the dog - spring 2011

SPRING 2011 THE DOG 3

DOGMUSIC PRESENTS

THECONTENTS

CrEdiTSEDITOR

Roberta Pia 0131 229 8211

[email protected]

DEPUTY EDITORAlex Marten 0131 229 8211

[email protected]

CHIEF WRITERRoberta Pia

STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERAndy McKay

(Purrrfect Photography)

CONTRIBUTORS Kirsten Adamson, Will Baker, Garry Boyle,

Andy Farina, Tony Flatt, Pete Flood, Dave Gardner, Laura Hamilton,

Stuart Hamilton, Phil Hopwood, Nick Koumentakis, Chris Lyth, Alex Marten,

Andy McKay, Guy Perchard, Dan Prasad, Jamie Turnbull, Dave Tynan, Graeme Urquhart,

Rod Vaughan.

SHOP PHOTOGRAPHS DN Anderson

www.dnanderson.co.uk

ADVERTISINGRoberta Pia 0131 229 8211

If you would like to advertise in The Dog, please email [email protected]

FRONT COVER ILLUSTRATION The 16K Design Works

DESIGN & ART DIRECTION The 16K Design Works

0131 661 3737 [email protected] www.16kdesign.com

CONTACTRed Dog Music

1 Grassmarket, Edinburgh EH1 2HY 0131 229 8211

[email protected] www.reddogmusic.co.uk

Ding ding! Round two...How are we, folks? We’re back with Issue 2 of The Dog – also known as the Spring Issue. We know it’s only February but we like to adopt a positive mental attitude at all times. Bring on the Spring-time! It’s been an emotional rollercoaster of weather conditions over the past few months. Snow, no snow, more snow, melted snow, talk of snow but no show... We’ve been through it all, haven’t we? I, for one, think it’s been a character building experience and feel even more prepared for the first appearance of the birds and the bees.

In terms of the shop, we’ve had a wonderful few months since the launch of the first magazine. The Dog’s Launch Party went off and I’d like to take this moment to say a massive THANK YOU to everybody that was involved in the night: the bands, the staff, the film crew, the recording engineers, the sound engineers, the venue... and last but definitely not least, the people who made the night so wonderful – you lot! High fives all round to all the legends that made it down to the party and danced your socks off and drank until the cows came home and made a big load of noise for all the hardworking bands that played purely for the love,

man, and not for the money.So, the legend of Red Dog Music

is spreading fast and furiously. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, but we really would be nothing without you lot – our loyal and oh-so-lovely customers. Please, to quote music man Billy Joel, “Don’t go changing to try and please me (us) – you’ve never let me (us) down before.” And if you feel like shouting your mouths off to the masses about us, don’t be shy.

Tell your nearest and dearest about us because I mean it, we really are the friendli-est music store in the universe and we wantthe whole world to know. It’s not every day that music shops get this friendly... That’s not a threat, by the way.

DOGMUSIC PRESENTS

THE EdiTOriAL TOp dOGSThe Top TUneS oN The ShoP STeReo ThIS ISSue

MUSIC’S

“Bring on the Spring-time! ”

4 THE DOG SPRING 2011

ElectronicsThe se4400a

W

hat makes it such a great mic? Its hand built, of course, like all sE mics, so it has a big edge over the mass produced mics that are made by automated machine processes

for a starter. But its real strength lies in the fact that in one perfectly formed package, it meets all your studio vocal, instrument, voice-over, stage and performance applications at a stroke. The 4400a is one of those very rare, true all-rounders that doesn’t compromise on any aspect, performing all the func-tions you’ll need, so you can always reach for it and know it will do the job.

It is compact, so you can use it in tight spaces. It has 4 polar patterns, cardioid, hyper-cardiod, figure of 8 and Omni so you can use it for any type of mic-ing. It has 2 bass cuts and 2 pads (10 and 20dB), which adds even more flex-ibility. Finally, it comes com-plete with a unique, g r o u n d - b r e a k i n g shock mount system which has two fully flexible mounting positions. You can mount the mic fully inside the shock mount where space is a premium, or you can flip the mount around and have the mic sitting completely outside the shock mount, so you can lay it flat onto a guitar cab or drum skin to get right in much closer than with a conventional shock-mounted mic.

All this in a full black, aluminium flight case for road use. The best bit is that it only costs £449 including VAT!

The 4400a is also available as a stereo matched pair for around £900. It’s the perfect mic for the project studio wanting to get a pro sound.

www.seelectronics.com

“The 4400 to is a hugely versatile mic - it's great for acoustic instruments, and I especially like it on drums and percussion. Its hyper-cardioid pattern is extremely useful on toms and snare as it controls cymbal spillage really well and delivers the great punch and tone. I can’t remember a single session over the last 5 years on which I haven’t used an SE mic…” Gil Norton (Foo Fighters, Counting Crows, Feeder)

“The 4400a has proved extremely useful on Bass, Guitar, Acoustic Gtr., Snare Drum, Piano – it is a true all rounder in the tradition of the U87 and the 414”Tony Platt (Bob Marley, AC DC)

“My pair of sE4400a mics is probably one of the best deals on the market”Marco Migliari (Chief Engineer Realworld Studios)

This is one of the hottest products to come from sE since

the launch of the 2200a, our best selling condenser mic for 3 years running and winner of the Music IndustryAssociation

award for best condenser mic of the year twice!

PACK PROFILE#01

Name: Roberta Pia

About:Roberta still loves music, the colour red and dogs. She still writes for and fronts a band called The Banana Sessions. To be honest, not much has changed in the past three months. Oh wait; she developed her first stress-related wrinkle. Aside from that, she recently re-discovered her love for tequila, got her first tattoo and has spent the majority of her time over-using the word ‘amazing’. Amazing.

Check our blog at...RedDogMusic.co.uk

RuSh ‘YYZ’

The BeaTleS ‘ThE WoRd’

JImI heNdRIx ‘huSh NoW’

SquIRRelNuT ZIPPeRS ‘ThE GhoST of STEPhEN foSTER’

FRoST ‘Black liGhT MachiNE’

WIllIam douGlaSaNd The Wheel ‘SuNShiNE’

RoykSoPP ‘TRickY TWo’

SPRING 2011 TH 5


This phenomenal band began in 2004, formed by the oh-so-formida-ble musical force - John Spiers and Jon Boden. Their initial plan was to storm the festival circuit and have a

blast, but as the years have gone by (about six of them I believe, roughly), they’ve become a very highly respected and successful musical venture with THREE mind-blowing albums under their belt (Burlesque, Matachin and Hedonism), FOUR Best Live Act nominations at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and HEAPS of appearances across the UK and North America, as well as featuring at a plethora of music festivals. They’ve even made a number of television appearances and I’m positive we heard Jools Holland’s name being mentioned...

INTERVIEW BY ROBERTA PIA

n case you didn’t know, Bellowhead are a musical parade of loveable, raggle taggle folksters comprised of friends of friends of friends.

E s t a b l i s h e d 2 0 0 4

BELLOWHEADW H A T S H A L L W E D O W I T H A D R U N K E N S A I L O R ?


*What is your current musical set-up? Essentially a horn section, a string section, drums, squeezebox and guitars, with a few extras like bagpipes, frying pans, helicon (a tuba that you can climb into) and oboe. Everybody sings.

*What has been your best gig to date? New Years Eve last year at London’s South- bank Centre. We took over the building and put on a whole range of nautically-themed music and other stuff (including Boxershorts Bingo). We did a trad music set and also a set where we each covered a 70’s disco classic. We’re something similar this year, but with a circus theme.


