Stratovarius Community

AAAAAAAAAA wrote:If we wanted complete perfection we'd just listen to the studio version. I think it would be really lame if they edited the vocals. Most of the fans have seen Stratovarius live anyway and have reasonable expectations...

I totally agree with you . And about the cover thing, let me clarify it's not from the concert they did here in Buenos Aires: the place was a lil' smaller and I honestly don't remember if they were using that clothes

It seemed to me this place and The End club are similarly.

stratopoland wrote:

rikkertje wrote:Vocals corrected???

Yes, but it's a normal thing. High notes are sustained.

I know TK doesn't always hold the high notes but these samples don't sound corrected. I think they just picked the best performance of every song.

Jens, is there really fooled around with the voice?

I know TK doesn't always hold the high notes but these samples don't sound corrected. I think they just picked the best performance of every song.

Maybe I'm wrong because 30 sec is too short to opinion. Most of vidoes on YT is recorded by audience and it has bad quality after conversion. These samples are taken from soundboard so it is clean.

The soundclips sounds awsome!!!

I think that Kotipelto sings better live on the Polaris tracks than he does on the album

Nice!

Can't wait to see them again on Sweden rock!

stratopoland wrote:It seemed to me this place and The End club are similarly.

The End isn't THAT big if you've been there

rikkertje wrote:Jens, is there really fooled around with the voice?

No, we had recorded so much material that it was easy to pick OK versions.

Well... if you can call listening to 26 hours or whatever it was of Stratovarius recordings "easy"..

We had 13 or 14 concerts recorded, I even forget how many now, but it was a LOT. Matias was basically the one who had sort out which versions to use.

The only fooling around was that we sometimes took one part of a song from one city and then another part from a different night..

The only fooling around was that we sometimes took one part of a song from one city and then another part from a different night..

Sad thing...i think this is not the aim of a live album...anyway... Also in Visions of Europe (one of the best live album in the metal history I think) you took one part of song from one city and another part from a different night?

DavEcliptica wrote:

The only fooling around was that we sometimes took one part of a song from one city and then another part from a different night..

Sad thing...i think this is not the aim of a live album...anyway... Also in Visions of Europe (one of the best live album in the metal history I think) you took one part of song from one city and another part from a different night?

Don't know! Could be. VOE was only two cities tho, Milan and Athens.

JensJohansson wrote:

rikkertje wrote:Jens, is there really fooled around with the voice?

No, we had recorded so much material that it was easy to pick OK versions.

Well... if you can call listening to 26 hours or whatever it was of Stratovarius recordings "easy"..

We had 13 or 14 concerts recorded, I even forget how many now, but it was a LOT. Matias was basically the one who had sort out which versions to use.

The only fooling around was that we sometimes took one part of a song from one city and then another part from a different night..

Anything from Cleve-land?

id love to go over 26 hours of stratovarius so if you ever want to branch that out to fans.
what i would really like to go ever is all the improvised solos and material and quirky things from show to show that happen.

DAMN Jens. Nice job on the Bach. Sweet jesus, I think I need this CD!

DavEcliptica wrote:

The only fooling around was that we sometimes took one part of a song from one city and then another part from a different night..

Sad thing...i think this is not the aim of a live album...anyway... Also in Visions of Europe (one of the best live album in the metal history I think) you took one part of song from one city and another part from a different night?

That is indeed a sad thing. IMO a live CD doesn't have to be perfect. That's what a studio album is for. Live albums are there to show how a band plays live. And that includes mistakes...

rikkertje wrote:

DavEcliptica wrote:

The only fooling around was that we sometimes took one part of a song from one city and then another part from a different night..

Sad thing...i think this is not the aim of a live album...anyway... Also in Visions of Europe (one of the best live album in the metal history I think) you took one part of song from one city and another part from a different night?

That is indeed a sad thing. IMO a live CD doesn't have to be perfect. That's what a studio album is for. Live albums are there to show how a band plays live. And that includes mistakes...

And that's what we're going to get, since Jens confirmed earlier in this topic that the vocals aren't edited after all.

Normally on live CDs I'd imagite they are, though.

