Mellotronists

kenmerb@... wrote:

>
> Speaking of strange noises, KL and I have noticed a strange noise on
> at least two of the French horn notes, near the beginning of the
> sounds.  You should probably contact me off-list to discuss, otherwise
> it could be embarrassing.  I don't want to describe the sound, other
> than to ask if,  by chance, these were recorded at your "House of
> Windsor" studio?  I *am * serious - there is something strange on a
> couple of the notes.

Ken,

I am tempted to give a flip answer here (but I PROMISED not to make any
more jokes at Mike Dickson's expense, that I would NEVER AGAIN mention
on this list what he suffers from.), but I suspect that you're not
hearing the results of incomplete digestion but something more insidious
to those who try to record 35 perfect notes in something other than a
hermetically sealed recording studio: ambient noise, in this case, more
specifically, traffic noises.

When we recorded this sound, the piccolo and the bass clarinet, the
flight pattern for the airport seems to have been somewhat nearer to my
house than usual and we seemed to have a rash of cars and trucks
desperately in need of mechanical care. Did I mention fire trucks? There
were not one, but two fires in the nearby apartment buildings on that
fateful night!

Merinque Smith had the unenviable task of sorting through all the takes
(some notes with as many as ten) for to try to find ones that didn't
have any "outside influences" and also sounded good and were in tune (a
minor qualification), and I think he did a damn fine job. But he has the
masters. What's the word, old chap?

I will fire up old Brenda (as soon as I put in a good supply of coal)
and check out your claims. What notes are you speaking of specifically?

However, I was just thinking... When the final takes of the master tapes
were being put together, Dickson was present at the Streetly World
Headquarters in Lower-Upper Blithbury (hard upon the Twat & Handbag Pub)
in order to make the demo tapes for the Streetly Library Website. No. It
couldn't be. It's just too far fetched to be true...

And for Gene's earlier e-mail, I agree that listening to the outtakes
would be quite illuminating as well as very funny. For example, when we
were recording the bass flute recently, my red-headed better half
suddenly stopped playing and said, "Oh f___! Now I've got the hiccups!"
I (being the time keeper and present in the vocal booth with her)
unwisely said, "Oh, then we can just record some shorter notes between
the hiccups." She called me a seven-letter word that begins with "A" and
then very sweetly said, "Oh! Is the tape still running?"

My feeling is we should leave the exchange in, in place of the 35th
note, but then I'd probably be sleeping on the sofa the rest of my
farking life.

Hope this sorts everything out.

Rick