*Tell us the story behind Bellowhead. It’s a woeful tale of chaos and amateurism. Essentially emminent folk duo Spiers and Boden decided to form a party band full of improb-

able instruments, but realising they had no mates from the realms of proper musical endeavour; they set about phoning people they vaguely knew, almost at random. The band is comprised of those of us stupid enough to say yes.

*How did you come up with the name?

We strapped one hundred monkeys to

one hundred typewriters for one hundred days - Bellowhead is the best thing they came up with, although one did manage the

denouement of Titus Andronicus.

achievement, on challenges met, competitors bested, obstacles overcome. Uplift maybe - spiritual rather than mastoid, obviously.

*Which bits of musical gear would you recom-mend to the masses? Dream cymbals - I started using them during the last tour and never went back to my old cymbals that I’d spent years acquiring. Also, a range of mechanical toys and an onstage bottle opener are a must.

*Who are bellowhead’s favourite bands? There are eleven radically different answers to that question. I’ll try to guess them - Arcade Fire, Joni Mitchell, Tom Waits, Blowzabella, Jethro Tull, The Band, Anthony and The Johnsons, Keyshon Khan, Rebirth Brass Band, Shibusashirazu, Extra Golden.

*What’s happening next? A secret television show.

“we’ve finally nailed transferring the excitement

of our live shows to cd”

Bellowhead’s

Dream cymbals

“I started using them during

the last tour and never went back

to my old cymbals that I’d

spent years

acquiring.”

FAVOURITE BANDS

he heartbeat and drumstick maestro of the band, Pete flood, took a little bit of time out of his hectic festive schedule to talk to us all about Bellowhead life.

Bellowhead Bellowhead

*How do you go about arranging/ writing a new tune? We’re quite old school in that we work to written arrangements, at least at first. But part of the process of breathing life into a tune is taking the dots and making them our own, so we mess around with things a lot in rehearsal. Also, we don’t use music onstage - we memorise each tune before we play it live - so inevitably bits get forgotten, other bits get added - it’s all very organic.

*Which Bellowhead record are you most proud of? Hedonism, our new record, because with this one we’ve finally nailed the task of transferring the excitement of our live shows to cd. The others are all great in their own ways, but we always had a nagging sense that the live experience and the cds were two different things.

*What do you want your music to achieve? It’s funny. We can look back on a life of

Arcade Fire

Joni Mitchell

Anthony and The Johnsons

The Band

Rebirth Brass Band


Name: Nick

About:Born under a red moon and raised by a small pack of Wolves fans, nowadays Nick enjoys pedigree chumminess and winning a lot. A nat-urally ebullient extro-vert, Nick can often be seen racing his large fleet of expensive sports cars and yachts around the Outer Hebrides...

PACK PROFILE#02Waldorf Blofeld Desktop & Keyboard(Keyboard: Red Dog Price: £571.00 inc. VAT) (Desktop Synthesizer RRP: £407.68 inc. VAT / Red Dog Price: £329.00 inc. VAT)

B oth salad and Bond villain? This versatile product’s competitor-threatening ingredients

don’t feature celery.Many will be familiar with the

highly-regarded synthesisers, filters and other musical gizmos Waldorf have produced over the years, including, more recently, a range of plug-ins. Waldorf instruments could certainly drop names: the ‘Wave’, for example, has been recorded by The Orb, Hans Zimmer and Depeche Mode and the ‘Pulse’ has been heard on tracks by 808 State and Nine Inch Nails.

With the Blofeld, Waldorf seems to be trying to package the analog-

modelling and wavetable-based synthesis clout of those synth

classics into an affordable and convenient form. They also make the most of new possibilities based on

current technology. It’s a product that helps sell itself based on its impressive value for money and clear design.

The Blofeld affords shiny clean multi-layered lead sounds, sub-rattling basses, floaty pads and plinky arpeggiated patches, or other more experimental or plain mental sounds, without incurring the wrath of your bank manager or better half. It might make an ideal addition to a computer-based system, an all-analogue synth setup, or as a standalone synth/module/sampler for live use, but at a fraction of the cost of some of its competition.

A few of the Red Dog Music staff take time out to tell us what they think are the coolest bits of gear in-store at the moment. Let’s meet them and find out what they think rawks...PICKS!

PRoducT


Alternative Recommendations

Cheaper: Korg Microkorg Performance Synthesiser (£299.00)Middle Of The Road: Novation UltraNova Keyboard Synthesiser (£499.00)Creme De La Creme: Moog SlimPhatty Analog Synth (£679.00)

“SELLS ITSELF BASED ON ITS IMPRESSIVE VALUE FOR MONEY”

Buy online at:

RedDogMusic.co.uk

or visit us at the shop

for a Demo!


SE Electronic RT1 (RRP: £740.25 / Red Dog Price: £399.00)

S

it back, relax and let me tell you a tale. A tale of how I lost my virginity... My Ribbon Microphone

virginity! No, wait! Don’t turn the page! It’ll be interesting, I promise!

Every man and his Red Dog have used dynamic microphones in their time, and most budding home recorders have a pretty decent ‘go-to’ condenser microphone these days. “Who needs ribbon mics?” I used to wonder. Dynamic micro-

phones are good for recording loud stuff, softening harsh

sounds and for stage use, condenser microphones are good for capturing stuff accurately in the stu-dio. Right? Right! One necessity I never really knew existed until I tried SE Electronic’s RT1 was to capture sound with ‘character’, rather than clinical accuracy.

On my first use of the RT1, I was actually pretty horrified by what I was hearing. Boomy, boxy and dull! How could this be?! After some red wine cont- emplation, I went back to my recording to see if any-thing could be salvaged.

I found that by simply rolling off the

bass frequen-cies (about -12dB from 450Hz down) and taming

those war-bly lows,

I revealed a beautifully natural, warm and smooth sound that almost seemed to have a personality. After a bit more experimentation, I can now confidently tell you this microphone sounds amazingly ‘real’ on vocals and as a room mic for guitar cabs and drums. It’s not only a ribbon mic, it also has a valve at the output stage so if you really push it the out-put starts to break up in a lovely saturated way. You’ll need to play around with the EQ to get the results you’ll want, but they’re worth it in the end!

SE Electronic’s philosophy seems to be “Neumann quality, Far East prices” as their mics are machined from solid brass tubes and hand assembled, tested and tuned by real technicians and electrical engineers. Their happy workers are well paid and their dedicated production facility is clean and full of modern equipment. The RT1 is definitely like nothing I’ve used before and all the better for it.

PICKS!PRoducT

PICKS!PRoducT


Farida D32 Acoustic Guitar(RRP: £549.99 inc. VAT / Red Dog Price: £499.99 inc. VAT)

F

arida guitars have only been available in the UK for a short

while; however, they are quickly gaining a great reputation for their fan-tastic playability, build quality and exceptional value for money. I think

the D32 is a particularly lovely acoustic model and it’s a steal at £470 including a hard case!

The solid red cedar top and rare quilted mahogany back and sides give it a beautifully warm tone and classic look. Having tried and

tested most of the

Farida range in store,

I find they are always well set-up and the D32 is especially nice to play! For any style of guitarist this model will shine, whether it is for strumming, finger picking, with a pick or without, the superbly bal-anced tone will make sure every note you play rings true.

I am also the owner of an amazing Farida electric model - The CT-60, which I use live with The Gillyflowers. Unfortunately there is not enough page room to rave about it but you can check it out on Farida’s website www.faridaguitars.co.uk. Alternatively, pop in to Red Dog and check out the entire range.


