Great Singers!!!!!

Rob Visciano - Come Back Home / Now / Without You


Emily Fitzgerald - Spider Voices in My Head / Dissolve / Rainbow of Change / Downtime Friend


Ben McGlinn - Crestwood


Lorayne - Dance 3


Jessica Braun - VooDoo Blues / Love in Your Heart / Away From Me


Sean Yox - Gonna Get Over You


Deborah Meadows - Shakey Town / Don't Let it Slip Away / Silent Heart


Chris Hutson - Time / This Evening is Yours


Jana Sadler - Baby Blues / Take it From Me Baby / Forever / Gotta Be Good (Cause I wanna be Bad)


Beka - Could This Be Love


Annette Hollander - Wrong Man / Pray My Way To Heaven

More Analog to Think on

It's been pointed out that a better way to go is to just record digital then transfer tracks to analong then back to digital. Further question: do this with individual trks or with a final digital 2 trk mix? I wonder would you notice that first digital step in what is later recorded onto tape: seems to me recording pure sound wave energy onto magnetized iron particles is better that first taking a digital picutre of thousands of slices of sound then magnetizing these slices...

IMPORTANT PERSPECTIVE

The song must be good!! Sung with passion. Singer must be able to sing and have something to say. The above will only help bring out more from a great performance.

Recording Heart and Soul

WORK FAST

My technique ALLOWS you to do just that - easily record the true spirit of a song and singer and musicians without spending valuble creative time realigning each take / punchin point. Using my method you WORK FAST.

The Artist has no time to worry about gear, but must concentrate on their PERFORMANCE. Thus if you are good at PRODUCING (getting blood out of stone from your performers) then you will have H&S.

If I didn't mention that I hardly apply compression, then I am doing so now to clear up that matter. I never said I added compression. Read what I wrote. I'll add this point to my "blog" that use of compression is minimal and the gear is used to split signal and just add a bit of transparent punch (RNC 1773).

Mic placement in a carpeted interior vocal booth is just that when it comes to vocals and amps recorded in a vocal booth so as to not disturb neighbors in NYC. There is no room sound. Distance of mic to sound source and type of mic / mic preamp matters here more. Beatles songs had tracks made by adding effects (McCartney swirling wine glasses in a tape loop as an effect under music in a song) as well as tracks recorded in EMI Studio #2 with its large echo room sound. Most impressive: the Beatles could always sing in 3 part harmony and never had a bad day - Emerick.

Geoff Emerick spoke about recording in series. On the internet he describes taking an out from his board and using that as an input - and doing this again and again - being afraid he'd blow up all his tubes in the board. Doing this with compressors as well. Again and again.

In his talk at Legandary Studios Emerick spoke about abusing gear. Getting great sound. Recording vocals through compressors in series. Emerick made great recordings. Beatles sound is what it is. Legendary. Is Emerick wrong because he added "effects" to his sound. That's what Beatles' music was all about!!! Strawberry Fields!!

TO COMPRESS OR NOT

What you must ask is the degree of compression I use. Doesn't that matter? Sure it does!!! I use hardly any at all!

When signal enters the 1st DBX 160 it's hardly compressed at all. This unit acts as a means to divide the signal. Going into the RNC 1773 as Supernice (doubled compressors in series) is adding an effect - but again I use this only slightly to add to the presence: It's end result is very transparent.

Going to tape - as we all know - is an effect in its own right. Compression from tape at 15 IPS on a Studer family machine (Revox PRMK1) is quite a difference from a digital signal recorded direct into MONA from the 1st DBX 160A - which is set to almost NO compression.

Analog tape sounds better to us when recorded right. Using a Neumann TLM 103 mic and a Telefunken V76 preamp creates great sound: even-ordered harmonics. Either you like it or you don't: the famous REDD 47 in EMI was an alleged modded Telefunken V72. I've heard people say EMI was just too cheap to buy the real deal. Downside of using analog tape is cost and time to align analog to digital templates as I describe.

