Post Description

Artiest : Duncan Browne
Titel : Songs of Love and War 
Bron : CD
Type : 2 versies : 225WADMIRA standaard en 225WADMIRA-NU luid

**Dit is een DTS CD, alleen afspeelbaar op apparatuur die DTS ondersteunt**
**Bij afspelen op stereo-apparatuur zul je alleen ruis horen**
**Ik post alleen meerkanaals surround, geen MP3 of Lossless**

Als je last hebt van teksten die sommige figuren in mijn spots plaatsen, download
dan Spotnet Improver Local. Hiermee kun je op je eigen harde schijf een blacklist
maken, waardoor je de teksten van mensen op die blacklist, niet meer te zien krijgt.
Heb ik ook gedaan en maakt alles wel leuker zo !

Commentaar :
Even geen Toto. Ben druk bezig met het reorganiseren van al m'n harddiscs en daar vond
ik dit juweeltje, dat ik jullie niet wil onthouden. De meesten van jullie kennen ongetwijfeld
de hit die Duncan had met het nummer "The Wild Places". In 1993 overleed hij aan kanker tijdens
de opnames voor een nieuw album. Iemand anders heeft dat album afgemaakt en het is (volgens mijn
smaak) een wereld album geworden ! De conversie in de standaard 225WADMIRA is uitstekend geworden,
maar het is wel een album met grote verschillen in peaks . Standaard is het meeste naar het center
gestuurd en de andere kanalen hebben duidelijk minder invloed op het geluidsveld. Maar hij klinkt
wel uitstekend. (Alleen song 1 heeft de stem ook in de rears, maar is niet hinderlijk voor de 
beleving.). Op zo'n mooi album met zuivere gitaren en twee zuivere stemmen (gast zanger is....
Colin Blunstone !) wilde ik wel eens horen hoe het zou klinken met mijn nieuwe methode. Dus
"geremasterde surround" ! Sommige instrumenten die in de rears komen, klinken nu veel duidelijker,
maar op de 1 of andere manier houd ik een beetje twijfels of dit wel geschikt is voor dit album.
Daarom wordt input zoals gewoonlijk zeer op prijs gesteld. 
(BTW er staat ook een nieuwe andere uitvoering van The Wild Places op, die zeer goed is.)

Zoals ik de beluisteraars van mijn brouwsels inschat, denk ik dat de meerderheid dit ook wel een
erg goed album zal vinden en speciaal OmeSjors ;-)

Hier nog wat info over de productie en de tracktitels :

The untimely death of musician Duncan Browne part-way through an album project spurred keyboardist NICK MAGNUS on to complete the recordings. 

 

Here Nick tells the inside story of how he accomplished it.Whilst probably best remembered for his 1972 hit 'Journey', singer/ songwriter/guitarist Duncan Browne also produced a series of nine albums, both under his own name and that of the band Metro. His writing partnership with Peter Godwin in Metro also produced the song 'Criminal World', made famous by David Bowie on his Scary Monsters And Super Creeps album. Always keen to diversify, Duncan wrote the music to numerous television and film productions, including the BBC1 series Travelling Man and BBC2's period drama series Shadow Of The Noose.

May 1993 saw the tragic loss of this talented musician and composer, after a three year battle against cancer. At the time of his death, Duncan and I had been working on his next solo album, some of which had reached demo stage and some of which had yet to be written. Thus I undertook to complete the album, albeit in the absence of the principal artist. This was both a technically and emotionally challenging task, for much of the original work had been started on 'old tech' equipment, most of which I no longer own, and the greatest problem presented was that of re-synchronising the tracks to accommodate my present setup.

 


"The arpeggio electric guitar on 'High Windows' was sent through an Energy Technology VKP1 valve preamp and then to a Dynacord CLS222 Leslie simulator to get that classic George Harrison sound."

 

As for the remainder of the album, it was decided to include a selection of previously unreleased tracks, chosen to highlight the diversity of Duncan's musicianship. These were also to undergo some 'tweaking' to bring them in line with the sound and feel of the whole album.

