This is probably the most important post from the Red Square myspace site:
The 'Thirty Three' cover carries the following dedication;
'In memory of Dave Goldwater, (1958 - 2005) , poet, storyteller, writer and stand-up.
The funniest person we ever met. He played with us sometimes.'
It's under the picture of Dave playing soprano sax with us on a gig at one of our entirely inappropriate venues, a folk club, (it wasn't our fault they had advertised an 'open mic night'.....).
We first met Dave - still a sixth form pupil, still in school uniform - when he turned up early for a gig we were playing. As there was nobody in the venue other than us and Dave, we left him to watch over the gear, and went out to find something to eat. He was still there when we came back, and he was still there when we had finished our set, and so he became one of the gang.
As we got to know Dave better we found him inspiringly creative. He came from a London, working class Jewish, communist background. He wrote with originality and he was gifted with a particular comic genius, breathtakingly funny in print and in person. In company, he could improvise furious, multi-stranded comic routines of exuberant, sometimes splenetic energy. He was a gifted mimic and he minted character-defining catch-phrases by the dozen. Occasionally, he would need a helpful hand across the mouth, such as the time he began to develop a riff, delivered in a mawkish Irish burr, about 'the old republican songs' sitting at a table in a North London pub that had an IRA collection tin on the bar.
Later, Dave enjoyed academic success, taking a first in English Literature and becoming an early, skillful exponent of structuralism. He was a great admirer of the then almost forgotten English avant-novelist BS Johnson, and wrote at least one critical appreciation of his work.
in his prose and poetry Dave showed a great sensitivity to place and to placement in space, sometimes developing almost filmic meditations on chosen scenes and landscapes.
Dave wrote poetry, stories, plays, stand-up routines, critical studies and song lyrics. He fronted, for a while, his own band in London, the tastefully-named 'Sandy Richardson & the Wheelchairs' and he played, on occasion, with us.
Dave knew a thousand people. He touched each of our lives differently, but he left all of us diminished when he died.
This post elicited the following comment from Graham Burnett, who used to come to Red Square gigs and who also knew Dave:
I remember Dave Goldwater well, he and a few other folks used to come around my house for 'free improvisation sessions' circa 1977/78, and we would make a glorious noise, Dave playing his sax, Martin playing his guitar and me on chair or kettle or somesuch.
Perhaps we fancied ourselves to be some kind of Evan Parker/Derek Bailey/Han Bennink outfit, but in reality all we did was upset the cat... I also remember us putting on a 'free improvised gig' in the underground carpark next to the Southend civic centre, publicised by hand written posters stuck up around the high street with sellotape, and jams in the room above 'Its Surreal Thing', a squatted art gallery and proto-social centre opposite The Cricketers in Westcliff with the likes of Dave, Andy Downs, John Shaw, Stefan Sukomski (phonetic spelling, sorry if you are reading this Stefan!) and others I can't now remember.
I might even still have the recordings somewhere, probably in a box in the attic on long decayed oxide cassette tapes... I also remember Dave sitting behind us once on a coach trip to a Rock Against racism carnival in London (Victoria Park??), he got in to some comedic riff concerning his grandmother's jaw falling off or somesuch that made us laugh so much it hurt...
By one of those really bizarre coincidences many years later Dave taught my friend Steve at a university in Wales. I was shocked when I heard he'd died, even though I hadn't seen him for some 2 or 3 decades.
Monday, 9 March 2009
mixing and mastering from very old tapes
This was a myspace post that we put up after the album 'Thirty Three' was finished. It's a tech-fest supreme with a generous side dish of lightly fried analogue tape. Read carefully; we'll be testing you on it later......!
Thirty Three was a mission of a project to re-mix. I went straight from this to mixing Comus' first live festival appearance in 35 years for a DVD release. Different musics, different recording technologies, but both referring inexorably back to the late '60s / early '70s .....
The Red Square material dates back to 1974 and the majority of the tracks were either recorded on a Akai 4000DS reel to reel tape deck using 7" Scotch tape, or on a pro Nakamitchi field recorder using chrome cassettes.
The live Circuitry tracks were all recorded in stereo on a two track Revox. Both of the reel to reel machines ran at 7 1/2 in/s. The Nakamichi ran at 1 7/8 in/s.
Tape hiss was inevitable. Resulting problem 30 years on? Well; tape hiss just isn't as sexy as vinyl crackle.........
