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Dan Swanö & Unisound Studio

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►DAN SWANÖ ►UNISOUND STUDIO

DAN SWANÖ NEWS

November 2010 - Dan recently made few new changes in his guitar rig. We keep in touch with Dan and bring you an update here.

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September 2010 - Dan Swanö revealed the secret of his live guitar gear setup in the interview exclusively given for Musician's Navigator. Check this out now - here!

August 2010 - Dan Swanö contributed to Arjen Lucassen's awaiting new Star One album by his deep vocals. The album name is Victims of the Modern Age and is due to release in October 2010. For more info check Arjen's video message...

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August 2010 - Demiurg band has released new album this year. It was named Slakthus Gamleby and is getting ass kicking reviews around the world. Dan is a member of this band and he is ruling guitar and keyboard. Check out the official home of this band and sound samples - here.

August 2010 - Dan has mixed new Hail Of Bullets's second full-lenght album named "On Divine Winds", due in North America on October 12.

Dan Swanö has fronted a number of bands, most known examples are Edge of Sanity, Nightingale, Pan.Thy.Monium, Brejn Dedd, Unicorn, Infestdead and Route Nine. He has also been a member of Katatonia, Ribspreader, as well as playing drums and lead guitar in death metal band Bloodbath.

He has also cooperation with famous composer and guitarist Arjen Lucassen on his Star One Project where Dan contributed with his vocal. Arjen Lucassen contributing guitar parts to Dan Swanö's Nightingale project. Dan Swanö can also be heard on the albums Theli and A'arab Zaraq - Lucid Dreaming by the symphonic opera metal band Therion.

He was also producer and contributing writer of the band Diabolical Masquerade (avant-garde black metal) band of Anders Nyström aka Blakkheim (Katatonia, Bloodbath, ex-Bewitched). He also partially contributed as a guitarist and vocalist on various Diabolical Masquerade albums, and played the drums on the album Nightwork. He also produced and played the keyboards on the Memories from Nothing album by Swedish progressive rockers Another Life, released on Vic Records.

Swanö has also released a solo progressive death metal album entitled Moontower, on which he showcases his multi-instrumental talent, playing all instruments (guitar, bass, drums, keyboard) as well as providing all the vocal work. Swanö's vocal register contains divers set of voices encompassing many styles, which include death growls; clean, melodic singing with a warm rich tone; deep, dark, gothic vocals and thrash shouting.

EDGE OF SANITY

Edge of Sanity asserted themselves as a solid death-metal outfit with their debut release Nothing But Death Remains, but their second release Unorthodox, with tracks like "Enigma" and "When All Is Said," showed them branching out from some of the genre's conventions. The Spectral Sorrows, Until Eternity Ends, and Purgatory Afterglow continued the trend, so that by the release of 1996's Crimson they were recording full-on progressive metal. Crimson was a 40-minute concept album consisting entirely of one track, concerning a post-apocalyptic future in which mankind had lost the ability to breed. After one more album, 1997's Infernal Dan Swanö left the band, and his departure is generally associated with a decline in quality in the band's material. Dan was replaced by Robert Karlsson, the vocalist of Pan.Thy.Monium (a side project in which Dan was also involved), but after one more album, the same year's Cryptic, the band split up.

In 2003, Swanö reconvened the outfit as a one-man band (with several session musicians, however) and recorded a sequel to Crimson, naturally entitled Crimson II. Immediately after, he re-dissolved the project, and it has been silent ever since.

Discography

Nothing But Death Remains (1991)
Unorthodox (1992)
The Spectral Sorrows (1993)
Until Eternity Ends (4-track EP) (1994)
Purgatory Afterglow (1994)
Crimson (contains only a single 40-minute song) (1996)
Infernal (1997)
Cryptic (1997)
Evolution (2-disc compilation of rare and unreleased tracks) (1999)
Crimson II (consists of 43 minutes of continuous music, which is divided into either nine or forty-four tracks on some releases) (2003)

NIGHTINGALE

Nightingale came to life in 1994 as an "ego project" by multi instrumentalist and producer Dan Swanö. A short-lived but powerful crush on Goth rock acts like ROSETTA STONE and SISTERS OF MERCY and an obsession for the groove of tracks like "The night comes down" by JUDAS PRIEST and "Belief" by THE MISSION formed the songs on the first album THE BREATHING SHADOW that came out on BLACK MARK and JVC in 1995. Goth metal classics like "Nightfall Overture" and "The Dreamreader" made sure the album got the good reviews it deserved and the world demanded a follow up.

