I’ve just gathered some mics together for some upcoming sessions. The studio where we’ll be working has all the usual stuff, so I decided to be as eclectic as possible:

So, Nik Kershaw- he’s now a well off millionaire who likes performing and writing music. The last time he was in Cork I was eleven. I nearly missed it this time, the Opera House are not the best at advertising these days. I heard about it from his mailing list, but since the gig there must be five or six people who exclaimed that they’d have gone if they’d known about it. The market’s there, but unfortunately the Opera House is not tapping in to it.

Nik is doing the tour with an acoustic guitar and a loop pedal. Hence No Frills. So is it any good? Read on…

So the venue was slightly  less than half full. The balcony was blocked with a cool white tent roof. The atmosphere was great and the sound was excellent. Nik used the new Fishman Aura acoustic guitar pre amp, and it sounded really good. He didn’t get the loop quite right on the Boss pedal for the solo on the first song, but he played on.

For some songs he was not enjoying it, just going through the motions. But on most songs he was inspired and happy. He did a wonderful version of Dancing Girls in 3/4 time. The original was an advanced synth arrangement worthy of Detroit or Dusseldorf; this new version was the the dark inside of a man’s head. He performed some songs that are not on his current acoustic album, such as Faces (which was brilliant) and the Chesney Hawkes hit I am the one and only. He said “If I had a pound for every time I played that… oh wait, I do!” He’s actually quite funny, and has strong political views also- he performed an anti Bush song inspired by Michael Moore’s film Stupid White Men: “…a fundamental christian, ya fundament is right”.  He also did an old hit that sounded like a Hungarian folk tune for the verses, but I can’t remember what it was.

Don Quixote was a great example of his subtle musicianship. Using the loop pedal in the outro, he built up a three part harmony over three bars. He just did the three bars and that was it. A lot of effort for a short motif, but absolutely worth it! His voice was almost always syncopating over the guitar backing, crossing the bar lines in a wonderfully fluid and free manner. He is a gifted performer and he definitely still has the X factor.

All his old albums are on iTunes. I chose to record my vinyl copies instead, because the CDs are around STG£23 on Amazon. But do get your hands on the songs one way or another, and then treat yourself to his No Frills album, which is basically the current tour on CD. He has revised his old songs incredibly well, getting all of the original orchestrations into the guitar parts, shedding a new light on the old themes.

…of being inspired by Gaudi (and Debussy, and the tritone).

A quick 11 pm piano thing.

I was inspired by another great European city. It was amazing to visit a Gaudi house, where everything even the furniture was designed with one vision. It makes a very calming environment. The city is very well run and is excellent for tourists. They are very proud of their city, and rightly so! I even bought some music gear, the street prices are the same as the online retailers like Thomann. So considering all of that, sometimes I wonder why I live in this country. Cork city has the potential to be a Barcelona, both cities have some excellent 19th century buildings. Unfortunately the City Council are unable to get bast internal bickering. Maybe someday!!

Click here for pics.

Well, I missed it! But this is very important. I just got the new Ellie Goulding and Marina and the Diamonds CDs, and they’re distorted to make them sound loud. Such a shame. It gets annoying, I can never find a comfortable level to listen to this music at. It’s fine in the noisy environment of the car, but on an iPod or home hi-fi it gets irritating.

Recently I mastered The Butterfly Graveyard, and they were AOK with not distorting it. It sounds like a well done CD from the mid nineties. So there is hope!

Called to an acquaintance who recently purchased a Fractal Audio Axe FX.

It’s like the modern version of the classic Eventide Harmonizer. He’s using it with a lovely flat top Les Paul and a Fender 2×12 valve amp. As usual the technology did not deliver, so I:
1. Sorted out a dodgy MIDI interface
2. Updated the firmware
3. Got the editor working on his Mac
4. Removed a ground loop on the amp/ effects loop
5. Gain staged it all

He’s using a Behringer FCB1010 pedal board.

We could not get it to merge MIDI with the Mac so that we could edit and use the pedals at the same time. Turns out the software in the pedal has never worked properly (bad Behringer!) but some clever dude has written his own software for it. So next step is to fit that (simples).

So why am I posting this? I’m showing off, but this story also shows how several problems can conspire to create a really annoying situation for a musician who uses technology. However, it’s fun fixing this stuff, and once you get working it’s fabulous. In some ways, it’s the price of pushing the envelope.

I now have a complete set of sounds from the Emulator II, Fairlight CMI IIx and Fairlight CMI 3. All working in NI Kontakt. The Emulator II ones were converted via EMXP so they’re mapped and modulated just as they were on the original machine. The CMI IIx sounds are far more interesting than the CMI 3.

All these sounds come from disc images, avoiding the original DA conversion. Not authentic, but it gives them a new lease of life. What’s amazing is that some of these were sampled over thirty years ago!

Emulator II
Northstar
Richard Burmer
FMS
OMI Universe of Sound
Emu factory library

Fairlight CMI 3
Prosonus Strings
Prosonus Percussion
Sound Genesis Strings
Prosonus Brass
Complete factory library

Fairlight CMI IIx
Digital Domain version of rev 2.0 library
Mixture of rev 1.0 and rev 2.0 library from disk images (thanks Joe!)
Horizontal productions IIx library converted to series 3