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Author Topic: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?  (Read 39526 times)

compasspnt

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Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« on: August 23, 2010, 11:04:36 AM »

A while back I posted about the great efforts of our friend d_gauss.

Last night, I chanced upon a video of a song recorded by another of our esteemed PW guys, Bob Ebeling:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C28omOuUFkA


Bob, would you mind commenting on your recording technique, room, gear, etc.?
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bob ebeling

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #1 on: August 23, 2010, 12:23:50 PM »

Sure!

This particular song was done in my Brooklyn apartment.  Unlike most closet style apartments in NYC, I was very lucky to find a four bedroom exquisite place off of the Ft. Hamilton Parkway stop of the F.  Huge open rooms built in the 1940's...gotta love it!

So my main gear in this place was a pair of pair of V76/80. A black face rev d 1176.  An LA-2A.  A Lang PEQ-2.  Mics included a U47, a couple UM-57's, km 84's, Schoeps 221b's, and more of the usual suspects.

The drum machine is a real deal Roland 808.  I love that thing so much.  Samples never come close to the life that is inside that machine.

I had just lucked across the Sesame Street Minimoog, bought straight from the origional music maker from that show.  He gave me his book with all the patches notated ('cookie monsters diabete's shock', 'count's moment of ecstacy', etc... haha).  

So this particular song started off with alot of synth and 808, just to get some chords happening.  Everything else was built up from there, but 90% of the song was done in an afternoon.

When it came time to do the vocals I had a big doubt on whether or not I should keep the very first chord of the verse as the c# (?) which actually never appeared again in the sequence.  Good buddy and audio-ologist Paul Logus talked me into keeping it.

THe 'Downtown' record went on to be one of the coolest things you've never heard.  Flood and Alan Moulder came on board towards the end to help me straighten out a few of the songs in london.  

If you are into heartbreak, substance influenced sounds (haha), and general shoegaze via Beatles production then go find a copy of this (someone still has it on I-tunes under my stage name 'Robert Kaeding' or 'Downtown') OR better yet, put it out on your own label!  I still own 100% of the record, publishing and all.

index.php/fa/15278/0/

Look on Half.com, they usually have a bunch of copies under 'Downtown digipak'

I did make the record on 2" machines blended with Protools, using some of the best studios in NYC and some of the best gear on the planet so it is a fun listen, and like I say, if you've just been thru a divorce, you just might worship this slab!
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Bob Ebeling
bobebeling.bandcamp.com
Virginia

bigbone

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #2 on: August 23, 2010, 01:10:49 PM »



Bob

I like it, nice song........

JN
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Extreme Mixing

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #3 on: August 23, 2010, 01:28:16 PM »

Very nice work.

Steve

bob ebeling

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #4 on: August 23, 2010, 02:55:23 PM »

Thanks guys!  It's nice to recieve some attention on something you plowed years of your life into but then forgot....  

index.php/fa/15280/0/

This was the official logo which was done by Fiona, the same beautiful British woman who designed the THE THE logo among many others.
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Bob Ebeling
bobebeling.bandcamp.com
Virginia

rankus

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #5 on: August 23, 2010, 03:59:53 PM »



Nicely done Bob!

I don't know if the intention of the thread is to post stuff we've done, but it could be interpreted that way... so here is something I did recently.  I was co-producer and engineer on this.  There are much stronger songs on the album but the artist wanted to start the promo video's with this one:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZ60EHObKmg

The video is a draft and the soundtrack is a bit low...

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Rick Welin - Clark Drive Studios http://www.myspace.com/clarkdrivestudios

Ive done stuff I'm not proud of.. and the stuff I am proud of is disgusting ~ Moe Sizlack

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compasspnt

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #6 on: August 23, 2010, 04:19:53 PM »

Actually, the purpose of this thread is to continue a tradition of me finding something that our good PSW friends here have done, and getting them to talk about the recording aspects of it.

Of course, your project is also welcome, I just hadn't found it yet...

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rankus

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #7 on: August 23, 2010, 04:32:54 PM »


Sorry for the derail Terry.  I'll pull it out if you'd like... not a problem at all.. My bad!

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Rick Welin - Clark Drive Studios http://www.myspace.com/clarkdrivestudios

Ive done stuff I'm not proud of.. and the stuff I am proud of is disgusting ~ Moe Sizlack

"There is no crisis in energy, the crisis is in imagination" ~ Buckminster Fuller

RSettee

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #8 on: August 23, 2010, 06:56:45 PM »

Wow, that's great! I really like the chord changes--the chilly, gurgling synths really add alot to that. Sort of sounds like what Slowdive may have sounded like later in their career had they not intentionally put out the anti-commercial "Pygmalion", but still with the electronic thing.
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compasspnt

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #9 on: August 23, 2010, 07:08:35 PM »

rankus wrote on Mon, 23 August 2010 16:32


Sorry for the derail Terry.  I'll pull it out if you'd like... not a problem at all.. My bad!




Not at all, no problem!

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J.J. Blair

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #10 on: August 23, 2010, 08:25:50 PM »

LOVE IT!
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studio info

They say the heart of Rock & Roll is still beating, which is amazing if you consider all the blow it's done over the years.

"The Internet enables pompous blowhards to interact with other pompous blowhards in a big circle jerk of pomposity." - Bill Maher

"The negative aspects of this business, not only will continue to prevail, but will continue to accelerate in madness. Conditions aren't going to get better, because the economics of rock and roll are getting closer and closer to the economics of Big Business America." - Bill Graham

Unwinder

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #11 on: August 23, 2010, 08:42:07 PM »

I like how big the kick drum (sample?) sound is, and the stressed out bass. I could feel the air seriously coming out the speaker port from this tune.

Sweet.

bob ebeling

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #12 on: August 23, 2010, 08:49:01 PM »

Thanks for the digs!  I have let it slide so far this is the only place left I can remember right now that you can hear some more of the 'Downtown' stuff:

http://www.myspace.com/downtownmusicny

The pics show 'the other guy' also.  He was in the band because he would show up at 4AM drunk and try to sing back up parts.  He was really good at bagging music biz chics and getting them interested though.

'Thunderstorm' is one of the songs I completed in the infamous cowshed in London with Flood and Alan Moulder.  

If you've never witnessed the cowshed, look up vids of PJ Harvey recording her last 'White Chalk' record on youtube.  A thing to behold.  Literally an old cowshed with one of the world's greatest collections of vintage synths lining the walls and one british style space heater to keep you from freezing.  You truly suffer for your art there.  They had some of Bev Bevan's (ELO) 28 inch cymbals there and I insisted on using them.  Bad idea.  The songs got cut because it sounded like someone was tapping a gong on the choruses.

Flood and Alan are hilarious.  They keep pushing you to make everything darker, more empty, more evil.  I would do 4 takes on one of Floods old CMV-563's (which cut out everytime you breathed on them) and they would keep the one that sounded like I was about to die.  Awesome people though.  The most down to earth guys.  
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Bob Ebeling
bobebeling.bandcamp.com
Virginia

bob ebeling

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #13 on: August 23, 2010, 09:05:36 PM »

http://product.half.ebay.com/Downtown-Digipak_W0QQtgZinfoQQp rZ43109612

and here is where you can buy the slab of love for .74 cents!
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Bob Ebeling
bobebeling.bandcamp.com
Virginia

compasspnt

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #14 on: August 23, 2010, 09:12:24 PM »

Bob, what problems, if any, did you find recording in "house rooms" rather than "proper studio rooms," and how did you work to overcome them?
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