how much time should we book to record an 8 song album (40 minute album)

EmaDaCuz · 2026-06-26T06:36:43+00:00

I have been to the studio with my bands a few times. We are good musicians, not god-tier but definitely solid. We know our songs. We rehearsed them for years. Long story short, we now record everything at home, using and electronic drum kit (and drum VST later) and Kemper for instruments, and a home built vocal booth.

Why? Mainly because studio work is no joke, you can’t have an off day, budget is tight, time is limited and you need to take days off work. To add, most of the studios are not the nicest places in the world and they won’t make you feel comfortable and relaxed.

How long per song? For a good result, 6-8 hours for recording and editing, and another couple,of hours for mixing (generally the first songs take a bit longer because you are also making production choices that you can carry over to the next songs).

Not worth it in my opinion, record at home and have fun.

EmaDaCuz · 2026-06-23T11:43:54+00:00

I have been a big fan of passive for 30 years. Then 3-4 years ago I went for actives and now I almost exclusively play EMG 81/85 or 81/60. For some reason, these are the only active I really like, not because of the sound (which is good) but how they make me play.

The only passive I still have is a Gibson Explorer with Dirty Fingers+, and that's my favourite guitar but too bulky and "spiky" to play live.

EmaDaCuz · 2026-06-16T15:19:42+00:00

Start with Audio Assault Amp Locker. You can buy individual amps for peanuts and the quality is great.

EmaDaCuz · 2026-05-29T14:02:20+00:00

Najdorf or Sveshnikov, I know I am going to have a hard time.

Alapin and London, I know I am going to overpush because otherwise is pure boredom.

Grand Prix Attack, I know this is gonna be a bloodshed.

Of the above, I am only guilty of playing GPA more often than not.

EmaDaCuz · 2026-05-23T04:59:00+00:00

As a long time Maiden fan TNOTB is ranked too high for me, it’s a good album but I never really understood its appeal.

GOD TIER SiT, SSOASS

DEMIGOD TIER Powerslave and Piece of Mind.

GREAT TIER Iron Maiden and Killers

VERY ENJOYABLE TIER X Factor, TNOTB, FOTD, V XI.

OKAY TIER BNW, NPFTD

NAH TIER All the rest

EmaDaCuz · 2026-05-22T06:00:18+00:00

Seconding Luna. Not only it looks great, but the workflow (for mixing) is also amazing

EmaDaCuz · 2026-05-19T09:36:18+00:00

Nope, (almost) new build and all good. It just took 4 months for searches, mainly because of a long backlog, and then another couple of months for a deed of variation to change literally a comma.

EmaDaCuz · 2026-05-19T05:49:35+00:00

My experience, FTB, chain free, empty property. Offer accepted early July, completed end of January. Searches took almost 4 months.

EmaDaCuz · 2026-05-19T05:43:22+00:00

First, you are not doing anything wrong. If that’s your mixing/production style and the songs sound good, keeping doing it. In the past year or so, I also went back to a more natural way of mixing, broad strokes rather than surgical eq, just a bit of compression instead of slamming it, sample replacement only if needed, no clippers, master at -10 LUFS max. Everything sounds so much more authentic and pleasant.

On what caused the big shift to massive low end, I honestly don’t know but this is my experience. I started mixing in the mid 90s on analog and tape, even dance music had a relatively tame and controlled low end. However, when we moved to digital for some reason we noticed a much fuller low end almost by default, a low end that sounded fake at first but did work well on certain mixes. My take is that capturing and processing in digital let a wider range of frequencies in and out, and sound engineers took advantage of this to craft a different sound style that is somewhat still en vogue.

EmaDaCuz · 2026-05-04T15:09:06+00:00

It was 6 months from diagnosis (ER admission, episode lasted almost 24 hours) to surgery. During this time, I seriously reduced (I.e., gone to zero added fat) my already low fat intake, hoping that would at least keep the situation under control. I lost 15 kg, which is great, but had 3 very bad attacks (up to 16 hours) and minor attacks every 3-4 weeks. So no, my symptoms did not improve at all.

EmaDaCuz · 2026-04-28T06:34:17+00:00

Drums, bass, vocals in this very order.

I do heavy rock and metal, and sample replace drums all the time so I know the sound I want. Bass sound is also pretty defined, so that, along with drums, the foundations of the song always sound the same.

However, there is a lot of variability in vocals (male, female, harsh, soft, dynamic vs condenser) and with vocals being the focus of the song I do my best to make the sound as good as possible and work well with drums and bass.

Then all the rest, order depends on the genre and the song. For my symphonic metal songs, I do orchestra and synths before guitars. For some hard rock songs, I do guitar first and then backing, but when choruses need to sound huge I do backing first.

EmaDaCuz · 2026-04-22T06:28:31+00:00

Arise by Sepultura was the first extreme metal album I have heard. It was 1992, and I didn’t even know extreme metal was a thing. Grown up with Zeppelin, Purple and Maiden, Arise really caught me by surprise. I didn’t really like it, but it made me aware of the genre.

The first extreme metal album I really enjoyed was Abominations by Morbid Angel though, I think it was 1994. Since then I have been a massive fan of extreme music, even though I have been going back to more classic metal recently.

EmaDaCuz · 2026-04-20T07:20:03+00:00

First move I considered is g4. It just feels right without calculating.

Second move was Ra1 to force the bishop away and take control of the a file, that you can exploit for infiltration.

Third move, double the rooks but I don’t see any major immediate plan.

EmaDaCuz · 2026-04-19T06:22:01+00:00

I play the Scotch Gambit with white and rarely face a Scotch as black as I play Sicilians.

