#65: Monochrome (title track) - 2
Recording Monochrome - 4
Work on Monochrome has been proceeding, slowly but steadily. We’ve settled into a good schedule. David Bensimon and I meet here at the apartment (aka If You Only Knew Studios) on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Then he takes the tracks back to his place to edit, shape and sprinkle with fairy dust. And in case you didn’t know, these days the purpose of some of that fairy dust is to make what is digital sound analog.
My first record, Sparrows Point, was recorded in the analog realm, on a Studer A80 tape machine. I was told that this particular unit had once belonged to Paul McCartney, and that he had recorded “Maybe I’m Amazed” on it. Amazing, right? I have no idea if it’s true, or if I’m remembering correctly. It was a long time ago. But he was known to use them. And I believe EMI owned some. In any case, it spoiled me. It’s hard to argue with 16 tracks hitting 2” tape (Ampex 456) flying by at 30 inches per second. About the venerable A80 opinions will differ. But that’s about as good as it gets in my book. Then again I’m biased. I still remember hearing that first playback in the control room. I couldn’t believe my ears.
This famous picture of Sir Paul (taken by Linda), shows him in a posture of abject supplication before a Studer A80. It looks just like the one I remember. Still, I have no choice but to stick with the indefinite article. But they were—are—the genuine article, and hell to maintain. His attitude here conveys either idolatry or entreaty, or both. Looks to me like he was trying to record drums. For that you need multiple simultaneous tracks. I’m guessing some channels were not cooperating.
It would’ve been around 1991 when Greg Anderson, David Seitz (the owner of the famous A80) and Steve Addabbo were putting the finishing touches on Sparrows Point. Digital was ramping up. That record came out on cassette and CD. The record company wasn’t springing for vinyl anymore. So I missed it by a matter of months. Since then it’s been nothing but bits.
In the past couple of weeks we’ve made some advances with the recording and arrangement of the title track, “Monochrome”. I played electric, acoustic, and added some harmonies to the lead vocal. I had a lot of fun with a Continuum Mini, made by Haken Audio. And that’s it for the analog sounds. From then on it was all “in the box” (inside the computer): virtual sounds, plugins, algorithms and impulse modeling. A drum kit was generated, not for keeps, but just to give us a sense of how drums might work in the song. Reverb, pan, compression, eq were dialed in. A little bit of Abbey Road Varispeed double-tracking was added to the harmonies. As a final touch, we sent everything through some virtual tape emulation. Applied globally, it makes the whole thing sound like it’s being mixed down—you guessed it—to a Studer. What goes around comes around, at 30 years per second, give or take. No maintenance necessary. Enjoy.
Monochrome Rough#2
PS The usual caveats apply. This is not anywhere near a final product. Nor is it something I want being uploaded to any streaming services, etc. This is for us, and only for us. Thanks.
Thanks Maryline. Everything sounds better through the miserable pouring rain.
I produced an album for Stephanie Corby; you might know her. We ran the live mics across a Studer record head immediately to the play head and into Pro Tools. It was pretty hard to argue with.