Cover artwork + release date set

Check out the front & back covers below (and click 'em to see em in bigger size). 

The release date is set for 2nd February at this point, and if nothing weird happens, it will be out then.

Tracklist

The hard work has been continued throughout the weekend and it's more than paying off ... didn't think few days ago I'd be saying this, but it looks like the album will be released within a week or so. I've still been listening to the current master version, and so far I haven't noticed anything I'd like to go and tweak. Wow. It sounds very close to what I wanted.

I have the final song lengths now, too - and also the final song titles. And I've created the cover artwork today, from scratch. Came out great. The album title will be 'Toinen'. Here's the tracklist and the overall length is going to be about 43 minutes.

Trailer

Have worked really hard on the package and ... it's getting actually near completion. I will have to listen the material in coming days, to see and feel if it's acceptable to me. It is acceptable enough for crafting a trailer and that's exactly what I did few hours ago. Freshly squeezed, check it out below.

URL for the trailer is:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOpjWtTXwP0

Mixing & mastering

While I was writing about starting initial mastering processes, ... putting final touches to mixing comes first. In this case it's less of a deal than usually, as I have far less sources of sounds (or simply just tracks) to be mixed. Actually I've been doing the mixing already when I was recording the guitars - there are the chiptunes as one track, and then there are the guitars, varying from one to two tracks. That's it. So it is pretty simple, straightforward task and I'm doing the final adjustments to mixing.

I could have done this in much more complicated way, by separating each channel in chiptune tracks while exporting them into wav files. Chiptunes have separate channels varying from 8 into 12. Drums take 3-4 channels, bass 2 channels and the rest is for them chirpy soundbytes. But there would be no reason to make it channel by channel - I have done initial mixing already when I was composing & programming (tracking, tracker music) the chiptunes. Tracking a song, you need to know what you are after - and you reach the overall sound you want, based on your tracking knowledge and experience. Having started tracking with Amiga 500 back in 1989, I think I have enough experience, heh heh ... but seriously, it is easy, smooth and flowing operation with me - I reach the vision I have in my mind easily. So it's one chiptune track which gets exported ... and then it's just working with DAW (Reaper in my case nowadays), recording extra elements - in this case just guitarworks and mix the two according the vision.

I managed to get serious mastering work done yesterday for 10 songs - half of the album, yeah. Excellent evening in that sense, massive progress. I don't know if the rest 10 songs go as smoothly from mastering point of view, that remains to be seen. In best possible scenario, and if I have enough free time after dayjob, I might get the music finalized already during January (!) ... dunno yet how it goes, but that's not all there is. I have to craft the artwork too, and name the songs properly. February release feels quite likely, in any case. :)

I can also state something; while first Chipfusion release ("Yksi") was enjoyable in its' own way, it wasn't sort of primarily done for Chipfusion itself. It was chiptunes crafted for Scumfusion, grindcore, and of course Scumfusion came first. Chipfusion was born in the process. So that first album is different in that sense ... this second album though ... this is done 100% for Chipfusion itself, chiptunes first, expanding (fusion) the soundscapes with guitars this time somewhat. Musically speaking it is a big difference, and it means many things.

Listening (for chirpies)

For past few days I've been listening to the current state of mixes, all the twenty songs. Originally I thought I would be making 1) a possible second guitar recording session as needed and 2) ambient recording session for the songs as seen fit. Well now ...

1) Based on 5-10 times of listening through all the songs, I'm not going to record more guitars

2) Perhaps more surprisingly I've dropped the idea of ambient session completely from my plans

I thought I would quite likely be recording some extra guitar things, but it all feels so complete. I don't want to break the flow there is. It feels simply complete. Ideas I had for doing some extra sessions for some of the songs feel now ... well, pointless. It's also not just the flow, but it's about "keeping the material under reasonable control". Not making it a mess of soundscapes. It is chiptune music after all, just fused with some guitars, occasional metal elements, perhaps even slightly jazzy vibes at times. Just slightly, though.

That "keeping the material under reasonable control" matter also goes hand in hand with my decision of not doing any ambient recording sessions for any of the songs. Originally I thought I would, but as my gut feeling is "no, not for this package, not this time anyway" ... I trust how I feel about it 100%.

So, what all that means, is that I've started doing some mastering work already. Yes! Started initial work late yesterday evening after listening the material several times through. I have some simple methods I'm following. No point going into details since this is not a technical blog either.

More as things progress, again.

One for all and then some

Got the last piece worked tonight, it was rather tricky case again, mood'wise. But in the end it turned out good, yeah. Not just that but ...