Cheaper: Tanglewood TW28CSN Acoustic Guitar (£199.00)Creme De La Creme: Freshman FA500DCD (£1,139.00)


Cheaper: Korg Microkorg Performance Synthesiser (£299.00)Middle Of The Road: Novation UltraNova Keyboard Synthesiser (£499.00)Creme De La Creme: Moog SlimPhatty Analog Synth (£679.00)

Name: Guy

About:Guy is a 25 year old human male who enjoys long sessions in the recording stu-dio, pinot noir and extremely large steaks. He is a Jersey-born Southern Softie who often spends holidays in the sun with Bergerac and Graeme Le Saux. He has been producing and engineering rock bands for about 10 years, work-ing with the likes of Vulnerable and We Modern Cadets, as well as writing and recording his own brand of weird industrial art-metal in his band Februus.

PACK PROFILE#04

Name: Kirsten

About:Kirsten is the only girl that works on the Red Dog Music shop floor, making her one of the coolest girls in the world and making her job one of the most sought-after in all the land. What’s even cooler is that she

knows her stuff when it comes to guitars – so much so that she is endorsed by Farida. She writes for and fronts her own band,

The Gillyflowers, as well as being a member of much-loved local band, Aberfeldy. You can catch the Gillyflowers live in Red Dog Music at our Hair of the Dog Sundays show on 27th February 2011.

PACK PROFILE#03

Buy online at:

RedDogMusic.co.ukor visit us at the shop

for a Demo!

“FOR ANY STYLE OF GUITARIST THIS MODEL WILL SHINE.” “LIKE NOTHING

I’VE USED BEFORE AND ALL THE BETTER FOR IT.”

Buy online at:

RedDogMusic.co.uk


for a Demo!

Name: Jamie

About:Jamie has lived music since he was a spotty teenager. A guitarist primarily, but also enjoys bass, drums and vocal duties regu-larly. He has played in rock bands most of his life and has enjoyed local success and infamy over the years. His proudest post gig moment was wak-ing up in a stranger’s bed with a rubber duck and an empty packet of KY jelly (true story). Nowadays, he concen-trates his energy on Sound Engineering and production. His better half often complains about him talking about studios in his sleep - he is that dedicated to his art! He can also be found on stage with his soul band and lecturing part time at a local col-lege. A true gem with a heart of gold and a truly wicked outlook on life!

PACK PROFILE#05


PICKS!PRoducT

Blackstar HT-5H Guitar Amp (RRP: £269.OO inc. VAT / RED DOG PRICE: £249.00 inc. VAT)

T

hese amps may be new, but the brains behind them certainly are not. With a design team

boasting nearly 50 years experience between them, headed up by two of Marshall’s most experienced designers, it’s no wonder they have so many artists on their side. They boast Brit indie stars such as James Dean Bradfield (Manic Street Preach-ers), Steve Cradock (Paul Weller)

Gaz Coombes (Supergrass) as well as some amazing international hard rock acts such as Opeth, Ozzy’s new flame Gus G and Devildriver.

So, let’s have a look at the HT5 head, the smallest head in the Blackstar arsenal. It’s a simple two channel all-valve head, with a shared EQ and Blackstar’s patented ISF control. The head pumps out a nice 5 watts making it perfect for record-ing or practising in the house. Any valve amp fan will tell you, all valve amps need to be turned up to sound good - so a 100 watt valve amp in the house is not ideal. That’s where a 5 watt valve amp has its advantages: you can turn it up loud so it sounds good without making your ears bleed.

The clean has all the sparkle you need, working particularly well

with single coil guitars. The drive can give you anything from a nice crunch, raunchy blues through to all out metal. The three band EQ helps you shape your sound, but it’s the ISF pot that really helps you get the sound in your head - turn it one way and you’re as British as a cup of Earl Grey; turn the other way and you’re an all-American burger with the trimmings.

Loads of power and loads of tone in a small box. You can buy it with two small matching cabs but if you want to hear the sound in my head, hook it up to a 4x12 and have it blow your head clean off. A must for all studios and serious tone hounds who don’t want to bug the neighbours. I reckon it could hold its own any day of the week.



Cheaper: Blackheart BH15H Handsome Devil Guitar Head (£199.00)Middle-Of-The-Road: Orange Tiny Terror Head Gui-tar Head (£296.01)Creme De La Creme: Mesa Boogie Transatlantic TA15 Lunchbox Guitar Amp Head (£949.00)

TC Helicon VoiceLive Touch (RRP: £480.58 inc. VAT / Red Dog Price: £415.00 inc. VAT)

C

onsidering the fact that the vocalist is generally the focal point of a band (what would the Rolling

Stones be without Mick or Guns ‘n’ Roses without Axl?), it’s odd that they don’t have as many techy goodies as other musicians; they just rock up with their mic. TC Helicon have made it their mission in life to change that – they noticed that there was a huge range of little boxes that make your guitar or your bass sound different, but barely any little boxes that make your voice sound different.

The crown in their latest product line-up has got to be the VoiceLive Touch – a relatively small unit that is designed from the ground up to be intuitive and quick to use. A simple but neat feature is that it can easily be attached to a mic stand – it just slips on and sits comfortably under your mic glowing futuristically like a prop from Tron.

Looking good is, of course, only part of the package. On the front panel, there are large, backlit buttons to access all the effects – Modulation, Delay, Reverb, Double (which simu-lates the classic studio technique of

double-tracking; layering two copies of the same vocal line on top of

one another to thicken the sound), and Harmony (which adds up to a whole choir worth of backing sing-

ers, without having to hire

a bus to get them to the gig).Alongside these are buttons to

access quick pitch-changing effects (clearly labelled with more or less manly / womanly icons to give you an idea of what the effect will do to your voice) and five “Favourites” buttons, allowing you to quickly access stored effects combinations. There’s also a “Talk” button that bypasses all the effects so you can talk to the crowd without sounding like a deranged chipmunk.

Like with guitar effects, it’s impor-tant not to overuse the VoiceLive Touch – 12-part harmonies drenched in cathedral reverb may not sit so well on top of that Beatles cover – but, used well, it offers a quick and intuitive way to take your vocal per-formances to the next level.

PICKS!PRoducT

Name: Alex

About:Raised by jazz wolves in a back alley off London’s legendary Denmark Street, feeding off the discarded guitar strings and plectrums thrown to him by sympathetic music store employees, Alex Marten has always had music coursing through his veins. In recent years, he has not only created a company, Red Dog Music, but also a son, Julien, who is destined to be a great musician (no pres-sure there, then...).

PACK PROFILE#06


Cheaper: Boss VE20 Vocal Effects Pedal (£189.00)Middle Of The Road: TC Helicon VoiceTone Harmony G XT Vocal Harmony Processor (£205.00)Creme De La Creme: TC Helicon VoiceLive 2 Vocal Processor (£665.00)

Buy online at:

RedDogMusic.co.uk


for a Demo!

“DESIGNED FROM THE GROUND UP TO BE INTUITIVE AND qUICK TO USE.”

“LOADS OF POWER AND LOADS OF TONE IN A SMALL BOx.”

Buy online at:

RedDogMusic.co.ukor visit us at the shop

for a Demo!

PICKS!PRoducT


Akai SynthStation 25 iPhone Controller KeyboardThis ingenious contraption will turn your iPhone/iPod touch into a portable music production studio for music creation on the go. This MIDI

keyboard controller gives your handheld device a two-octave range of piano keys and profes-

sional audio outputs.

Basically, if you want to turn your iPhone into a proper musical instrument – the Synthsta-tion25 will make it a walk in the park for you. All you have to do is stick the aforementioned handheld device into this amazing synth-shaped shell and you’re off. Plus it

looks a bit cooler too.

REDDOG PRICE: £74.99

Vox AC1RV RhythmVOx Mini Guitar AmplifierA renegade amongst mini amps that includes not one but SIXTY-SIX built-in Rhythm/Song patterns AND you can use it wherever you like because of the miniscule amount of space it takes up: in your bedroom, your office, next to the toilet... It’s renowned as being the perfect first amp or practise amp, and we can certainly see why. It even has a headphone jack so you can rip some face-melting guitar riffs in the privacy of your own head. So, if you’re look-ing for a little bit on the side...

