Is that 2" tape or are you just glad to see me?

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mkg

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About twelve years ago my band, The Velvet Bombers, put out a four-song cassette of what you might call glorified demos.
The link below is to one of the songs, called "We've Been Around."
Some of you fine folks will remember the joys of recording/mixing on 2" tape, the whirr and hum of the machine, the warmth of the tape itself, the art of splicing, etc.
I'll eventually post the other three songs, unless too many fresh vegetable are hurled in my direction...in which case I'll quit music and open up a produce market.
All comments welcome, of course, but bear in mind that nothing can be changed on these songs.
Just thought you might enjoy hearing something from the long-lost analog days.
As always, thanks for listening and comments.

Mark

We've Been Around
 
Who wears those shoes! :D
Sounds good to me. I'm an analog guy anyway so I like the sound. Good tune too.....sounds like what was happening at that time. i have some 25 year old 4-track tapes i did at home posted at Wondercow on nowhere. You might want to check them out if you're a rememberer of analog days.

Enjoyed the listen.....yes you should post the other tunes. What are you playing on this?
 
Thank you, Lt. Bob...on my way to Nowhere to check out Wondercow. I remember listening to one of your old tracks a few weeks ago..."if I only had some pot"...looking forward to hearing Wondercow!
On the Bomber track posted, I co-wrote the song and sat behind the board with the engineer (a position I laughingly call 'producer', but all I really did was say 'uh huh' and 'killer') :D
The band is still together, and we still play this song, nowadays I play rhythm guitar on it.
I'll post song #2 tonight after rehearsal.

Mark
 
Sounds like a product of time.:cool: Post 'em all. I'd like to hear them. Some day when I'm in a masochistic mood I'll put up my old metel band (same vintage as yours) 8 track stuff.
 
cool... it sure is warm sounding... oh wait it's an mp3 ... douh! :D
 
Is that Gordon Sumner singing? (First couple of lines sounded JUST like "Sting" to me). The recording sounds great. I can't even imagine editing with tape. I mean, if I get part of a wave file I've screwed up, I hit the "splice" button. The damned software even straightens out the "pop" for me.

Mark, this is good. What did you play/sing. Apologizing for my ignorance here...I'm self-absorbed so I never pay any attention to what other people are posting or doing.


:D
:D
:D

-chris
 
Lt. Bob: I listened to all the Wondercow tracks, and remembered listening to "Just a Midnight Dream" a few weeks ago. Man, you are one talented s.o.b. (Saxophone, Outstanding Blower) :D

Track Rat: Thanks! I'd love to hear your 8-track stuff.

Fed: The evolution is: 2" tape, cassette, cd, mp3. Not only warm, but practically soup by now. :D

Chris: The singer's first name is Gordon (Gordy) as is my last name. He's still with us. I'll pass on your compliment to him. As mentioned above, I co-wrote the song and was a quasi-producer on the track, but didn't play or sing on it. When we do the song live these days, I play rhythm guitar.
The engineers on this were Steve Chandler and Terry Heitland. Steve still works in Nashville, and Terry (until just recently) was on tour with Patty Loveless doing her stage mix.

Thanks for the listens, all...long live analog!

Mark
 
cool mkg..

I still have a 1"- 8 track reel to reel machine.. I am thinking of refurbishing it..

sounds pretty good man..
 
Cool, Sam. Years ago I had an Akai reel-to-reel with the amazing new feature...sound on sound! I was a track-bouncing fool, like a kid in a candy store. I bet your 1" machine would be killer once you fixed it up. Here I sit getting nostalgic for the sound of tape. Thanks for the listen, man.

Mark
 
Mkg, that brings back some ol' times hey? It's always good to go back and listen. Either shows how far you've come or how much you lost over the years.
 
my god!!!!

its hall & oates!!!!!

:eek:

sounds like somebody was trying for the top 40 sound!

very ambitious!!!

:)
 
Man....good stuff! Both songs. Well recorded and you guys were a pretty good band. I bet these bring back some memories....good and bad. :D
How long did you spend on these songs?
 
This is cool MKG!12 years ago would be 1990 but this sounds like you guys were still holding onto the glory days of the 80's!:D

I like it man.One thing about tape is you sure dont have to fiddle with gadgets and doo dads to get a warm full bodied sound.I really like the instrumenation in this one and the vocals are great.I heard a few good harmonies in there too.Nice guitar playing.

The groove is kind of hall and Oats as someone else mentioned.Killer tune man that would stand up to any of the other stuff that was out in the late 80's.

:cool:
 
Flash, cool observation... "shows either how far you've come or how much you've lost." These days we can cover our own stuff 5 piece. Back in '89 when we cut these, we never thought that we'd be able to play them out. So I guess in that respect, we've gained.

