Vinyl is the future

I have always been a bit sceptical about the supposed ‘warmth’ and dynamic range of LP’s compared to CD’s and other digital sources. To me there was little difference between the sonic characteristics of analogue and digital sources other than the obvious crackles and associated background noise a vinyl LP always generates.

Yet as I begin to rediscover my vinyl collection I am stuck by the difference between these analogue sources and their digital counterparts I have become accustomed to. In the last week the new Pet Shop Boys album ‘Yes’ has been released as a limited edition of 1000 heavy weight vinyl LP’s. Since it’s original release in March I have become very familiar with this album from its CD and MP3 versions. On playing the LP for the first time, I was struck by the difference in sound.

This difference is best described by one of my recent experiences in a high end Hi-fi retailer. I was present at a listening session in which I was confident of not being able to detect the difference between a £1000 Japanaese manufactures amplifier and a £3500 British manufactures amplifier. Surely there isn’t much difference that an amplifier can make is there? Wrong, very wrong. Another listener best described the difference between the two as: “The Japanese amplifier sounded like you were listening to a CD. The British one made you feel like the singer was in the room.” Thus what I always assumed was a relatively benign component of an audio set up was clearly illustrated as making an enormous impact in the characteristics of the sound. When you consider the original source is likely to make an even bigger impact on the characteristics of the music you listen to than the amplifier, it makes careful consideration of the source a worth while exercise.

Analogue sources DO sound warmer and offer a much greater dynamic range than their digital counterparts. The best way to detect this is to listen to one source or the other exclusively for a long time. Then swap to the alternative source whilst retaining the same audio set up; the difference is quite striking and is enhanced the more familiar you are with the original recording.

Having said that, not all vinyl is created equal. I have plenty of flimsy and scratched 12” singles that offer the same sound quality as if it were being played into a wind tunnel whilst the sound of a gas leak steadily pesters your ears. The key to a fantastic listening experience is in the quality of the source and with their latest LP release Pet Shop Boys have excelled once again. You have no excuse for not owning a turntable.

Don’t judge a book by its cover (or an album by its box set)

Come on admit it. When you heard Martin Gore was buying mountains of vintage analogue gear to make Depeche Mode’s new album you were excited. Yet when it was released in its mammoth box set version on Monday, we were all left sorely disappointed.

Here is how to produce a Depeche Mode album the Ben Hillier way:

Step 1: Get the track up and running with a good beat and melody
Step 2: Add the vocal and any overdubs
Step 3: Remove good beat and add tiny almost imperceptible analogue percussion
Step 4: Remove melody and add an out of tune drone
Step 5: Add distortion to EVERYTHING
Step 6: Ensure anything approaching melody is removed
Step 7: Add distortion to everything again just make sure
Step 8: Turn everything in the mix up until it distorts
Step 9: Ensure the mix engineer adds distortion to everything just to be doubly sure
Step 10: Ensure the mastering engineer is instructed to make everything very loud and distorted

I have noticed there are many ways to buy the album ‘Sounds of the universe’. It’s very difficult to just buy a straight forward CD with the album on. The afore mentioned box set is a truly amazing item with many many extras, there is also a CD/DVD package, a 2xLP and CD package and of course the digital downloads.

All of this additional content and extraordinary packaging makes me wonder if we are supposed to be distracted from the quality of the album itself and simply admire it for how it is presented to us. This album has very little musical worth due to the way it has been produced and it sits squarely alongside the worst of Depeche Mode’s back catalogue.


I wish Alan would come back and sort this bloody mess out.

CD storage is impossible

I love music. Consequently I have lots of CD's. I collect records by the Pet Shop Boys and have lots and lots of those. Storing them is a real pain. I often muse over the benefits of a digital music collection.

A friend of mine recently sold her entire CD collection after she copied it all to her hard drive. I think she will regret that decision one day, especially if her hard drive melts. Also, I consider the packaging of a record to contribute to its overall worth. Why else would I spend £300 on a Pet Shop Boys deluxe edition album when I already own the music it contains?

I recently found this picture of my entire Pet Shop Boys collection on my hard drive. It is circa 2003 and in 6 years it has grown. The second picture is merely the CD's as I couldn't fit all the vinyl in the same picture.

Tag your mp3's correctly or beware of the consequences

When I first dipped my toes into the pool of the Internet back in the late 90’s, Napster was the peer-to-peer network everyone used. Suddenly it was possible to download and hear “Music for Supermarkets” by Jean-Michel Jarre, I could find any obscure Pet Shop Boys mix and I downloaded all the ‘one hit wonders’ I had been searching for for years.

One of the pitfalls of downloading mp3’s illegally was that some people were not exactly accurate in labelling their files. Very odd tracks would appear that were clearly nothing to do with the artists they were attributed too.

