Saying goodbye to my old 4 track...

[Mason]

...in pretty fine style, if I may say.

The three new songs at www.myspace.com/thelevitations are the last ones that will be made on my 424mkIII. It's sad, but Old Blue is dying after a couple years of very heavy use. Good machine.

It is being replaced through the magic of the Tape Op message board, courtesy of my new friend George in Troy, NY. The replacement: a Tascam 688. A bold step into the early-90's by The Levitations!

I invite you to listen to our new songs - more difficult to describe, easy to enjoy music by the Levs.

Mason

[Knights Who Say Neve]

Ah, the 688. My advice- don't try to deal with the routing crap on that thing- just set it up once and don't mess with it. You'll see what I mean when you get it.

[dougo]

I have been listening to em and really enjoy the vibe of the 4trk. i dig that kind of rolled of high end sound you have. Songwise It reminds of the psychedlic revival in LA back in the 80's which I enjoyed very much.

Take care,
DougOOO

[cashed checks]

great songs... come to chicago if you can.

[metaphormixer]

i like your songs very much. and man, you really knew how to use that four track.

[cashed checks]

man, you really knew how to use that four track.

outside board/pres? mostly live? nice room? bouncing? details please!

[Mason]

We put a LOT of hours on that machine and do a LOT of recording and I'm proud of the sound we get out of it. Two of the most recent songs are actually re-recordings we went back and did because we were unhappy with the original versions. We get pretty uptight about doing things right.

The only outboard gear we use are an old Tapco spring reverb unit that was getting rained on in someone's backyard and a high-end tape delay (used for guitars and vocals). We use a GT-44 mic for almost everything, except the kick drum for which we use an PPA LD-2. So everything is recorded through tube condensor mics. Having nice hot loud mics is a big help, considering the so-so pres on the 4-track.

We do everything overdubbed. We start with two tracks of drums (kick/overhead), followed by rhythm guitars. When we've got 4 tracks full, we bounce to CDR in stereo and then back to the 424 on tracks 1 and 2. When we fill up the remaining tracks we repeat the process until we're done. It's not an ideal system - you can make a bad mixing decision on the first bounce that you don't notice until the 3rd - but it works.

The drums are recorded in a typical, carpeted living room that you would find in any old, shitty house in Seattle. I don't think we have especially nice rooms. We aren't shy about laying on the EQ to brighten something up.

Other than the ingenuity and quality of our guitar player, Steve (who is as responsible for these recordings as I am), I think the most important factor in the sound of our is the DBX trick where you record with the DBX engaged, then turn it off on playback to compress the signal. I feel that my life didn't really begin until the day we stumbled across that trick.

If any of you have friends in Seattle who need a place to do demos, we'd be happy to have them in. We occasionally do other bands and it's a treat to record other people.

Thanks for the kind words, I hope we don't blow it all with this new infusion of high techmology.

Come see us at the (sometimes) Fun House in Seattle on August 30th.