From: OLIVOTTO@ITNCISCA.BITNET (OUT,
              OUT - YOU'LL NOT FEEL THE FALL-OUT...)
Newsgroups: bit.listserv.allmusic
Subject: Re: discussions on all forms of music?
Date: 15 Oct 92 11:15:55 GMT
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Mike (Masuda) says:

>Where are all the people who said they wanted some
>cool conversations about neat new ideas in music?

        Here's one :).

>I put in my two cents a couple of days ago, with some ideas
>for multitrack recording, but I got no feedback.

        I *did* print your message out. I liked the ping-pong ball (well,
'twas a llab gnop-gnip in fact...) immensely. And the idea of squashing a
reverb with a compressor. Feedback... I didn't have time, but get ready!

>Does anyone out there actually play unusual instruments?

        Yes. A fretless guitar.
        I had a very old and crappy imitation of a Gibson Les Paul Custom.
Aesthetically pleasing, but mechanically and musically *obscene*. I'm fond
to it anyway since it was my *sigh* first electric guitar. When I moved to
the Roland guitar synth, I was uncertain whether I should sell it for a dime
or not. In the end I decided to remove all the frets and experiment a bit.
I don't use it very much, since it's very hard to play, anyway. The most re-
levant thing is that tuning is practically unsubstantial! The smallest devia-
tion you have when you move your finger is half-tone around the note you
would like to play. But, boy, the neck really lets me slide away now... :)

>Does anyone out there have opinions on microphone choices for recording?

        Hey, this would be long... anyway, an anecdote may tell several
things. About two weeks ago I was trying to recording a (female) singer
in my studio. It was almost impossible, since she was literally unable to
stand still in front of the mike stand. She kept on moving randomly some
two feet around the "best point". Now, try to mike this with an AKG con-
denser mike, which basically would pick the buzz of two coupling flies
one mile away :). On the verge of tears, we tried to add compression...
but it was horrible, her nevertheless beautiful voice would be squashed
into a dull and non-dynamic range.
        The final solution was remove the multi-million condenser micro-
phone and have her singing through a cheap dynamic rubbish thing which
we never use. This so-called mike had such a stiff dynamical response
that it simply didn't matter whether she moved or not. And the voice was
recorded this way in the end, comparatively well I must say!

>Which multi-effects rack would you recommend for studio use and why?

        Practically every black box by Alesis is worth the money. The only
serious problem, in my opinion, is that there are so many effects around
that one is unable to keep a clear view of them.
        Personally my favourites are:
low-end: the Alesis Microgate; extremely effective, idiot-proof, never breaks
         down;
mid-end: the ART 2001; compressor, expander, de-esser, enhancer and gate in
         one single unit; a must!
high-end: the Lexicon series. Not even mentioning the highest-end machines,
          once one has tried an LXP-15 he's virtually ready to throw another
          reverb/delay machine off the window.

>What kind of music did you listen to as a young child?

        You wouldn't believe... anyway: at 3 I was a fan of the Beatles. I
bought an anthology of America at 9. At 11 I discovered the Stones. At 12
I was talked into Pink Floyd ("The Dark Side Of The Moon", obviously) and at
13 I bought "Selling England By The Pound" by Genesis. In the middle of all
this there was punk and several other things. I can't trace a line any further
because after 1978 it's been chaos ever since... :)

>If you had a dream studio, what equipment would you have in it if you
>  were given only 50,000 dollars (or equivalent amount in your vicinity)
>  to spend?  Why would you choose these things?

        Basically, a 1-inch 24-track and a serious mixing console, with at
least 32 inputs. The rest would go on outboard gears and serious wiring of
the whole bunch of buttons. A pro DAT for mastering (hard-disk machines are
a bit out of the $50,000 range, I'm afraid).
        Going more modern, one might think of patching together something
like 3 ADATs, 8 digital tracks each on S-VHS cassette. The cost is more or
less the same.
        On the analogue side, I think the best 24-track buy in the 1-inch
realm is the Fostex G24S, as for now. The Tascam isn't bad either, but it
has dbx, which is a bit worse than the younger DOLBY-S. Admittedly, the
latest Tascam models have DOLBY-S themselves.

>What is the "sound" YOU are looking for in music today?

        Simple and tricky answer: I'm looking for the sound. Period.

        Ciao, Marco
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