For instance:
Vangelis and Jarre collaborating on a version of ‘Crocketts Theme’ anyone?
The previously unheard of Depeche Mode remix of New Order’s ‘Bizarre Love Triangle’?
Kraftwerk’s recording of the synthesizer classic ‘Popcorn’ sound good to you?

By far the most annoying (to me anyway) miss tagging was the ubiquitous “One Night in Bangkok” by the Pet Shop Boys. “One Night in Bangkok” became an international hit for Murray Head in 1984 and is seemingly regarded by many as a classic of the era. However, it has absolutely no links to the Pet Shop Boys. Not only do labels such as this rob the original artist of the credit but also tarnish the unfortunate recipient.

How this, and other bizarre tags, originated is quite a mystery. Obviously, the ignorance/stupidity of one person contributed and as the file was copied, the error spread like a virus.

Yet in this age of legal downloads and consumer shrewdness this irritation is no longer a major problem. Yes, iTunes frequently miss labels tracks, but that is down to the record company submitting them and not Apple as such. Yet if you look closely at the files people are listening to on last.fm, it seems there are STILL some dumb asses listening to ‘One Night in Bangkok’ by the Pet Shop Boys or Jean-Miche Jarre’s version of the ‘Miami Vice’ Theme.

More Horsepower

Dance music truly exploded in the early 90’s and I felt I was in the midst of a musical phenomenon. Illegal raves were still being organised, pirate radio stations seemed to spring up every week and if you went to the right record shops, you could find treasure. 

One day a friend of mine played me a recording of a pirate radio station broadcasting in my home city. Through the hiss of the cassette and the FM broadcast, the magnificent sound of ‘Horsepower’ by Ravesignal III assaulted my eardrums. It was a truly glorious moment. Once I tracked down the CD I noticed it was released by a label called R&S. I began to buy most things released by R&S for a few years including the original “Analogue Bubblebath” by Aphex Twin, Human Resource’s “Dominator” and Jam & Spoon “Tales from a Danceographic Ocean” all of which are worth a few pounds now. 

Yet it is CJ Bolland’s Ravesignal III project that I treasure above them all. Thus, imagine my excitement when whilst playing my new Microwave XTk synthesizer I found the preset Bolland used for the intro to ‘Horsepower’. The patch has been modified slightly but certainly comes from the Microwave. For many years I wondered which synths were used on this track. The drums are obviously TR-909 and TR-808 but everything else remained a mystery. So I am about to get my flange effects up and running and try to recreate the majesty of Horsepower. I wish it was 1991 again.

Yes, the verdict

Prior to the release of the Pet Shop Boys album 'Fundamental' Popjustice.co.uk created a graph to represent the relative greatness of Neil and Chris's previous albums. Obviously they got it completely wrong but 'best album' debates are VERY subjective and not something I will get into here.



Having been unsure of their latest release at first I am now able to offer a considered opinion.

Integration of the MicroWave XTk

Buying new gear can be full of disappointments and pitfalls. For an initial period the frustrations of a new synth not being fully integrated into my studio far out-weighs the excitement. The recent acquisition of my MicroWave XTk has proven this true, but also added the stress of potentially ruining my new toy.

You see I like to do a number of things when I buy second hand gear. The first is to clean it and the second reset it to ‘factory’ standards. Inevitably, old synths are full of sounds created by their previous owners and before I create my own, I like to start afresh. Once I had located the latest factory presets, I also purchased a librarian/editor to make programming easier from my PC. Then I created a MIDI patch script for use in Cubase, as there did not seem to be one readily available on the net. Creating patch scripts is a laborious and maddening process that took me a whole evening. In the meantime, my new toy sits untouched, I really had no time to play the thing.

With modern digital synthesizers, there is also the daunting and potentially ruinous process of updating the Operating System (OS). Having checked my synth, it appeared to be running on version 2.29 of the OS. I then trawled through various web sites and found that the latest OS is 2.33 dating from 2000. A quick visit to the newly reinstated Waldorf website (the company went out of business in 2004 and have only resurfaced at the end of 2007) gave me the latest OS.

The one thing about updating the OS of a synthesizer is that if it goes wrong, the synth could end up irrevocably damaged. If the part of the OS that tells the synthesizer how to ‘boot up’ is damaged it will never work again. Scary when you have just paid a substantial sum. With fingers crossed I loaded the OS into Cubase and played the file to the XTk. The display read ‘Receiving System 2.33…” and all looked great until an error message appeared. Now I was really worried. Having read the manual again I realised Cubase was sending MIDI clock data to the XTk and once I turned this off the system updated without problem (running at about 90bpm it took just a couple of minutes).

Now everything is set I can actually use the machine to create sonic mayhem. And boy does it create mayhem. The bass from this synth is truly astounding and its ability to create a sheer wall of noise is unrivalled. The MicroWave is a truly iconic instrument. Just one look of the red alpha dial and you know what is in front of you. Just one press on the keys and you could pierce you eardrums.