Friday, 2 April 2004

Studio.... Music: silence before the music.... Mood: psyching myself up.... I remember once running into Can bassplayer Holger Czukay in a cafe/bar in Cologne. This must have been in the middle of the Eighties during a visit of my parentals. I sat down and told him how much I enjoyed his work and we talked for a while. He was drinking Fernet-Branca, a very bitter Italian liqueur and told me he was drinking it to psych himself up to mix a new album later that afternoon... I found out that Fernet-Branca contains St.John's Wort...alcohol and herbs what a fine combo!!! But I have not yet tried it... PS: check out the web cam on Holger's web site! A live web cam in my studio would be a cool addition for our subscribers....as long as I can turn it off so you don't see me like this famous guitarist... 11:40:33 AM    comment []; Guitar (ca. 1995?) 11:28:19 AM    comment []; "La Semana" packaging Here is the plan: 1. A very simple CD package (one fold less than "nouveaumatic" or "Transit" with no photos, just the necessary info printed on the cardboard - in a new font I created from my own handwriting, for a more personal touch (thanks goes out to Adam, who has Frusciante's handwriting font on his web site - it inspired me to write letters and numbers and symbols by hand, to scan the result and to turn it into my own font). This "no-design" cover will keep the cost down and I hope to be able to offer this package for around $12. 2. A Limited Edition, hand-numbered and signed of course, which will feature the CD inside a custom-made box. In addition to the CD there will be 18 sheets of loose paper, each printed with photographs I have taken and comments about each song. These comments range from technical info to how the song came about, what inspired it etc... I am also considering adding a mini-CD with 3 live recordings to this package. It will be an amazing package, but since the cost of making each package is about 7-10 times higher we will have to charge about $60 for each. There you have it: you will be able to save money and purchase "La Semana" for less money - or you can spend more and get the limited edition... 11:25:53 AM    comment []; Noises on recordings On "NF", at least on my CD, which is an original (for the record), I can "hear" a weird background noise in the begining of "Surrender 2 love" - I always thought it was my CD, but now that you bring all these factors I wonder if the mixing sessions and the mixer itself might have played a role in introducing these noises. . .has anybody noticed that too on this particular song? - Flavio A. Manfredi Lebrao • 4/2/04; 6:32:47 AM Well, it could be a number of things, really. Listen to "Passing Storm" and you will hear the, fortunately rhythmic, squeak of the chair I was sitting in to play. One of the days I was recording we couldn't find a suitable chair in the studio and ended up using an office chair. Other possibilities: the studio was near a concrete plant and since it was not very sound-proof, one had to stop whenever the big trucks were leaving the plant. This wasn't much of a problem as I recorded most of the album at night - after my day job and after the evening guitar gig I had...them were long days and nights, my friend. Sleeplessness is a cheap and highly effective drug... Speaking of noises: check out the noise in the background of the piece "1st Rain/Cry of Faith"! That's the sound of rain on the skylight of the studio in Santa Barbara where we recorded the album "Borrasca". It was literally the first rain in many months and it happened while Davo was recording small percussion instruments. We heard the noise through the wide-open microphones and went with it... 11:09:47 AM    comment [];

© Copyright 2004 Ottmar Liebert. Last update: 01.05.04; 20:13:48.