by Roger Nichols
Sayonara Tokyo
I am writing this column on United flight 882 from Tokyo to Chicago. I have been in Japan for the last three weeks working on an album for a Japanese artist named Toko Furuuchi. We cut the tracks and did most of the overdubs at Free Studio Yotsoya. Don't let the name give you the wrong impression though, the studio was far from free. How about $4,500 US. per day! I thought that was amazing for studio rates until the last day when we went to another studio to record the 18 piece string section. The second studio was Tokyufun Studios. So named because it is owned by Fun House Records. Tokyufun was $7,500 US per day, but of course that price included the Sony 48 track digital machine.
Both studios were very nice. Free Studio had a Neve 72 input VR-P console with Flying Faders to go along with their Sony 3348 48 tracks. The studio was quite spacious, including the control room. I was very impressed with how good the console sounded. I have worked on quite a few 72 input VR Neves, and they all seem to have a pretty high noise floor from all of those channels adding their individual noise into the two track buss. Big consoles start getting pretty noisy pretty quickly as the number of faders goes up. This particular Neve is an exception. More than once during the three weeks I thought the monitors were muted until I pressed play on the 48 track and nearly jumped out of my skin. I could never find out what they did to the console, if anything, because nobody spoke English. Every time I asked a question, the answer was "Hai!" I could figure out changes in the tune because they used pidgin-English for song sections and chord names and I could recognize a few Japanese words from previous projects. Sometimes when I got too confused the producer or the assistant engineer would point to the chart or circle the bars that needed to be punched in.
The Sony 48 track digital machine was a gem also. Behind the front doors of the machine is a panel of error LEDs that let you know if there are any correctable or non-correctable errors on the tape. On all of the 48 tracks I have used, there is always a little random activity in the low level errors. Of the 48 LEDs, usually one flashes every few seconds. On this machine I would see a couple of minutes go by without a flicker. I knew they were working because I could see a little blip at punch-in and punch-out points. I even checked the hour meter which showed 3,420 head hours, so it wasn't a new machine. In Japan, all of the Sony 3348s have a clear plastic dust cover that is tilted up to change tapes, but always kept down during operation to keep dust away from the tape and the heads. I remember when the 48 track was introduced and Sony offered the dust cover, but no US studios bought any. I know that dust can scratch the oxide on digital tapes and also damage the very expensive digital heads (about $20,000 to replace a set of 48 track heads). After 3,000 plus hours of operation, maybe the dust cover on the Japanese machines made a difference.
Clenliness Is Next To Digital-ness
The same thing can happen to the heads on ADAT and DA-88 format machines. Have you ever taken the case off of your computer and seen all of the dust that has built up in side? Well, the same thing happens in the eight track digital machines you use in your project studio. The heads whipping around cause a certain amount of air flow that carries dust right into your machine. This dust scratches the tape and clogs the heads (along with loose oxide from the tape). To help prevent early dust related problems, follow the manufacturers recommendations for head cleaning, and once every six months to a year you should take your machine in for a professional cleaning. When the machines are turned off, you should keep them covered with a dust cover such as those plastic computer dust covers that are available at computer stores and office supply stores.
Back To Japan Trip, So Sorry
The musicians in the band were excellent, the string players were flawless, and the experience was delightful. This could be the easiest record I ever recorded.
Planning ahead helped a lot. I didn't want to ship my HD-1 speaker to Japan, so I called my friend Mark Johnson at Meyer to see if there were any rental companies in Tokyo that carried them. He called back the next day and said that their Japanese distributor, ATL, would loan me a brand new pair to use for the project. Cool. I checked the speakers off my list as the easiest part of the job.
I asked the studio in Japan fax me an equipment and microphone list so I could decide if I needed to rent anything. The list was beyond my expectations, so I wasn't going to need anything additional, well, almost. I like using my Yamaha microphones on drums, but the studio and the rental companies in Tokyo never heard of them (good work Yamaha), so I decided to bring mine. I put them in little padded zipper cases and threw (placed them gently) in my carry on luggage.
The only other stuff I took along was my portable DAT and a pair of headphones so I could listen to rough mixes in my hotel room. Oh, yeah, my wife made me take a change of clothes and some clean underwear and socks. I knew that something should be in my suitcase to protect the electronic gear from damage.
Tokyo Blue Note
On my last night in Tokyo, Mr. Sora (A & R for Sony Japan) took me
to the Blue Note to see Ralph McDonald (percussionist) play. His band included
Tom Scott (sax & EWI), Rob Mounsey (keyboards), Chris Parker (drums),
and Abraham Laboriel (bass), Jeff Marinoff (guitar) and Dennis Collins (vocals).
I knew all these guys from various album projects over the last 20-some
years, including Steely Dan stuff, but it was the first time I ever saw
all of them in the same pile. Yeah, that is what it was like in the cramped
dressing room after the show, a pile of musicians. When Tom Scott asked
me what I was doing in Tokyo, I told him it was cheaper for me to fly to
Japan to see them all at once than to fly all around the country to see
them individually. Don't tell him why I was really there, I think he bought
it.