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VIKINGS - the new album from Doug Woods and Colin Powell (dedicated to Toz)
Here is VIKINGS - the brand new album from Doug Woods and Colin Powell. Doug and Colin go back to their Symphonic and Classic Prog Rock roots for this new album and the theme is VIKINGS!
Each track is associated with an aspect of Viking Mythology or Cosmology.
https://dougwoodsandcolinpowell.bandcamp.com/album/vikings
Comments
Lovely, brilliant, masterful (as always)!
Curious to hear about how this was made, both in terms of tech/apps, but also the creative and interpersonal aspect.
Do you guys know each other only online, or do you also meet and work together in person?
Does one guy come up the beginning and the other do the finishing? One do the chords, the other the melody? How do you work things out between you?
How do you exchange files? Who does the final mix?
How did you come up with the Viking theme?
Are there any creative differences? How do you deal with that? Isn’t that hard when you are not face to face? Do you phone or Skype?
For staters...
No worries if this is too many questions. Would love to see an interview video where these and other questions could be discussed by all parties.
Anyway, great stuff! Peace to Toz in Valhalla!
I miss the liner notes on the record sleeve. I used to scour them for clues about how this music was made and what it means to it's creators. Every word and image a little clue in the bigger picture.
Dish Doug. Tell all.
@Lady_App_titude and @McD Great questions. I shall write the answers tomorrow and post here and tag you guys in.
I also made a Patreon video about some of this, but for anyone who’s not there I am going to make a normal YouTube video about the process too.
Thanks also for the positive comments😊😎
Cool. I've got the Patreon membership set up so I'll check that out.
@McD Brilliant, it’s a couple of posts back and is called The Anatomy Of A Track
Thanks for the nice comments!
Doug is much better than me at making videos and chatting to camera so I will wait for him to respond first but I will be happy to chime in as well. For now though, it is very much a joint process and we are nearly always on the same wavelength musically so creative differences hardly ever happen!
Doug's video shows that they use Cubasis projects and probably ship track versions back and forth to add their parts. The album was Mastered on a Desktop Computer using T Racks from IK Multimedia.
Doug was loaned a Yamaha S670 keyboard and used it for a lot of the instrument sounds (strings, horns, oboes, etc). Doug says it's sound quality is very thick/fat. I'm sure if he didn't have it he would just use the best Apps for the job but having the S670 allowed him to record audio and not use the MIDI recording then freezing steps most of us live with to finish using pure IOS.
So, their process is very much like a traditional recording studio approach recording live playing with each musician coming in to add yet another track on the project.
Nothing too magical and not just IOS music tech but using the best tools they have available to get the best results. On the track discussed Doug played all keys and Colin played the guitar lines.
If any of this is in error and that's bad for you... join Doug's Patreon site.
Beautiful. Great guitarist. Wonderful album. Toz would be proud. @kuhl needs a listen. He's a real Viking.
Yes, @McD , Doug's s670 has some brilliant sounds on it but it wasn't used for all the non-guitar tracks (and the really fast guitar work was actually done by Doug on the s670!). As well as playing guitar (mainly through Tonestack) and bass (mainly through Jamup Pro), I recorded various midi tracks in Cubasis using internal sounds (including drums), Bismark bs-16i, Jubal Flute, Ravenscroft Piano, Jordantron, Zeeon, Aparillo and SynthMaster Player (using mainly a little Korg Microkey-25 and occasionally my Yamaha MX-49 as midi controllers).
There will be a video from Doug (and maybe me!) answering some of the other questions about how we work
Thank you @LinearLineman
@Lady_App_titude @McD @AlterEgo_UK Here are my answers.
Thanks, Doug! That saved me from having to do a video!
Here are some more details about how we work, if anyone is interested:
Usually we contribute ideas for tracks on an equal basis - although Doug was really on a roll with this and came up with most of the basic track ideas. No matter who comes up with a track first, the other will add their parts to the shared project. What those parts are depends upon which instruments are in the basic track and the theme of the album..
Whilst listening to a project Doug has sent me, I can usually "hear" what I would like to add, whether that be guitar/bass, drums or keyboard parts. We are so much on the same wavelength musically that this process is usually very quick and easy. Only occasionally do we make any changes based upon comments from the other person. When I am happy with what I have added, I share the updated Cubasis project file to Dropbox and email the link to Doug.
Half way through this project I swapped from my trusty iPad Air 2 to using my new iPad Pro 2018 11" and a USB-C Hub and the only issues I came across were related to getting Tonestack to play nicely when my iRig HD was connected via the USB-C hub and Audiobus - but it did work OK once I got it to make a sound! (Jamup Pro worked fine via iRig HD through USB-C hub!). Automatic sample rate changes, when using the hub/iRig HD also affected some apps but I avoided apps that had that issue.
