I Laugh at the PlayStation vs Xbox Fanboy Arguments
I am a fifty-four year old gamer. I have played every generation since the beginning and I am constantly amused at the disputes about which is best, which have been going on for as long as I can remember.
At school and college we had Sinclair Spectrum vs Commodore Vic 20 and then Sinclair Spectrum vs Commodore 64 arguments. I used to side with the Vic 20. Because I had one.
At work I used to moderate an I.T. discussion forum and there were violent debates over which was superior; the Sony PS2 or the Microsoft Xbox. I used to side with the PS2. Because I had one.
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Gaming groups on the internet are now at war over whether the current king is the Sony PS5 with its greater range of exclusive titles, or the Microsoft Xbox X with better backwards compatibility.
Me? I no longer care. Now I have all the systems I can fit in my room. And the one thing I have learnt is that whether one system is better or worse than another is, in reality, a bit of a sad argument more often than not used by people worried that they are missing out and desperately trying to justify their purchase to themsleves.
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Many systems that were sales flops of their time have since turned out to be highly desirable and playable machines. The Sega Saturn lost the battle with the original PlayStation but is still a lot of fun. The Sega Dreamcast was completely buried by the PS2 in terms of units sold (17-1), but it remains a highly playable system with a fabulous games library full of arcade gems. Others that were poor cousins of the then market leader but are still sought after today include the 3DO, Atari Jaguar, Neo Geo, Turbo Grafx 16 and the Commodore CDTV and CD32.
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In reality, every system offers something and they all have their flaws; differences are often separated purely by personal preference. If someone is torn between buying one from a choice of options then opinion is valid, but it is only truly valuable when offered from those that have owned all options. Otherwise it is somewhat biased and pointless ‘my dick is bigger than yours’ schoolboy boasting, that in reality means jack-shit.
My advice? If you are a gamer, buy as many consoles as you can afford. Appreciate them all.
And if you can only afford the latest PlayStation or Xbox? Buy neither and spend the money on half a dozen older machines and a decent games library. Because with retro gaming there are no mandatory 2,000 gig downloads before you are allowed to play, and the games, while being less impressive, are actually way more fun.
And isn’t that ultimately why we play in the first place?
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AG 22/10/2021
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© Words and pictures copyright grapeswriting.com
So you want to be a rock star?
Alan G takes a look at the advancement in recording technology over the past 50 years
Introduction
Computers have been a key element in the music recording process since the late 1970s. For a musician, recording is an important but often forgotten tool, especially at an amateur level. How many times does someone join a band, invest years perfecting their music and then find that at the end of the journey they have little of substance to show for their efforts? It is a sad fact that most groups don’t last very long and it can be a sad realisation, when the last chord of the final gig has died away, that all you have to remember that special time are some blurry pictures and maybe (if this is the 1980s/1990s) some distorted cassette recordings or perhaps (from the 2000s onwards) some muffled and shaky video taken on a camera phone.
As an alternative to just playing and gigging, it is both enjoyable and rewarding to record yourselves properly, providing a permanent record of just how good (or bad!!) you were.​ And you don’t necessarily need a recording studio either. A number of well known albums have been produced using home based recording equipment and computers. Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Nebraska’ was recorded on an old Tascam Portastudio (a four-track tape recorder and sound mixer) using two Shure SM-57 microphones. The Rolling Stones’ ‘Exile on Main St.’ was born in a mobile studio sited in a rented house in the South of France. More recently, 'Odelay' by Beck was recorded in a home studio in a bedroom, ‘Wasting Light’ by the Foo Fighters was reputedly recorded ‘old school’ on tape in Dave Grohl’s garage, and Radiohead’s classic ‘OK Computer’ was created in an historic mansion owned by Jane Seymour.
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In a previous life I have played guitar and keyboards in a number of rock covers and tribute bands. I have played well in excess of 1,500 gigs and have spent more than a little time in recording studios. I have also been part of projects that have seen me dabble with home recording which, as personal computers and software have become cheaper and increasingly powerful, has become an ever more viable option for those wanting to record on a budget. Here I share my thoughts on the changes the industry has seen and the opportunities to record that are now available that simply didn’t exist when I was younger.
