In The St Nick of Time

Rock Solid - Heart Touching.

Mr Magician (Flatwound Edit) - Mystic Merlin by Flatwound

This track has been surgically removed from the 'Mix for the Holy Ghost'.

Mix for the Holy Ghost! by Flatwound

Big Ta!

Big Thank you to:

NJayE (aka funk and soul heavyweight Noel Elmowy) for making the ordinary extraordinary, killer piano solo Bro;

Albert Calvo, adding the warmth we needed to the closer. Class act;

Keren Minshull for the unexpected grace and gold of her voice;

Rodrigo Galvao for adding just a touch, a taste, a piece of Brazil;

And my mate Jack, c'mon Jack, sing that song!

We're on the home stretch, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, mummies and daddies and all things flat and wound.

Better a Slap from a Friend than a Kiss from an Enemy

So, after serious and critical listening to the cd, I consulted JP on my concerns over the closing track, Our Love Will Last. Boy, I love the way the album flows but I keep turning down the last track. Is it distorted?

I felt we'd applied too much compression and tape saturation, so much so the "life" and emotion of the track was compromised.

Why didn't we pick that up at the time? Because we didn't listen to the cd in running order and only got into it the next day. The cd is an album, not a bunch of tracks. It takes you on a journey. By the end of the album you're used to listening to the "sound" of the whole sequence and this last track was kinda out of place.

I called Don Bartley at Benchmark Mastering and we agreed to reassess this little oversight.

Don said he'd reorganise Thursday to make it so.

Don had already put his Mastering hat on and had a new version already for my inspection when I arrived. He'd already changed the gain structure on the tape and compared it to the original.

Hmmm, sounds better but still a bit hard on the release and attack.

He tweaked the Neve until it was barely noticeable (but it is if you know how it does what it does) and added the smallest amount of tops. I asked him to halve the tops and we waited till our ears settled down with a bit of oral history about the track. As I explained the track he tweaked the Neve again. Don now realised how the voice needed to retain the emotion of the lyric and made the smallest of touches to the Neve.

JP was running late having been thrown off the bus for not having a special card worth $1.90 even though he offered cash! What? Never mind, the kiosk will help...

We ran a copy and awaited his arrival.

JP arrived sweaty but ready to conga. He settled down in the lounge and took it in. Agreements all around, this was the way the cd should end, at last, the track sounded alive!

After the last bit of cd and hard drive admin closure we actually got a chance to relax and chat with Don about music. We discussed dynamic range and record company executives. He said he doesn't play anything. Jack and I disagreed and took photos of the most amazing musical instrument we watched being played by Maestro Don. Thank you so much Don Bartley!

You know what, today is one of my most favorite days I've ever had.

Based on a True Story

Here's the actual song resurrection we did for Oscar Jiminez of Watussi.

It was a love remix destined for their last album. Had no GPS, got lost, but we found it's battered and bloodied carcass at the side of the driveway to CJS' mother's place. How it remembered to find it's way remains a mystery. One stormy night we attached the cables to it's terminals and Igor flipped the switch... It's Alive!

Hit the link:

El Bato (CJS Remix) - Watussi

Our Day In The Sun

You know how nice Sydney weather has been lately?

Well JP, myself, Don Bartley and a representative of ALDI chocolates got to celebrate God's smile on Sydney by spending the glorious Friday indoors only to step out after the tape party to rain that cleaned the streets.

Welcome to the new cd just being mastered.

Everything ran through tape on his custom made Ampex ATR-100 1/2 Inch Recorder with Class A Aria pre-amps, the Manley Massive Passive EQ, his customed up GML 8200 Stereo Parametric EQ, finally a Neve 33609 with traces of the SPL Spacializer sidechained through the TL Audio M1 8 Ch Valve Console (see above). Respect.

I'm not sure if the used the TubeTech Multiband Compressor that day but he did on Candy from our first single.

Finally the sound cannoned forth from the Duntech Monitors most of the day with occasional switch to the Orpheus Minotaurs.

We stepped out into Sydney Balm only to be greeted by a tentative rain. Confidently, the traced our steps up to Taylor Square for the buses (who parks in the city these days?) with a side track to Spank to check out the new software and hardware controller and bags and posters.

Totally mad props to Don for tapping his foot all day... we saw ya!

Dead set, groovy, grouse, massive.

Thanks for your patience

Hi Flatwounders,

We'll be posting in a little bit more just as soon as we finish the 12"/ single/ cd mastering at Benchmark tomorrow with Don.

Jack says hi.

I say hi.

And here's Flatwound's (Midnite Edit) version of the Pointer Sisters hit 80s Pop Tech classic for y'all, Automatic. We cleaned up the 12" with soap and water twice, dried it with non-lint paper towels and carried it to the platter with clean white gloves and used a medically proven hypoallergenically cleaned needle with a pure weighted balance tone arm steadily tracking over a .5k solid glass platter at exactly 33 RPM. Any wavering is the result of poor quality control at the pressing plant or a dodgy master tape left in the cockpit windscreen for the trip, I'll bet!

Automatic (Flatwound Midnite Edit) - Pointer Sisters

Ain't nothing really

Hmmm,

Every track was analysed and we found some clicks.

I troubleshooted the expensive ADA I/O was needing a reboot.

So shutdown computer and disconnect all cables to the interface.

1 reconnect and reboot later and the sound is even clearer.

All mixes are finally mixed and ready for mastering by Don Bartley at Benchmark. We're taking over 24/48k renders of the album in sequence without crossfades, which Don'll do.

We should have a pre-printed product in our hot, trembling hands by Friday arvo next week.

The new commercial single is being edited down to just over 3 minutes.

I missed seeing a friend play an important first gig because I was gigging. I'm waiting for the reviews, I'm sure it'll be good.

Waiting for Native Instruments to get back to me on 2 enquiries, And Steinberg on another. Ho hum, take your time guys! It's like they're understaffed and the people who answer your emails don't even read the question. To be fair, it's not "like", it is that they're understaffed and the ones left behind don't give a flying buttress. Ahh, the new age of customer service has just, kinda, slipped these guys by...