REDDOG PRICE: £50

sE Electronics GM10 Guitar Condenser MicrophoneIt’s an age old argument: technical perfection versus emotion. In the studio, however, the sound needs to be consistent. This mic bridges the gap between ‘getting involved’ and maintaining a consistent tone. For all you guitar-rocking movers and shakers out there, this bit of gear was MADE for you; with a bracket that fits neatly onto your guitar, it creates technical consistency and allows a recording oozing with good old-fashioned, passionate guitar love. Simply find your

sweet spot and rock out with your... GM10 out.

REDDOG PRICE: £99

Go-Go-Gadget!

Blue Icicle Mic Converter and PreampThis sleek and st-st-st-stylish USB converter and mic preamp com-bo allows you to connect ANY micro-phone you damn well please into ANY compu-ter you damn well please via USB. Whether you’re using a microphone for digital recording, podcasting, or voice messaging, this is your quickest,

easiest option. It fea-tures a studio quality microphone Preamp, 48V Phantom Power, fully Balanced low noise front end, analog gain control, and driverless operation. I don’t think I need to say any more apart from - this is the future. The future is nice and sim-ple. It’s also small, portable and ridiculously easy to use.


Alesis Videotrack Portable Video and Audio RecorderDesigned for capturing gigs and rock ‘n’ roll rehearsals. It’s equally use-

ful for everyday things like nights out painting the town a dubious shade of rouge or your kids’ medal-winning Sports Day. Get filming – there are hilarious things happening all the time that simply must be broadcast to the masses.


WTO a banD COmInG In TO THE STuDIO TO RECORD fOR THE fIRST TImE?Stuart: Be prepared! Again, don’t be afraid to ask to visit studios, meet the engineer and ask as many questions as you need to before you record. Don’t make the mistake of letting price become the only factor in deciding which studio you choose as it can be incredibly misleading. A good engineer can achieve more in a day than a medio-cre one can achieve in a week. Once you decide where you’re going to record, make sure you have rehearsed. And then rehearse again! Be realistic about what you want to achieve each day and enjoy every single minute of it.Scott: Talk for a while about how you want things to go before you start. If you tell Stuart what it is you’re looking for, chances are he’ll have a way of getting that sound out of his gear. And get the car-amel shortbread from the shop next door. It’s a ‘gold medal’ of a biscuit.

HaT’S SO GOOD abOuT CaSTlESOunD?Stuart: Basically, the sound we can achieve. Castlesound is the largest recording studio in Scotland. It’s known for

the amazing sound of its huge recording area which allows a band to play completely live - something we’re seeing a return of more and more now, after years of people trying to record in their bedrooms. Everyone is always blown away by the location and they love the fact that it’s a gorgeous old converted Victori-an school building, full of atmosphere and hidden away in the countryside (yet still only 20 minutes drive from Edinburgh).

However, perhaps the biggest draw is Castlesound’s array of equipment. Aside from the oblig-atory Pro Tools HD system, we have outstanding mics such as the Brauner VM1, Sony C-800 and Blue Bottle which, when coupled with an outboard from the likes of Manley, Summit and Neve and our SSL mixing desk, make for one of the best studio gear lists in the UK. Of course, having one of the best engineers around helps too!Scott: It has one of the most naturally beautiful sounding live rooms in Scotland and there are plenty of options in the building to mess around with interesting room sounds. It also has a fantastic engineer called Stuart Hamilton - the real reason why it’s so easy and enjoyable to work there.

DESCRIbE CaSTlESOunD In THREE WORDS.Stuart: Unique in Scotland.Scott: Sausage. Pickle. Rolls.

TEll uS a funny/amazInG/ EDuCaTIOnal STORy abOuT CaSTlESOunD.Stuart: There are many funny stories but sadly, most are bound to secrecy... sort of like a Hippo-cratic Oath for engineers. However, one of our favourites was when REM were in recording and were perhaps finding the lack of five-star catering facilities slightly challenging. As a strict vegetarian and a bit of a picky eater, Michael Stipe played it safe and simply asked for a yogurt and an apple,

but a trip to the infamous shop next door could only produce a Macaroni Pie. To his credit, he ate it, gallantly. Strangely though, he never requested it again.Scott: It used to be a school-house and the lady who cleans the studio each morning (Marga-ret, I believe) was a pupil at the school.

WHy SHOulD PEOPlE PICK CaSTlESOunD

STuDIOS OvER any OTHER STuDIOS?Stuart: You shouldn’t, necessarily! You should always pick the studio that’s most suited to what you want to do. Look around, visit studios, meet the engineer and then make up your mind. You’ll know when you find the right place. Of course, if that’s Castlesound then all the better.Scott: It’s a very easy place to get work done. There are no distractions. In Pencaitland you can feel quite ‘removed’ from the world which really helps when you want to immerse yourself fully in a project. But first and foremost, it just sounds fantastic.

WHaT aDvICE WOulD yOu GIvE

Recording music is probably one of, if not THE most important factor in a musician’s life. That’s why you want to make sure you pick the right studio with the right sound engineer. There are a number of brilliant recording studios in Edinburgh, but one that stands out as a bit of a winner for us is Castlesound.

There are a number of reasons why; one of which is they’ve had some fantastic bands in their studio – Mark Knopfler, The Proclaimers, Fright-ened Rabbit and R.E.M... to name but a few. We caught up with sound engineer, STUART HAMILTON and Frightened Rabbit frontman, SCOTT HUTCHISON, to try and get a bit of insight into the Castlesound experience from two quite different perspectives.

SP TLIGHT

On...

CaSTleSouNd

StuDiOS

In case you didn’t know... Frightened Rabbit are a Glasgow based band formed in 2003. They have stormed Scotland in true style by getting signed to FatCat Records and supporting Gomez on tour. Check them out: wearefrightenedrabbit.com. Castle-sound has been around for over 30 years and is now one of the leading recording studios in the UK. Contact Castlesound by telephone: +44 (0) 131 346 1942, or by email: [email protected]

“yOu Can fEEl quITE ‘REmOvED’ fROm THE WORlD WHICH REally HElPS”

Frightened Rabbit in Castlesound Studios while they were recording last year.

The Castlesound control room – where all the magic happens.

“OnE Of THE mOST

naTuRally bEauTIful SOunDInG

lIvE ROOmS In SCOTlanD”

SPRING 2011 THE DOG 19 18 THE DOG SPRING 2011


drake music scotlandd

rake Music Scotland is Scotland’s leading arts organisation, creating music-making opportunities for people with disabilities. Using a range of musical instruments and the latest in inclusive music

technology, Drake delivers music tuition for children and adults as well as training for teachers and musicians in schools and communities across the country.

In May 2010, Drake added record-ing to its list of services when it opened a fully accessible state-of-the-art music studio at its base in

Craigmillar. Thanks to a Big Lottery Fund Peoples Millions award, children and adults with disabilities now have the opportunity to record their own perform-ances and compositions onto CD or upload to the internet. In doing so, they

can give pleasure back to the community through their music and show the world how much talent they’ve got.

Patrons of the charity, The Proclaiers, took time out of their busy schedule to come along and officially launch the new facility, making it an extra special day for participating musicians, their families and carers alike. “Music should be mass participation” said Charlie Reid “To come along here today to see how professionally it’s being done, the quality of equipment and people is fantastic and a really inspiring thing”.

In the short time since opening, Drake has run recording projects for six local disability organisations including Orcadia, Craighall Centre, Royal Edinburgh Hospital and Caring in Craigmillar as well as supporting the band Audability to record a new album.

