The Last Old Mod***MDP74 v. 3.0

Thursday I re-recorded vocals for The Linings (or The Linings Mustaches, they still didn’t make their minds up). I used uncreditable Chinese Honsound HSCM1100 valve-condenser mic (it doesn’t exist on Google!!! no single picture and possibly no single link besides them I created) which is apparently almost a proper copy of Neumann U67.

I used the mic after long months in the box couple of weeks ago during recording the guitar for “maskoule.cz” video and I enjoyed the warm sound it produced. Simply, it was the best sound of a guitar I ever recorded in my home studio.

Two weeks ago I recorded Wlado’s (The Linings’ singer) voice on my AKG C-414b through SSL Channel One as I use to record almost every vocal. This time with no success. The recording lacked almost everything you need for a lead vocal and exceeded only in producing very unlikely hissing frequencies. Honsound (the name sounds way worse than the actual sound of the mic) removed hissing, added warmth and punch and slight distortion which made Wlado’s voice sound nicer and thicker. With an instant ease.

Why a post about this? First, I don’t like discussions “we were choosing the right mic for two days and then we nailed it in an hour” because I don’t believe the gear is that important (as I saw Dušan Neuwerth’s equipment and nobody would believe that he recorded Tata Bojs albums with THESE mics and THIS outboard) when you don’t have the right pair of ears. And my experience tells me that I meet superb gear-loaded studios more often than a simple human head using ears for recording and mixing instead of eyes, sharking for brands-which-made-the-history. But I admit that a mic can make a bigger difference than I assumed as I thought that a good mic just sounds good on almost anything or anyone.

Second, I believe in quality and I am usually ready to pay for it as I think you support quality and development by paying for good products, so I do believe in gear in general. And I love gear, especially when it works and when I know how to operate it to success. But these Chinese Hon-guys made possible to own a copy of a 7.000 USD microphone for a little bit more than 500 USD and to experiment with it in your own studio, day by day, day and night. Which won’t be possible with an original. Hardly comparable as a copy won’t be never an original. So I don’t know how great the guitar and the voice would sound with a genuine U67 but I can claim that with this cheap and cheerful copy it sounds pretty good too. Nevertheless we should buy proper originals.

There is an another gear test: FourTrack for iPhone, an app which incarnates what I always wish for when I was 16 to 20 years old – a Tascam portable 4-track studio. These days I travel with my MacBook Pro everywhere loaded with Logic 9, so my possibilities are literally endless but this little app is a wonderful ideas-recorder on the go in a palmtop size. With some EQ and compressor, panning and possibility to bounce and overdub again (which increases the number of virtual tracks) it is a powerful and stupid-proof software. This is my morning doodle in the kitchen recorded on four tracks. Some rhythm problems are intentional indeed because they create the right desperate feeling… Mixdown, download to you desktop from dedicated IP and share, um, for example, on your blog:

Written for Instinkt magazine last week, here is another re-post of my “Creaking” column, in Czech.

Na Facebooku teď několik kamarádů oznámilo oprášení gramofonu, což je přesně to, co jsem udělal i já už před rokem a s dlouhou pauzou jsem se k tomu teď vrátil. Ze všech těch desek na mě vykoukla monstra s historií vepsanou v drážkách. Bílej vinyl prvního EP Ecstasy Of St. Theresa “Pigment” je a bude deska, kterou pustím pokaždý, když dojde na mejdan. Zčásti pro tu barvu, zčásti proto, že to je nebojácná deska, která vznikla v době, kdy kapely jako My Bloody Valentine poslouchaly teenage buchty s barevnejma tkaničkama při prvním pettingu zatímco dneska se z tehdejší Ekstáze ježí chlupy i nejotrlejším – holt lidi měknou a hloupnou. Disintegration (The Cure) a Life’s Too Good (Sugarcubes) jsou povinný kusy, stejně jako zážitek pustit si Depeche Mode, Talking Heads nebo Devo zase z desky. Pochopíte rozdíl mezi singlem a koncepcí elpíčka. Náhodou zachovaná kolekce kompilačních desek Breakdance (západní obdoba džezgymnastiky) od německý značky WEA je ale ultimátní hudební porno ve všech významech toho slovního spojení. V době, kdy jsem je dostal, jsem je neocenil, byl jsem ještě nezkažený, ale dneska je to ten největší odvaz, kterej byste mohli pustit nagelovanejm Italům v Chapeu Rouge nebo pražskejm úchylákům v Zeru stejně tak jako s kamarády proměnit svůj byt v retro-dancehall bizarních parametrů. Kdo netuší, ať si vzpomene na znělku “Cvičme v rytme” a kdo v tý době byl ještě rozdělenej na dvě pohlavní buňky, ať okamžitě koukne na videa níže. Let the music play!

A tady jedny Sugarcubes.

I love The Tornadoes, an instrumental beat band from early ’60, I respect some of the studio products bearing the name of Joe Meek, the famous producer of this band, who created soundscapes from outer space never heard before and revolutionized the way people, engineers and producers, started to work in studio. No doubt I adore Telstar, the biggest Tornadoes’ and number one UK and US hit. And I can’t imagine my life without Electro-Harmonix effect pedals which I use for everything from guitar and synths to voice.

Finally, when you can hear Telstar performed on guitar through EHX pedals sounding exactly like the original recorded on Clavioline, prehistoric vacuum tube synthesizer, it is a grateful and extraordinary experience. And seamless source of inspiration for studio chemistry.

This is the original mono recording of The Tornadoes, produced by Joe Meek. All sounds contained in the recording are intended.

And this is the remake on guitar and chain of EHX pedals. Warning: Don’t look at the guitar. It’s really ugly!