Generally, when we rehearsed, we would plonk a couple of mics down in the room where we were playing, and press record. Sometimes one of the mics might be on a chair, or on the mantlepiece. If one of us was close to one of the mics, so be it. We tended not to have enough room to set up for a textbook stereo recording, and I'm not even sure that we knew what one of those was at the time!
Resulting problem 30 years later? Some weird and wonderful panning to deal with.........
However, before I even got down to the re-mixing, we discovered that the Scotch tapes were suffering from the feared tape 'squeal' (you'd know it if you heard it!). The problem, which affects a lot of tape stock from the mid to late 70s, is caused by hydrolisation. The binder compound used at that time to 'stick' the magnetic particles to the tape's plastic backing absorbs water from the atmosphere over time, which eventually distorts the tape.
So. We took the tapes to the Copyroom in London, and they set about the painstaking task of slow baking the tapes in a convection oven for hours and hours, before eventually transferring all of the audio over to digital media.
Apparently, after about three weeks, the tapes begin re-absorbing moisture all over again.........!
When it came to re-mixing the tracks, I worked on the stereo pairs as individual mono left and right tracks to allow for re-balancing where necessary. All the material was 'normalised' to achieve maximum output level within the system, before any compression or limiting was added.
Panning was set to around '10 past 10', (70: 30). This was one of the means of combating the extreme left / right separation between instruments on some of the tracks. I also used a stereo-width enhancer plug-in on the master output, again to help combat the original panning extremes.
I wrote custom eq's for each 'group' of tracks. Much of the eq work had to do with reducing tape hiss whilst maintaining presence, and also with reducing low end rumble.
The hiss / presence question inevitably involves a compromise.
I worked on the basis that presence is infinitely preferable to dullness (ie a too ferociously applied low pass filter!). On the Circuitry tracks, for example, I cut the top end, added 5dB of mid-high lift to add air and presence and cut below 70 Hz to clear out rumble. In addition, each track had individually contoured and automated sweep eq settings where appropriate, used mostly to reduce hiss in areas where the music was at a low dynamic level.
All of the eq work on the tracks was done with track and / or main output compressors in place. This ensured that the hiss 'noise floor' was dealt with after any compressor make-up gain had been applied.
I added compression with care, wanting to preserve as wide a dynamic range within the material as possible. Most of the thresholds were set in the -23 to -17 dB range, most of the ratios in the range of 4 to 2:1. Attack was never below 10ms in order to preserve onset information. I used a limiter set to 0dB across the final output to pick off any transients.
Reverb was used very sparingly, and certainly not on all tracks. Generally I used it to help glue together the left and right sides of tracks exhibiting extreme panning anomalies. None was added to the live Circuitry tracks.
There were various instances of 'extraneous' noises that cropped up in some of the tracks. If I quite liked them, or if they were too deeply embedded in the audio (Roger's notoriously squeaky drum stool and Ian's buzzing amp and distortion pedal artifacts spring to mind!), I let them pass. On balance, they add to the live feel of the takes - and these tracks were all improvised live takes.
Jon
Thirty Three was a mission of a project to re-mix. I went straight from this to mixing Comus' first live festival appearance in 35 years for a DVD release. Different musics, different recording technologies, but both referring inexorably back to the late '60s / early '70s .....
The Red Square material dates back to 1974 and the majority of the tracks were either recorded on a Akai 4000DS reel to reel tape deck using 7" Scotch tape, or on a pro Nakamitchi field recorder using chrome cassettes.
The live Circuitry tracks were all recorded in stereo on a two track Revox. Both of the reel to reel machines ran at 7 1/2 in/s. The Nakamichi ran at 1 7/8 in/s.
Tape hiss was inevitable. Resulting problem 30 years on? Well; tape hiss just isn't as sexy as vinyl crackle.........
Generally, when we rehearsed, we would plonk a couple of mics down in the room where we were playing, and press record. Sometimes one of the mics might be on a chair, or on the mantlepiece. If one of us was close to one of the mics, so be it. We tended not to have enough room to set up for a textbook stereo recording, and I'm not even sure that we knew what one of those was at the time!
Resulting problem 30 years later? Some weird and wonderful panning to deal with.........
