Lots of 808 studio questions

Discuss 808 State and related.

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stephen
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Post by stephen »

I have lots of 808 State studio questions:

What signal processors did 808 State use on the Albums Ex:cel and 90?

I noticed the compression is really tight especially on UTD 90 which I assume was remastered in the United States with Tommy Boy.

What type of reverb processor was used on the album Newbuild?
The reverb is really dense on this album.
I noticed gated reverb was really popular in a lot of acid and techno at the time.

On the Album Ec:cel they used Cubase and an Atari ST for Midi sequencing.
I assume everything was individually processed on multi track tape?
What type of mixing console did they use on Ex:cel?

On the album Don Solaris I notice there is slight distortion applied to the mix on a lot of the tracks.
What signal processor did they use for the distortion?
In my opinion it works on some of the vocal tracks like Azura but I hope it's not used on the new album.

I noticed on the studio images page 808 State are using a Focusrite Contorl/ 24 mixing console, I'm assuming the new album be completly recorded in
ProTools?
Rich The Donkey Doctor
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Post by Rich The Donkey Doctor »

I'll second some of those questions; often wondered about the effects/compression used, especially the reverb on 'Ninety'... 'Sunrise' in particular, is drenched in a very long (EQ-ed?) effect which gives the track a real atmosphere...a similar effect is used on the FM synth bells at the start of Ancodia, and during the 'Zap' (?) break in Cobra Bora. Think there may also be a phase/flange applied to the reverb? 808 compression/EQ has always been a key part of their sound; IMO the only other act to come close in this aspect of production is Leftfield.
Would love to be a fly on the wall when Graham mixes down 808 tracks and see a master at work!!!
Guest

Post by Guest »

Sunrise sounds like clever mixing using a combination of different effects.
To me the noise you hear sounds like it's from a sample, then again again it could be post processing with EQ or a filter to brings out the noise.
I hear flanging on the hand claps, diffusing on the cymbals, a combination of reverbs, infinite-large size reverb on the background sax? , gives
it that spatial effect.

I always thought Tommy Boy did a great job mastering the tracks, if you want to hear nice compression listen to the vynil version of UTD. Sate 90.

I noticed the ZTT album 90 version of Cobra Bora the production quality sounds different then the UTD State 90 version.
I like the ZTT version better.
On 2002-06-12 04:49, Rich The Donkey Doctor wrote:
I'll second some of those questions; often wondered about the effects/compression used, especially the reverb on 'Ninety'... 'Sunrise' in particular, is drenched in a very long (EQ-ed?) effect which gives the track a real atmosphere...a similar effect is used on the FM synth bells at the start of Ancodia, and during the 'Zap' (?) break in Cobra Bora. Think there may also be a phase/flange applied to the reverb? 808 compression/EQ has always been a key part of their sound; IMO the only other act to come close in this aspect of production is Leftfield.
Would love to be a fly on the wall when Graham mixes down 808 tracks and see a master at work!!!
stephen
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Post by stephen »

I noticed the ZTT album 90 version of Cobra Bora the production quality sounds different then the UTD State 90 version.
I like the ZTT version better.
Oh yeah I cant decide wich version of Ancodia I like better, the ZTT version or the UTD. State 90 version.
Album 90 on ZTT will go down as a classic even though you have less tracks.
graham
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Post by graham »

Lets see if I can remember..
the reverb on newbuild is a combination of these a rev 7 yamaha(sometimes gated)
a spx90 used a lot on these early recordings
a midiverb and an old spring reverb that gerald had that hummed a lot.
exel was sequenced on hybrid arts sympte track software all tracks were recorded through an amek angela desk onto sony digital tape apart from a few tracks done at another studio which were recorded throgh a amek gs something to analogue 2 inch tape(cubik /in yer face/olympic)the same as 90. a lot of the tracks on 90 started out on 16 track one inch through a TAC scorpian desk,then transfered to two inch ,the reverbs on exel and 90 were lexicon and varios others like eventide and roland dep 5 spx 90 and whats that make that says Burnley lancashire on them.. ams?. we used very little compresion
a bit of drawmer if anything on a few synths
Compression was probably added at the cutting of the record..all of 90 and newbuild was masterd from 1/4 inch analogue tape
exel would have been DAT
UTD State 90 ..the xtra tracks and the re worked tracks (cobra boraandAncodia etc)
were re done at Sarm East /West where they went throgh ssl consoles and probably have tons of ssl compressor at the end of the chain..
Don Solaris again was mixed on ssl from analogue 2 inch,masterd from DAT (though we did rum it to half inch as back up)
Distortion? probably overdriven on the desk
for effect on certain tracks but I dont think its all over the album..
The new album was recorded through a Soundtracks Jade desk into pro tools and
mixed in pro tools thogh we did use alot of out board gear and fed the final mixes through a TC electronics finaliser to DAT.
Do you have the re issue of NEWBUILD ?
can you spot the difference in side one ,its
been cut from an old vynil copy of the album
the rest is 1/4 inch..If you like the early analogue recordings ,check out Quadrastate
and North at its hieghts ,before we started wasting our money on posh studios ..
stephen
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Post by stephen »