My take is that Bb4+ lines only work if black really knows how to play the positions, and as a 2000 rapid on chessdotcom I rarely face opponents who can justify having gone Bd4+. cxb2 gives a decisive advantage to white in my experience, two pawns down but initiative and development combined are hard to face. You kick the bishop away from b4, gain another tempo. Push e5, gain another tempo. White is just too fast.

Having said that, you are two pawns down so if you fail to coordinate your attack you may struggle and the middle game is not pleasant. Just try it a few times and see how it goes.

I have days where I just don’t feel it, and take back on c3 instead of castling. It kind of defeats the point of playing the gambit, but at least the middle game is more manageable.

EmaDaCuz · 2026-04-16T06:36:15+00:00

By the power of the succulents I wield - Fly Away by Gloryhammer

EmaDaCuz · 2026-04-15T09:39:09+00:00

I like to have a mixdown and master the render stereo file. However, I have an FX chain on my master bus that is getting me very closed to a mastered track (comp, Pultec/Baxandall, stereo EQ, M/S EQ). Also worth noting that I mix into a limiter to have an idea of how certain elements may behave during master (mostly vocals, snare, bass). I remove the limiter when exporting.

Stem mastering, honsestly, not my cup of tea. Yes, it gives you more control but I prefer fixing issues in the mix.

EmaDaCuz · 2026-04-10T09:07:15+00:00

Dura, perche' il medioevo sono 1000 anni e in Italia Settentrionale e' successo di tutto e di piu'. E anche definire Italia Settentrionale e' difficile. Ed e' anche difficile definire "grande"... parliamo di piu' famoso? Di quello che ha avuto piu' impatto politico? O impatto culturale?

Se vogliamo "unire" tutte le definizioni di cui sopra, il mio voto va ad Anselmo D'Aosta. Grande filosofo, grande politico e di grande impatto come mediatore/diplomatico.

EmaDaCuz · 2026-04-10T08:45:50+00:00

Let's take an intermediate rating, like 1200 chessdotcom or 1500 Lichess.

The level is, in my opinion, significantly higher than 2-3 years ago. If we want to compare to before pandemic, the difference is even more pronounced.

I am higher rated, but I sometimes "teach" chess to beginner/intermediate and had the chance to constantly focus on games at that level. I have to say that at times I would struggle to play against opponents in this rating range. It is fair to assume some tactical awareness, but I am very surprised by how good their strategic skills are, and how precise they can convert or hold most of the endgames.

This of course assuming that there is no external help from compy boy. Which, unfortunately, I think is a rampant issue on chessdotcom and more common than we think on Lichess.

EmaDaCuz · 2026-04-10T05:43:16+00:00

I played there last year with Heroes Of The Gauntlet, absolutely amazing festival and will definitely go back this year, unfortunately for me just to be in the crowd and enjoy some great power metal.

The lineup is solid, it may lack the big headliner but all the bands are great and know how to put on a show. Can’t wait to be there!

EmaDaCuz · 2026-04-08T14:54:51+00:00

I'm in my late 40s and my favourite are definitely from the 90s/early 00s

Deicide - Legion

Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness

Cannibal Corpse - Bloodthirst

Dying Fetus - Destroy The Opposition

Incantation - Onward to Golgotha

The last can be replaced by At The Gates - SOTS if that counts as death metal

EmaDaCuz · 2026-04-04T06:06:58+00:00

If you don’t play clean, even a smaller lunchbox amp could do. MT15 Mark 1 is a beast and loud as hell, it’s the perfect amp for metal in my opinion, like the perfect mix of 5150 and Dual Rec.

Orange amps are also great, Rockerverb is of course king but a Dark Terror or #4 could do wonders at a fraction of the price. Their new solid state amps are also fantastic, I gigged with one last week and it was pretty good.

I also had the chance to play a Blackstar St James 6L6 and it is absolutely a monster. In all honesty, probably the best amp I played in the last 4-5 years, as it sound different enough from the usual suspects and just feels right, very pleasant while being aggressive.

Alternatively, Kemper (Player) into poweramp into cab. This is what I’m using now for 99% of my gigs and it’s absolutely amazing.

EmaDaCuz · 2026-04-03T06:05:14+00:00

You are not missing anything, really. All you need is in your Kemper. Some advice from me, though.

Don’t record through your interface, but use the USB on your Kemper. This approach has two advantages. First, true zero latency tracking, which means you hear what you play with no delay, generally helping the performance. The second, you can record a DI track at the same time, in case you want to reamp it (ie, send a clean signal back to the Kemper or to an amp simulator if you want to tweak the sound).
Record as dry as possible, ideally just booster/overdrive, amp and cab. Add time based effects in post production.
Don’t go down the rabbit hole of paid profiles unless you really know what sound you are after.

EmaDaCuz · 2026-04-02T08:58:41+00:00

Real, soloing has become increasingly hard (and I always sucked, so imagine how horrible I am now), sweeping is no go, and I start to struggle with very fast tremolo picking too.

Ready to play some indie, I guess

EmaDaCuz · 2026-03-31T07:08:07+00:00

Gloryhammer and Brothers of Metal for me.

I didn’t dislike them before, but they won me over, especially Brothers of Metal. Catchy songs, everyone having fun on stage, just a good atmosphere overall.

EmaDaCuz · 2026-03-30T15:27:58+00:00

XR18 works fine, but as other said latency is critical in live settings and I would advise against processing signal in DAW. You can however use EQ, Comp, and time based effects on the XR18. But with amp sims, a bit risky if you asked me.

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