The experience was not without its humorous side, however. Duncan was a man of high ideals and scrupulously good taste; this meant that certain artistic decisions had to be considered most carefully. The curious thing was that whenever I had serious doubts about a particular course of action, the piece of equipment involved in the decision almost invariably broke down or crashed -- as if in response. Somehow I knew I was not alone!

Each track brought its own set of problems to solve, so they are grouped here by type, with brief descriptions.


• Misunderstood
• Love Leads You

Both tracks are well suited to the golden larynx of Colin Blunstone on guest lead vocals, being similar in mood to songs of the Alan Parsons genre. 'Love Leads You' particularly demonstrates Duncan's wonderful feel for electric as well as acoustic guitar, with a brief but beautiful solo that still gets the back of my neck tingling. 

The treatment applied to these tracks was fairly straightforward. Since no multitracks existed, the original demo quarter-inch stereo masters were used and transferred to DAT. These were fortunately recorded to an acceptably high standard, so the only processing employed was courtesy of an SPL Vitalizer.

Compared to current listener expectations, the top end was relatively dull, and vocal diction suffered slightly. Using the Vitalizer to accentuate the high mids at around 2.5kHz, and the harmonics control to restore missing sibilants, lyrics regained clarity, and backing vocals which were hitherto almost lost became quite audible. This process also revealed hidden details in the drum parts. Subtle bass end enhancement was also employed to restore the balance between the two ends of the audio spectrum.

Finally, the stereo width enhancement control was set around its 12 o'clock position, to separate the instruments and remove any remaining muddiness. Comparison with the untreated original was extremely gratifying, and the result was copied across (via the analogue connections) to a second DAT. 


 

• Rainer
• High Windows

'Rainer' is a song inspired by the great German film director, Rainer Werner Fassbinder. Getting off to an atmospheric start, and sporting some rather Brian Wilson-esque backing vocals, it develops into an anthemic chorus lavish with billowing Mellotron. 'High Windows' has intensely filmic lyrics, putting one in mind of unrequited love in deserted, rain-soaked Eastern European streets. Musically, however, it is warm and reflective. Duncan sings lead vocal on both tunes. 

In common with various other tracks on the album, these songs were originated on an 8-track Fostex A8 reel-to-reel machine. Since I had long since sold the A8 and replaced it with a Fostex R8, the first spanner in the works had arrived. Tapes recorded on my A8 turned out to be quite incompatible with the R8. Even though the A8 and R8 are biased and lined up for Ampex 406 and 456 tape respectively, Fostex assured me that tapes should be compatible across their entire 8-track range. Evidently, my attempts to re-align the A8 as it grew older had caused it to drift into another universe; possibly through ignorance on my part. The problem was solved by the great kindness of stalwart SOS contributor Gordon Reid, who lent me his Fostex M80 for the duration. Fortuitously, the tapes seemed to sound even better on the M80 than my memory of them on the A8.

Synchronisation was the next hurdle I encountered. The backing tracks had been sequenced on my trusty Roland MC500 (which I still use in preference to a software sequencer). Clearly it would be better to run the sequenced instrument tracks live wherever possible, rather than use the 8-track recorded versions, thus presenting the opportunity to make improvements in both sounds and performances. Problem was, the sync code on the tape was FSK (frequency shift key) code, which contains no song position data. This was obviously unsatisfactory; I had no intention of starting from the top of the song just to check out something at the end!

To solve this, the SRC/AT SMPTE-to-MIDI synchroniser was used. This unit has the wonderful ability to 'learn' a tempo map, via MIDI, to 1,000th of a BPM accuracy. First off, the FSK code (which also contains tempo changes) was played from tape into the MC500, which in turn generated MIDI clock information which was sent to and 'learned' by the SRC. Next, SMPTE timecode was striped onto a spare tape track (tip: never erase your original code!).

Finally, to find the correct SMPTE start time offset, the SRC once again supplied the solution. A single cowbell beat, placed at the start of the sequence, was patched to the audio input of the SRC unit. The FSK code was once again sent to the MC500, whilst simultaneously sending the SMPTE code from tape to the SMPTE input of the SRC. When the FSK set the MC500 running, the cowbell beat marked the start of the song