In 1996 Dan teamed up with his brother Dag "Tom Nouga" Swanö (He adapted a stage name to avoid confusion due to the similarities of Dan and Dag) Together they wrote and recorded the album that stills stands as the most "classic" NIGHTINGALE release "THE CLOSING CHRONICLES" when the band performed live at the Prog Power 2001 in Atlanta, Georgia they played the whole album back to back to prove that the tracks only gets better and better!!

The press loved THE CLOSING CHRONICLES and it scored some 5 out of 5 reviews claiming it to be Swanö's finest work to date. After a few live shows with a temporary line-up Nightingale was laid to rest and Dan started writing for the third UNICORN album and Dag continued with his solo works.

Years later Dag played Dan some re-recordings of his most classic solo material and to their surprise it sounded very much like what could have been the third NIGHTINGALE album!! With half the album already written Dag joined forced with Dan together they revived NIGHTINGALE and wrote and recorded the album "I"

In many ways "I" was the first album. The project turned more into a band waiting to happen and a distinct sound was shaped out of the collision between their different musical roots. Around Christmas 2000 the brothers teamed up with Erik Oskarsson (ex. Blackbird) and the drummer Tom Björn (also in Memory Garden) to get a live act together. The four piece worked out great and the two new guys were hired on the spot.

With the new line-up the band started the writing and the rehearsals for the 4th album "Alive Again" The album was recorded by the band at various local studios and mixed by Dan at his home studio "The Room". The album ranges from the hard rocking opener "Shadowman" through the A.O.R. flavored vibes of "The Glory Days", to the 12 minute epic "Eternal" and the straight forward punch of "State of Shock".

The reviews this far have been incredibly positive and it looks like NIGHTINGALE will finally get the recognition they deserve.

In June 2003 Nightingale was the first band in 12 years to play a rock concert on the island of Cyprus. 1000 people showed up at the amphitheater and the concert was filmed and broadcast by Cyprus national TV station. The band also made a much talked about performance at the local morning TV show.

Nightingale played to a very enthusiastic crowd at the ProgPower festival in Holland in October 2003 and in June they recorded the new album "Invisible" (release October 2004) which is destined to become another classic Nightingale album. In the winter of 2005 the band re-recorded the 10 year anniversary album "Nightfall Overture" and in April 2005 the band made a headline tour of Germany to support both releases. In December 2005 the band played a much appreciated show in Oslo supporting the excellent British progsters Kino and in April 2006 the band headlined the Progeny festival in Moscow.

2007 saw the release of White Darkness. Recorded from 2006-2007, Dan recorded, mixed, mastered and produced the album in the rehearsal stage of a local theater group for a big and beautiful natural ambiance. Tracks like "The Fields of Life", "Trial and Error" bring back 70's hard and progressive rock with lots of synthesizers.

A nice fan driven compilation of demos and rare material was released in limited quantities called Box of Rock in 2009.

Other than that, over the last few years members of Nightingale have been very busy in the world of music with studio work, other bands, solo material, but now the focus is on another Nightingale effort tentatively titled "Bravado".

Discography

The Breathing Shadow (1995)
The Closing Chronicles (1996)
I (2000)
Alive Again: The Breathing Shadow Part IV (2002)
Invisible (2004)
Nightfall Overture (2005)
White Darkness (2007)

DAN SWANÖ'S MUSIC GEAR

Dan Swanö is using following music gear for recording/writing songs and for gigging. This music gear you can hear on his albums. Do not forget also to check audio software and hardware of Dan’s Unisound studio → HERE – because that contributes to final sound of his music as well.

For now we put together with Dan this list of his gear, but soon we will extend it more into detailes. Moreover, if you have some specific questions about Dan Swanö‘s audio software and hardware, musical instruments etc, please let us know at the Musician’s Navigator Forum >House of Navigator > Dan Swanö – music gear → HERE. On the base of your posts we will prepare with Dan new feeds within his section at our portal - link

At this place we will provide you with updates about Dan’s music gear arsenal. Stay in step with us...

