Heelfreesk Productions

20/05/2024

Moin zusammen!

Ein kurzer Einblick aus der letzten Recording-Session mit , die sich für eine kostenlose Probe-Produktion entschieden haben, um unseren mobilen Recording Service kennenzulernen (dazu beizeiten mehr!). Sehr geile Zusammenarbeit, wunderschöne Arbeitsatmosphäre, hat wirklich Spaß gemacht - und das Ergebnis wird sich hören lassen können!

Stay tuned! 🤘

28/04/2024

Greetings from the caves!

The vote produced a clear, albeit unpleasant result: With a narrow margin of just two votes, my genre for this song contest has been decided. This year, I will be competing in the ‚Schlager‘ category. To quote the philosophers of Carpathian Forest: F**k you all! 😂

So let’s see what comes of it! 🙈

If you’re interested in the production process please let me know so I can contribute some video and audio material.

26/09/2023

Greetings from the caves!

Today I will share with you some thoughts that were made with the artists of band Dodengraver in the planning process being a great example of how creativity can be used in production process.

So, today let's talk about roaring thunderous drums of hellish... - math. To be honest.

Okay, as mentioned before, the band has no drummer at the moment which is quite no problem at all when you want to produce and release music nowadays. There are great VSTs out there giving you set up grooves, very great samples, sometimes layering possibilities and so on. There's no problem to get drums in your track at all and for more modern style of music I'd think you wouldn't hear a big difference. But here's the problem to solve: I experienced, VST drums always come out a little bit "static" even when you spend hours and hours on velocity and timing settings. And what we've got here is a band that wants to sound as much organic as possible. You get the point!

So looking at playstyle we'll not be able to imitate a real drummer. That's a fact. I know how to get a little bit more feeling out of programmed drums by working over the velocities and placements of the notes for a little bit of well-calculated sloppiness. But I'm humble enough that this doesn't reach a good drummer's feeling for the song and rhythm.
But what we can do is make significant changes on the - sometimes also a little bit static - sound of VST drums. So when I get the MIDIs I won't use only one VST for the drums but layer it with different VSTs. And here's why: for example different kickdrum-samples of different drum VSTs will act differently on a MIDI trigger. The one will start a little bit earlier, the other won't hit so hard, the other one has more sustain and so on. By carefully shaping the sound in combination with a humanized MIDI protocoll we can get quite close to what we want to achieve.

This one was a bit more technical - beg you pardon! If you have any questions please feel free to ask!

I'm also happy to announce that I already recieved bass and guitar takes, so maybe I'll be able to share with you a little bit more in-depth examples next week! 🤟

18/09/2023

Greetings from the caves!

Since I recognized that most of my fellow audio engineering colleagues are posting videos about mixing techniques, I guess I'll have to follow this trend - at least a bit. ;)

The reason why I'm not that happy with this kind of content is that, first, I'm not very familiar with video tools - so if it feels like such content on my page is done by a fourth-grader, please be fair, as it's just not my kind of business (nevertheless, I will try to develop some skills to make things more viewable).

And second (and that is most important to me), these kinds of videos always suggest that there's only one way to mix an instrument, especially when it comes to EQ and compression settings, which is simply bu****it.

So, in this video, I tried to focus more on techniques rather than exact settings, giving you a brief demonstration of what CAN be done, not HAS to be done, and - of course - not always WILL be done when you want your music mixed by me. It always depends on recording quality, the genre, the feeling of the song, the other instruments, even the song part, and so on.

Please let me know if you want to see more of this stuff!

03/09/2023

Greetings from the caves!

Today I will share with you some thoughts that were made with the artists of band Dodengraver in the planning process being a great example of how creativity can be used in production process.

Some words about guitar sound:

The band is dedicated to of the second wave. Bands of that era often aimed for a sound contrary to production standards of that time and rebelled against established "good productions" (Vark Vikernes). Back in 2023: Dodengraver want their sound to be as organic, raw and brutal as possible - which is a little bit challenging because everything will be recorded in homestudio via digital plugins (especially drum programming, bass playing, guitars). Following a quote of black metal documentary we decieded to record an exercising amplifier Orange Crush Mini in the most sh*tty sounding room of the guitarists home (as you can see he ended up recording at the toilet - :D) along with recording the DI signal for modelling an additional dub guitar sound digitally (I'm working quite often with , , for such purposes) and we'll see how it turns out being mixed up together.

Since the genre is Black'n'Roll (which adds way more groove to the grim) the goal is a sound that links clearly to the second wave of Black Metal but may not sound too thin. Next week I'll talk to you about bass modelling, so stay tuned!

25/08/2023

Greetings from the caves!

Today I will share with you some thoughts that were made with the artists of band Dodengraver in the planning process being a great example of how creativity and thinking outside the box can be an useful part of recording a band.

Some thoughts about recording process itself:

The band want their sound to be as organic as possible - which is challenging because the recording process won't be done in a studio but at the very musicians home with mostly digital plugins (drum programming, bass modelling, guitars).
We decieded to use a recording style as near on - wich is often used by bands - as possible. So the band will record their instruments to a drum track covering ALL songs of their EP in ONE take. We'll be aiming for a certain kind of sloppiness emphasizing the live character on the one hand and giving some more raw and laid-back feeling on the other hand. The band also won't use any click tracks.

The balance here to find is just the right amount of sloppiness without sounding amateurish. We'll see how it turns out and maybe have to adjust the process on our way. Next week I'll share with you some thoughts about guitar sound, so stay stuned!

If you haven't done already please consider give my production a vote on this year's HOFA Songcontest:
https://hofa-contest.com/song/14034/

21/08/2023

Greetings from the caves!

Today I'm proud to announce that I started working with great band Dodengraver from .

Interesting production sidefact: the artists will record at their very own homes so we'll see how it works out being active only as recording consultant from the distance.

I have the band's permission to share now and then some impressions of the whole production process so stay tuned!

Meet them on facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/Dodengraver/

27/07/2023

You guys are awesome! After just two days of voting only five votes are needed to be first place in the Gothic Category of this years HOFA Song Contest. So please continue sharing and voting for our song (and don't forget to confirm your mail adress or your vote won't be counted).

As a special thanks to you we decieded to release our song for free on bandcamp so you can download and listen even when the contest is over. Have fun!

https://heelfreeskproductions.bandcamp.com/track/nenimaare

Dark romantic love song, highly influenced by modern Gothic Rock bands. Songwriting, arranging, recording, mixing and all instruments/vocals by www.heelfreesk-productions.com Dedicated to my wife.

25/07/2023

Greetings from the caves!

Never being satisfied enough with this piece of music it took us several weeks for completion. But today we proudly present our contribution to the Hofa Songcontest 2023.

Feel free and have a listen!

We highly appreciate any upvotes!

Dark romantic love song, highly influenced by modern Gothic Rock bands. Songwriting, arranging, recording, mixing and all instruments/vocals by www.heelfreesk-productions.com