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post 27
My A-Z of Recording. A few thoughts on the world of sound. Letter B
Balance
The invention of the fader (or variable resistor) was a wonderful thing. Maybe it’s the single most important thing in music production. Independent volume control of multiple elements. Control over the relationship between the different forces in sonic space.
The pan pot (from ‘potentiometer’) is used to allocate their position in stereo space.
post 26
30 Years of Guerilla Studios
The Studio operated in deserted school buildings in West London from about 1979 to 1982. I had been squatting there in the caretaker’s house at the edge of the playground since about ’77 after returning from living in Amsterdam. The studio was started up when I met Laurie Mayer and Grant Gilbert and we started Torch Song.
We had been eking by by selling clothes and bric-a-brac at the nearby Portobello Road market and buying third-hand instruments from the junk shop next door to the school Then we all found jobs in the then booming offshore oil business and were able to purchase equipment. We kind of went mad on sunths and tape recorders and I remember it being a wonderful time of musical discovery.
Eventually, the local authorities set a date for the school to be demolished. The studio moved to Little Venice, about a mile away. Guerilla was running professionally then as first an 8 track then as a 24 track. That was 1982 to 1987. [See below for a list of bands and artists that booked in there].
Eventually it was time to move on and I moved to Hampstead for a year, renting a house in which the painter John Constable had lived, right right up by the Heath. I ran the studio there for a year whilst I looked for a permanent home for Guerilla.
And the new home for Guerilla Studios was the house a Crouch End in North London. I did a of modifications to the building of a rather experimental nature, even though from the outside it looked like an ordinary end-of-terrace Victorian brick house. It was a very productive time and the studio was always busy. All of the Bassomatic and Strange Cargo albums were recorded there.
In 1997 I went over to the US to work with Madonna and after that stayed in Santa Monica and had most of my Guerilla equipment shipped out. Quite why I did that I cannot say, I think that I was a little dizzy from all of the hoopla that had kicked off with the release of Ray Of Light. I sold the house in Crouch End and now it’s somebody’s home. Guerilla was in various locations in Los Angeles. I had studios in Venice, Hermosa Beach (called ‘Guerilla Beach’ of course) and Mandeville Canyon (‘Guerilla Canyon’).
Then after the break up of a relationship I moved back to London in 2002 and settled into the Leonard Hotel just off Oxford Street. For three years. That was a wonderful place to live and work. U2, Beth Orton, Britney, Blur, many artists came over. With a labrynth of rooms that I took over in this Georgian building, 24 room service and bar and a constant flow of ‘show biz’ guests there was never a dull moment. Quite a few tracks on “my oracle lives uptown” were recorded there.
In 2005 I moved from the hotel just a few blocks down the road to Connaught Square in Marble Arch (next door but one to where Tony Blair now resides) and built Guerilla there. It was probably the most technically perfect studio I have ever had.
TV Turtle goes on holiday
post 24
Questions and Answers
Jake Myler
Submitted on 2009/01/15 at 7:37pm
. . . I also am curious as Gavin Kendall is about the Strange cargo thing. Will there be anything with that name released again? On the flip side however, does it really make any difference though, were Strange Cargo albums of a particular musical theme or were they simply a name?
WO
It’s a contractual thing Jake. I would only be able to use that name if I released it on Warners. But it makes no difference anyway, the music would be the same. It is just a name.
happy
Submitted on 2009/01/19 at 10:20pm
In the Adelson illusion [below], are the squares marked A and B really the same shade? How can you tell?
WO
I had to look twice too. And was masking it off with my fingers just to be sure. Then I got into cutting and pasting in Photoshop and it really is the same. Even as I was moving the ‘cuttout’ pieces around the chequerboard they seemed to be changing their ‘greyness’.
All part of the fascinating work of Prof. Edward H Adelson at the MIT dept. of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
http://web.mit.edu/persci/people/adelson/
Here he offers proof:
It is all about the context in this illusion and in sound also, the same pitch or timbre can seem changed radically when set in a different musical content.
Vasil Velchev
Submitted on 2009/01/25 at 10:32pm
Hi William
I don’t know if you read this, maybe you have a whole team to read and answer your fans. . .
WO
Even my teams have their own teams! (not really) And thank you for your kind comments Vasil
elektrolad
Submitted on 2009/01/24 at 8:26pm
01010100011010000110000101101110011010110111001100100000011001100110111101110010001000000
1111001011011110111010101110010001000000110001101101111011011100111001101101001011001000110
010101110010011000010111010001101001011011110110111000100001
WO
01011001011011110111010100100000011101110110010101110010011001010010000001100001011100110
11010110110100101101110011001110010000001100001011000100110111101110101011101000010000001
10010001101111011010010110111001100111001000000110000100100000011100100110010101101101011
0100101111000001011100010000001000100011010010110010000100000011110010110111101110101001
00000011010000110000101110110011001010010000001100001001000000111000001100001011100100
11101000110100101100011011101010110110001100001011100100010000001110100011100100110000101
10001101101011001000000110100101101110001000000110110101101001011011100110010000111111
Nacho
Submitted on 2009/01/19 at 6:23pm
… long held thoughs: Would it be possible for you to find a way of releasing the “uncut” unedited tracks? I mean, for Djs it has been very difficult to Dj with most of your tracks, if anything BECAUSE although they usually present the music themes or rhythmic ideas in a interesting way, but they usually end in a fade out, typically when things are getting to a new interest layer…
post 23
Audio clip
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PLAY: ‘purdy’ from ‘my oracle lives uptown’
post 22
Welcome to my A-Z of Recording. Just a few thoughts on the world of sound.
A
ambient
The word is both a curse and blessing. To many it might suggest ‘bland’ although any kind of music can be ambient if you think about it. But as a name for a genre it helps define music that doesn’t seek to create a surge of adrenaline. It can certainly reflect deep emotions. Ambience is that which surrounds us. Or surrounds anything. But as a term it’s a useful way of describing music that isn’t in-your-face.
post 21
Tuesday evening and just checking the sleeve artwork proof prior to manufacture
post 20
these buttons all have sound bites from ‘Optrical Illusions (call my name)’ on them
An ‘Optical Illusions’ basic backtrack is below but at the moment it’s a bit too quiet for the sound bites. Will get the balance sorted in due course. probably have to reload them
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PLAY: optical b.t.
Dita Von Teese proudly shows off her advance copy
Buttons
an experiment in sound bites – press any of these:
that reminds me, better crack on with the ‘A-Z of Production’ I left the letter ‘A’ entry unfinished last week.