Jeap, good ear... around the time we cut these, others said the same thing. And yes, we were going for top 40 all the way. Except it turned out more like back 40. :D

Lt. Bob, thanks again, man... I think in a lot of ways we're a better band now. Back in those days the "band" (it was really more like a production team) consisted of my writing partner (keyboard, guitar, vox), me (occasional rhythm guitar and backup vox), a bassplayer(vox), an engineer, and whatever local drummer happened to be handy.
I'd have to say that most of the memories are good. Long nights and hard work, punctuated by recreational items. I'm sure you've done the same. There's something magical about a recording studio, and for a period of time we had unlimited access.
Most of the time we wouldn't even go in until midnight, work all night, then go to our day jobs.
Our engineer buddy is now in Nashville, and is arranging for us to slip into the studio where he works for a low rate. We plan to cut a cd's worth of new material (fingers crossed) before the year is out.
As far as how long we spent on these songs, it's all a blur... let's just say in those days, time meant nothing to us. :cool:

Kramer, I just now saw your post as I was posting this. Thanks, buddy! Yep, these songs were written in the mid-80's, and as I said above, we were going for top 40. You're hearing Bob Blackford on keys and guitar, and the core of the band (Bob, Gordy the bassplayer, and me) is still together, along with a drummer and a vocalist/multi-instrumentalist, and we still play these and a few other originals in between the covers that we do. We love it when we come out of a Wilson Pickett song into one of our own and the people keep dancing. :D

Thanks to all for listening and the kind words!

Mark
 
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B.SABBATH said:
cool mkg..

I still have a 1"- 8 track reel to reel machine.. I am thinking of refurbishing it..

sounds pretty good man..
Click to expand...

a ONE inch??

what kind, dude?
wadda use as a board?
 
mixmkr said:
a ONE inch??

what kind, dude?
wadda use as a board?
Click to expand...


hey mix, my bad.. It's a 1/2" Teac TZ-612.. I used an older Mackie 1604.. The reel has some problems now.. One problem is when you are playing a reel,, you can actually see the rust particles coming off the tape.. I had to rig up a little dust tray to catch them.. and only 2 of the 8 v.u. meters light up.. There is no punch function or anything.. Recording with that beast helped me because I knew the tape was sounding worse with every pass, so I had to get something in as few takes as possible.. I asked the 'specialist' around here, and he said it could cost up to $1000 to refurbish it.. :eek: After thinking about it, I decided to wait on that and I bought an ADAT.. It was part of this whole 'studio pack' thing that came with an Alesis board, nano compresor, verb, and all the cords to hook it up.. I really liked the ADAT, but I had major problems with that too. I didn't realize how much maintenance owning an ADAT requires.. I took that back and bought the Tascam 788.. I hoped that one day I could refurbish the Reel, and maybe use it to warm up some tracks because it used to sound great.. So did the ADAT though.. Now the reel sits here collecting dust, and all my reels are packed away for now.. I really used to like the sound of it.. The Tascam 788 is real easy to record with now, and I have gotten very spoiled.. Maybe I'll post one of the old reel tunes.. I used to have a song on Mp3.com from it, but I took it off.. It was called 'the busiest graveyard.' :)


I guess this was more information than you wanted though.. :D
 
Ahh, those were the days, recording to my old Teac 3440 reel to reel.

Now I record to a smart media card, I wonder what's next?

Sounded really good, kinda 80ish.

Analog warmth ain't so bad!!

GT
 
B.SABBATH said:



hey mix, my bad.. It's a 1/2" Teac TZ-612.. I used an older Mackie 1604.. The reel has some problems now.. One problem is when you are playing a reel,, you can actually see the rust particles coming off the tape.. I had to rig up a little dust tray to catch them.. and only 2 of the 8 v.u. meters light up.. There is no punch function or anything.. Recording with that beast helped me because I knew the tape was sounding worse with every pass, so I had to get something in as few takes as possible.. I asked the 'specialist' around here, and he said it could cost up to $1000 to refurbish it.. :eek: After thinking about it, I decided to wait on that and I bought an ADAT.. It was part of this whole 'studio pack' thing that came with an Alesis board, nano compresor, verb, and all the cords to hook it up.. I really liked the ADAT, but I had major problems with that too. I didn't realize how much maintenance owning an ADAT requires.. I took that back and bought the Tascam 788.. I hoped that one day I could refurbish the Reel, and maybe use it to warm up some tracks because it used to sound great.. So did the ADAT though.. Now the reel sits here collecting dust, and all my reels are packed away for now.. I really used to like the sound of it.. The Tascam 788 is real easy to record with now, and I have gotten very spoiled.. Maybe I'll post one of the old reel tunes.. I used to have a song on Mp3.com from it, but I took it off.. It was called 'the busiest graveyard.' :)


I guess this was more information than you wanted though.. :D
Click to expand...




I almost forgot... after the ADAT and before the 788, my weapon was a Sony 4 track mini disc.. :eek:
 
Damn, the drums sound good on the second tune. An 80's sound for sure but man it sounds fat. Mikey likes it!:D
 
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