Any MS-16 owners in the UK?

[altruistica]

Just wondered if there were any owners in the UK? Anybody near the Manchester area with a 1" MRL tape willing to pop over and help me calibrate my machine?
Cheers
Al

 

[jpmorris]

James K has one, but I think he's in the London area.

 

[altruistica]

Sorry JP, never thanked you for that....Thank you.

Al

 

[James K]

James K has one, but I think he's in the London area.

I do have an MS-16 but unfortunately no MRL tape. plus I'm in Hastings. I get Clive Kavan to calibrate my machine but he charges for travel so it might cost quite a lot to get him to come.

 

[altruistica]

Thanks James......I'll get the machine setup at some time. I just can't bring myself to spend £200 on a five minute tape plus the unknown quantity that is Royal Mail / Dick Turpin /HM Customs and Excise ripoff bastards that sometimes ends up with you paying a ridiculous amount in tax.

Glad I got that off my chest.

Al

 

[altruistica]

Hey James,
Have you got any links to stuff you've done on the MS-16?
Which desk are you using with it?

Cheers
Al

 

[James K]

Thanks James......I'll get the machine setup at some time. I just can't bring myself to spend £200 on a five minute tape plus the unknown quantity that is Royal Mail / Dick Turpin /HM Customs and Excise ripoff bastards that sometimes ends up with you paying a ridiculous amount in tax.

Glad I got that off my chest.

Al

Same here. I wouldn't really mind paying that for an alignment tape if that was all I needed. To set up the machine though you'll need an oscilloscope, function generator, audio meter, THD meter, Tentelometer, spring gauges and probably more stuff I can't remember. All that stuff adds up to a pretty huge sum.

Here are some things I've recorded on the MS16 through my studiomaster desk.

https://soundcloud.com/jrkimber/sets/james-kimber-ep-feb-2012

 

[altruistica]

Hey James,

Some great stuff going on there.....someone must have said to you that it reminds one of Glenn Tillbrook and Squeeze? Great ending to the EP with the drum reverb! It's gone straight into 'The Snake' ....did you record /produce this too? It all sounds really excellent even if it's not all my cup of tea musically. What outboard are you using? Have you checked your mixing room because the only criticism I can make is that all the mixes sound a little bass light to me...could be my listening position but things usually sound bass heavy on my listening system so that makes me think you might have a bass heavy resonant mixing room.

Cheers
Al

 

[James K]

Hey James,

Some great stuff going on there.....someone must have said to you that it reminds one of Glenn Tillbrook and Squeeze? Great ending to the EP with the drum reverb! It's gone straight into 'The Snake' ....did you record /produce this too? It all sounds really excellent even if it's not all my cup of tea musically. What outboard are you using? Have you checked your mixing room because the only criticism I can make is that all the mixes sound a little bass light to me...could be my listening position but things usually sound bass heavy on my listening system so that makes me think you might have a bass heavy resonant mixing room.

Cheers
Al

Cheers! Yeah, quite a few people have said that. Frequently Elvis Costello too. Glad you like the outro to the EP. It was originally meant to fade with the reverb but after listening to it without the fade and with the big fill at the end left in (which was just the drummer messing around knowing it would have been faded by then) I decided to leave it.

'She's a Snake' is one of the songs by a fictional band called 'Ziggy Zigford and The Zigsters' that I record with a friend. There are about six songs in total, all pastiches of different eras.

As for the bass light sound, it's probably just how I mix it. I'm always wary of having too much bass so I probably overdo it sometimes. It can be difficult to judge I find.

For outboard I've got an ART VLA II compressor, a DBX 166, a Behringer tube composer (which rarely gets used any more) and an Alesis Wedge reverb unit.