I played in bands for 25 years, but only did any serious recording with one
Analogue Recording
Until the late 1970’s, analogue recording was the order of the day. ‘Four-track’ recording was the process of recording four separate tracks on one tape, allowing the tracks to be individually equalised and, being on the same piece of tape and therefore perfectly in sync, mixed down to create a final product. Four tracks wasn’t the limit though, because you could mix four tracks down to one, and then use that one as one of four on a second machine. By layering in this way, complex recordings with dozens of tracks could be made. This process was used in the 1960s by bands such as the Rolling Stones and The Beatles, and the engineers at Abbey Road became particularly skilled at ‘bouncing down’ as the layering of four-track became known. The very first recording I did in 1995 was on a simple home four-track recorder that used a standard audio cassette. While analogue studio recording would have used vastly superior equipment, the essence of the process was very much the same.
Mayfield at Crystal Studios,
Portsmouth, 1998
A mixing desk the size of a small country is mandatory in a professional studio
Playing with headphones on doesn't feel natural and takes some getting used to
Lewis Childs, owner and Engineer at Earth Terminal Studios, Odiham near Hook, 2007.
Digital Studio Recording
As computing technology developed, so did the options available to music makers. In 1977 Sony introduced the first consumer PCM encoder PCM-1 Audio Unit which enabled digital recording. Previous recording methods worked with analogue sounds, but digital recording captured sound by an entirely new method, offered the opportunity to record multiple tracks very easily and, in time, allowed the engineer to edit the recorded sound-waves using a computer. Editing had been possible in the analogue era too, but it was done by tape cutting and splicing so wasn’t nearly so easy or precise.​ 1979 saw the release of the first all digitally recorded album: ‘Bop 'Til You Drop’ by Ry Cooder and things changed forever.
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The next decade saw an explosion of recording technology that literally changed the landscape completely. 1983 saw the release of MIDI (Musical Instrument Digital Interface) which allowed keyboards, synthesisers and computers to communicate with each other. It rapidly became the standard platform and is still widely used today.
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In 1985 the Atari ST home computer was launched and the inclusion of MIDI ports as standard made it the must-have computer for music makers, as it could be used to control audio hardware. 1989 was another milestone year, with Steinberg releasing the multi-track recording software: ‘Cubase’. Cubase set the industry standard and its innovative and logical layout and features still underpin the basis of recording software used today. We will talk more about this later.
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Studio digital recording is achieved by directing the sound input into a computer through an interface that allows multiple tracks to be recorded simultaneously, and then using dedicated recording software to record each track. This can be done in broadly one of two ways. You can set up as a band and play and record every part at once, with separate channels for each instrument. The advantage of this is that the recording can have a more realistic and ‘live’ feel. A disadvantage is that it is very easy to get ‘spill’; sound from other instruments bleeding into different microphones meaning that the finished result can sound less tidy and polished.​
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Alternatively you can layer the tracks down one by one, normally recording drums first, then bass, rhythm guitars, keyboards, lead vocals and finally backing vocals and any guitar or keyboard solos. Each additional track is recorded while listening to a rough mix of the recorded song (so far) through headphones, except for the drummer who, because they go first, has either no guide or just a click track (a metronome) in headphones to keep them in time. Recording in this way ensures maximum separation and keeps every track completely clean. It also gives a band the opportunity to add extra tracks that couldn’t be played live; extra harmony guitar or vocal lines for example. When I recorded Queen’s ‘Somebody to Love’ with The Mafia in 2005, the song ran to 64 tracks with over half being vocal and harmony-vocal takes! The down-side to recording in this way is that recordings can sound very clean and clinical, sometimes moving away from that live feel to the extent that a band’s true sound can be lost through endless tweaking. When recording one track at a time the musicians also need to be competent enough to record their parts without the rest of the song necessarily being there. It sounds straightforward, but it can be very easy to lose your place while playing a guitar to just a drum track for five minutes without the vocal guiding you through. For more complex recordings the vocalist may record a rough vocal track after the drums, to help everyone keep their place.
