Dogstar Poets - the making of "Off-Planet"

The equipment we used for recording "Off Planet" was rather basic, by the standards of home recording equipment currently around in the 21st century. Although I must say that Dave Lewis had done a good job recording his drums onto his 8tk, at his Madeofale Studio.

The drum kit, tablas and hand percussion, bass guitars and all vocals were recorded at Dave's place in South Wales on a Yamaha MD8 8tk Minidisk recorder. The only exception was the vocals and bass on "Dear John" which were recorded directly into the computer. Everything else was recorded onto the computer, in Glastonbury, at The Secret Studio -ssshh!

The computer I used is a (fairly old) P2-400Mhz with an EMU APS soundcard, which has a built in sound font sampler and FX chip. Software was an old Cubase VST and an even older Wavelab.

Glyn used two basses on the album, a Yamaha BBG4 and a Shergold Marathon. Dave Lewis played a Sonar Designer drum kit with Sabian cymbals and various ethnic percussion.

I used two guitars on the album - my trusty old Stratocaster and a Tanglewood 335 type guitar. I used the Tanglewood on the solo/fill ins on "Dear John" and for the guitar on "Fair thee well" using the E-bow, I was pleased with the guitar sound on that track considering it was just plugged directly (D.I.) into the soundcard with no fx on it.

All other guitar parts were done on the good old Strat. Guitar sounds came from the original POD and a little box from Zoom called a ZoomFire - great sounds can be had if you get into a bit of programming the sounds for yourself on these boxes. I used an E-Bow a lot as well.

In case anyone is interested I should explain what the E-bow does - you hold it in your strumming hand, place it just above a string and it puts out a sort of magnetic pull that will sustain the string for days on end. It does take some getting used to and a ten minute go on one in a music shop will not be enough time to get into it - but given enough time the areas of sound, melody and creativeness it offers are immense - I used the E-bow throughout "Passion Play" and all the guitar on "Fair thee well" is E-bow.

Maybe I should mention here that (somewhat unusually) I never use a plectrum - I have always used my fingernails. Nearly all the guitar solos on the album were done "first take" because I was getting bad pains in my hands at that time.

So with half the album being recorded on an 8tk in South Wales and the other half being recorded in Glastonbury - how did it get done? - well via the post office really!

Glyn would send me down a CD with the drums, bass and vocals on it (sometimes on separate tracks) I would import them into the computer, add guitar and some keyboards add a touch of lunacy, mix it and send it back to Glyn for comment. Like-wise I would record say guitars, keyboards and maybe percussion, post it to Glyn. He would (with assistance from Dave Lewis our drummer) record it onto the 8tk minidisk add vocals - send me the vocal track and I would put it back into the computer maybe add a few bits and pieces and mix it - indeed this album would have taken a lot longer if there had been a postal strike! Even Brian's Hammered Dulcimer track was sent to me from Chicago, then we added vocals and guitar etc to it. Everyone is well pleased how "Fair thee Well" turned out.

Brian, David and Glyn

The album took just under two years to compose, record and mix, I would say six months of time went by with either problems with equipment going wrong or with my hands becoming "unusable" with arthritis. I am glad to say the arthritis has got a lot better since I started taking fresh garlic everyday - and I don't like garlic at all - but it certainly helps. If we can also sort out the equipment problems, life would be great - and no! I don't think stuffing fresh garlic into my computers CD ROM will guarantee to cure it - it may help the 8tk minidisk though!!

The cover artwork is by a young - old friend Nick Potter. I was looking through Nick's artwork and trying to decide which "room view" to choose for our cover, when I saw the one we have used - it took me aback a bit because - a few years earlier when I was in hospital suffering really badly with Tuberculosis - well, one day I had what is classed as a "Near Death Experience" - similar to an ordinary "Out of the Body Experience" but feels somewhat different - later that night, time and time again I just kept leaving my body and several times I kept seeing the same room and from the same "viewpoint" as is on our cover. So when I saw Nick's picture - I knew it must be the one to use! Glyn liked the picture a lot as well, so we used it for the cover.

So that's the "concise" story of how "Off Planet" was made - as to the next album - who knows? We still have the same computer and 8tk minidisk, so I might start thinking more seriously about stuffing both of them with fresh Garlic!!!

