Andy At Bbc Documentary The Producers. Options

[Per Aronsson]

From the newssection:

"We finally have a date for the BBC 6 Music documentary series in which Andy P, amongst others, talks about Todd Rundgrens production techniques.

On January 23rd at 22.00GMT on BBC 6 Music Andy will chat about Todds shaping and selection process of the classic XTC album Skylarking. The rough and the smooth that brought forth such a sonic delight. Tune in live or check their hear again facilities for this splendid series."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00qbzqv

[Per Aronsson]

Anyone been listening? The Skylarking/Andy part starts around 1 hour 6 minutes. Very interesting interview. Ends with "ten out of ten" from Andy.

[geordiegav]

What a great seague between blue overall and summers cauldron !

Todd sure produced a classic xtc record but boy did he have some great songs to work with.

[Jeff Truzzi]

It was interesting hearing Todd talk about his interest in mainly British artists from the mid-60s vs American ones, and of attitude over fidelity. Americans had an audiophile edge over Britain in equipment and tracks, but most didn't use the studio as creatively and distinctively as producers in the UK.

Todd's comments (my paraphrasing) about Andy seeing the songs from the inside out and wanting to use all the sonic space available, making it difficult for listeners to hear through all the activity, makes sense as well; some folks (although not me!) believe those to be issues with "The Big Express" and "Oranges & Lemons." Not surprisingly, Todd seems to often have these same blind spots in producing his own songs. And Andy obviously learned from this, as exhibited by the transparency of "Nonsuch" and "AV1."

Skylarking may not be the best engineered XTC album (and I still suspect some Dolby SR mis-calibration), but it is absolutely one of the best arranged and produced. It takes a big man to make an on-air mea culpa to Todd, and Andy Partridge is a big man. And I don't just mean girth!

[xTC]

I totally concur with Jeff. Andy's part in this documentary was fantastic. To publically apologise was extremely powerful and very heartfelt. Skylarking stands out as an amazing piece of work, from intro to outro. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/smile.gif)

[Jeff Truzzi]

A few people have asked me what this "Dolby SR" thing is about, so I am copying and pasting this post from the Backporch. This specifically - and Todd's engineering of "Skylarking" in general - were discussed and debated quite extensively on the old Idea forum. And just so there is no misunderstanding, I absolutely LOVE "Skylarking." - Jeffy


My theory about the overall 'sound' of "Skylarking" has to do with a possible mis-calibration of the Dolby SR noise reduction unit hooked up to the 2" 24-track tape machine. Having used these excellent units, I also know how touchy they can be, especially when, say, tapes encoded with one unit are played back (and mixed) on a different SR unit (calibrated differently) and a different 24-track machine.

The album has a distinctive overall sound, both in EQ and compression, that is not audiophile clear, natural and detailed - like "Mummer" or "Nonsuch" or "AV1" are. My suspicion is this is partly intentional (see my comments about Todd's influences in my first post) and partly not - which is where I suspect the Dolby SR unit. They have a certain 'sound' to them, and this sound tweaked in an unnatural way is kind of what I'm hearing.

Interestingly, these artifacts aren't as apparent on the song "Dear God" as they are on the rest of "Skylarking."

This is in addition to P-pops on vocal tracks ("1000 Umbrellas"), thin acoustic guitar sounds (except on "Dear God"), crosstalk of unused tracks (like the unused guitar chord underneath the countoff for "Dying") and audible unmuting (when the guitar comes in), as well as the instances Paranoid Android and Andy Partridge have detailed. These could be called examples of 'sloppy engineering.' Others would say I'm just being anally picky - and I admit that I am.

This is not to disparage Todd's excellent arranging and production skills on the album, however. And his engineering was better on the 1989 Bourgeois Tagg LP which followed "Skylarking." (Another reason I suspect the Dolby SR.)

When you're producing and arranging as well as engineering, that's an awful lot of things to do at the same time.
My 80's recording teacher had a commandment:
"Thou shalt not engineer and produce at the same time."
I believe this is what he was talking about.

And additionally:

But the whole of any piece of art is much more than the sum of its individual parts.
Even works of genius contain flaws, but are no less works of genius merely because of them.
And "Skylarking" as a finished product is, indeed, a work of genius.

[MXYZPTLK]

What a great seague between blue overall and summers cauldron !

i loved that bit too!

nice doc this- BBC6 music & BBC 4 seem to be churning out loads of great stuff of late...

[Jeff Truzzi]

another copy & paste from the Backporch:

As much as a good engineer is crucial in making a records listenable, I'm not sure that it's essential to be a good engineer to make a great record, if that makes sense?

A lousy band, in a lousy studio, with a lousy arrangement, and a lousy engineer, and a lousy mix -
but it FEELS good -
COULD be classic.
Like "Gloria."
Or "Louie Louie."

A great band, in a great studio, with a great arrangement, and a great engineer, and a great mix -
but it FEELS terrible -
is NOTHING.

One thing I respect Country & Western clients for is never asking, "How does it sound?" -
but always asking, "How does it FEEL?"

And like movies, records can often have one 'feel' during the actual recording sessions,
but a completely different one once the whole project is finished.

[Jeff Truzzi]

More discussion here:

http://xtcbackporch.forumup.com/viewtopic....um=xtcbackporch