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The recorded tracks are shown on the computer monitor as sound-waves, normally displayed stacked vertically, each of which can be edited and then any or all can be played back together. Control over editing and playback is via a computer dashboard display and a real mixing desk. The desk allows channel selection, equalisation, adding effects and mixing, and the computer display enables advanced editing. Individual tracks can be muted or isolated using the desk, useful when you are listening back trying to locate a problem. If a minor mistake is found, the track (or that part of the track) can be re-recorded. But sometimes small tweaks can be made far more easily by simply editing the sound-wave. This is really a cheat, but everybody does it and it saves a lot of time. A drum beat is slightly early or late? With a quick bit of ‘cut and paste’ you can snip it and move it. The vocalist missed the pitch of a note fractionally? The quickest fix is to use auto-tune to correct it, or alternatively, if it is from a chorus or another repeated line, it is easier to ‘copy and paste’ a good take from elsewhere in the song. Harmony vocals not quite in unison? It often saves time to find the one that is out of sync and trim, stretch or move it.​
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Once all your tracks are recorded, edited and mixed correctly you can export the mix to a single sound file. You can normally choose the file type to use; a lossless file such as FLAC, WAV, or AIFF (those that will exceed CD quality) gives the best results but the trade off will be the file size. High quality sound files can be large and you will be working with a lot during recording, so always ensure you have plenty of hard disk space available.​
The final stage is ‘mastering’. This is a process whereby all completed and mixed recordings are adjusted to ensure they are sonically consistent, sound good across different media and any remaining pops and clicks are identified and removed. Mastering gives your music a finishing polish and is normally done using different and specialist software.
Home Recording
With the advent of more powerful home computers and increasingly sophisticated recording software, recording at home is now a viable option. The main difference to studio recording is that (unless you want to invest in specialist equipment) you will be limited to recording one channel at a time. There are many software packages available, such as Cubase, Logic, Ableton, Pro Tools, Reaper and Audacity, some of which offer free trial versions. They all work in much the same way; though the more expensive options have extra whistles and bells included. These packages negate the need for a physical mixing desk; instead a virtual desk forms part of the monitor display allowing you to mix the tracks digitally, simply using a mouse.​
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The editing options are not limited to cut, copy, paste and trim functions either. Each track (or parts of a track if you wanted – they can be cut and joined at will) can have a whole range of additional and customisable effects applied, such as: Reverb, Delay, Equalisation, Compression and numerous other options. The huge advantage of digital mixing (both at home and in the studio) is that a final mix can be saved and then uploaded and changed at a later date if required.
'Crowfield' - a typical home recording set up
When home recording, everything is managed via computer.
Coffee and cake is mandatory...
The Rockdown Project used home recording technology to raise money for NHS hospitals
Me, putting down a guitar track for
Crazy amounts of disorganised cabling is also a prerequisite in a professional recording environment
The Rockdown Project
When the Covid-19 pandemic hit and the first lockdown was announced, there were suddenly a lot of amateur musicians with no gigs and nothing to do. With a couple of friends: brothers Nathan (Mayfield) Carter and Simon (Crow) Carter, I helped set up The Rockdown Project. This was a group of over twenty local musicians, producing songs by recording the individual parts at home, sharing them via a server upload and then Mayfield would assemble and mix the various parts down into a finished track in the home studio he shared with his brother: ‘Crowfield’.​
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The completed songs were uploaded to a website and were free to access, with those that enjoyed the music being encouraged to make a donation to the charitable funds for three local hospitals. The project’s website (including all the produced songs on free download) can be found at: https://www.rockdownproject.com/ and there is a Facebook page at: https://www.facebook.com/rockdownproject. It’s a terrific example of the power and flexibility of the various software packages available and how easy home recording has become.​
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The last time I was in a studio (in 2007) we used 18 days of studio time and spent about £4,500 to record a 12 track CD. The Rockdown Project cost nothing except time and, although maybe not quite as slick, the results are not incomparable. So, thanks to wonderful advances in technology, a musician of any level now has access to the tools to produce professional sounding recorded material at a fraction of the cost of using a dedicated recording studio. The only thing you need is a computer with reasonable specification, the required software and a lot of time and patience.
