EQ Magazine - October 2008 - (Page 9)

The Orb (left to right)—Fil Le Gonidread, The Corprol, Alex Patterson, Youth, Keith York. Youth. “On a track like ‘Codes,’ I was aiming for a more Giorgio Moroder homage, and a little bit of Norman Whitfield, but there are also some King Tubby bass lines in there.” In addition to a Modern Music Status bass—outfitted with a graphite neck and active pickups—Youth used a Gibson EB-2 semi-acoustic that provided the thick sustain that can be heard in a reggae-styled track like “Lost & Found.” Short of a little EQing using Logic’s Low Pass Filter, and some glitch-y amp simulation sounds via Guitar Rig, Youth kept the signal path relatively unaffected. The large majority of the album, according to Youth, was processed in the box. Reverbs were an exception, and for those, the group employed the services of a mid-’80s-era Great British Spring. “They sound like a reverb, but they don’t eat up the sound,” says Bran of the six-foot long drainpipe, which was used in conjunction with Logic’s Space Designer convolution reverb to create the album’s extraordinarily deep, dubby sound. “We’d run it live on the desk as an effects send, and then record that back into Logic as a take. If you just stick things through a reverb it can get a bit boring. But if you’re playing the reverb off drum loops and spinning delays, it’s like the old dub records from Jamaica. That’s how they used to do it, and that’s an instrument in itself—a performance.” With such a heady mix of low-end frequencies and midrange samples, it was important to Bran that he kept the mix spacious and clutter-free. Nowhere is this achieved more effectively than in the title track, where each signal was surgically EQ’d to exist in a niche, and then strategically panned throughout the stereo field to preserve clarity while creating width. “We wanted to make it so that it was like walking into a forest of sound,” says Bran of “The Dream.” “I’d use a little panning to lead you around the stereo field and give you space, but, typically, I didn’t use too many effects. It’s almost like an overture to what’s coming.” The Dream is one of the richest Orb albums to date, and, at nearly 80 minutes, it’s no light fare. Regardless of who rotates in and out of the Orb, the 48-year-old Patterson shows no signs of slowing down, even if he is traipsing through familiar pastures. “The Dream is something we wanted to reinvent from the first two albums, and just go back to our roots for a little while,” says Patterson. “We know that period, and we know the sounds we can use to get people’s ears to tweak up. It’s almost like visiting an old friend.” www.eqmag.com OCTOBER 2008 EQ 9 http://www.eqmag.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of EQ Magazine - October 2008

EQ Magazine - October 2008 Contents Talk Box Sounding Board Punch In Smashing Pumpkins Guitar Trax Bass Management Key Issues Drum Heads Vocal Cords Mix Bus Cheat Sheet Cakewalk Sonar 7 Steinberg Cubase 4 Studio Meets Stage Gear for the Studio and Stage Sounds Room with a Vu

EQ Magazine - October 2008

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