For up to date news about the studio and other Drake Music Scotland activities, visit their website at www.drakemusicscotland.org

going that extra mile...


“to see how Professionally it’s Being done is fantastic

and insPiring”

The Proclaimers with members of the Drake Music Scotland band Audability launching the new recording studio.

If you are interested or know of someone who

might benefit from taking part in one of Drake’s projects,

please contact them at [email protected]

or 0131 659 4766


ersonally, I think this is where the vast majority of your hard earned pennies should be spent in your home studio. Get-

ting the best speakers you can afford and getting them set up in an environment you can accurately assess what you are recording and mixing is one of the safest investments you will make in this game. Knowing your speakers inside out will allow you to make rock solid decisions on microphone placement, EQ and processing when tracking and mixing your music. Try a few sets out and get the ones that work best with the style of music you are producing.

P

he first thing you are going to need is the right equipment. Sadly, I don’t have enough time or page space to get into the specifics

but if you pop in to Red Dog Music, one of the very friendly and helpful staff will see you get the right stuff. I would, however, like to emphasize that a few sensible purchases in some key areas will keep you going for years to come:

T

GeaR

Dos & Don’tS The of. . .

PRODUCING YOUROWN RECORD

or many, many reasons, bands and musicians choose to record

themselves. For some, it is an avenue of creativity in the writing process. For others, it is a simple case of econom-ics. This guide should hope-fully help you along the DIY route of recording yourself at home.

F

By Garry Boyle of CP Productions

moNIToRS

PRODUCING YOUR OWN RECORDPRODUCING YOUR OWN RECORD

aving realistic goals and a solid under-standing of how your piece will take shape will allow you to work in a streamlined

way. A very important part of recording yourself will be in the preparation of the session itself. Try to separate the setting up of equipment and getting of sounds from the time you spend performing and tracking. Little technical gremlins do show up and will lead to frustration that will never transfer well into a performance. When you start recording yourself it is very important to keep the engineer side of your brain away from the musician side. Be fluent enough with your software that bringing up a new track and other simple tasks does not get in the way of you getting the parts down.

H

ou don’t need hundreds of expensive mic-rophones to make great recordings. A bare minimum will see you with two or

three key microphones you will use for most ap-plications. A decent dynamic microphone (Shure SM57 or SM58, for example) and a condenser mi-crophone (SE, Audio Technica, AKG, to name but a few...) will see you most of the way there. Moving a microphone a few inches will, on occasion, make a bigger difference than swapping it for another, so spend a bit of time getting this absolutely right. This is especially the case when tracking drums with minimal microphones and on instruments such as an acoustic guitar. Like your monitors, these are safe investments so it’s definitely worth spending that little bit extra.

Y

he best advice I can offer here is: keep it simple and get as creative as you feel the song warrants. It’s amazing how far some

careful EQ to help fit the sounds, some light com-pression to help control the dynamics and some lib-eral reverb can do to a track. Reference your mixes to other music you like and see how it compares. As earlier, your monitoring is the key here and will allow you to accurately judge what is going on in the mix.

T

hen you write, record, produce and mix your own song, the biggest risk you run is losing perspective on it. You love the song

but has the take done it justice? The lyric is great, but was your vocal take in keeping with the sentiment? The mix is sounding superb, but is that because I am the loudest thing in it? Try and build in some time between recording and mixing to hear the first playback and listen to your gut instinct. Better still, bring in some outside ears that you trust and get a second opinion. It may not be the right opinion but it may also throw up something you have over-looked in the mix because you have been so preoc-cupied with the arrangement or performance.

W

PRePaRaTIoN

mICRoPhoNeS

Dos & Don’tS The of. . .Dos & Don’tS The of. . .

24 THE DOG SPRING 2011 SPRING 2011 THE DOG 25

his all being said; to me, producing and recording music is a collaborative process where everyone’s input is equal and the

best recordings I have worked on have seen every-one working at what they do best and trusting others to do the same. Be sure to get lots of opinions that you trust to help you retain perspective and try to experiment with everything you can. Recording your-self to a high standard is a huge challenge but on the plus side, it opens up a huge pot of new tools and techniques to inspire new creativity in your music.It also makes you sound pretty cool. Best of luck!

T

PeRSPeCTIVe

mIxING

arry is a well-known and very talented Edinburgh producer who has worked with an array of local bands including

Bombskare, The Banana Sessions, Rossco Galloway & The Chans and The Discordian Trio, to name only a few. As well as studio recording, he’s also done a lot of live recording at venues in and around Edinburgh, his upcoming one being ‘Live at The Jazz Bar’ which features the finest selection of bands recorded live from the infamous Jazz Bar on Chambers Street. If you want to check out his work or get in touch about getting some studio / live recording done for you or your band, please visit www.c-p-productions.com

GmeeT

GaRy Boyle

In the last issue of The Dog, a case was made by Alex Marten that collaborative music making was the best form of music expression. I am here to disagree with him… to some extent at least.


laying music in a band is the most fun I have with making music. We get to be creative together, drink together, laugh together,

argue together, and generally share great experiences together. Bands go beyond being just a bunch of musicians playing the same song: there are bigger things at work. To quote Malcolm Mclaren, “Rock and roll doesn’t necessarily mean a band. It doesn’t mean a singer, and it

doesn’t mean a lyric, really. It’s that question of trying to be immortal.” I’d like to think that Alex also drew upon his experience of being in a band in writing his argument; it would be a nice compliment since we play in the same band. (Asazi Space Funk Explosion, in case you’d forgotten). However, there is also another part of me that loves making music (or at least trying to) by

myself. Knowing that a laptop and/or any other number of gadgets and giz-mos available to musicians these days (paired with some creativity, of course) are all I need, allowing me to express myself whenever I want is extremely freeing. I don’t have to wait for a band

practice, I don’t have to give up or alter ideas due to differing views,

and I can create music whenever and however I want. Maybe it’s my ego

screaming for validation; to give me confidence that I alone can make something that others will enjoy. Or maybe it’s just the fact that I can do what I want without the constraints of genre or time.

Over the last 2 years, Red Dog Music and I have run the Unique Beats Electronica Festival. This festival brings together some of the largest manufac-turers of recording and music making gear in the world to flaunt their stuff alongside performances from up-and-coming Electronica musicians from Scotland and beyond. This experience has opened my eyes to the vast amount of tools which are now available to bands and solo artists. I agree with Alex in that there are literally thousands of products allowing people to create music by them-selves but surely this is a good thing? To be a bit philosophical and pretentious for a minute, I believe a musician needs nothing more than an idea or a tune in their head to be a songwriter and what these companies have created are tools that allow us to take that idea and turn it into something that can be shared.

“A MUSICIAN NEEDS NOTHING MORE THAN AN

IDEA OR TUNE IN THEIR HEAD TO BE A SONGWRITER”

P

All by Myself

By Andy Farina (Asazi Space Funk Explosion’s Bassist)


An InvestIgAtIon of

the MAschIne

W

hilst sitting quietly one Monday morning in my beloved Diogenes Club, drinking like a divorcee at Christmas time, the club’s Maitre D’ alerted me to the fact that Ger-

man software company Native Instruments had been jamming the switchboard to tell me news of their new sequencer, sampler & hardware controller which goes by the name of the Maschine. Humbled and abashed, I immediately dispatched my errand boy, Perkins, to fetch me this bold new offering.

I put him to work straight away, setting the device up on my beat making apparatus - a specially con-structed Harris Tweed/ carbonite alloy designed by yours truly. I am pleased to inform you, dear reader, that the installation proc-ess passed quickly & without any unpleasant-ries. Perkins is a dull boy with simple pleasures & appears to have suffered badly at the hands of a particularly cruel & bru-tal taxidermist, so if he can manage it I would think any sound minded individual would have little trouble achieving similar results.