Hints and Tips
When recording at home, the majority of instruments can be set up to output through an amplifier or an effects unit directly into the computer at relatively low volume. This solves the problem of subjecting your neighbours to an unholy racket for hours at a time! Drums are a little trickier as an acoustic kit makes a lot of noise, but there are workarounds; modern electronic drum kits can sound excellent, are relatively inexpensive and can be played almost soundlessly. The only things that really can’t be recorded at low volume are the vocal tracks. Depending on how serious you are (and whether you particularly care about neighbour relations!), your home studio can be soundproofed. Specialist foam can be purchased or other homemade options can be used; egg boxes have traditionally been excellent for this purpose. Alternatively you can be more creative; one of the singers in the Rockdown Project laid down his vocal takes from inside his wardrobe!​
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When recording lead vocals it is a good tip to record three takes back-to-back and save them all. Then by working your way through the song line-by-line (or even phrase-by-phrase) and by cutting the takes up and muting/unmuting the various phrases and picking the best one each time, you can piece together a pretty solid finished vocal track (unless your singer can’t sing in tune, in which case, good luck in a studio!!)​
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If you play guitar or bass, check your tuning. Then check it again. And again. And EVERY SINGLE TIME YOU STOP PLAYING. There is NOTHING more annoying than laying down a perfect take and then finding that you were slightly ‘out’. (Apart perhaps from borrowing a friend’s bass, tuning it down half a step, spending an entire studio day laying down bass lines, only to find when the guitars start to be recorded that the intonation of the bass had ‘gone out’ through the retuning, meaning that everything had to be scrapped and started again. Oh how we laughed...)​
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If you are recording multiple songs, completing a grid or chart as tracks are laid down will help you keep track of what has been recorded and what still needs to be done. You can also make notes of any errors and required edits you identify during recording to make sure they aren't missed during editing and mixing.​
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For a cleaner sounding recording, you can go through each recorded and edited track and silence the background hiss or slight ambient noise during each period that nothing is happening. You can be as thorough as you want; even silencing the spaces between drum and cymbal hits removes ‘spill’ and cleans a track up.
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If you decide to shell out for a studio experience and you go in as a band, take plenty to do. For every hour of actually playing your instruments, there will be a minimum of three or four setting up, checking levels, listening back to takes, editing, mixing and all manner of other housekeeping, a lot of which doesn’t require everyone. Recording in a studio sounds fun and, at times, it absolutely is, but equally there is also a lot of sitting around without much happening; you need to be prepared for that down-time when you will be completely bored!​
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Finally (and most importantly) - if your band are staying the weekend at the studio and you send your roadie out for sausages and bacon on a Saturday morning for a band fry-up and he comes back with Pot Noodle, sack him instantly. Or at the very least, write an enormously rude and insulting song about him and his sister to the tune of ‘Radar Love’...
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Have fun and keep on rockin’!
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Article appeared in issue 3 of Pixel Addict Magazine - May 2022
The reality of studio life is that there is far less time spent doing this....
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...and much more doing this!
Recordings
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Below are some examples of recordings that I have been involved in:
More of my recordings with The Mafia can be heard here.
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More Rockdown Project songs can be heard here.
When recording multiple songs, a grid / chart will help keep track of what is recorded and what still needs to be done
The Sound Engineer's Perspective...
I recently caught up with Mayfield and, being massively more technically knowledgeable than I, he has kindly answered a few questions to provide a sound engineer’s perspective:
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1) What are the main changes you have seen with recording options over the past 25 years?
The availability, quality and price of DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) software. Not all that long ago the only way to multi-track record was reel-to-reel tape. Any edits you wanted to make literally involved cutting and splicing the tape itself – now it’s done with the click of a mouse. Plug -ins (software that sits within the DAW for additional functionality such as reverbs, echo, EQ’s, etc.) have changed that further. Some even model analogue equipment for a ‘vintage’ sound in the digital environment.​
The lesser spotted Mayfield
(Am Fa Fa Fa, Exterior Moped, Hidden Elephant)
in its natural environment
2) What are the pros and cons of studio recording versus home recording?
Having an experienced producer/engineer in the studio will always be a benefit. They will be experienced in microphone selection and placement & totally familiar with all the equipment in the studio and the functionality of recording software. Also a professional studio will allow for a setup of equipment, a full drum kit for example, in an environment that allows it and will have been acoustically treated to get the very best sound for a particular instrument/situation. Of course, that all comes at a price! Expect to pay £200+ per day … and a day in the studio goes VERY quickly!​
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Home recording is cheaper, of course. A basic setup can be had for well under £1,000 and, after that initial outlay, it’s yours! You then spend as much time as you like recording, editing & mixing with no additional costs. You can dare to be more creative & try new things without watching the clock. Of course you will need to take a lot of time familiarising yourself with the software and equipment, but YouTube is a great source of “how to” videos. I’d say the biggest drawback to a home studio is space and environment. If you’re a solo artist just looking to do keyboards and vocals, or dance music, etc. then this isn’t necessarily a problem. If you’re part of a 4-piece thrash band then you may not have space to set up a full drum kit and, even if you do, your neighbours may object!
3) Is a high spec PC necessary? What minimum spec would you suggest?
