My second attempt at making an album. I think I actually did this to prove to myself more than anyone else that Alternative Views wasn't just a fluke or a one off. That difficult second album vibe terrified me also....
With Alternative Views I used a Roland VS-880 8 track Hard Disk recording system. With WAVES I had two. 16 tracks of digital recording at home in 1998 was an expensive hobby. These things were a couple of grand each. I paid them up on finance for years long after Alternative Views and WAVES had been completed. They are both in a cupboard now. The hard drive capacity on them is less that 1 GB each. Laughable now, but extortionate at the time. How times have changed.
With WAVES I wanted it to be bigger and better than the first album. But I had always struggled with getting what I can hear in my head to be recorded down correctly. I was learning as I went and struggled with what I was technically capable of mixing and recording. Remains a challenge for me even to this day.
WAVES runs for 56 mins. There are some highs and lows, and that was the concept at heart. Life is like that. It's not about the sea, or water, it's about weathering the storm in difficult times and the excitement of riding the crest of the wave in the sunshine. The album's art wave graphic tries to simulate and mimic how the tempo of the album actually goes too.
Again with the album art, Colin Meechan was my support. In the late 90's PC's were becoming more common place, leading to more detailed editing of pictures and text. We used Lotus Freelance Graphics Suite to make the CD cover and CD stomp. I didn't own a PC myself at the time, that came later. More to follow on how that went as the weeks unfold. This technology was all new to us, new to everyone, in many aspects, trying to make a reality of what we had in our heads. Fun times, challenging, testing, but fondly remembered now.
Equipment Used :
Roland : XP-50 , JP-8000, JX-1, VS-800 and VS-880 Expanded
Korg : Wavestation, M1 and X5DR
Yamaha : CS1X
EMU : EMAX 1 and EMAX 2 Rack
Quasimidi : Sirius
Samson : MPL 1640
Boss : SX-700
Sony : MDS JE-500
Thanks : Riki at Rainbow Music in Edinburgh. Jason and Marco at Sound Control in Glasgow for their on-going support and advice. Special thanks to all the guys on Crew 3 in Philips Lighting Hamilton who actually spent money on buying a physical cope of WAVES and Alternative Views. Maybe if my channel gets successful enough, you guys will be able to cash in on the £5 a pop you paid 20 plus years ago. ;-)
