All Wave Philosopy

[Jazz E Bob]

Kim decided that the album would use no computers, digital recording "auto-tuning" or any other mainstays of contemporary production. This was largely a defensive move, as there had been a few previous sessions marred by the engineers' insistence on accommodating these gadgets, and by choosing not to use that technology, Kim could avoid its inherent clichés -- clichés that would have dated the record.

This marked the inception of the "All Wave" philosophy, which, loosely stated, is that everything would be an analog sound recording of someone playing or singing, rather than a computer generating a simulation, or digitally manipulated sounds separated from the dimension of time in which they were performed. A parallel drawn with the "new realist" film movement (including Lars vonTrier's Dogme 95 school) is not inappropriate.

The All Wave philosophy carried through the entire production and mastering process, including mixing, editing, sequencing, post-production and the exceptional step of an all analog direct-metal master for the vinyl LP version of the album and the "Off You" EP which preceded it. Kim commissioned the lovely little "All Wave" logo you will find on these records in an effort to identify them, and possibly start her own movement. This should not be construed as a call to arms, but could become at least as significant as the Ska revival or perhaps the WNBA.

[juppu]

It's nice and refreshing to hear things like that every now and then - oldschool analog recording.

Not that long ago, I heard an album that was done in the same way, but even more extreme: they used hardly any EQ and no compression... All was done with tape saturation, tubes or microphone placement. It sounded pretty good indeed, very well recorded - you still can't beat a great engineer moving great mics in a great room... (The record's not internationally available, but I can check if there's a website where you can listen to the stuff - I doubt it, though).

Not top 40, but refreshing for the ears sick of auto-tunes, digital EQs, orange vocoders, bitcrushed samples and Pro Tools.

I don't say that this should be the way everything should be done, but it's great to have diversity, and I mean REAL diversity.

Juppu

[Robert D]

You mean real people playing real instruments in real time....how barbaric!
http://www.audioforums.com/forums/smile.gif

[mrme]

Dylan's "time out of mind" is 100% analog.
sounds great, and won album of the year

[narcoman]

Thats exactly what i'm doing with my bands album at the moment. We did the demos with loops, and autotuned ragged bits, and cut and pasted rough guitars etc etc. For the official version though, the intention is "play play play" and just use the mixing desk equivalents plugins on my protools system. Event he drum machine (mpc2000 actually) i've limited the sounds in it and am only allowing basic operations to change the sounds. My band is a cross between the clash and kraftwerk (if you can kinda see that). I dont want loads of guitar solos, and neither do i want over the top programming. I was even thinking about trying to build a drum machine thats uniquely ours, i didnt get to far. But i definitely subscribe to that philosophy at the moment.
I'm sure i'll let you all know when its finished (soon i hope) . We've already licensed two tracks to a playstation2 and an Xbox game, so must be doing something okay..

cheers

[macouno]

There's something to be said for that approach.

But then... remember what it is that we do. When we record and publish recorded music, we're not actually playing instruments anymore.
In fact... we're playing the loudspeakers of the people that listen. I know it sounds far fetched and a little vague, but it is in fact what we do.
Thus we can try to play their speakers in such a way that it simulates actual live music... but you could see that as a deception.

Also the same could be said for any amplified sound.

I'm not saying that this influenses how I do things... I'm very much a hands on musician, but it's something to think about http://www.audioforums.com/forums/wink.gif

[juppu]

Well, recorded music is just changes in voltage (or changes in voltage represented by 1s and 0s)... but that's a bit far-fetched...

About Bob Dylan's Time out of mind, I read the mix interview with Lanois and the engineer, the only reverb they used was on dylan's vocal mic, everything else leaks in it...

Juppu

[Robert D]

Macouno - quite true. The only real listening experience is nothing between the instrument and the ear but air. Recording, in itself, is making the music artificial. The next closest is the minimelist, or purist recorders who use $8000 worth of DAT and pair of microphones to capture the event. What a lot of us do is sound sculpting, using whatever tools and materials suit the creation. But in the end I guess all that matters is the listening exerience.
RD