Quickies

Smoothcheeseboard
The prize for the silliest band name this month must go to Christian Smooth (drums, samples) and Daniel Cheeseboard (keys, vocals, guitars), and their album, Paprika Gentlemen. In an attempt to add a little live spice to their sequenced material, they've recorded real drums alongside the triggered sounds, but sensibly they've kept the drum sound dry, and it sits well with the dance-orientated samples and keyboard sounds. Compressing the bass drum to bring out the punch was a good idea, but more extreme EQ and some experimentation with microphone placement would have helped too (see the 'Doctor's Advice' box for some drum EQ suggestions). I especially like the longer kick sound on 'Wolf In The Door', and initially thought it was the result of a different mic position. In fact, some short, gated reverb has been used subtly, to make the bass drum note last longer, and this also complements the bass synth sound. Musically, Smoothcheeseboard offer a wide selection of styles, from the heavy, youthful 'Shocking' to the funky, yet surprisingly mature 'Wolf In The Door'. The last mouthful ('Silent') offers most to the commercial taste, but suffers from poorly recorded vocals.

DJ Invicta
Despite the fact that his name sounds like a brand of sanitation unit, DJ Invicta (aka Rory Cuthbert) manages to flush out a few good tunes. He works particularly hard on his sounds, attempting to emulate Wurlitzer piano voices using a Casio CZ5000, even resorting to using the gain control on his multitrack to emulate a tremolo effect, a time consuming and tedious job — full marks for patience. I can't remember much about the Casio CZ5000 now (even though I used to own one, a long time ago), but couldn't a similar effect have been achieved with VCA modulation? Rory isn't afraid to experiment with limited equipment: one track features a drum beat (played), pitched up on the multitrack and sent to a Zoom effects processor, where it's treated by resonant wah and hall reverb. The reverb's a bit long for the the artificially fast beat, but the resonant wah introduces an interesting whistling effect, generated mostly from the pitch of the snare. Overall, it's a début demo with some lively ideas.

Andrew Scott
Andrew's aim is to write music for established heavy rock artists, but he's finding it hard to get a foot in the door. Instead of sending material to the record company, Andrew, you should try the artist's publishers, management, or even — as suggested in a recent SOS article — the lawyer! The recordings would also benefit from better lead vocals to sell the songs; it's worth paying a session singer to provide these, if you're serious about your aspirations. From a technical point of view, the voice sinks into the track too often and needs compression, careful EQ, and a bit more gain to lift it above the busy musical sections. The guitars have been well played and recorded, and the drum programming is also very good. I'd have used more short, punchy reverb on the snare and substituted the sixteenth-note hi-hat parts for eighth-note ones — the former are too obviously artificial on a sequenced drum machine for a rock production. Finally, it would be worth trying to write some more obviously commercial material. Even heavy rock acts like to get some chart recognition (and their business associates like it even more).

The Absolute Darlings
Playing the main festivals in the South West has helped lift the profile of The Absolute Darlings, and this two-track CD is the latest of three they have produced. It's difficult to assess properly because of the lack of recording details, but has been exceptionally well recorded, particularly the second song. Here a full bass guitar and drum sound underpin the acoustic and electric guitars and languid vocals. One criticism of the production in general is that it's a little clean sounding, and there's a hole in the warm mid area — 150–400Hz — which is only filled when the backing vocals appear. A little more lower-mid on the guitar sounds would have helped in these sections. This is a band who have yet to fulfil their commercial potential and the CD should interest most listeners enough to want to hear more. Check them out on their website, www.absolutedarlings.co.uk *

Danny Hogan
Dublin-based Danny lists as his influences "anything that's done with conviction". His CD begins with a spoken email address over a short piece of music and a scratched record sample. It's off-the-wall enough to catch your interest and draw you quickly into the first song, a dance/rock crossover with overdriven guitar, synth bass, strings and a straight dance beat. Danny's voice is good, and well mixed, with just the right amount of short reverb to keep it tight and punchy. However, the guitars are a bit peaky in the upper mids and sound a lot better with a heavy 6dB cut at 1.5kHz. This also improves the sound of the whole mix, so a less extreme cut could be applied as a post-production EQ, provided presence was added to compensate. The second song has the better mix, although it could still be made more exciting with heavy compression, presence and a slap-back delay (about 120mS) applied to the lead vocal.

Sean Tomlinson
Unable to find a band in his home town of Hull to play this original material, Sean has decided to go it alone, with only the aid of a trusty Yamaha MD8 Minidisc 8-track. Primarily a guitarist, he has been teaching himself keyboards as an aid to songwriting, and the first song demonstrates that he can hold his own. The piano is a little low in the mix (lack of confidence?), but the assured guitars are to the fore. I especially like the Les Paul/Fender 185 combination for the lead guitar on the opening, but it's too loud — even the lead vocal is lower in level!

Proof that Sean is more than just an axe-wielding monster is found on the acoustic guitar tracks, of which 'Because Of You' is a good example. The vocal level is better, but a touch of reverb wouldn't go amiss. A vocal plate with a pre-delay would be suitable; this could also have been added to the piano, in smaller measure. The final song demonstrates that Sean is both a good guitarist and a good singer/songwriter. It also shows a little more balance in the mixing, as the guitar takes a back seat to the voice.

Life Support Machine
Another SOS reader unable to find like minded-musicians in his area, Rob Mitson has also gone the solo route. His CD opens with an anti–drugs song — a cynical look at drugs culture, with some clever lyrics. It starts well, sounding like Fun Boy Three and at this point is pretty commercial. However, it loses the plot halfway through, developing into a sort of concept number. No monitoring system is listed in his gear, but many of the mixes are bass-light, which suggests that the speakers used gave a false impression of the bass content in the tracks. This might have been because they were located in a corner, or just that they were bass heavy. Some post-production has been done, using Pro Tools, and presumably different monitors were used then, so it should have been spotted. Track 11 ('On the Bend') has about the right amount of bass and could be used as a yardstick to measure the other mixes by.