Love-Hounds-request@EDDIE.MIT.EDU.UUCP (03/03/87)
Really-From: ed191-bq%violet.Berkeley.EDU@berkeley.edu (Taylor) (Really from Hugh Maher) Glad to hear someone was interested in my posting yesterday - Thanks Andrew! Whatever anyone might say about IED, at least he's consistently the most polite person on the net! However, I don't remember the exact source and date of that interview - I remember reading it after having a discussion with Peter Morris and the others at Homeground about Kate's attitude toward digital recording. He showed me this article/interview that she gave to a magazine called something like "Electronic musician" or "Modern Music and Recording" or something the equivalent of "Musician" magazine in Britain. I'm pretty sure that the interview was given in the wake of the release of "The Dreaming" (Fall '82 or spring '83). Perhaps you could scour your old copies of Homeground for the "Medialog" section and track down articles around this time in magazines that sound like this. I'm certain, though, of the content (I have a weirdly sharp memory for this stuff, but it tends to fail rapidly in other areas!). She definitely did do comparison tests between analog and digital and expressed a preference for the analog recording, although she admitted that it could probably just be due to past biases. Also, when she said that the analog was "warmer" she also said something about how the digital was somewhat "harsh" - but NOT in terms of the actual sound of the instruments as many claim; but more along the lines that it was TOO good at perfectly reproducing the sound of the instrument without any background hiss or noise. This seemed to throw her off, and she DEFINITELY made a statement that she LIKES a certain amount of tape hiss "Just to remind you that you're listening to a tape" or something like that. She even said something like "If you listen to "The Dreaming" closely, you can still hear a bit of hiss, which is comforting" (I don't know if "comforting" was the word, but that was the general idea). She also went on about what a nightmare it was to digitally mix "The Dreaming" (this is from the one-column Musician feature on her home recording techniques in the spring of 1983) and how certain parts took "easily twice as long as analog" to do; However, her liking for the end product and the "edge" that digital mixing gives is supported in the fact that "Hounds of Love" was also digitally mixed. I think she should take a leaf out of Peter Gabriel's book and think about using a combination of the two - the digital recorder for the electronic stuff, fairlight, drums, and voices (which all work great with digital) and use an analog for the acoustic instruments. I have to admit, the opening fiddle on "Jig of Life" is one of the most earthy and real sounding acoustic instruments I've ever heard on CD, and it was done on analog. This way, she'd have the best of both worlds. As it stands, her constant re-playing of the analog tape over and over (I think) tends to erase the highs and generally muddy up the sound. This might explain why "Hounds" doesn't sound as good as "The Dreaming" in terms of clarity. I have to admit, I sort of worry about her using Del as the sole engineer - sure it saves money, but how good is he around the studio? I'll be curious to see how the next album sounds, since it will be done from start to finish in her home studio. (The basic tracks of Hounds of Love were recorded on an 8-track as demos, and then were transferred onto the new analog 24-track, which probably has a lot to do with the "muddier" HOL sound). Hugh