Colin OOOD I need help!!

Drat Mafia

Drat Mafia

Total Member
Messages
2,168
Reaction score
0
Hi, I seem to remember you, or a member of one of your bands is well into their electronics and built a filter unit. I've got to do an electronics module for my degree, and they want me to build something to do with sound. It should ideally be some sort of kit I can put together, but all the sound based ones ive found are really shit...like, this will make machine gun noises, and cheesy police car sounds etc. I wanted to build a simple filter or eq thingy, but don't know how hard it will be. Just wondered if you had any advice, or knew anything about this, or if i should lower my sights to something more simple, like a small amplifier.......any ideas would be much appreciated...thankyou :)
 
It was Nigel actually, he designed the Mutator analogue filter unit and set up the company to make them - he built the first 100 himself by hand... although for 'one reason and another' he no longer has anything to do with them.

So I can't help I'm afraid, although I reckon Maplin might still do some good kits. I made a Maplin noise-gate and a Maplin bucket-brigade delay for my Electronics A-level back in the late 80s - check the online catalogue and find out.
 
</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Colin OOOD @ Jan 29 2004, 12:58 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> It was Nigel actually, he designed the Mutator analogue filter unit [/quote:9ca348f250]
Bloody Marc Lusardi turned up halfway thru one of my mix sessions at Butterfly with one of those and did the full sales schpiel on me and Youth a few years back.

Ended up buying it though. Fab box.
 
</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Ott^ @ Jan 29 2004, 01:28 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> </div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Colin OOOD @ Jan 29 2004, 12:58 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> It was Nigel actually, he designed the Mutator analogue filter unit [/quote:1f4580f587]
Bloody Marc Lusardi turned up halfway thru one of my mix sessions at Butterfly with one of those and did the full sales schpiel on me and Youth a few years back.

Ended up buying it though. Fab box. [/quote:1f4580f587]
It's fuckin' top, eh. The harder you drive it, the better it sounds. We had the mono prototype in the Stooodio for about a year before Mutronics was formed. A geezer called Tom Seidl borrowed it about 6 years ago... Nige wants it back!

The only thing Nige took away from that whole sorry escapade was a single Mutator that Duran Duran had sent back to Mutronics be fixed; Le Bon et al got a brand new one and Nige got their old one and the boot for wanting to be paid more than £50 pw to live in London building and testing £600 Mutators 14 hours a day while his partner and new-born baby girl were living in Oxford and his business partners were making a very comfortable living with their accountancy businesses, top-flight (ish) recording studios and swanning round record labels and studios giving the fruits of his creativity the hard sell. The whole thing still makes me a bit angry when I think about it (not that you'd have guessed, eh) - but then I don't know all the facts, and Nige still doesn't like to talk about it.
 
Behind every great act of creativity there lies a story of exploited genius and dodgy business dealings...
 
</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Double_Helix @ Jan 29 2004, 03:37 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> i think you mean "behind every great HUMAN act of creativity"


fucking humans :crazy: [/quote:807f51c2a1]
Yeah, they're all bastards. :crazy:

Nuke the lot of 'em, that's what I say.
 
</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (The_Phonographist @ Jan 29 2004, 11:22 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Here's a picture of the man in question , doin a spot of knob twiddlin. (I think thats another one of is own toys, is it not?)
[/quote:3437614bf7]
That, Sir, is an "EMS Synthi AKS" - much beloved of people like Brian Eno and Pink Floyd [amongst many others.]



It is sitting atop a Korg Monopoly - one of which I have beside me now.

 
Nothing slips past you does it you! You big know- it- -all sound engineer geek ;)

Whats that synth that makes the kind of accordian type sound reccurring through your album?
 
</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (The_Phonographist @ Jan 29 2004, 02:15 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Whats that synth that makes the kind of accordian type sound reccurring through your album?[/quote:0046027f81]
Its one of these;



Its called a Hohner Melodica. Its not a synth. You blow into it.
 
</div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Ott^ @ Jan 29 2004, 02:27 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> </div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (The_Phonographist @ Jan 29 2004, 02:15 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>Whats that synth that makes the kind of accordian type sound reccurring through your album?[/quote:854d3e3fec]
Its one of these;

<!--aimg--><a href='http://www.clavedesol.com.ar/Comersus/store/catalog/DM-H9452.jpg' target='_blank'></a><!--Resize_Images_Hint_Text--><!--/aimg-->

Its called a Hohner Melodica. Its not a synth. You blow into it. [/quote:854d3e3fec]
Come on don't stop there. Tell him how after an hour or so of this 'blowing' a string of warm saliva oozes out of the end and into your lap, and if you get anyone else playing it ('ooh a melodica lesavvago'), the dribble isn't necessarily all from the same person.
Geeeeuurrrrggh.
 
I was hoping to gloss over that bit.

Actually - i don't let anyone play my melodica for that reason. Instead, I have a "guest melodica" which is swilling with a cocktail of bodily fluids. Fucked if I'd blow into it...


:no:

That pic link seems to have bust - for the benefit of The Phonographist;



mine is the red one second from top.
 
Which brings me to a question I've been meaning to ask for a while:

Those who use live instruments, what mics do you use, and how do you set 'em up, when recording that kind of stuff?

J.
 
Rode NT2

<!--aimg--><a href='http://homepage2.nifty.com/miguel/images/rode_nt2.jpg' target='_blank'></a><!--Resize_Images_Hint_Text--><!--/aimg-->

Almost always set to "cardioid" pattern.

100hz roll-off usually when really close-miking things.

-20db pad switched in usually only when recording my timbales cos they're MONSTROUSLY loud.

Always a bit of a lottery recording yourself playing [as is mostly the case with me these days] as mic placement is usually pure guesswork.

Without wishing to sound like too much of a know-all twat, [I know - bit late for that now..] one thing I have done is point a lot of different types of microphone at a lot of different types of sound source. If yu have any specific questions regarding mic techniques, feel free to ask.
 
JPsychodelicacy Posted on Jan 29 2004, 02:59 PM
Which brings me to a question I've been meaning to ask for a while:

Those who use live instruments, what mics do you use
Click to expand...


If you're a cheap bastard like me... SM57s and SM58s do the job.

And I found that the Greenoak Crystal VST makes a nice melodica-type sound if you stroke it a bit....
 
Haha..I used to have one of those Melodica things as a kid. It seems to be popping up in a lot of chill out tacks at the moment. Though, they're all probably just you under another alias... :P
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top