Note: In one recent session, I had a bass player plug bass DI into the MONA - we asked each other what was wrong? then I plugged the Bass into the Telefunken V76 / Mona - and the sound was that of a lion not a thin mouse. What you prefer in sound is your opinion.

The right use of gear can make a performance by highlighting what is happening. Fairchild 660 compressors. Pultec EQ. LA2A compressors. Further clearing away of negative frequencies and boosing highs and lows by Parametric EQ is also recommended as that action adds further punch and removes harsh sound characteristic of the mic at hand.

CREATIVE MOMENT

Recording Heart and Soul - I agree the actual performance says it all. My method allows an engineer / producer to capture the performer in the creative "bubble" before it bursts. In the moment where inspiration and spirit exist as they are transformed into the energy of the soul captured forever in song. The creative moment in analog. In all its' rugged glory and gold.

NY Grammy's Presents Geoff Emerick at Legacy Studios NY

Geoff Emerick (Beatle's Engineer) / Rob Visciano (Founder - The Kitchen)

Pure Analog Soul

Revox PR99 MKI 1/4" 15 IPS 2 Track Deck - recently brought back to full life by Peter Ledermann / Owner: Soundsmith.

Inspired by the recent NY Grammy panel (Legacy Studios / NY) with Howard Massey / Geoff Emerick (Beatle's Engineer) discussing analog recording of the Beatles, I came up with great way to merge digital / analog sound to capture the Heart & Soul of an Artist's performance.

The Idea: use digital tracks as templates for analog tracks.

Detail: Sound flows from Singer to Mic (Neumann TLM 103) to a Mic-pre (Telefunken V76), and then a DBX 160 Limiter Compressor. Here you split sound - one signal goes to a RNC 1773 compressor then to a ReVox PR99 Reel to Reel Deck (1983) running at 15 IPS 1/4" Full Mono Tracking, and another signal leaves the first DBX 160A Compressor going into a second DBX 160A Compressor, then into a Mona AD/DA 96kHz 32bit interface. I use the second DBX 160A in order to have balanced outs connecting to the Mona ADDA unit: balanced cables with the Mona (Echo Audio) unit seem to work better vs. unbalanced lines.


EASE OF OPERATION / CAPTURING HEART & SOUL

When the singer needs to stop and redo a part, I stop the Digital software (Adobe Audition 1.5) and equally stop the ReVox Reel-to-Reel. At a moment's notice, I hit the spacebar on the keypad to start the digital recording software, and also hit Play / Rec on the analog deck. After the singer is on fire, I can easily go back to a verse / chorus that needs work and in a flash capture that soul and sound on tape and in bits. Digital takes are put on other tracks as they are made, leaving room for instant uninterrupted recording of whatever needs to be done. The analog tape is never ever rewound. It always moves forward. As does the build and power of the session!!!

After an intense performance, the session ends - for the Artist.

LAYING IN ANALOG / COMPING VOCALS

I then get fresh air returning later reenergized to the studio to begin transferring the 15 min 15 IPS ¼” reel direct to digital at 96 kHz 32 bits resolution. After transfer is finished, I start the tedious but very necessary listening / sorting of analog takes - matching them to their digital counterparts. If several verses / choruses were recorded, I can "comp" a vocal from the best parts of a singer's performance (often a very subjective thing here - built on solid trust and experience).

ANALOG EXTRAS

With complete analog takes (consisting of 2 mono tracks / two equal parts - remember we recorded 1/4" as mono - containing 2 halves), I can slide one part of the analog take 0.030 ms apart to create a very slight haunting echo. This is the great use of digital: editing. You can adjust volume and pan to decrease presence of the time shifted track so it does not compete, but fits in the mix creating presence and power.

Further, take a mono dry copy of the analog vocal and use that to create analog reverb / echo to lay in further tracks to add to the sonic presence you wish to produce for the song / Artist.

