Playing With My Organ At Christmastime

(Hurrah! There's some proper music in this one - scroll to the end if you're busy!)

Being my 50^th Christmas, I find myself no longer able to conjure up the sort of thrill I would have felt during my first dozen, but I do find subverting the whole thing can be a pleasurable compromise. This was the Christmas Eve scene in Blague Central Studio 2 (The Kitchen). Not much Christmas Dinner being prepared there…

After the last entry’s songwriting breakthrough, on a roll, I polished off another three and so after making quick & scratchy phone demos, (the tune ideas having been jotted down in Logic months ago), we’re almost bang up-to-date; I have no further excuses and it’s time to begin the “proper” recordings. I’ve chosen the second song out of the bag, “Uncomplimentary” to get started.

So here’s my Hammond X5 “Portable” and Leslie 760 cabinet. It’s the same un-portable, bulky beast we carted into and out of basement clubs and rehearsal studios for three years back in the Blunder days. (Here's Andy playing it at the Red Eye, Islington in 1997). It's all set up and ready to go, but after a few years in storage it needed a couple of hours of renovation. A very low-volume output was eventually solved by contact-cleaning the ¼” jack line-in socket – it had stuck open, breaking the circuit – I remembered the same problem with a Carlsbro bass amp years ago (we used to hit it with a hammer). Now, as then, having forgotten to turn the volume pot. down, when finally fixed the resulting volume blast is probably why a few days later I can still hear a Cmaj7 in my right ear.

It’s been the first test of this part of my new recording “system” too – designed to be repeatable and time-saving. With no tie-lines between Studios 1 & 2, instead I use my old 2008 MacBook Pro (recently pepped up with an SSD and maximum RAM) as my “field” recorder. I still have to rip the Focusrite interface box out of the main studio but that done, I can seamlessly add to my Logic master, anywhere I choose.

Almost seamlessly.

After the organ-fix, I’ve set-up stereo Sennheisser ME40s on the Leslie’s top horn and a single AT3525 condenser on the woofer, none so close as to pop with the constant air-blast of the rotating baffles. I’m all set to play. Then I get this:

“This song was recorded on a newer version of Logic, please upgrade.”

And:

“In order to play these sounds please install the latest version of Kontakt.”

New Rule 4:

Save the actual creative activity for another session – do all the prep. first.

Deep breaths, cup of tea, another hour and finally, press “R” for “Record”…

Yes, it would be so much easier to use my Native Instruments Vintage Organs package; they’re astonishingly good. Somehow though, it doesn’t feel “proper” unless it’s got THIS going on in the background. It must be something to do with knowing you're really "moving some air" (and my dancing feet are extra!) You could argue my Kontakt B3 Patch is just as good, more “characterful” than my X5 real thing even, but when was making new music ever about convenience?

Here’s the full intro, Hammond-in-context.

And there, just for a moment, four bars into my first bridge, I get that unbidden, all-consuming RUSH of excitement that’s every bit as thrilling as unwrapping my Sharp RD600 cassette recorder at Christmas, in 1977.

Next time, (next year!) I’ll become a “Perdoocer” and wade into the wilderness of an empty multitrack.