think it sounds great. Hopefully you'll agree! Next stage is mastering, we're excited to confirm that we'll be working with Stuart Hamilton alongside Garry at Castlesound Studios in January. In the meantime we'll be finalising the artwork and packaging, and ensuring that the album is ready to hit the shelves nearest to you by early next year! All very exciting!

We're looking forward to getting some samples from the album up on our website soon. We also have videos from our gig at the Voodoo Rooms which are nearly ready, and will appear on our website soon too. We also have a new websites in the planning stages, that will be here soon too! We also got some awesome photos taken of us last night by Rob Brady, on location at a couple of cool (very cool as it turned out at this time of year) outdoor makeshift photo sets; an old railway tunnel in Newhaven, and the sea wall in Granton Harbour! Photos look great and will be used for our promo material next year.It's all go at the Modhan camp just now, and we're excited by what next year has in store for us. Keep an eye out for Modhan goings-on at our homepage and also our facebook fan page. Please 'like' us if you haven't done so already! Check out the final batch of recording photos from us below, and stay in touch!

Even when all around him seems a blur, and somewhat hazy, Garry remains clear and focused...

Garry under scrutiny; the watchful eyes of Wally the Wombat.

Garry and Jodie at work

Listening with intent

Mark lays down some piano for the ending of pangaeic

Birds-eye view 

Garry doing his thing

Wally the Wombat

Hard at work vs hardly working? Modhan at The Depot, Edinburgh, December 2011

Modhan recording diary day 5

Another big effort today as we made the final push to get this album finished.

Mark came out of the blocks that like a bullet train with a clarinet strapped to the front and 'smashed' the final tracks in minimal takes. The same, however, can't be said of Chris and Kay and special props need to go to Garry for not strangling Chris after his incessant “can I do that again?”.

So we've now finished all the tracks, except for a few percussive bits and bobs, which I'm sure Andy will be absolutely all over – they don't call him 'one take McLeod' for nothing.. ok they don't call him that, they call him 'take that beater and shove it......McLeod'.

Check back in the next few days for the final instalment, post-mixing!

 Mark smashing out some tunes

Everyone loves Morrisons cafe, our 'local' over the past week

Garry and Wally, you decide who is who

Obligatory cheesy group shot

Modhan Recording Diary Day 4

So, day 4 is done and dusted no less. The melodious melody magicians worked their magic to record another 4 tracks today. A little more time consuming than the accompaniment tracks, but given that there are slightly more notes and thus more notes to get wrong, we feel it's only justified. Graham, Andy and Jodie were all there to offer more encouragement, along the same lines as yesterday with their "Smash it", "Nail it" and "Do it"s! At least we had Wally, who helped a lot by keeping a watchful eye on all of us. 

Wally the Wombat who watches us all during rehearsals and recording!

For those not recording, catching up with all of the days news and completing the crosswords and sudokus is pretty essential to distract the mind between takes.

To get all the melodies finished off, we have organised another day in the studio tomorrow with Garry, so stay tuned for the final bit's of recording, over dubs and mixing still to come this week!

A quick game of cards to pass some time...

The crosswords were a little puzzling today.

Lunch break and some time away from the studio...getting some space and fresh ears is always useful! 

Inside the control room at The Depot

Little evening beverage to finish off a pretty long day.

Modhan recording diary day 3

Today it was the turn of the melodic maestros to hit the recording booths and do their thang.

Kay, Mark and myself were thrust into the limelight while the backline took a backseat and provided invaluable motivation pep-talks (Andy’s “smash it” was particularly effective).

Having set ourselves the somewhat ambitious target of recording 10 tracks in four days we have been working hard to get through the material while keeping the quality up to the standards we set ourselves before coming in. So far so good, although progress was a little slower than we’d hoped, we’re really happy with the way things are shaping up. Four of the trickiest tracks in the can and looking forward to tomorrow.

Album Studio Diary Day 2!

Second day done and dusted!

We spent today finishing up the backing tracks, which meant recording a whole lot of bass, drums and guitar action, patiently and ably assisted by all 3 members of Modhans melody section providing guide track after guide track in the control room. The target was to have all 10 tracks more or less done accompaniment-wise, and that's exactly where we are after today, so all is good and well! The tracks are sounding great already, and it's fair to say we're pretty excited to hear the end result!
We also had a visit from photographer Rob Brady towards the close of play, Rob is working with us this week to get some studio and location shots down, more to follow from that over the next couple of weeks.

A quick beer post-session is recommended again, and we're looking forward to the melodies starting to tickle the microphones tomorrow morning. Check back to see how it goes tomorrow!

Album Studio Diary Day 1!

So the first day of recording is a wrap!  We headed down to The Depot for an early start (with absolutely no sleeping-in and leaving certain band members on the cold streets for "7mins and counting...") and proceeded to set up and get acquainted with our home/den of solitude for the next 4 + days.  Live rhythm section recording was the aim of the game, and that's just what we did!  Percussion, bass & guitar for four tracks are in the bag (guide track help from Kay & Mark, 2/3rds of Modhan's tunesmiths), with Garry a natural at working with our schizophrenic changes, graduated tempo maps and all of the other oddities that we throw at him!  Check out the snaps below- Day 2 update tomorrow!

 

 Needed this post-session!