Me, too, supports putting out the whole 26-hour package, though! o/

Intiaani wrote:

rikkertje wrote:

DavEcliptica wrote: Sad thing...i think this is not the aim of a live album...anyway... Also in Visions of Europe (one of the best live album in the metal history I think) you took one part of song from one city and another part from a different night?

That is indeed a sad thing. IMO a live CD doesn't have to be perfect. That's what a studio album is for. Live albums are there to show how a band plays live. And that includes mistakes...

And that's what we're going to get, since Jens confirmed earlier in this topic that the vocals aren't edited after all.

Normally on live CDs I'd imagite they are, though.

Me, too, supports putting out the whole 26-hour package, though! o/

The voice is indeed not edited, but Jens said they took different parts of songs from different concerts. So for example the verses of Father Time are from 1 concert, but the chorus of the song is taken from another concert. That's not really live... A live recording IMO is 1 concert and in one take. No cutting and pasting afterwards.

But...then...it's gonna sound strange!!

rikkertje wrote:

Intiaani wrote:

rikkertje wrote: That is indeed a sad thing. IMO a live CD doesn't have to be perfect. That's what a studio album is for. Live albums are there to show how a band plays live. And that includes mistakes...

And that's what we're going to get, since Jens confirmed earlier in this topic that the vocals aren't edited after all.

Normally on live CDs I'd imagite they are, though.

Me, too, supports putting out the whole 26-hour package, though! o/

The voice is indeed not edited, but Jens said they took different parts of songs from different concerts. So for example the verses of Father Time are from 1 concert, but the chorus of the song is taken from another concert. That's not really live... A live recording IMO is 1 concert and in one take. No cutting and pasting afterwards.

Yeah but it isn't happening that often. There'll also be producing and editing.

And it doesn't sound strange, it hasn't in years. Most of the time you don't even know when you're listening to edited "live" material. You just wonder, 'gee, how come that singer was that good in that particular DVD/live CD gig even though he has fluked whenever I have seen him?'.

rikkertje wrote: The voice is indeed not edited, but Jens said they took different parts of songs from different concerts. So for example the verses of Father Time are from 1 concert, but the chorus of the song is taken from another concert. That's not really live... A live recording IMO is 1 concert and in one take. No cutting and pasting afterwards.

Well, to put it in perspective, I think it was only one or two of the songs that we used two shows

There were technical problems, channels that drop out, have hum, have noise, distort, sometimes the tracks were post-fader, that sort of thing. It's obviously not a recording studio, you use the FOH desk and then hook a recorder into that and just hope for the best. The sound guy's main priority was still to do the sound for the show well, as it should be, the audience didn't pay to be part of a recording session! But probably the saddest fail was the gig in Slovenia, where there was fantastic singing/playing and a great audience too (it looked full). Somehow all the audience mics fell out that night..

That's the nice thing with having so many shows recorded, we really didn't have to redo anything. It's probably the most "live" live record I have ever been involved with.

I guess it's like that old saying, records are like laws and sausage, if you like them, you should never find out how they are made!

Of course all the other Strato studio albums have been done without any overdubs or other manipulation whatsoever.. you can feel safe listening to them knowing they were all recorded straight to two-track stereo!

JensJohansson wrote:

rikkertje wrote: The voice is indeed not edited, but Jens said they took different parts of songs from different concerts. So for example the verses of Father Time are from 1 concert, but the chorus of the song is taken from another concert. That's not really live... A live recording IMO is 1 concert and in one take. No cutting and pasting afterwards.

Well, to put it in perspective, I think it was only one or two of the songs that we used two shows

There were technical problems, channels that drop out, have hum, have noise, distort, sometimes the tracks were post-fader, that sort of thing. It's obviously not a recording studio, you use the FOH desk and then hook a recorder into that and just hope for the best. The sound guy's main priority was still to do the sound for the show well, as it should be, the audience didn't pay to be part of a recording session! But probably the saddest fail was the gig in Slovenia, where there was fantastic singing/playing and a great audience too (it looked full). Somehow all the audience mics fell out that night..