BOTTOM LINE

Analog tracks - made on the "Fly" with Speed / Ease. An Artist sees vintage reels turn and feels tremendous vibes as music is made. The Artist feels comfortable / ready to unleash the fire in the song. Must have tools: a great Mic / Mic preamp. Compressors. Clean cables. Quality every where you work. And on and on.

The Key: the way you record - never - ever - interferes - with the creative part of making the song.

Result: Pure Heart / Soul - Analog Gold!!!

The Kitchen

The Kitchen - hard at work recording a great sounding Funk / Rock / Blues / CD.

Upcoming Events

The Streamers / Liquid Fusion (R) Bands recently joined forces recording tracks for a Rock / Blues CD.

Amp - Fender 1965 Blackface Champ modded by Gerald Weber: new tranny / Telefunken Preamp Tube / Tung Sol Tube / Vintage Rectifier tube. Feed back / tone contols can be cut, to suddenly create a monster of raw pure rock / blues tone. Guitar - '74 Fender Tele w/EMG 85 active pickups / Schechter (PreCBS) neck.

NY Grammy's Presents Geoff Emerick at Legacy Studios NY

Geoff Emerick (Beatle's Engineer) / Brewer Shettles (Founder - Liquid Fusion (R) Records)

April 10th, 2008

NY Grammy Event w/Geoff Emerick at Legacy Studios NY

Geoff Emerick (Beatle's Engineer) / Sean Yox (Founder - The Streamers)

April 10th, 2008

The Beatles - Unleashed!!!!!

April 10, 2008 - NYC Legacy Studios - Attended the NY Chapter / Grammy Awards N.A.R.A.S. Presentation of Geoff Emerick / Howard Massey to hear them discuss recording the Beatles and their newly released book: "Here, There, and Everywhere - My Life Recording the Music of the Beatles," by Geoff Emerick / Howard Massey.

Amazing!!! The sound of the Beatles was created by Geoff Emerick: he described super creative ways to change sound. Emerick's goal - abuse the gear / push it to new limits - to create new and different sounds never heard before, all the while keeping the focus on the Heart & Soul of the song, and the Beatles who made it happen.

Examples of Emerick's creativity: Lennon's voice was put through a Leslie speaker (two swirling speakers) to simulate the Dali Lama on a mountaintop; Emerick used a bass speaker as a microphone against another bass speaker to capture deep rich sonic bass sound; Blackbird was recorded outside Abbey Road Studios #2 in a back alley, how McCartney used loops of wine glasses crashing into each other and other sounds from his home to create rushes of swirling energy underneath the Beatle's music in the mix. The richness of 1" analog tape. The Magic of the EMI Redd Console. And on and on.

The Song "A Day in the Life" was played and discussed. Emerick held the audience spellbound as he described taking professional classical musicians, trained to follow every nuance of a conductor's command, and instead telling them to start playing at note #1 and end on note #2, doing whatever came to mind inbetween - all the while ignoring fellow musicians on either side. This had never been done before. Heresy!! What a sound!! Same as taking off the skin of the kick drum and putting a mic inside; bringing the tape console into the control room; recording vocals in series - all things we take for granted today, but were done by Geoff Emerick on the peril of losing his job at EMI!!

Success changed and silenced EMI's tune. The Beatles's, George Martin (Beatle's Producer - "Light's On!!"), and Geoff Emerick (Beatle's Engineer) - never looked back!!

More to follow...

Redesigning the Site

Spent marathon hours redesigning the Liquid Fusion (R) Website. Using CSS coding to get a smooth polished look and feel. I like the spirit of adventure. Surfing and discovery.

Getting ready for a recording session Sunday: putting down Congas / Percussion Sunday afternoon with great musician Kent Carter. Need to see if / when Sean Yox wants to sing vocals for several songs we've been working on: Solitary Man / Cool Baby Cool.

Imagine funk / Hendrix and John Lennon. I know they really did play together, but this is 2008. Sean Yox has the soul and spirt of both musicians plus his own fire, energy, and vision. We have a song Sunshine Baby that is turning unto the American Pie jam of the above. Under 7 minutes!! It flies.

Will post songs we're working on soon....