Now as you may well imagine, I am a man of panache & savoir-faire with a devil-may-care attitude, so I threw away the manual, settled down with a pink gin & browsed the tutorial section on the NI website. What struck me immediately was how well thought out & straightforward the Maschine is to operate. Put simply it is an MPC style hardware unit coupled with software, giving the humble user the flexibility of computer-based music production with the ease of a groove box. The controller, which features 41 function buttons, 11 rotary encoders & 16 illuminated velocity-sensitive pads, allows you to create patterns, sequence whole songs, tweak on the fly & interact, MPC style, with the powerful software. In no time at all, I was knocking out beats that had young Perkins gibbering & twitching like a chimpanzee playing with an electric fence.

Furthermore, what is mightily impressive is the amount of sounds to hand & it quickly illuminated the empty cavity of my own dusty sample library. All told

it has 9GB of sounds, covering pretty much every genre from the largely spoken word format music of American ghet-tos, (hip hop - thank you Perkins) to the filthy, drug induced hullaballoo of just about every electronic sub genre. Plus some marvellous acoustic kits, African per-cussion, basses, synths & guitars. You name it, its bally well in there!

Moving on to the FX section, well I really must doff my cap as NI have done a superb job. Included are your usual bread & butter FX such as EQ, compression, delay & reverb, which do the job just fine. The chorus in particular is tip top & gives you a sound that is as thick as a donkey’s foreskin. The filter is, however, my

favourite of the lot, offering some excel-lent modulation

capabilities which are of course

all ready to be tweaked & adjusted with the rotary controllers. Then there are the more unusual FX such as grain delay, chord resonators, Lo-Fi effects, distortion & saturation. Finally there is an option to emulate the sound of the Akai MPC & the E-mu SP-1200.

Never in the field of human hirsuteness has so much been offered for so little. If you are thinking of investing in a powerful MPC style drum sampler/ groovebox that comes with a massive sample library, has great FX, a fast & smooth workflow & is superb for live performance, I should hope most stringently that you cast an eye over the Maschine.

“In no tIMe At All,I wAs knockIng out beAts”

“BEING A SOLO ARTIST SHOULD NOT BE ABOUT

BEING A RECLUSE”


All by Myself

by Colonel W.E. Hammergun Malesbury

We have software that can emulate effects and processes of equipment

beyond most of our financial means (such as Ableton, Pro-Tools, etc.), pow-erful cheap computers (such as Carillon), free software for recording, hardware to make life easier (the APC40, for exam-ple)... the list goes on, and on, and on. Life has never been better for musicians - you can even write songs on your phone, for crying out loud. Without musicians wanting to do something by themselves we wouldn’t have Nick Drake, Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Four Tet, Amon Tobin... Yes, some of them have collaborated with people from time to time and featured backing bands on some tracks but on the whole, they are solo artists. They, themselves, have sat down and written and performed their music and I for one think the world of music is all the better for these musicians.

In this day and age, even if you are producing music by yourself, it can still be a social experience. Uploading tracks to your Myspace, Facebook or Sound-cloud page automatically puts it into the public domain and allows you to get feed-back from those around you - whether that means one of your close friends or

some random from Uzbekistan! of course, this modern form of musical socialising isn’t restricted to solo artists but it allows us all to get heard, get

fans, get feedback and meet likeminded people. There is no doubt a cor-relation between the rise of the internet and the number of tools available to musicians with products

that are easily downloadable from the click of

a mouse. Of course, some will say that this correlation also directly relates to the decline of music sales and the abundance of home-recorded ‘pop-stars’ flooding the market with musical diarrhea, but that’s a discus-sion for another article. Although writing and releas-ing music from your home studio is all well and good, being a solo artist should not be about being a recluse. The best way to promote yourself in your local area is still, and in my opinion always will be, playing live. Whether it’s a small coffee shop or a club, playing live is more than worthwhile as it will focus your energies a bit more and provide you with instant feedback from the audience during the performance. You can then reflect on what you did right and what needs improving in your songwriting after the performance. Playing live is your learning curve. If you want to make music, go ahead and make music; whether it’s in a band or all by yourself. Making music shouldn’t just be confined to those who want to be in bands that want to take over the world and get drunk every night - it should be enjoyed by absolutely any-one, and now it can be. I strongly suggest you check out Red Dog Music’s Hair of the Dog Sundays Open Couch Session if you fancy having a bash at play-ing live in front of an open and friendly crowd. For electronica musicians, check out www.uniquebeats.co.uk for info about featuring on our podcasts which are heard by over 3000 listeners, as well as being in with a chance to perform live at one of our Unique Beats events.

Please take the time to go and check out www.burningdog.co.uk and have a listen to Alex Marten’s amazing solo album. That’s right, solo!

• Established Two Thousand and Eleven •

or the last twelve years, I’ve been fitting strings as recommended by Robbie Gladwell - and it works. I used to be of

the once-through-the-hole-is-good-enough school of thought but after setting-up fifteen guitars in an afternoon for a Gibson/Epiphone showcase, I had it demonstrated, very publicly, that a secure string winding can make all the difference between playing in tune and sounding crap.

Hitherto, I would simply thread the string through the machine-head and wind on, creating the 90 degree bend I’d always trusted. I was of the opinion that, provided the string was neatly wound onto the capstan and stretched before playing, everything would be hunky dory.

Whatever happened to distract me from the task in hand that particular afternoon, I don’t know - a stray phone call perhaps - but as chance would have it, the one guitar, whose strings weren’t properly bedded in, was the same one selected for a certain piece in the demo. When Robbie went for a big bend, mid-solo, the results were predictable and I could feel my face glowing with embarrassment!

He was very decent about the whole thing and assured me that once I’d got into the way of the Gibson fitting method I’d never use any other and, do you know, he was dead right! Ever since then I’ve elected to use this method of string fitting, whatever the guitar. It’s become second

nature and whenever possible I’ve sought to rec-ommend it to others.

It’s much easier to see in the flesh than to try and explain but the string is fed through the machine-head as normal; leaving a small amount of slack in the string’s playing length. Once through the hole you double back, around the capstan on the side opposite the machine-head button. Go under the string where it originally went through the hole, then pull upwards and forwards towards the headstock.

Keeping gentle pressure on the loose string end as you turn the machine-head button and you’ll see that the string becomes locked onto itself. Once there are a couple of descending turns under-pinning the “lock” and the string is up to pitch, simply cut off the excess as close as possible to avoid being spiked. Give them all a stretch playing and off you go.

So, to summarise: 1. Through the hole and round the bend. 2. Under and up, cut the end. 3. Do it right and keep it tight. 4. Play in tune for the rest of the night. Dr. Fretlove returns next time...

“a SeCuRe STRING WINdING CaN make all The dIFFeReNCe BeTWeeN PlayING

IN TuNe aNd SouNdING CRaP”

String ’em Up…F


THE GIBSOn STRInG FITTInG METHOD


YOUR FAVOURITE TUNES & ALBUMS AT THE MOMENT?Peter Herbolzheimer Rhythm Combination and Brass ‘Wait a Minute’Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan ‘Mustt Mustt’Ahmad Jamal ‘Pavanne’Tomas Dvorak ‘Machinarium Soundtrack’Origamibiro ‘Cracked Windows and Stopped Clocks’

Hidden Orchestra are one of the hottest bands in edinburgh at the moment.

“EVERY BIT AS jAW-DROPPING AS

Dj SHADOW’S ENDTRODUCING.”

DESCRIBE YOUR MUSICALSTYLE IN THREE WORDS.Epic Breakbeat Holst.

YOUR BEST AND WORST GIGS?The best and worst gigs nearly always depend on the crowd. Hidden Door Festival (Edinburgh) and Insider Festival (Inshriach, Aviemore) both stood out as really-good-vibe-gigs this year - we only really have a bad gig due to technical stuff - forgotten/faulty equipment, etc...

