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söndag 8 februari 2015

music madness!

And so its about time again, to put thought´s into word´s. As ususal this time a bit of this and that.  For year´s I´ve been writing song´s. Some may even be called good, some not that good, but then sometime´s I end up with a song written way back that seam to stuck in my head. already I´ve done several attemt´s to record the song. This time I´m gonna do it different!


Step One : enter´s me small homestudio and turn on the light´s, turn on the computer, mixer and the old trusty VOX amp, just to realise that the VOX is dead silent and dont produce anything in the form of sound. Well it does´nt matter. This recording was supposed to be different! VOX turned of a the NEW ( 50 years old - but new to me) Burns Orbit Six is turned on.  It´s red lamp glow´s like a red little star, a distant sound tells it´s working as supposed to.


Step Two : While the VOX do have an amp-output, me Burns amp´s was´nt supplied with this little gadget. The search for some proper microphone´s start´s and a pair of em is connected to the mixer. Might work?

Step Three : Me Yamaha keyboard is turned on and a drumpattern is choosed that could suit the song. Because I´m still in the Reel To Reel way of recording it take´s two recording´s of app 6 minute´s to finish the first drumtrack.


Step Four : Finally time to record the first guitar-track. The Burns Sonic is picked fot the job and 6 minutes later the first music track is ready. I normaly record the first track, just to have a track to follow.


Step Five : Time to record a Bass track. Witch bass shall be used? Among me three basses (a Burns Vista Sonic 1963,  a Asian Violin Bass copy 2010, and me homebuildt Burns a bit look a like 4 pickup bass) I end up the me homebuildt clone. Somehow I done a good job with this bass. Not that it today have a great look and finish, but it is actually a very good bass to play on giving a nice sound all the time. A couple of take´s is needed, natuarly during recording I tend to play the wrong note´s so I have to start from the beguinning.



Step Six : How does it sound? Already after a few bar´s I realise that the bass sound´s like shit. Time to make a new recording! Six minutes later I realise that I need another microphone to make it sound right. Let´s search for a microphone witch can transform lower tone´s. New mic is set up and yet another recording of the bass. Puhhh - this time the bass sound nice.


Like this everything goes on and time fly away. The leadguitar is picked, a Burns Bison with its sweet sounding TriSonic pickups. Guitar connected thrue a 1960´s tube Hagström Echo and the first lead guitar track is recorded. It does actually sound like a clean Echo sound of the 60´s. Still the sound from all channels dont sound like the perfect tune in me head. I need a more modern sounding lead guitar.

Step Seven : Up until a year ago I never used any sound gadgets exept echo and reverb on me guitars. Then the Burns Buzzaround Fuzz arrived and I loved it´s naughty sound. So yet another lead guitar track was recorded, this time with the Buzz going to the Echo and thru the amp into the recording computer.


Step Eight : Well natuarly something was missing, so some strings coming from the Yamaha was added and yet another rhytmguitar track. The first one was now deleted.


Every track was now listen to and corrcted until all track´s seamed to be okey. Finally a compressor was used on all channels and the recording of this song from 1996 was ready. This was possibly the 50´th time this song was recorded. Maybe it now sound the same as the sound I can hear in me head.

So far there´s never been any real success as it do sound much better in me head then on record. There always seam to be a huge demand for a female voice in the songs instead of yours truly who enjoys singing very much but should do something else.

Other nonsens!

As you all could read earlier the new addition to me Burns amplifier collection has been resored to a very good and useful condtion. It´s not like new, at least not on the cabinet outside, but it´s amplifier section today works in the way it was intended. The original front badge was missing but a Badge is posted and on it´s way to Sweden, Bill told.


Me freind Per Gjörde came up with the idea to improve a Burns Bison-62 reissue guitar with a RezOTube tremolo, the finished product look´d great! Such a guitar should be a sucess! So when Bill told he did have a set of TriSonic pickup for me, the dream design was ready. Me Bison-64 is going to loose its Rezomatic pickups in favour of the Trisonic. Hopefully it will then sound even more like a Burns. In my oppinion the RezoMatic pickups sound to much like the Fender Stratocaster pickups, and on my behalf I dont want a Fender, I want a Burns!!


There may even be a chanse that I use the RezoMatic pickups in me Rämje Stratocaster!


By the way, my latest recording is´nt ready. Thought so, but when listening to it in me homestereo I could with ease hear someone singing out of key! That´s me! So the vocal tracks have to be done once again in hope to rectify this problem.






fredag 1 november 2013

Sound

Where and when did this sound madness start? Possibly already back in the days of Adam & Eve. Dont know for sure. Anyway as a teenager Me and my band used a huge conference room for our rehersals. Guitars was plugged into rather small amplifiers, that also was used for our often cheap chrystal microphones. In once corner of the room a Taperecorder and some no good microphones (often tthose who was included with the recorder).

The latest hit was recorded, and God know it did sound great in our ears. With stereo recordes the sound improved even more. Reel to reel recordes was getting better also for amatuers. The 4 track machines was amazing. Later the Philips casett was used in 4 channel taperecordes. The music was then mixed (dont think the word Mastering even existed among amatuer bands).

the recordings was copied to a cassett who could be used at home, and in cars. Also the cassett was used to send to different Record companies in hope that they would love it and sign you up in a great record deal.

JAMO 120 B -  perfect for pop-rock-disco

Wharfedale - great allround system

the Colebox. CARLSSON OA5 type 1. (later SONAB)

Today its entirely  different. Band use equipment in their rehersal STUDIO´s that is so much High Tech that their own amatur recording are as good as those done at a proffesional recording studio. In my collection I do have one of those recordings on a CD made by  The Cardigans. The actual recording as as good as, or even better then the one made by pro´s!!!

So today it seams that artists, bands make their own recordings with a sound quality that with ease can be compared to proffesional recordings of the 70-90´s. And this with the purpose to make a DEMO for recording companies. The tape cassett belong to the stoneage.

This in run means that You need good speakers in your home studio. Good speakers that can be used as monitor, so you´ll get a proper balance in your recording. In hope to find that perfect sound, the sound that make My recordings sound perfect on a cheap Ghettoblaster, a car stereo system, a simple home system or a Semipro home sound system, You seam to need a couple of speakers to use as reference spekers.



On my behalf there´s been many different speakers that I used. Cheap one´s and expensive systems. It´s a difficult task to find the right monito  speakers. And maybe the best would be to arrange a wall of different speakers like in HiFi shops in the 70-80´s. 

LUXOR-SCANTIC Dirigents version of the Colebox

Yesterday, my old No:1 speakers was swapped for a new set of speakers. In the so called controlroom I already have 4 different systems. This time a pair of really nice Sonab speakers was disconnected in favour of a 1970´s  B&O 40 watt speakers. (Celestion Ditton 35).

B&O (Celestion Ditton 35)

RFT . DDR made system that was on top of my list, 
unfortinutly one of the speakers is brooken.

Suddenly the sound of some of my recordings was improved!! Anyway I will for sure go on searching for the perfect monitors.


Maybe the last three pics show the best monitors, as they are cheap and do produce a sound that can be used in different systems