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How we recorded "Off-Planet" David Duhig

The equipment we used for recording "Off Planet" was rather basic, by the standards of home recording equipment currently around in the 21st century. Although I must say that Dave Lewis had done a good job recording his drums onto his 8tk, at his Madeofale Studio. The drum kit, tablas and hand percussion, bass guitars and all vocals were recorded at Dave's place in South Wales on a Yamaha MD8 8tk Minidisk recorder. The only exception was the vocals and bass on "Dear John" which were recorded directly into the computer. Everything else was recorded onto the computer, in Glastonbury, at The Secret Studio -ssshh! The computer I used is a (fairly old) P2-400Mhz with an EMU APS soundcard, which has a built in sound font sampler and FX chip. Software was an old Cubase VST and an even older Wavelab. Glyn used two basses on the album, a Yamaha BBG4 and a Shergold Marathon. Dave Lewis played a Sonar Designer drum kit with Sabian cymbals and various ethnic percussion. I used two guitars on the album - my trusty old Stratocaster and a Tanglewood 335 type guitar. I used the Tanglewood on the solo/fill ins on "Dear John" and for the guitar on "Fair thee well" using the E-bow, I was pleased with the guitar sound on that track considering it was just plugged directly (D.I.) into the soundcard with no fx on it. All other guitar parts were done on the good old Strat. Guitar sounds came from the original POD and a little box from Zoom called a ZoomFire - great sounds can be had if you get into a bit of programming the sounds for yourself on these boxes. I used an E-Bow a lot as well. In case anyone is interested I should explain what the E-bow does - you hold it in your strumming hand, place it just above a string and it puts out a sort of magnetic pull that will sustain the string for days on end. It does take some getting used to and a ten minute go on one in a music shop will not be enough time to get into it - but given enough time the areas of sound, melody and creativeness it offers are immense - I used the E-bow throughout "Passion Play" and all the guitar on "Fair thee well" is E-bow. Maybe I should mention here that (somewhat unusually) I never use a plectrum - I have always used my fingernails. Nearly all the guitar solos on the album were done "first take" because I was getting bad pains in my hands at that time. So with half the album being recorded on an 8tk in South Wales and the other half being recorded in Glastonbury - how did it get done? - well via the post office really! Glyn would send me down a CD with the drums, bass and vocals on it (sometimes on separate tracks) I would import them into the computer, add guitar and some keyboards add a touch of lunacy, mix it and send it back to Glyn for comment. Like-wise I would record say guitars, keyboards and maybe percussion, post it to Glyn. He would (with assistance from Dave Lewis our drummer) record it onto the 8tk minidisk add vocals - send me the vocal track and I would put it back into the computer maybe add a few bits and pieces and mix it - indeed this album would have taken a lot longer if there had been a postal strike! Even Brian's Hammered Dulcimer track was sent to me from Chicago, then we added vocals and guitar etc to it. Everyone is well pleased how "Fair thee Well" turned out. The album took just under two years to compose, record and mix, I would say six months of time went by with either problems with equipment going wrong or with my hands becoming "unusable" with arthritis. I am glad to say the arthritis has got a lot better since I started taking fresh garlic everyday - and I don't like garlic at all - but it certainly helps. If we can also sort out the equipment problems, life would be great - and no! I don't think stuffing fresh garlic into my computers CD ROM will guarantee to cure it - it may help the 8tk minidisk though!! The cover artwork is by a young - old friend Nick Potter. I was looking through Nick's artwork and trying to decide which "room view" to choose for our cover, when I saw the one we have used - it took me aback a bit because - a few years earlier when I was in hospital suffering really badly with Tuberculosis - well, one day I had what is classed as a "Near Death Experience" - similar to an ordinary "Out of the Body Experience" but feels somewhat different - later that night, time and time again I just kept leaving my body and several times I kept seeing the same room and from the same "viewpoint" as is on our cover. So when I saw Nick's picture - I knew it must be the one to use! Glyn liked the picture a lot as well, so we used it for the cover. So that's the "concise" story of how "Off Planet" was made - as to the next album - who knows? We still have the same computer and 8tk minidisk, so I might start thinking more seriously about stuffing both of them with fresh Garlic!!!