Writing/Recording:

Keyboard Worstation: Nord Stage EX 88
Keyboard USB-MIDI controller: AKAI LPK 25
Hand Percussion Controller: Roland - Handsonic
Mic-Preamp: Presonus Digimax
Microphones: Audio Technica - ATM4033; DPA 4091
Effect Processor/Guitar System: Roland VG-99
Guitars:
- E-Guitars: Ibanez RG2610Z; Bc Rich ST
- Acoustic-Electric Guitars: Washburn WD32SCE
Other Gear: Galaxy Audio dB meter

At gigs Dan uses also following equipment:

Effect Rig:
- Roland VG-99 (into any poweramp available)
- Tech 21 MidiMoose
- Boss FS-6
- Boss AB-2
- Boss TU-2

DAN'S UNISOUND STUDIO EQUIPMENT → HERE

UNISOUND STUDIO

Content:

ABOUT UNISOUND

Dan has been working with recordings since his early teens and has mixed albums ranging from progressive rock to grindcore. He has his own studio in his home, where he is recording his own projects as well as the music of other known bands like Marduk, Dark Funeral, Merciless, Dawn, Dissection, Opeth and Katatonia.

UNISOUND MIX SAMPLES

Download Unisound's mix samples → HERE

UNISOUND AUDIO HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE ARSENAL

Dan Swanö is using following audio software and hardware in his Unisound studio when mixing and mastering great music master-peaces you can hear including his own albums, Nightingale albums as well as releases of other great artists and bands like Novembers Doom, Katatonia, Opeth and many more for whom Dan have done mixing and mastering.

For now we put together with Dan this list of his gear, but soon we will extend it more into details. Moreover, if you have some specific questions about Dan Swanö‘s audio software and hardware, please let us know in the Musician’s Navigator Forum >House of Navigator > Dan Swanö – music gear → HERE. On the base of your posts we prepare with Dan new feeds within his section at our portal.

And do not forget to check music gear which Dan uses for writing/ recording and concerts → HERE.

At this place we will provide you with updates about Dan’s music gear arsenal. Stay in step with us...

Make your choice please…

SOFTWARE or HARDWARE

SOFTWARE

Sequencers/Recording: Cubase 5
Mastering: Wavelab 6; Har-Bal – mastering equalizer; Tischmeyer - Dynamic Range Meter

Plug-Ins:
All UAD-2 (UAD = Universal Audio) plug-ins. Dan‘s faves are:

- 1176LE
- SSL Bus Compressor
- SSL Channelstrip
- NEVE 1073
- NEVE 1081
- Pultec-Pro
- EMT250
- Cambridge EQ

- Fatso Jr/Sr
- LA3
- Precision Multiband
- Roland RE-201
- Dimension D
- DBX VCA
- Fairchild 660

Other Plug-Ins:

- Voxengo Curve-EQ
- TLs Maximizer
- TLs Saturated Driver
- S.I.R. 2
- Catharsis IR
- Red Wirez IR
- Speakerphone 2
- IK Multimedia Ampeg SVX
- LePou Poulin LE456
- Revolution Z LE

- ApTrigga
- Drumagog
- All Toontrack stuff
- Steve Slate drums - Available In Our Store
- Slate Digital - Trigger - Available In Our Store
- IK Sampletron
- IK Samplemoog
- Spectrasonics Omnisphere
- N.I. Komplete 5
- Pitchwheel
- Autotune EVO

HARDWARE

PC: Frost custom built PC with Quadcore and 4GB RAM + Fujitsu 28" TFT
PCIe DSP Card: Universal Audio UAD-2 Quad (x2)
Studio-Monitoring Interface: Presonus Centralstation
Monitoring:
- Genelec 8240 + 7260 Subwoofer and GLM software
- Genelec 8020
- iPod original headphones
- AKG K171 headphones
Amplifier (micro): Roland Mobile Cube
EQ, RTA and Dynamic Application Processor: Behringer DEQ2496