TELL US A FUNNY HIDDENORCHESTRA STORY.We supported Coolio.

BEST AND WORST DECRIPTIONOF YOUR BAND SO FAR?Worst: Groovy electro-jazz from Edinburgh quartet.Best: Every bit as jaw-dropping as DJ Shadow’s Endtroducing.

Questions by Roberta Pia


ormerly known as the Joe Acheson

Quartet, this band have put their

blood, sweat and tears into creating

the most mind-blowing, darkest,

completely mesmerizing and beautifully epic

music you will ever hear. Their live performances

have left audiences stunned, silenced, with their

jaws hanging wide open - I know because I was

there. They’ve been super hard at work creating

their filthy bass-lined cinematic soundscapes

for a number of years now, and much to

Edinburgh’s genuine pride and joy – they

recently got signed to Brighton record label,

Tru Thoughts.

They’re touring all over the shop at the

moment promoting their brand spanking new

album Night Walks but one of their drummers

(that’s right, ONE of them...), Jamie Graham,

told me that they put their heads together

whilst on their tour bus to do this interview for

us. Ladies and gentlemen, let’s meet the Hidden

Orchestra...

F

WHO ARE YOUR FAVOURITE LOCAL BANDS?Araya, Lau, Christ, FOUND, Cloak X Dagger, American Men & Mungo’s Hi Fi.

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVOURITE BITS OF MUSICAL GEAR?Akai MPC1000Logic 5.1ProTools’ Beat DetectiveElectro Harmonix 2880Pearl Masters Bass Drums

WHAT TIPS WOULD YOU GIVETO ANYONE WANTING TO EMULATE YOUR SOUND?We’d love people to listen to our music - but they should concentrate on finding their own voice instead of trying to emulate anyone else.

WHAT’S NEXT FOR HIDDEN ORCHESTRA?We are in the middle of a UK tour to support our album Night Walks which came out in September. Next year kicks off with a performance at Celtic Connections which will feature both Fraser Fifield and Su-a Lee (who also feature on the album) for the first time. We then have a European tour which is being booked at the moment for March and April.

WHAT IS YOUR FAVOURITEJOKE?Dancing deliberately out of time (surprisingly difficult, by the way).

Hidden Orchestra

HIDDENORCHESTRA

WhAT OThErS hAvE TO SAy AbOuT...


“A band that you won’t come across anywhere else in the world at the moment, one of the most impressive things you can see live” BBC Radio 1 DJ Vic Galloway “...formidable at creating lay-ered cinematic sonicscapes, which meshed together arrays of samples, creeping build ups and dissipated breakbeats. It was a beautiful-ly sculpted organic procession of highly impressive creations from a very promising and already essential Edinburgh-based quartet.” Three Weeks Magazine review of 2009 Edinburgh International Jazz Festival “You don’t need two drum-mers - but you DO need two drummers!” Comedian Phil Kay at Big Tent Festival 2009 “There’s a metronomic preci-sion as well as a very human pulse to this music, which seems designed to work on different levels simultaneously. Both danceable and attrac-tively ambient, the compositions of bass guitarist and electronics wiz Acheson draw on a cornucopia of ingredients.” The Glasgow Herald review of Triptych FestivalFor Hidden Orchestra’s

music and more info,

check out...

hiddenorchestra.com

“CONCENTRATE ON FINDING YOUR

OWN VOICE”

PLEASE NOTE! There are EIGHT signed pictures of Rodrigo Y Gabriela altoghether. The one featured will not necessarily be the prize. Yamaha will pick their favourite out of the eight available. But they promise to make sure it’s a good ‘un.


R e d d o g M u s i c c o M p e t i t i o n S P O N S O R E D B Y Y a M a h a

FINISH THE SENTENCE aNd NamE THE TuNES To wIN a SIgNEd pICTurE oF rodrIgo Y gabrIEla!}}

WIN!

Answers should be emailed to [email protected] titled as ‘The Dog Issue 2 Competition’ by March 15th 2011.

1 One pill makes you larger and one pill makes you small...

2 Turn off your mind, relax and float down stream...

3 Blue jean baby, L.A. lady, seamstress for the band...

5 It’s a god-awful small affair to the girl with the mousy hair...

6 There’s a lady whose sure all that glitters is gold...

8 Now I lay me down to sleep, pray the lord my soul to keep...

9 Take me on a trip upon your magic swirlin’ ship...

10That Benji man that’s breakin’ them down? Me and my white short shorts...

7 As he came into the window it was the sound of a crescendo...

4 Too late, my time has come, sends shivers down my spine, body’s

aching all the time...


Kicked off by the venerable Edirol R1 in 2005, the range of portable stereo flash recording devices has grown hugely over the last few years, with several different manufacturers vying for our attention.

The reason for this is that technology has got to a point where you can get full professional recording quality (most of them offer 24bit / 96kHz – significantly better than CD quality) in a pocket-size device. These are ideal for recording gigs (legally, of course...) / rehearsals / lectures / interviews etc.

However, with such a huge range to choose from, how do you make a decision??

That’s where The Dog steps in to help...

T

he cheapest of the bunch that we’re looking at here at only £79, the Alesis PalmTrack doesn’t feel

quite as sturdy as the rest, with a plastic body and slightly wobbly buttons and knobs. It is also limited to 24bit / 48kHz quality (though this should be enough for most purposes) and doesn’t have XLR mic inputs or the ability to power condenser mics. However, unlike some of its

more expensive rivals, it features 4 onboard mics as opposed to 2, meaning you can record omni-directionally, and an Auto Mic Gain feature to ensure you don’t record at too high a volume.

Summary: An ideal choice if you’re on a budget, but consequently lacking in features and maybe not robust enough to survive the mosh pit.

A LOOK AT SOME OF THE BEST PRODUCTS IN THEIR CATEGORY, THIS ISSUE IT’S...

PORTablE RECORDERS

RoundUp


“aN Ideal ChoICe IF you’Re oN a BudGeT”

aleSIS PalmTRaCk

£79


T

he priciest of the lot, the Zoom H4n offers full 24bit / 96kHz recording in various formats, including Broadcast

Wave Format (BWF) which is presumably popular with, erm, broadcasters. It can also last for up to 11 hours (while recording, not just on standby), meaning you could record a whole prog rock opus in one go (if you were so inclined). A really neat feature is the ability to record four channels simultaneously using the built in high quality X/Y

mics and a pair of external mics plugged into the onboard phantom powered XLR sockets (which also double as jack / instrument sockets). Aaaand... it can work as an audio interface to record sounds onto your PC; nice.

Summary: Offering too many cunning features to mention here, the Zoom H4n is popular for good reason.

A LOOK AT SOME OF THE BEST PRODUCTS IN THEIR CATEGORY, THIS ISSUE IT’S...PORTablE RECORDERS

RoundUpA LOOK AT SOME OF THE BEST PRODUCTS IN THEIR CATEGORY, THIS ISSUE

PORTablE RECORDERS

RoundUp


B

eing the same company that develop Boss, Cakewalk and Edirol products, Roland certainly

know a bit about recording technology. This is exemplified in the R05, a rebranded descendant of Edirol’s original R1. Housed in a satisfyingly sturdy metal case, this unit definitely feels like it could survive the rigours of a death metal gig, or indeed a chamber orchestra recital.

Features include the ability to automatically set the optimum recording level, and to detect breaks between songs and split the recorded track accordingly (meaning you don’t have to search through or split the tracks yourself).

Summary: A well-built and feature-packed recorder, the Roland R05 is a great compromise between specs and price.

