Even after the arrangement with an excellent EMT Noise-filter there was an unlike rest of noise. But in the end the Sound was more important for us than the rest of noise. The other case was the bassdrum played with the old Linn. Refused to give the place free for another seeming better Sound. The Linn bassdrum was simply the best for the total Sound. By the way: the piano sound while the instrumental part is a mix of S-50 piano and a "real" grand piano and Prophet VS strings. In general tend to couple strains coming from different instruments in order to reach a typical own character. But you run the risk to loose the identity of the Sound. That problem is the case also for the vocals. For many songs we decided to keep the only one solo-voice special for the verse. That's mostly the strongest character and has the most emotions thanks to Marians golden Voice. His vocal range is so voluminous that he's able to carry the whole song with only a little chorus and a "nice" echo. By the way all the Voice-recording are made with a Neumann tube-microphone older than 30 years. It sounds great and besides it has less noise in comparison with a brand-new Neumann TLM 170. We did nearly the whole acoustic recordings with that microphone and used different caps. Sometimes it's really strange with the modern technique, like for instance with the vocoder. All newer ones like OVP-1 or the Roland Voice Processor were unsuited to create the vocodervoice for "For a million".   Klaus had the idea to try this ancient-Moog vocoder and that Sound swept us finally off our feet's. Special with breathing Voice sounds from the D-50. The old box worked excellent. "Middle   of the riddle" we sent while mixing the share into the vocoder and use it as source far the echo.  For that song and two others we invited "Blacky" Schwarz-Ruszczynski from The Other Ones. Blacky plays really remarkable well just you can hear at the "strange" guitar-course after the first chorus.All this sounds - he plays exclusive a Pane Reed Smith - we  opinion "Heaven or Hell". Here were Eff Jot Krüger, Ernst Deuker and Hansi Behrendt, nearly the complete early Ideal-Band, as backing band in the studio. After the try to record all instruments together failed because of the sluggish basically tempo of the song, we sampled Hansis Drumsound with the MPC 60. Several bassdrum-blow, share-blows and completely to the click played rolls, hihats in all variations and special the brushstirs in order to get a living Swing Character. Together with Hansi I programmed his performance. The authenticity is amazing. Then played Hansi live a Ride-cymbal-track to the tape (what he did also for several other songs). Because of the tiny human inaccuracy opposite to the exact straight play of the machine it gives a breathing living impression. Ernst with his standing bass, Eff Jot with his Stone - Age Fender and Friedemann Graef with his saxophone contribute to a perfect well - rounded Sound. The piano is programmed, a very time-consuming work between the exact drums and the other instruments and to stand the mediators tightrope. During the whole production we made no allowances for "radio-compatibility" (somewhere I had to place this word) or something like that. Our goal was to create a warm open Sound, where the compositions and lyrics have much room in order to create an unambiguous, nearly visual atmosphere. Even if we gone a long way (or maybe just that's why), I think this purpose has turned out well. Indeed there are hardly rules how to produce a good Sound you should be guided only by what the songs telling to you. 
There are no rules for quality!

Bernhard Lloyd for Sound Check

Used Equipment

At The Lunapark Studio:




Mixdesk: DDA-AMR 24 with Optitle-Auto-mation (84 Channels for Mixdown) 

Multitrack: Otari MTR 90 with Dolby SR 

Sounds: Prophet VS / 2 x D 50/ 2 x PMAX / DX7 / TX 816 / DW 8000 / Jupiter 8 / PPG 2.3 / Waveterm B / Fairlight / S 50 / Matrix 1000 

Effects: Lexicon 480 / PCM 70 / PCM 60 / AKG ADR 68 / SRV 2000 / DRV 3000/ T.C. 2200 / various Yamaha Delays / Moog Vocoder 

Machines: Atari ST mit Creator / Export / Unitor QX 1 / MPC 60 / Linndrum 

Synchronizer: Friendship SRC 

Adam & Smith Zeta Three 

Dynamic Effects: Drawmer / BSS / Tube Tech / EMT 

Micros: Neumann / Schoeps

sent directly from his Exef- pre- amplifier with Rev 7 and T.C. Delay- effects into the desk. It  was just a relief if you haven't to construct for hours the right guitar-sound with noisegates, compressors and EQs. Master Schulze had his only appearance as musician for "Middle of the Riddle". He played The string surface in his own way. The song with the most brilliant symbiosis of live played instrumentals and machine is in my

 

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