The folks at Universal Audio send us through links to artists using their kit occasionally – I know they function as self-serving promotional material, but some of the non-gear related stuff in here is interesting, particularly related to preproduction and song structure.
Anyway, jump on over here to have a read.
P.
Barry was round tonight at my place in Saggart, we had all the toys out…
The new Volca Bass and Volca Beats sounded fantastic, and the Sonic Couture “Attic” collection’s Omnichord is really incredible. you can “strum” it with the mod wheel, just like the original. Magic.
There’s lots of work to be done but the ideas are really good, some really adventurous fresh ideas. This should be something very special.
I’ve been tidying up my soundcloud setup – all the M*O*O*N stuff now has its own dedicated soundcloud account, and I will be putting up snippets of stuff recorded in the studio on my personal soundcloud page so curious folks and/or potential clients can see what we’re capable of…
I’ve left all the M*O*O*N stuff up there too as it was engineered and mixed completely by myself and Spud.
Last week Fiach, producer Simon Quigley, bassist Phil Daly and myself holed up in the Bay for a couple of days to lay down bass tracks for Fiach’s upcoming album. It was the first time using the Apollo for bass so we had some fun using the Pultec EQ, some gentle 1176 compression and some of the different Studer800 tape machine emulations going to tape; we got some really gorgeous sounds that Phil was really able to vibe off, and he brought some beautiful guitars along so we were spoilt for choice. He’s a hell of a player too, most importantly, so that helps! We have spent a *lot* of time crafting the basslines and kick drum patterns to get very subtle but interesting grooves and shifts going on in the songs, and it has really paid off.
Anyway, here are some photos from over on our facebook page..
When it comes to putting the art in music and examining the method and process of recording in order to improve the result, Brian Eno is the man. He has been involved in a large number of my favourite albums, and he introduced me to so much good music just be researching his history.
I just stumbled upon this wee quote, something he said back in 1990 when recording with John Cale. Lamentable that this approach is all to audible in the results we hear all over the place today…
“Yes, that’s true. Having more options is part of the fix-it-in-the-mix syndrome that has bedevilled recording since 48-track and all that kind of thing. What you often see is people failing to make a decision because they can postpone making a decision… this shows a weakness of nerve to me. The danger is that you finally come to mixing and it’s then that you decide what piece of music you’re working on. The thing has never really assumed an identity. One of the nice things about the sort of Manchester groups is that they’re rather Luddite in that way. It’s like, ‘bollocks to all this, let’s get some simple instruments together and do some playing’.”
Here is some more fascinating listening for fans of his work or those interested in production and recording, old school.