Dining Room Studios
The Beginning
Dining Room Studios came to life in 1999 when Peter
Shout, out of the blue, (or was it the pub?) turned up one day at
practice with a Roland VS-1680 recording unit under his arm.
We gingerly placed it upon the closest table, sprayed it with
insecticide to remove the guff from Pete's armpits, and stood around it
in a circle, lost in rapture at this "Gift from the God's"
that had suddenly entered our empty and unfulfilled lives.
The band had been talking for ages about doing some recording, but
cost's and logistics kept on rearing their ugly heads.
Great excitement was produced with this unexpected event, and an
immediate start was made to record something (anything!) on the unit.
Fingers poked, buttons were pressed and curses were thrown around until
eventually, we got the thing working. We were in business!!!
"Let's make a CD." was the immediate common consensus. So
guitars in hand, drums set up and with vocal chords warmed up, we
proceeded to do just that. We hadn't even read the bloody manual yet!!
The result of this first recording project was BedRocks debut CD
"La Cantina in March 2000."
We still class this project as a minor miracle 'cos none of us knew what
the hell we were doing AND we recorded the thing back to front! Charles
was leaving for Germany and Ken and Jen were in the process of being
transferred to Jo'burg. So, guess what we did? We recorded the lead
vocals first and then the backing tracks!!! (Stop laughing.)
But it worked and BedRock was now a fully fledged member of the
recording fraternity.
Pete's
Baby!!
The Roland VS-1680. |
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After the successful release of "La
Cantina" and realising that they needed a bit of improvement
regarding the technical side of recording, (that's an understatement)
the lad's decided to do something about it. Whilst Eddie, Pete and Mike
disappeared on holiday, Kenny was locked in his bedroom with only four
items : the VS-1680, a set of headphones, the VS-1680 Manual and a weeks
supply of Tafel lager.
A week later, Kenny was let out and immediately booked into the Betty
Ford clinic to be treated for acute alcohol poisoning, muttering strange
and weird things about Japanese instruction manuals.
Armed now with a better understanding of how the Japanese brain works,
(???) BedRock recorded 4 "demo" tracks which they
subsequencially (and sneakily) released in tape format as the
"BedRock Bootleg Tape" during December 2000.
Now to tackle the BIG one.
A full length CD of original songs!!!
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Kenny
Twiddles the knobs.
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Pete
Shop Keeper.
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Planning, we all decided, was the key.
What do we need?
- Something to record on. (The VS-1680.)
- Microphones, etc. (We've got.)
- Songs. (We quickly wrote 14.)
- Recording Studio. (No problem, we'll use Pete's
Dining Room.)
- A name for the CD. ("Recovery", screamed
Eddie Heusdens, jumping up and down and waving his hands about like
a demented orang-utan.)
(Orang-utan n. large long-armed anthropoid of East Indies.)
(Eddie Heusden n. large long-armed anthropoid of Namibia.)
So, on Saturday 17th of February 2001, we started
laying down the backing tracks of "Recovery", all of us
smiling sweetly at Pete's long suffering wife Brenda in case she decided
to evict us from her now, semi-demolished Dining Room.
Here's a list of some useless facts regarding the recording of
"Recovery" :
- Started recording Saturday 17th February 2001.
- Recording completed Sunday 15th of April 2001.
- Total 8 Weeks.
- Total Recording time in Hours = 141.
- Total Hours spent Mixing and Mastering = 35.
- Total Number of songs = 14
- Length of CD = 52 minutes 16 seconds.
- Total Number of tracks recorded = 293.
- Total number of beers consumed = Un-countable.
Beer cans popped and it was smiles all around as the
Master CD was burnt and then gently handed over to a bemused Pete who
was informed, in no uncertain terms, that it was his responsibility to
organise the copies and the packaging. Being a man of strong character
and impeccable credentials, Pete took it all in his stride, and was soon
winging (whining?) his way to Johannesburg and Cape Town to deliver the
bands precious artistic offering to the CD manufacturers and CD
cover/booklet printers.
Monday the 18th June. Urgent e-mail from Pete. "Emergency
Band Meeting - tonight - my house." Like police on a drug bust,
with engines racing and wheels squealing, Eddie, Mike and Kenny
converged on Pete's place of residence expecting something terrible.
What did they find? The CD covers had arrived!!!
On a table in his lounge was heaped a pile of CD's and CD covers. "Right
lad's," said Pete in his best drill masters voice, "These
are advanced mail order copies. Get packing." Trembling with
fear, and with bowed heads, the three (3) of them got stuck in whilst
Pete, laying back comfortably in his "Lazy Boy" chair,
proceeded to sip at his beer, every now and again barking an order at
one of the unfortunate packers.
Eight (8) hours later, the lad's were finished. Dripping with sweat and
with hands covered in blisters the three (3) workers lifted their weary
bodies and said goodnight to Pete. He, though, didn't hear a word they
said as he was fast asleep in his easy chair. Slowly they made their way
home, thankful that they had managed to prevent Pete from having to
indulge in any form of physical activity.
To Be Continued.....
To purchase a copy of
"La Cantina" or "Recovery", why not pay a visit to The
Shop.
Or, if you would like to sample some of the songs from
"Recovery",
then visit BedRock's MP3 Site.
Some very helpful recording sites :
VS
Planet - Virtual Studios - Roland VS-1680
VS
Planet Bulletin Board- Bulletin Board - Roland VS-1680
V-Studio
- V-Studio Users Group - Roland VS-1680
Roland
- Roland U.S.A.
Horizontal
Paul - VS-1680 Manuals.
Harmony-Central.com
- Compression/Limiting.
Recordingeq.com
- A Guide to Equilisation.
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All Music Produced by
"Criminal Records" at
"Dining Room Studios"
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Copyright © 1998 - Perpetuity by BedRock-The Band in
The Sand
All rights reserved.
Information in this document is subject to change without notice.
Site designed and maintained by Kenny
Ramage.
Editorial Comment and Diary by Pete
Shout.
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monitor.
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