| STING AND SNOW PRODUCTIONS - NOVEMBER 2004 NEWS-LETTER |
November - another year has marched on to the cold weather (at least here in the Northern Hemisphere).
In the U.S. it is the season of "Thanksgiving", whilst - here in the U.K. we celebrate the failure of
a group of political activists in the 17th Century, who attempted to seize control of the
British Government by blowing it up with gunpowder! We do this by gathering in crowds lighting bonfires
and letting off fireworks! It's a fascinating world…
Just before I launch into "part two" of the Nashville report, I wanted to mention our recent success in the
"Best Seller" listings - as published by Hanhurst's Tape and Record Service:
October's new releases were extremely successful, against some VERY STRONG competition and achieved top-five listing on the
Hanhurst's Tape and Record Service Best Seller listing.
These were "A Hard Day's Night" (No.1) and "Daydream Believer" (No.3).
This is the second month running that we have achieved the number one spot!;
NASHVILLE 2004 REPORT (part two)
As mentioned last month - the "pilgrimage" to Nashville, this year, was made by three members of the Sting recording staff, these were:
Carsten Nielsen, Søren Christensen and myself (Paul Bristow).
By the end of our first "studio-day" we were on target, having recorded nine new pieces of Square Dance music. The musicians left at around 5.00 pm
- although two of the guys stayed a little longer to add some parts to one track which had proved to be a little "difficult". I - and the other
two Sting guys - stayed on with Kevin and we mixed down the first 3 tracks.
For those of you who are not familiar with multi-track recording process, let me explain.
We record each of the instruments on a separate "track" (the name refers to tracks on a tape,
although - nowadays - the recording is to the Hard Drive of a computer). Some instruments
are recorded on two tracks - to allow stereo mixing (not something that really works on the
average Hilton / Yak-Stak combination which is, of course, "mono" - but still the best method
to use in the studio), whilst others are recorded over a number of tracks (the Drum-Kit,
for example has a microphone for each Drum). In addition the Dobro is recorded on a separate
track, as is the Keyboard and any Percussion or other over-dubs.
As a consequence of all the different instruments that are required, we come very close to using
24 tracks - which used to be the limit of most two-inch tape systems.
Once all the tracks are recorded, the final process is to copy all these tracks to one pair of
left-and-right stereo tracks but to adjust the level (volume/loudness) and EQ (Bass/Treble/Mid-Range),
whilst adding FX (effects - such as echo, vibrato, tremelo etc.), in order to get the best accumulative
sound. This must provide somewhere around a million different possibilities so you need a tremendous
understanding of music and the mixing controls as well as an exceptional pair of ears - to achieve the
best result!
Kevin McManus who is our engineer and is also the owner of
Nashville Teleproductions achieved this delicate "mixing" job with an expertise that was quite eerie…
Kevin simply takes a selection of precious gems and "cuts" and "combines" them to make an outstanding piece
of jewellery - a "magician" in every sense of the word.
Our second day in the studio was Thursday 2nd September and once again we started at 9.00am, with the full
set of musicians. There was, however, one change to our line-up; Doug Jernigan - the Steel and Dobro player
had to attend a special event over the "Labor-Day" weekend, which started on Friday and so his place was
taken by Mike Johnstone. Mike had played for us before and is an excellent "artiste" but admitted that he
felt "just a little uneasy" about following in the footsteps of the "Maestro" - Doug Jernigan! Mike played
really well for us and (I felt) managed to put a little of his own personal stamp on the last five songs.
By 1.00pm the music was all recorded, except for one particularly awkward Fiddle part on one of the earlier
tracks. Rob Hojacos - our Fiddle player was particularly concerned about this track. It featured the fiddle
throughout and - whilst not being particularly difficult - Rob was determined to give 110% performance.
So much so that he asked if he could sit in the control room and practice playing to the playback of the earlier
recording, whilst the other musicians broke down their equipment and packed it away. Rob then went into the
empty studio, alone - and re-recorded his parts. This is just one sign of the tremendous dedication that is
displayed by the Nashville musicians - and is part of the reason that we record in Nashville.
Finally, with ALL the music recorded we set about mixing down the final tracks. I will tell you more about the
Nashville 2004 trip next month… For the time being - and for a few more previews of the new tracks
(the mini-movies have sound), please click on this LINK to see some of the pictures
and mini-movies that were taken.
And now on to other news…
INDIVIDUAL RECORD HISTORIES including ALL THE ADDITIONAL LYRICS:
My apologies to the many of you who searched for this feature; it has been delayed. It just proved to be a LOT more
work than we had anticipated. We shall have this feature up-and-running soon as part of the catalogue option.
Soon you will find that if you visit that, you will discover a lot more information about the stories behind the
tunes that we have recorded,! Please note: (as I said last month) this is a work-in-progress so it will be a while
before all the entries are up-dated.
THIS MONTH'S NEW MUSIC:
Our new vinyl releases for November are: - The Slade song - "Merry Xmas, Everybody" (vocal by Paul Bristow)
and "Three Steps To Heaven" (vocal by Tommy P Larsen). Our new MP3s are "Que Sera, Sera" (vocal by Cherish
and Paul Bristow) and "My Very Own Lucky Star" (vocal by Maarten Weijers); there is a
special "extra" track on this latter MP3 release, which provides the instrumental with the harmony voices.
RECENT RELEASES: (Full details on the Latest Releases link)
Last month's new releases were extremely successful, against some VERY STRONG competition and achieved top-five listing on the Hanhurst's
Tape and Record Service Best Seller listing. These were "A Hard Day's Night" (No.1) and "Daydream Believer" (No.3). This is the second
month running that we have achieved the number one spot!
FUTURE RELEASES:
Please check the Future Festivals link for full details.
Okay, I am now off to set fire to a life-size effigy of the man who planned to usurp the British Government; In the spirit of simple innocent
fun… Then I must have another bash at "getting to grips" with all that new music… Speak to you next month!
Go Squareful! - Paul Bristow (Owner and Producer Sting and Snow Records)