... I managed to listen all the songs in their current stage through, also. Once all of them through, 20 songs, and about halfway through the set 2nd time. I like how it flows, a lot. While working the last few songs with guitar I felt like I might tweak some early recordings in selected songs, but I gotta sleep on that. Better leave it for now, and let the material steam a bit once again.

Overall very good vibes at this point.

Two for today

Got two songs worked very nicely today. Me likey a lot! Only one song more to go, bit more tricky case though (gut feeling only). And as I recorded the two songs' guitars today, I noticed there's also certain kind of pattern developing into overall album, the way it starts, flows and especially how it ends. Talking about atmosphere of the songs.

Also; even that these songs don't have any lyrics whatsoever (pure chiptune style), while I've been recording guitars I've noticed several of these songs clearly having titles forming out of their textures.

All for one

I was workin' with the material yesterday evening, again - and yet again I didn't have time to write about it here then. I managed to get just one song done. Or almost done, might be that I have to tweak one section a bit. Just one song, as it's one of the longer songs - not necessarily tricky one to play what I was playing & recording there, but to get the kind of mood I wanted was the tricky part. I got it handled in the end - just one section will have to be listened and possibly worked a bit more. Good to have one night sleep and then see how it goes with fresh ears so to speak.

I think I might have this first guitar recording session completed during the weekend.

Progressed yesterdaysian

Didn't have time to write about this yesterday as I stopped recording sessions quite late. I got two more songs worked during yesterday evening - again quite different songs if put next to each other. One is simply crazy rollercoaster ride and the same goes somewhat with what I recorded to it - the other one is not crazy at all, but dark and brooding, heavy yet groovy tune.

Only four more songs to be worked at this point. One or two recording sessions, depending on how things go. After that I'll be listening the full package through in rough mix format, how it sounds and feels. If I feel like doing additional guitar sessions, then it's time for that. After another possible listening session I'll have to decide whether I'll do some ambient sessions or not.

Guitar session clip

I had this video clip online already yesterday, briefly, but the video itself was bit of a messup so ... I deleted it, fixed it a bit (improved sound quality) and reuploaded a moment ago. This clip contains a section of the "happy techno gabber" guitar session from yesterday's sessions. Completely different kind of song if compared to other two songs, as stated.

Three is them numbers

Got three more tracks worked with guitar tonight. Funnily each of the three songs represents completely different approaches from musical points of view. One is techno gabber thingy, one is straight extreme metal'ish chiptune thingy, one is very dark game music sort of slow brooding song. Each got different treatments, too.

Continued only today

Got two more songs worked with them electric strings tonight - so I'm quite far from finishing this first guitar session, ha! ... I thought I'd be done by the mid'January. It's 15th Jan today, and I have 9 songs to go through out of 20. The reason for this break was such a big one, too ... blame it on Bridge Constructor Portal ... yeah, a game! ^_^ Funny little game, even that I was expecting notably more "portal" humor, Glados style ... other than that it was a very entertaining case. And yeah, it took some time to complete it. Time that was taken from continuing Chipfusion.

Well, Chipfusion has a strong game music element in retro style, so I guess that's acceptable.

Progressing according to inspiration and not starting any games for now ... :)

More with them strings

Got three more songs worked with guitar today and overall I've now worked nine of the songs this way. I'll go them all through now on the first run - after that I'll check them for second time, listen & feel if there's space for more guitar stuff. If there is, I'll do some extra recordings.

Progressing nicely, might be that I'll get this first guitar recording session completed before middle of January, or so.

Afterburnin'

Holiday break came at perfect time, took a complete break from the Chipfusion material as well - and simply let it steam in the back of my mind subconsciously. I went back into workin' with the songs some days ago. Had a free day from my daytime job on friday and planned beforehand that it's a "Chipfusion day" ... and that it certainly was.

I went through six songs and recorded additional soundscapes with guitar. Back when this whole Chipfusion was born, the original idea was to mix chiptunes into Scumfusion's scifi grind mayhem. Now ... it's not about inserting grind into chiptunes, but it's sort of inserting certain kind of metal edge to the chiptunes. Ok, some of the chiptunes in this package are quite uptempo to say the least (wait until you hear them drums in some cases!) ... but there are more midtempo and even somewhat slowish songs, too.

Based on the recordings from last friday, the expansion idea seems to be working nicely. Not just in "metal" way, but ... in many ways. Today I've recorded guitars for one song already and aim to do some more today. When I get the guitar sessions completed, there might be still some sound expanding sessions ahead - not necessarily massive ones, but perhaps some ambient elements. We'll see.

In any case, I really like the way this package is forming - it is quite different from "Yksi" release, but yet at the same time it is a clear continuation. Twisted continuation. ;)