However, before I even got down to the re-mixing, we discovered that the Scotch tapes were suffering from the feared tape 'squeal' (you'd know it if you heard it!). The problem, which affects a lot of tape stock from the mid to late 70s, is caused by hydrolisation. The binder compound used at that time to 'stick' the magnetic particles to the tape's plastic backing absorbs water from the atmosphere over time, which eventually distorts the tape.
So. We took the tapes to the Copyroom in London, and they set about the painstaking task of slow baking the tapes in a convection oven for hours and hours, before eventually transferring all of the audio over to digital media.
Apparently, after about three weeks, the tapes begin re-absorbing moisture all over again.........!
When it came to re-mixing the tracks, I worked on the stereo pairs as individual mono left and right tracks to allow for re-balancing where necessary. All the material was 'normalised' to achieve maximum output level within the system, before any compression or limiting was added.
Panning was set to around '10 past 10', (70: 30). This was one of the means of combating the extreme left / right separation between instruments on some of the tracks. I also used a stereo-width enhancer plug-in on the master output, again to help combat the original panning extremes.
I wrote custom eq's for each 'group' of tracks. Much of the eq work had to do with reducing tape hiss whilst maintaining presence, and also with reducing low end rumble.
The hiss / presence question inevitably involves a compromise.
I worked on the basis that presence is infinitely preferable to dullness (ie a too ferociously applied low pass filter!). On the Circuitry tracks, for example, I cut the top end, added 5dB of mid-high lift to add air and presence and cut below 70 Hz to clear out rumble. In addition, each track had individually contoured and automated sweep eq settings where appropriate, used mostly to reduce hiss in areas where the music was at a low dynamic level.
All of the eq work on the tracks was done with track and / or main output compressors in place. This ensured that the hiss 'noise floor' was dealt with after any compressor make-up gain had been applied.
I added compression with care, wanting to preserve as wide a dynamic range within the material as possible. Most of the thresholds were set in the -23 to -17 dB range, most of the ratios in the range of 4 to 2:1. Attack was never below 10ms in order to preserve onset information. I used a limiter set to 0dB across the final output to pick off any transients.
Reverb was used very sparingly, and certainly not on all tracks. Generally I used it to help glue together the left and right sides of tracks exhibiting extreme panning anomalies. None was added to the live Circuitry tracks.
There were various instances of 'extraneous' noises that cropped up in some of the tracks. If I quite liked them, or if they were too deeply embedded in the audio (Roger's notoriously squeaky drum stool and Ian's buzzing amp and distortion pedal artifacts spring to mind!), I let them pass. On balance, they add to the live feel of the takes - and these tracks were all improvised live takes.
Jon
on being forced to play the flootie by Roger Wootton
I've developed a bit of a taste for playing the flute, and we've added one to the Red Square arsenal of noisy things to make and do. I only took the flootie up because I had to learn it to play for Comus. Here's a post about it that I've put up on their blloggg.............
Until I joined Comus, I had managed to avoid ever having to play a flootie, an instrument I generally characterised - with an appropriate display of fastidious horror - as the preserve of sulky legions of wan, pre-pubescent girls called things like Petronella and Chlamydia.
That said, on the qt, I had previously wielded a tenor recorder on a couple of album tracks with an earlier project, B So glObal, but I had articulated and phrased the recorder parts in a style drawn (very loosely!) from listening to an old vinyl album by the astonishing Japanese hocchiku player, Watazumido-Shuso.
I was given this album as a didactic Christmas present ages ago, and I was greatly taken with the intricate use of articulation, micro-pitching and timbre as structural devices; meaning and virtuosity, it seemed, could be expressed as much by the complexity of one note as by the speed with which it could be chained to others - a cautionary reminder in the then-current era of jazz-rock...........
but, time passed, and.......
....so much that is useful or important is lost in forgetting, in the neglect of observance and silted over by subsequent focus; I lost touch with Watazumido-Shuso.
I learned the changes, and constructed coruscating chord progressions over which, when called upon, I could deliver change-hugging flights of saxophone.
But, thank you, Comus - picking up the flute has renewed the connection with Watazumido-Shuso, and this has dovetailed into a re-ignited interest in 20th century 'art' music, where I have always known that the flootie lurked, siren-like, waiting for me.
And the moral of the tale is; never say never; a metaphorical flootie might lie in wait for you too.
Anyway...here's a (non-exhaustive) selection of flootie / shakuhachi / hocchiku stuff that might be of interest:
'Syrinx' (Debussy) and 'Density 21.5' (Varese) - 20th century solo flute icons - Amazon or itunes downloads.
