by Peter Wolf.

As promised last month (and requested by some of the readers of Modern Guitars magazine), in this article I'll take a look at the processes and equipment used for Supernatural's latest album Never Give Up (released in March of 2007 - see the links at the bottom of the article).

We started to work on songs and tracks for this album during summer of 2005, only a few months after we released our second album Bad Day. My music partner, Thomas, sent me an MP3 of a track he had been working on, which later turned into the title track of our third release Never Give Up. With the soccer World Cup being a year away and having been a soccer player and soccer lover all my life, we tried to capture what we perceived being important for a player and put it into a song format. The music was written by Thomas, most of the instruments, the tempo, rhythm and the general direction were provided by him also….so I sat down to come up with lyrics, attempting to capture what is going through a player’s mind in major games such as in a World Cup match.

After working on the lyrics for a few days, I tried to get a feel for the track and how the lyrics work during a pre-production session at a friend’s studio in Annapolis, MD. At the same time, I contacted Juergen Klinsmann who had just been promoted German National soccer coach and who I have known through my friend and ex-soccer pro Dietmar Roth. We also contacted the DFB (German soccer association) to evaluate the possibility of working together since I was convinced that "NGU" would be the perfect song for the German team during the Fifa World Cup 2006. Although at this point we didn’t have a final mix (the vocals were re-recorded in April of 2006 in Germany and we re-mixed the track as well), Juergen liked the track and forwarded it to Oliver Bierhoff, the team manager who told me a few months later that the DFB had already made licensing deals with other artists.

Despite the fact that "NGU" didn’t end up being used as the official song for the German team (I guess the contribution and funding of major labels who were pitching German artists Herbert Groenemeyer and Xavier Naidoo had its impact), "NGU" was featured on a few TV and radio stations before and during the tournament. It also kind of sparked the general direction and approach of what we intended the album to be and this spirit and meaning of "NGU" lasted throughout the recording and producing of the album.

Never Give Up was a true ‘across the pond’ production, considering that Thomas and I have been living on different continents for the most part. Actually, we only saw each other two times during the making of Never Give Up.

Unlike Bad Day, which was mainly recorded at Bibomuzic studios in Germany, Never Give Up recording sessions mainly took place in the US, at least as far as my part (vocals and guitars) is concerned. Most of the vocal and guitar tracks were recorded at PRS Guitars, in Marc Quigley’s (PRS Art Director) office, to be precise (which is way smaller than you think) by using a basic Pro Tools set up and then uploading recorded and bounced tracks onto a FTP server. Please see my earlier article, "The Care and Feeding of a Virtual Band" for more information on this subject.

Of the 11 songs on Never Give Up, only three vocal and a few guitar tracks were recorded in Germany (the final version of "NGU", "Hero" and "This Time). "Hold On" was recorded at Royale Rock Studios in Carvoeiro, Portugal in the summer of 2006. The rest of the vocal and guitar recordings happened in the US in the previously described way. Although Thomas and I would have, of course, preferred to be together, modern technology gave us the chance to continue writing and producing our music without going nuts, going back and forth, spending a fortune or taking six months off to get it done. Thanks to this technology and Thomas’ skills as an engineer and producer, we did it in 18 months, more or less.

I’ve asked Thomas to provide a list of equipment used for the album and added a few things we used over here.

Hardware Power Mac Dual G5, MacBook Pro, Mac Power Book, 2x Apple Cinema Display 23", Toshiba P20, Mackie control universal, Mackie control XT, Metric halo ULN2, Metric halo 2882, Neumann U47, Neuman TLM 170, Urei 1178

Instuments
PRS 88 Signature Trem, PRS Hollowbody II Piezo, PRS Custom 22 Trem , PRS Custom 24 Trem, Fender Stratocaster, Fender Jazz Bass, Furch Acoustic Bass, Taylor Big Baby, Lakewood M66 Acoustic

Amps
Soldano SLO 100 & Soldano 4x12 with Celestion Vintage 30s, Mesa Boogie Ace Stiletto top & 1x12 open back cab

Monitors
Genelec, Behringer Truth, TRUTH B2092A, JBL control one,

Software
Logic 7.2, Ableton Live, Celemony Melodyne, Metric halo Spectra Foo

Plugins
Native instruments guitar rig, Logic: All Plugins, Metric halo: channel strip, IK Multimedia: TRex, Nomad Factory: Blue Tubes Bundle 3, Analog Signature Pack, DUY: Magic EQ, IZotope: OZONE 3, QuickQuack: Ray Space

Keyboards
Ensoniq ASR 10, Roland Juno 106, Edirol PCR M1

Software Instruments
Logic: EXS, Ultrabeat, ES1, ES2, Sculpture, EVB3, EVP 88, EVD 6, Native Instruments: Massive,,Kontakt, FM8, Waves GT2, Rolf Papen: Albino, Blue, Chrono X, Octopus, Spectrasonics: Atmosphere, Stylus RMX, Toontrack EZ Drummer, XLN Audio Addictive Drums, Vember Audio Surge, All OhmForce, Modartt Pianoteq, re FX Vanguard, East West: EWQSL Orchestra GOLD, Outer Limits

Now, as far as the use of equipment is concerned, I would like to quote Thomas: “You can use the best equipment in the world, it doesn’t make you create great recordings without knowing what you’re doing and using the gear appropriately.”

The engineer plays a very important role during the recording process but as much as the quality of equipment and being able to use it is crucial, it doesn’t turn a mediocre song into a masterpiece either. This doesn’t mean that we consider ourselves masters, far from it actually, it just means that songwriting is the most important piece of the puzzle. It all starts with a good song and always has.

I’m happy and grateful to have Thomas working with me. He is a great musician, composer and engineer with a very open mind, influenced by many different musical styles, artists and experiences in life, in general. He is also the guy responsible for the live and TV sound of one of Europe’s largest and most famous TV shows, called Wetten Dass, a Saturday night prime time TV show airing on Germany’s main TV station, ZDF, and broadcast to over 180 million households throughout Europe.

I hope you like what we came up with. I’m sure we could have done a better job, but, then again, that’s always the case. I also hope that we can continue to make the time to keep working on music together. To me, it feels like we’ve only started.

Related Links
Supernatural
Supernatural on MySpace
Independent Artist Company (IAC)