Mick Glossop - The Ruts Sessions

[Trademarkh]

Hi Mick,

In the very early eighties I came across records that I felt were sonically on

another level and often noticed that you were involved with the production.

So much so that after a while I could identify that sound.

It was more polished and punchy than your average punk rock record but also

really captured the musicality of the band.



Probably one the best example of this would be "the crack" from the Ruts wich is

an absolute classic or a song like "shine on me".

Could you share some of the typical techniques you used for these recordings?

Like what set up you had on drums or what desk and compressors you used?


Anything that you can share would be much appreciated.


I refer to these albums whenever I need an example of great analogue sound.


Thanks a lot

Mark

[mickglossop]

Hi Mark - thanks for the complements!

The Ruts albums is also one of my favourites, and it was great fun to work on it, partly because it was quick and the performances were vital, but also because the guys in the band had a great sense of humour - I was in stitches a lot of the time.

The drum recording was fairly standard; D12 or U47 on the kick, SM57's on snare/toms, C414 on overheads, plus a couple of room mics. The drum room was fairly live, about 15-18 feet square, lined with wood and glass, wodden floor. The bass was DI & a mic on the Amped cab, SM57 & U87 on electric guitar, which was the classic Gibson SG into an old Marshall 100W plus 4x12 cab. I can't remember what vocal mic was used. Babylon's Burning was recorded at Air Studios, no.2 on a 70's Neve console, and mixed at Strawberry South Studios out in Surrey. The rest of the album was recorded, beleieve it or not, onto a Telefunken 32 track, 2 inch analogue machine (!) at The Townhouse. This machine was around only for a short time, being somewhat non-standard. The quality was not as good as 24 track (obviously) both in distortion and noise levels, but also the inter-track crosstalk was not great. The Townhouse console was custom-designed (by msyself) and built by Helios. It's now somewhere in New Jersey, USA.

Compressors would have been from a selection of 1176, Allison Gain-Brains, Neve, Audio & Design, LA-3, SSL channel dynamics modules (we had 20 in a rack in studio 1).

[shorefire]

[QUOTE=mickglossop;1322466]Hi Mark - thanks for the complements!

The rest of the album was recorded, beleieve it or not, onto a Telefunken 32 track, 2 inch analogue machine (!) at The Townhouse. This machine was around only for a short time, being somewhat non-standard. The quality was not as good as 24 track (obviously) both in distortion and noise levels, but also the inter-track crosstalk was not great. The Townhouse console was custom-designed (by msyself) and built by Helios. It's now somewhere in New Jersey, USA.

Hello Mick,
Joe DeMaio here from Shorefire Recording in NJ, I now have the Townhouse console. I was curious as to what your involvement was in the design of the desk.
I'm also intersted in knowing what other notable records were made on the console. If you have any insight that would be great.
Thanks,