B

y far the dinkiest of the bunch, the Pocketrak C24 could just about fit into that ubiquitous small pocket

on your jeans that is presumably intended for storing lighters for the smokers and arsonists amongst us. However, despite its diminutive stature, it records at a full 24bit / 96kHz and ships with a whole 2Gb of (expandable) internal storage. Making the most of its size, it also features an attach-ment clip so you can fix it

to a music stand if you’re a musician, or the underside of a car if you’re a spy. An added bonus is that it comes bun-dled with Cubase AI software so you can edit your recordings on a Mac or PC. The only potential downside is that, with a plastic body, it feels a little bit flimsy.

Summary: Small but beautifully formed, the Pocketrak C24 is nonetheless a professional portable recording solution.

yamaha PoCkeTRak

C24 £139

Zoom h4N £279

T

he Korg SR1 has been cruelly underexposed in the popular press. Why? We don’t know, but we’re going to change that,

dammit! In some ways it is a different sort of product to the others listed here, with a slightly different intended purpose: the killer feature is that you can layer tracks on top of each other an infinite number of times. You heard right – an infinite number of times.

This means that basically you could record a whole song in parts – layering guitars, vocals, percussion, flugelhorn, the sound of your Gran snoring etc. to your heart’s content. We think that’s very cool. Furthermore, it comes with

a load of onboard rhythms and effects to help get your creative juices flowing, and a tuner to make sure your Gran is snoring in the correct key. However, there is a payoff for getting all these features – the onboard mics aren’t particularly amazing quality, and the recorder only goes up to 16bit / 44.1kHz.

Summary: So much more than just a stereo recorder; a ground-breaking product. When will the musicians of the world notice??

koRG SR1 “SouNd oN SouNd”

£179

RolaNd R05 £179

coMPaRiSoN Chart

Please note! Prices are liable to go up as well as down. Check online at:RedDogMusic.co.ukfor all the latest prices.

“a load oF oNBoaRd RhyThmS aNd eFFeCTS To helP GeT youR

CReaTIVe JuICeS FloWING”

“The aBIlITy To ReCoRd FouR ChaNNelS SImulTaNeouSly”

PRoduCT PRICe max ReCoRdING SToRaGe INPuTS mICRoPhoNeS kIlleR qualITy TyPe FeaTuRe Alesis PalmTrack

Zoom H4n

Roland R05

Korg SR1

Yamaha Pocketrak C24

£79

£279

£179

£179

£139

24bit /48.1kHz

24bit / 96kHz

24bit / 96kHz

16bit /44.1kHz

24bit / 96kHz

SD Card

SD Card

SD Card

microSD Card

miniSD Card

Unpowered 3.5mm Mini Jack

Powered combi XLR / Jack

Powered 3.5mm Mini Jack

Powered 3.5mm Mini Jack & Guitar In

Unpowered 3.5mm Mini JackCard

Four onboard mics

X/Y Stereo Condenser Mics

Stereo mic

Internal Stereo mic

Stereo mic

Four-capsule omni mic

Record 4 sources at once

Automatically set record level

Infinite track layering

Super compact design


A British rock band in every sense. With members calling 3 different parts of the UK home, an admirable work ethic, and a sound as raw and organic as those veggies you’re growing in the garden, To Catch a Thief are the kind of band Britain needs now more than ever. Check them out at www.tocatchathie-band.com. If you like the sound of them, download their FREE single download for their new album (keep your eyes peeled, it’s a-comin’...) by going to www.tocatchathiefband.com/clocks.

tOP

10GIGDOG

MUSIC PRESENTS

venues1 The GaRaGe

Glasgow We did a show there as part of the Atticus clothing tour, the sound on stage was wicked and so was the show itself. www.garageglasgow.co.uk

2 STudIo 24 Edinburgh

The best hometown shows we’ve done have been at this venue; the sound is amazing on and off stage. www.studio24edinburgh.co.uk

3 BaRFly cardiff

Done a few Barfly shows before but this one stood out as the best. Unfortunately, it’s closed down now but Cardiff, as a city, is amazing and the crowd is always up for coming out to shows. www.barflyclub.com

4 kING TuTS Glasgow

Seen many bands here and played a few shows too. It’s a nice, pokey wee venue that’s always busy and always has awesome bands playing. www.kingtuts.co.uk

5 TJ’S Newport

A cavernous venue that should always be part of a band’s run of dates. www.tjsnew- port.com

6 IBaR Bournemouth

A total sweatbox that belongs to the creator of the computer game, Worms. Space age in your face. www.ibar.com

7 JIlly’S RoCkWoRld Manchester

A big room in a very cool city. Unfortunately this has closed down as well but it’s worth remembering. www.jillys.co.uk/rockworld

8 The 2 PIGS cheltenam

Small stage - really good for hitting each other with bits of gear by mistake! The home of “Ceshnu” from all over. www.myspace.com/the2pigs

9 hoPe & aNChoR london

So many amazing bands have played in this tiny little sweatbox of a venue. www.bugbearbookings.com/pages/ha.htm

10 The CaThouSe Glasgow

As a TCAT, we played our very first show here; so it will always have a special place in our hearts. www.cathouse.co.uk

To CaTCh a ThIeF aRE:

Selected by: to catch a thief


LivE


T

hat’s right Red Dog

lovers, we now have FREE live music in store every Sunday at 3pm. Oh, apart from the first Sunday of every month as we’ll be hosting our own Open Couch Sessions - which basically means anything goes. All musicians, of all

shapes, of all sizes, are warmly welcomed to take a seat on the spectacular, the magnificent, the infamous Red Dog Music Couch and play us a tune or three. Don’t be shy, for goodness sake...

The WeekTuneof

Did you know that we send out a weekly e-newsletter to everybody on our Dog mailing list? And in this newsletter, we feature a Tune of the Week? We’d like you to send in your music to our Red Dog

Music DropBox at www.soundcloud.com/red-dog-unleashed. If it tickles us, we’ll feature it and folk all over the UK could be listen-ing to your music. Sign up to our mailing list at www.reddogmusic.co.uk

DOGMUSICPRESENTS

T H E

hair of the DogSundaysgoesweekly!

SUN 5TH FEB / 11AM-4PMfEnDER WORKSHOPWED 16TH FEB / 7PM-9PM

steinBergWORKSHOP• • MARCH (DATE TBC) • • TangleWOOdIn-stOre

• • • • • • • • SUN 6TH FEB • • • • • • • •

OPen COuCH SeSSiOn• • • • • • • • SUN 13TH FEB • • • • • • • •

The IndusTry• • • • • • • • SUN 20TH FEB • • • • • • • •

THe ORdinaRyallstars• • • • • • • • SUN 27TH FEB • • • • • • • •

the gillyflowers• • • • • • • • SUN 6TH MAR • • • • • • • •

OPen COuCH SeSSiOn• • • • • • • • SUN 13TH MAR • • • • • • • •

• • • • • • • • SUN 20TH MAR • • • • • • • •

SHaROn Kingand THe ReCKleSS angelS• • • • • • • • SUN 27TH MAR • • • • • • • •

ConsCious Route• • • • • • • • SUN 3RD APR • • • • • • • •

OPen COuCH SeSSiOn• • • • • • • • SUN 10TH APR • • • • • • • •

Donna Maciocia• • • • • • • • SUN 17TH APR • • • • • • • •

Kat Healy• • • • • • • • SUN 24TH APR • • • • • • • •

Super Adventure Club

HaIR Of tHE DOG sundays• • • • • ALL EVENTS START AT 3PM • • • • •

RED DOG MUSIC ClInICs

Sharon King appears on Sunday the 20th of March.

Red Dog Music 1 Grassmarket, Edinburgh EH1 2HY 0131 229 8211 | [email protected] www.reddogmusic.co.uk

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the dog - spring 2011

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