Some breaking news is that we should have a track from Vikings on the March issue of Prog Magazine and maybe a review of this or the previous album! We do get airplay on several Prog based internet radio stations, including Progrock.com, Progzilla radio as well as Harborough FM, which has a great Prog show called The Last Outpost. Nowadays we are virtually guaranteed airplay on at least 3 stations because they know our previous albums, which is great!
Egggggcellent! Thanks, Doug, and Colin! Very interesting to hear about all this. I guess the key part of it all is that you two seem to be an ideal match. Finding that perfect fit can involve a number of different areas, including skills, tastes, and personalities. When you can get all of those coming together at once, it’s like gold. And the results are a shining example! Very fine work indeed! And 19 albums! Can’t believe it’s been that many..and I remember all the way back to the first one, which seems like just yesterday. Truly remarkable, you guys!
Oh, and I love the hat!
Great new album guys!
If I buy it from Apple vs Bandcamp. Where do you make the most money?
Very nice!
Well done guys!
Vanaheim ends like a Saga song (the Canadian band) from the 80s
@ecou Thanks, that’s cool, I think probably Bandcamp, really pleased you like it 🙏😁
@rs2000 I love SAGA, brilliant band, I think they’re still making albums
Thank you for the nice comments. Yes, Bandcamp is indeed the best place to buy it and it will soon be available to stream on Spotify.
You did it again... a fantastic album! 👍
Colin @AlterEgo_UK and Doug @thesoundtestroom
I really love Pro Rock because I’ve grown up with all the famous creative bands in the 70’s.
So no wonder that I really like your musical output here!
Thanks a lot for the look behind the scenes. Your video was great Doug and I enjoyed the additional explanation from Colin. Very appreciate!
Your creativity is remarkable, 19 Albums within 3 years without meeting personally in the studio? Wow!
You both seems to be a dream team! 😊
Two more question I have...
The most difficulty I have to create music like yours are always the drums!
Anyone of you have a background as a drummer? What apps you are using to realize the drums on your albums? Is it hard work or an easy task for you?
How long it took from the first Idea to the release of the album?
I think not so much time, 6 weeks? 😎
Anyway, I think I have to save some spare money to buy a few of your albums because I really love your work.
Congratulations for the new release!
P.S.
Some parts in the music reminds me on YES, also Jethro Tull came in my mind while listening some parts. One of my favorites on this album is Valhalla - The Hall Of The Fallen 😊
Bandcamp has the product now and has a $9.15 US minimum price.
Bandcamp also allows you to provide extra profit to generate with a "minimum pricing" feature. I bought @waynerowand's album and he had no minimum but suggested $4 as a fair price. I paid the $4.
Bandcamp has 3 member models:
fan
artist
label
So, you have to sign up to get anything but after you do:
That's huge. You can import WAV format (and some of the others) right into your own DAW and re-mix with optimal audio quality. Is that legal? I am not a lawyer. Ask one.
So, why not be a creator and group your projects into albums or singles and raise extra money to buy guitar picks? Just be advised that fan membership is easy and creator requires a lot more information since $'s are involved.
We know Apple takes 30% of App Revenue and terminated the 7% Affiliate payouts. I'd expect iTunes to use a similar business model.
19 albums !! Wow I have a hard time finishing 1 song.
@chandroji Yes, I started out playing drums, this may make you smile, this was recorded years ago in Spain, not long after we started the channel.
The sound quality is terrible because it’s just the camera mic
Thanks @chandroji
Doug has a background as a drummer, I believe
And, yes, this whole album was done in about 6 weeks!
😊
Truly this video makes me smiling! You always surprise me with your creativity!
Great video, well done! Love your work Doug!
Thanks a lot for posting this unique video! 👍
In Colin's spare time (i.e. his day job) he's negotiating the terms of Brexit with the EU according to Doug's "Secret Video" series. So, cushy job and lots of time for making music, right?
Doug wastes all his spare time helping us buy more Apps. It's a form of public service.
If these albums sold in big numbers they could make 1 a week and get rich.
Rich I tell ya.
You do know he was kidding ,right @McD
I was actually in Brussels training to be a Special Agent!
I saw Saga at Rockpalast about 1980... great band!
@Kühl Totally epic, I truly love their Worlds Apart album, Times Up is just a brilliant and beautifully constructed piece of genius, the whole album is just incredibly well made