Bruno Maderna's 'Hyperion III' & 20th/21st century solo flute works played by Richard Craig - free FLAC downloads from the Avant Garde Project. Brilliant, brilliant site and repository for a huge number of out of issue 20th century works. If you want to dip your toes in 20th century art music, this is probably a good place to start.
Shakuhachi works played by Kifu Mitsuhashi - you can listen @ Last FM. Both of the albums are on download @ Amazon.com.
My vinyl by Watazumido-Shuso was called 'The Mysterious Sounds Of The Japanese Bamboo Flute'. It doesn't appear to be available anywhere now - beware of similarly named offerings!.....You can get a flavour of his playing here, though: Watazumido-Shuso
'Apparition & Release' a recent work by Michael Oliva for quartertone alto flute and electronics. You can listen (or buy!) here; Michael Oliva.
Any other suggestions? No. Not bloody James Galway, thank you very much.......
pip pip,
Jon
Until I joined Comus, I had managed to avoid ever having to play a flootie, an instrument I generally characterised - with an appropriate display of fastidious horror - as the preserve of sulky legions of wan, pre-pubescent girls called things like Petronella and Chlamydia.
That said, on the qt, I had previously wielded a tenor recorder on a couple of album tracks with an earlier project, B So glObal, but I had articulated and phrased the recorder parts in a style drawn (very loosely!) from listening to an old vinyl album by the astonishing Japanese hocchiku player, Watazumido-Shuso.
I was given this album as a didactic Christmas present ages ago, and I was greatly taken with the intricate use of articulation, micro-pitching and timbre as structural devices; meaning and virtuosity, it seemed, could be expressed as much by the complexity of one note as by the speed with which it could be chained to others - a cautionary reminder in the then-current era of jazz-rock...........
but, time passed, and.......
....so much that is useful or important is lost in forgetting, in the neglect of observance and silted over by subsequent focus; I lost touch with Watazumido-Shuso.
I learned the changes, and constructed coruscating chord progressions over which, when called upon, I could deliver change-hugging flights of saxophone.
But, thank you, Comus - picking up the flute has renewed the connection with Watazumido-Shuso, and this has dovetailed into a re-ignited interest in 20th century 'art' music, where I have always known that the flootie lurked, siren-like, waiting for me.
And the moral of the tale is; never say never; a metaphorical flootie might lie in wait for you too.
Anyway...here's a (non-exhaustive) selection of flootie / shakuhachi / hocchiku stuff that might be of interest:
'Syrinx' (Debussy) and 'Density 21.5' (Varese) - 20th century solo flute icons - Amazon or itunes downloads.
Bruno Maderna's 'Hyperion III' & 20th/21st century solo flute works played by Richard Craig - free FLAC downloads from the Avant Garde Project. Brilliant, brilliant site and repository for a huge number of out of issue 20th century works. If you want to dip your toes in 20th century art music, this is probably a good place to start.
Shakuhachi works played by Kifu Mitsuhashi - you can listen @ Last FM. Both of the albums are on download @ Amazon.com.
My vinyl by Watazumido-Shuso was called 'The Mysterious Sounds Of The Japanese Bamboo Flute'. It doesn't appear to be available anywhere now - beware of similarly named offerings!.....You can get a flavour of his playing here, though: Watazumido-Shuso
'Apparition & Release' a recent work by Michael Oliva for quartertone alto flute and electronics. You can listen (or buy!) here; Michael Oliva.
Any other suggestions? No. Not bloody James Galway, thank you very much.......
pip pip,
Jon
an introductory note on the migration of blogs
This is a teeny tiny space in the teeming, worm-holing, aetherial roller-coaster of the interweb where we can post a few thoughts pertaining to being in the British free-improvisation, avant-rock band, Red Square.
Some of the following blogs have appeared on myspace before, but they are confined within the lowering dungeons of Rupert's digital fortress, and are only available to those of us who are his wizened, night-craving adepts.
We hope that this Blogger blog might be of interest to some who dwell instead amongst the sun-lit uplands of the greater blogosphere....
Some of the following blogs have appeared on myspace before, but they are confined within the lowering dungeons of Rupert's digital fortress, and are only available to those of us who are his wizened, night-craving adepts.
We hope that this Blogger blog might be of interest to some who dwell instead amongst the sun-lit uplands of the greater blogosphere....
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