Not at all. Check software requirements (all of the software houses publish the required spec) but if you’ve already got a laptop/PC/MAC and it’s not all that old then chances are its going to support the requirements for DAW software. My studio PC is an off-the-shelf HP desktop running a 6 core Intel i5 processor and 8GB of RAM – not exactly specialist stuff!
4) What software packages do you prefer?
I use Steinberg’s Cubase, mainly because it’s the DAW software I learnt on. In all honesty they all generally work in the same way. Other pro-level DAW’s include Logic, Ableton & ProTools. A lot of these have a variety of packages with a sliding scale of features – the basic versions start at around the £50 mark, rising to over £500 for a full version with masses of features. That said, there is free software out there which is very capable and a good way to start your recording journey. Garageband, Audacity and Sound Forge are three examples of this. ​
A word of warning however, beware of hidden costs. Some software will allow you to record and mix the track of your dreams, but then will not allow you to export it out of the software to share with the world unless you pay to upgrade. Read the small print!
5) Is any other equipment needed apart from Instruments, a PC and your software of choice?
First, you’re most likely going to need an audio interface. This does exactly what it says on the tin – you plug your instrument/microphone into it, and plug it into the PC. It converts the analogue signal from your input to digital in your DAW. These start at around the £30 mark. A key consideration is the number of channels you may need. 1 channel = 1 input source. So, if you will only ever be recording 1 instrument/mic at a time then a single channel interface will work fine. If you plan to record something like a stereo keyboard then you’d need 2 channels. If you want to record a full drum kit, with each drum individually mic’d then you’re looking at 6 channels+. In my studio I use a Steinberg UR22 Mk2. It’s a 2 channel interface with MIDI capability (for recording electronic drums, keyboards, etc), it sounds great and can be picked up for right around the £100 mark. Some interfaces can be bought as part of a bundle which may include other essentials, such as software, headphones and an entry-level condenser microphone.​
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That brings us onto microphones. Let’s be honest you’re going to need at least one! There are two main types of microphone – dynamic & condenser (there are more, but let’s keep this as simple as possible). A dynamic microphone is typically what you’d consider a stage microphone. They are reliable, robust, have a good sound quality and are less susceptible to audio spillage from other sources (that occurs when a microphone picks up an unwanted sound source from elsewhere on the stage). The most obvious and certainly the most ubiquitous example is the industry-standard Shure SM58. If you walk into a pub on a Friday night and there’s a band playing, it’s highly likely the singer(s) will be using SM58s. The drawback of dynamic mics is that they lack a certain level of clarity. That said, there is nothing to stop you grabbing a ’58 and recording with it – I’ve done it on numerous occasions.​
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Most microphones you’ll find in a studio environment however are condenser microphones. These are more sensitive than dynamic microphones, making them less suited to live sound environments (with some exceptions), but they work brilliantly in a studio. A good condenser microphone will lend itself to a wide variety of uses – vocals, acoustic guitar, strings, brass, woodwind, piano, percussion, cymbals – the list is practically endless. For vocal use I’d recommend a large-diaphragm condenser mic, shock mount and pop filter, mounted on a good-quality microphone stand. Again, you can buy bundles containing all these from around £100.​
Headphones – yup you’ll need them too. The main purpose of studio headphones is going to be for playback while simultaneously recording (e.g. adding vocals to a piece of music). If you were playing the music through a set of speakers (and we’ll come onto them in a minute!) and recording your vocal along with it, the microphone is going to pick up the sound of the music you’re singing to, along with your singing. You don’t want that! A set of headphones will allow you to hear what you need, without it bleeding into your pristine vocal track. Also headphones are great for listening back to your mix when you want to hear the smaller details. You don’t need to spend big by any means - £25 will get you a nice set of over-ear headphones to set you on your way.​
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Lastly, speakers. After all, you want to hear it, right? Your standard PC or laptop speakers will NOT be good enough. Again, you don’t have to spend big. If you have a favourite pair of home stereo speakers and an amp to drive them you can incorporate that into your setup with a great deal of success. Alternatively you can go for a pair of dedicated studio speakers, known as monitors. A pair of active (self-powered) monitors will start at the £80 mark, rising well to the thousands. To a point, the more you spend the better they will be but if you were to budget £200 that will get you into a good place.
6) What was your first experience in a studio?
My first exposure to the studio environment was the recording & mixing sessions of The Mafia’s “Return of the Muffin Squad” in 1998. I was absolutely an observer for that! A year later we went back in to record the next album “Albert Road” and was the first time for me at the studio desk. What a learning curve! I was very fortunate to have the studio’s owner/operator there the whole time to guide me through the process.
