Recording is so cool. I still feel a thrill when I press Play on a take for the first time. At the same time, there’s no frustration like imagining a sound or performance and not being able to record it that way. All part of “life’s rich pageant” . . .
My cousin Henry and I began learning the wonders of multitrack tape on his Teac 3340 back in the ’70s – I’ve never had so much fun in my life. Scott lent us his Vibro-Champ for distortion and tremolo – another revelation – and introduced Dubside, his college friend and aspiring recording engineer. Recording then meant pointing a Shure PE-56 at any instrument and pushing Record. Tape was often Ampex 456, which would later develop stickiness and shedding problems; but we didn’t know then. Tape also meant cleaning heads, splicing leader and keeping magnets away. I don’t miss tape, but I sure miss the sound of tape.
In 1978, I got a Tascam 80-8, with 8 tracks on 1/2″ tape (Ampex 456). I also had the Tascam Model 5a mixer. To tame the noise on the additional tracks, the 80-8 came with a dbx noise reduction unit. The sound of the 80-8 was maybe a little smoother – or less exciting – than the sound of the 3340, but the dbx allowed much quieter mixes (even after bouncing tracks). Here’s a song recorded in my bedroom at Mt. Airy Road; every track except the direct bass was done with a Shure SM-81 – because I’d just bought it.
In 1980, the 80-8 became the heart of Apple Valley Studio, my little business on Chestnut Street in Philadelphia. Dubside (IAR engineer, musician, kayaker, voodoo chili man) wired up a 1/4″ patch bay scored from Canal Street in New York, connecting the Model 5a, the 80-8 and our only outboard gear: two Symetrix compressors and a Tapco spring reverb. Jon and I kept experimenting with tape, on 4 and 8 tracks, in the early ’80s – he was always willing to try new sounds, especially delay and reverb effects. Chuck also made many 8-track recordings at Apple Valley, some mixed in mono.
On this track, you can hear the nice room tone – the ceiling was about 15 feet high.
Another – with Jon, Chuck and maybe others (and a tape delay) . . .
After Apple Valley closed, and after the Tone Controls disbanded, I went back to live at Mt. Airy Road for a while. Of course, the equipment was set up – a rat’s nest of wire and gear, connected to a Tascam Model 15, all running hot with no A/C in the New Jersey summer of 1984. Scott and I took the 15 upstairs one step at a time, nearly busting a gut in the process. I had an ancient tube-powered AM radio, housed in beautiful Bakelite (all you mid-century retro kids), which pulled in the local country station (WKMB, Stirling Country 1070). I listened constantly while sweating through the wiring, trying to sleep through the heat at night. The first product of this phase was Homesick Blues, showcasing the midrange of my main guitar – my long lost Dan Armstrong – and the glassy sound of slide on my Tele in open D.
Then Chris came to visit, and we recorded a few things with a drum kit rented from Star Music in Morristown. A Dan Armstrong guitar and bass, mono drums, an old ribbon vocal mic – midrange madness!
And a digital delay!
And a real piano . . .
I moved to Hoboken, then New York City later in ’84. I would come back to visit my folks at Mt. Airy Road over the next few years, and kept recording whenever I had material. One memorable project brought Chuck, Jon and Chris together for a super-session in August 1986: four of Chuck’s songs and four of mine. We used several rooms on the second floor to isolate amps, drums and vocals, with balanced cables running everywhere. For Jon’s bass, I picked up the latest active direct box – the Axe! We also bought Fostex T-20 headphones for monitoring; I still use my pair. The caps in the 80-8’s line amps were failing, and the punch-ins were no longer silent. Fortunately, we got everything right on the first take – kidding! But the tracks have some really nice ensemble playing as backbone.
The equipment was wearing out: notably the Ampex, its reel motor caps actually melting in the summer heat. I had to mix to cassette, as with these tunes, all recorded the same way: mix-and-match drum kit, Dan Armstrong or Les Paul Custom through Scott’s Lafayette amp and 1 x 15″ cabinet, vocals through KM84 with a big windscreen, Sound Workshop 242 spring reverb, Symetrix compressor, Deltalab delay. Is there enough tape hiss?
During my time in the Longshots, I got interested in looking back to my earlier stuff, trying to see if it could be arranged for acoustic guitar. Scott Bagnato, who lived (still lives) on East 4th Street, invited me up to his place to play a few tunes – he played electric, I sang and played acoustic. We recorded direct to cassette:
Scott is one of the best musicians I’ve known. He’s a keyboard player, but loves guitar as well. This is an example of being in sympathy with the song – I love his playing here.