On 2002-06-15 14:55, graham wrote:
Lets see if I can remember..
the reverb on newbuild is a combination of these a rev 7 yamaha(sometimes gated)
a spx90 used a lot on these early recordings
a midiverb and an old spring reverb that gerald had that hummed a lot.
hahaha..Alesis Midiverb
exel was sequenced on hybrid arts sympte track software all tracks were recorded through an amek angela desk onto sony digital tape apart from a few tracks done at another studio which were recorded throgh a amek gs something to analogue 2 inch tape(cubik /in yer face/olympic)the same as 90. a lot of the tracks on 90 started out on 16 track one inch through a TAC scorpian desk,then transfered to two inch ,the reverbs on exel and 90 were lexicon and varios others like eventide and roland dep 5 spx 90 and whats that make that says Burnley lancashire on them.. ams?. we used very little compresion
a bit of drawmer if anything on a few synths
Compression was probably added at the cutting of the record..all of 90 and newbuild was masterd from 1/4 inch analogue tape
exel would have been DAT
UTD State 90 ..the xtra tracks and the re worked tracks (cobra boraandAncodia etc)
were re done at Sarm East /West where they went throgh ssl consoles and probably have tons of ssl compressor at the end of the chain..
So I was hearing Lexicon reverb on album 90.
It's amazing how little to no compression was used on those albums.
The mixing on Ex:Cel is absolutely perfect.
Don Solaris again was mixed on ssl from analogue 2 inch,masterd from DAT (though we did rum it to half inch as back up)
Distortion? probably overdriven on the desk
for effect on certain tracks but I dont think its all over the album..
mastered from DAT.
Did you use the TC Electronics Finalizer?
Maybe that's what's making the production sound different from previous albums.
The new album was recorded through a Soundtracks Jade desk into pro tools and
mixed in pro tools thogh we did use alot of out board gear and fed the final mixes through a TC electronics finaliser to DAT.
Do you have the re issue of NEWBUILD ?
can you spot the difference in side one ,its
been cut from an old vynil copy of the album
the rest is 1/4 inch..
I have the CD on Rephlex, my guess would be it 's the first track Sinc/Swim.
If you listen carefully about the 2:49 - 2:51 mark you have an audio drop in the stereo channels.
I don't know if that's analog tape or a vinyl artifact.
If you like the early analogue recordings ,check out Quadrastate
and North at its hieghts ,before we started wasting our money on posh studios ..
Actually those are the two albums I don't have, I'll be sure to hunt down a copy of both.
Thanks for the studio insight something you don't hear very often from techno producers.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: stephen on 2002-07-03 02:54 ]</font>
stephen
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Post by stephen »

On 2002-06-15 14:55, graham wrote:
The new album was recorded through a Soundtracks Jade desk into pro tools and
mixed in pro tools thogh we did use alot of out board gear and fed the final mixes through a TC electronics finaliser to DAT.
What's the thinking behind that?


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: stephen on 2002-07-03 02:59 ]</font>
stephen
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Post by stephen »

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: stephen on 2002-07-03 02:28 ]</font>
Ancodia
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Post by Ancodia »

Just noticed this,
I don't know if this is a Mac 5.1 VST only thing but one of the patches on the VST instrument JX16 is called '808 State Lead'. I never really use the VST instruments and only noticed this after a re-install.
PeteZarustica
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Post by PeteZarustica »

It's wonderful to hear from Graham's voice (ok keyboard) how they mixed those albuns. I'm shocked to hear that the reissue of NewBuild was partially remastered from a vinyl copy. So it means they don't have the master tapes anymore. What about the separate tracks, I mean the pre-mix tape? Can NewBuild be re-mixed?
Pete
stephen
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Post by stephen »

After another careful listen to Newbuild I'm willing to bet hard cash it's either the first track Sync/Swim or the third track Dr. Lowfruit that was remastered from vynil.

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: stephen on 2002-07-03 02:37 ]</font>
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