That's the nice thing with having so many shows recorded, we really didn't have to redo anything. It's probably the most "live" live record I have ever been involved with.

I guess it's like that old saying, records are like laws and sausage, if you like them, you should never find out how they are made!

Of course all the other Strato studio albums have been done without any overdubs or other manipulation whatsoever.. you can feel safe listening to them knowing they were all recorded straight to two-track stereo!

Ah, well that's okay. Thanx for the info.
One more question. You say that there's no manipulation whatsoever on the studioalbums. Does that mean you also don't use some kind of voice pitch correction tool? Just curious.

rikkertje wrote:Does that mean you also don't use some kind of voice pitch correction tool? Just curious.

Straight to two-track! Not even EQ or reverb... using EQ is cheating!

In fact we didn't even use a mixing desk... in the case we used more than two microphones, we just tied the mic lines to two massive copper rails! And then we had a tube driven computer encode the CD master. It was very hard finding a tube based CD burner, but I feel that using solid state equipment instead of tubes is cheating, too.

There was a lot AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA's spirit in that post

Another question Jens, do you pay for the programs you use in the computer while mixing or do you use cracks? Are you using Windows? If yes, it is original?

@ Jens.

I don't know. I assume every singer uses a bit of correction in the studio.

Now, we know a little bit more. I wonder, how will be sound vocal in chorus of Forever Is Today on that album?

stratopoland wrote:Now, we know a little bit more. I wonder, how will be sound vocal in chorus of Forever Is Today on that album?

I think it will sound okay until the high parts. The ´all dreams come to an end´ sentence. We´ll see.

rikkertje wrote:

stratopoland wrote:Now, we know a little bit more. I wonder, how will be sound vocal in chorus of Forever Is Today on that album?

I think it will sound okay until the high parts. The ´all dreams come to an end´ sentence. We´ll see.

At the gig they did here, I could barely listen to that part because of the noise around me and that stupid dude that throwed my camera

JensJohansson wrote:That's the nice thing with having so many shows recorded, we really didn't have to redo anything. It's probably the most "live" live record I have ever been involved with.

In that case, the editing is OK

RazielSR wrote:Another question Jens, do you pay for the programs you use in the computer while mixing or do you use cracks? Are you using Windows? If yes, it is original?

I myself use Windows, Jörg also. The other guys have macs.

For music stuff weirdly enough I use a cracked version of Nuendo, even though I have a legit copy (that is, with a USB key). I have been doing the exact same thing since the Atari days. I don't mind paying but don't have enough USB ports. USB hubs can cause some problems.

The actual production / mixing was done using ProTools, all legit copies.

JensJohansson wrote:

rikkertje wrote:Does that mean you also don't use some kind of voice pitch correction tool? Just curious.

Straight to two-track! Not even EQ or reverb... using EQ is cheating!

In fact we didn't even use a mixing desk... in the case we used more than two microphones, we just tied the mic lines to two massive copper rails! And then we had a tube driven computer encode the CD master. It was very hard finding a tube based CD burner, but I feel that using solid state equipment instead of tubes is cheating, too.

Jens is an "A" at heart. I always knew it!

On another note, I heard (from Timo Tolkki's brother ) that the toilet explosion on Infinite Visions wasn't live. Talk about pissing on your art (or in this case...in it).

JensJohansson wrote:

RazielSR wrote:Another question Jens, do you pay for the programs you use in the computer while mixing or do you use cracks? Are you using Windows? If yes, it is original?

I myself use Windows, Jörg also. The other guys have macs.

For music stuff weirdly enough I use a cracked version of Nuendo, even though I have a legit copy (that is, with a USB key). I have been doing the exact same thing since the Atari days. I don't mind paying but don't have enough USB ports. USB hubs can cause some problems.

The actual production / mixing was done using ProTools, all legit copies.

JENS Dude, I was joking. It doesn't matter for me if you use cracked windows or programs

Anyway, thanks for the answer

RazielSR wrote:JENS Dude, I was joking. It doesn't matter for me if you use cracked windows or programs Anyway, thanks for the answer

But seriously tho, those dongles really are a pain in the ass ..