Whine, whine whine...

[ed191-bq%violet.Berkeley.EDU@berkeley.edu (Taylor)]

(Really from Hugh Maher)

Has anyone else noticed that ever since Kate got her new Nagra recorder
(post Hounds of Love, Pre several of the HOL singles B-sides), all of
her songs (especially "Experiment IV" and the New "nagra" vocal on Wuthering
Heights)  are accompanied by an incessant high-pitched electronic whine -
sort of like the sound of your computer terminal, or the fluorescent lights
buzzing overhead. Does she have one of the settings wrong on her console,
or does she just need to change studio lighting?

Also, just to head off a very old debate before it even gets off the ground:

THE DREAMING was DIGITALLY mixed, and the "AAD" on the packaging is yet another
one of EMI's dumb tactical packaging errors. (Should be "ADD"). 
Actually, a lot of people thought that the whole album was digitally recorded
(I'm still convinced that at least Sat in your Lap was, since it was recorded
as a sole single back in '80-'81 at newly digitized Townhouse studios with
Hugh Padgham - and I think at the time, Kate was debating whether to go
digital with the album, but then kept complaining about the "lack of the
proper studios with the facilities we wanted). The "Digital Editing" credit
in the liner notes added to the confusion, especially among people like me
who didn't know what "digital editing" even was. 

Since then, I've read interviews where Kate talks about her comparison tests,
and decided Analog was more "warm" (don't want to start this debate!) for
recording acoustic instruments and voices, but that she liked the "edge"
that digital mixing gave the final sound. So that, she explains, is why she
decided to mix "The Dreaming" digitally. 

It's even conceivable that "Never For Ever" is the same story, but I'm
not sure.

Hugh

Oh yeah - for those who are interested, Peter Gabriel, after recording
"Security" digitally, started out on Analog for "So" but then switched
to his old digital recorder half way through for the synths and voices
and drums - so after linking the two machines together, he was sort of
half in one camp and half in the other. (Same story with Paul Simon's
"Graceland").