Recorded sound-waves look
something like this
If in doubt press this one...
All types of effects can be added to your recorded tracks
7) What are the do's and don'ts of home recording?
Take the time to learn your equipment and software. As mentioned before there are countless online resources available to educate and guide you. Learn from your mistakes, but also the mistakes others have made before you!​
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Work with what you have or re-record it. It’s too easy to get caught in the trap of constantly editing something. If it’s a small change, a single drum hit, a single pulled note etc., then consider fixing it in the software. Balance off how long you’d spend doing that against re-recording the piece or part of it.
You WILL end up spending hours working on a track and go ‘ear blind’ to it. Step away; give it a break for an hour, a day or a week. You’ll be surprised what you hear when you revisit it.​
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Don’t be afraid to experiment & be inventive. Can you imagine Cher’s “Believe” without the vocoder and filtering effect on her voice? Bizarre? - absolutely, but it worked!
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Some advice I was given a long time ago which I stick to is to listen to your final mix from another room. Your mix may sound superb in the audio cone of your workstation, but you’d be amazed what you can (or can’t) hear if you remove yourself from that.
8) What advice would you offer someone trying home recording for the first time?
See answers above!​
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Also, take time to get to know how your studio behaves acoustically. Walls, furnishings, carpets etc. all interact with how a room sounds. A set of speakers in room A will sound completely different in room B. Once you get your setup in place, play some music you know really well... a lot! Listen to it. What can you hear? What can’t you hear? Is a particular piece or instrument more or less prominent? Is there more top or bottom end? Once you’ve got that reference you can adapt your mixes accordingly. ​
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Also, listen to your mixes on different sources. I’ll frequently mix a track, stick it on my private Soundcloud channel and listen to it in the car, or with headphones when out walking the dog. A different perspective can really open your ears. Share it with others too, get their opinions... especially if you’re mixing for a band – they WILL want to have input... a bit too much sometimes!!
9) What are your recording highlights?
I’m very fortunate to have worked with many talented musicians over the years and each one has been special in its own way. I think the thing I’m most proud of is my involvement in “The Rockdown Project” during 2020 in support of our incredible NHS during the COVID 19 pandemic at that time. With so many talented friends around the country we were able to get them to remotely record separate parts for tracks, upload those files to a server & I then pulled it all together in my home studio. Great fun for a great cause.
10) Have you recorded a band live? What are the main differences to home or studio recording?
Frequently. One of my favourite recording sessions with The Mafia was the E.P. “Pink”. That was recorded ‘old school’ – the band playing in one room and me in an adjoining room, mixing live on an analogue desk and recording straight to Minidisc (who remembers them?!). No overdubs, no studio trickery. To me it captured the excitement and energy of a band playing together and had such a different vibe.
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Nowadays I use a digital mixing desk whenever I’m mixing live and that gives me the ability to multi-track record the live gig straight to a hard drive. I can then import those files into my studio DAW and mix it as a live album or as reference material for the band themselves. It’s very different to studio recording as there are no retakes or overdubs – you’re recording what was played, but then you can add a lot of studio “polish” to the end product. It’s actually my favourite way to work now.
11) What was your funniest moment recording either at home or in a studio?
Honestly, so many:
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The ‘Sausage Incident’ (for legal reason I can’t go into further detail).​
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While recording an album where the band and crew were staying in the living quarters I sent one of the road crew out to the local shop for bacon and he returned with Pot Noodles: “because they’re practically the same thing”​
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But I’d say the funniest was recording a cover version of Queen’s “We Will Rock You” back in 2007. We were recording the ‘stomp, stomp clap’ intro with the four band members in the live room, but during every take I was hearing a bizarre static sort of noise in the background. We checked the mics, we checked the leads, we rebooted the software, turned off every non-essential electrical appliance but it kept happening. After much head scratching the issue was finally traced to one particular band member and his choice of nylon tracksuit bottoms, which were rubbing together and producing the undesired sound! He was promptly put behind a sound baffle screen; the offending article of clothing removed and proceeded to complete the recording in his underpants. I forget his name … ;-) (I have no idea who that could have been!- AG)
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AG 22/01/2022
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Featured in Pixel Addict magazine, issue 03.
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© Words and pictures copyright grapeswriting.co.uk
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