My studio is a modest bedroom-type affair, although there’s no room for a bed anymore; the equipment has to share the room with a wardrobe and a big bookcase. There are no separate recording and control rooms and no special isolation facilities, so the soundscape of inner city Groningen will occasionally seep into a track; listen to the passing cars on Almost Feels Like Love....
The heart of every studio is the mixing desk, a Yamaha O2R in my case. It was one of the first affordable digital mixers on the market, and, without going nerdy and technical: it sounds fantastic and it’s a great, essential tool. The monitor speakers are Yamaha NS 10’s, very basic hifi speakers really, but over the years they have become famous in studios around the world for being a reliable reference for balancing and mixing music.
Obviously, some of the sounds I use are generated electronically; I use a Roland S 760 sampler for most of the drumsounds and rhythm-loops, some of the bass sounds and many other assorted noises. Also, very useful for the serious bending and tweaking of drumloops and other samples: a Roland VP 9000 Variphrase. This sophisticated machine lets you change both the pitch and the tempo of audio material independently, so you can slow down the tempo of a drumloop but at the same time raise the pitch, or vice versa! Then there are some keyboards: a Roland VK 7 organ, a Yamaha P 150 digital piano, a Clavia Nord Rack synthesizer (for “old school”, analog-type sounds), an E-mu Vintage Keys sound module, a Voce Electric Piano module and an Alesis D4 drum machine. I still use an old Atari STe computer with Cubase software for my midi-recording: if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!
Electronics and samples are great, but nothing beats using ‘real’ instruments. Apart from the human voice, I use a Martin SWD acoustic guitar, an Eko 12 string acoustic guitar, a Godin LGX and a Fender Stratocaster (both electric guitars), an old Morris bass guitar, and a Wurlitzer A 200 electric piano. Recent acquisitions: an electric lap-steel guitar, an Indian table harmonium, a toy zither and a Suzuki Omnichord, an unusual and very cool-sounding electronic instrument. In fact it looks – and sounds - like a prop from the Thunderbirds... Once I’ve figured out how to play them, all of these new toys will be used in future projects.
Microphones include a Rode NTK valve microphone, a Neumann KM 145, a Sony ecm 959v stereo mike and a Shure SM 57. To play electric guitar I use a Line 6 Pod or a Roland GP 100, both useful devices to create a wide range of guitar sounds without needing a guitar amp. All audio is recorded on to a synchronized pair of Tascam digital 8 track tape recorders, a DA-88 and a DA-38, giving me 16 audio tracks. For effects like reverb, echo and assorted psychedelics I use a Lexicon LXP-15, the built-in effects of the mixer and sometimes the GP 100. The final stereo-mix is transferred to a Tascam DA 20 mk2 DAT-recorder. Although you could do it yourself, I prefer to have my final product mastered, i.e. adding the final sonic touches, by professionals with trained ears and expensive gear, so, clutching my Salad Days mastertapes, I went to a small but expert mastering company called The Masters in Soest, here in the Netherlands. Thence to the pressing plant and to your ears...
