So Happy Christmas and New Year to yee all. Hope you had a good one. Here is a present or two… the Blog is live… but give it a few seconds to load cause it is jammers with goodies.
Its not really a blog but more of a Linkdump of what I am currently watching, reading or generally digging. Its got all the best stuff I have found in 2011 and loads of my old favorites from the past under the loosely based subjects of Art, Music and Film. Basically whatever I think is the bomb in general.
Getting sick of Facebook making cash from my Linkdumping there, so from now on it will all be going up here, deepsouthblog.com. Hope you find a few gems that you haven’t already seen or heard.
Please pass on recommendations and suggestions to the Facebook or the DSmailbox. Should be plenty in there to get you inspired, angered and kicking into 2012 – ready for the impending apocalypse and that.
Cheers to all the followers since we got up and running in 2011 and here is hoping to a killer 2012 littered with shit hot vintage guitars and kit. Peace. SCAN
Here’s a few shots of Westland Studios, Dublin, with some of Deep South’s best sounding Gitboxes hanging around in their new, temporary housing, on the wall of one of Dublin’s most historic and largest studio complexes. You can view some more pictures I took in the studio at the DS Facebook profiles and on the Westland Studios Facebook too. There will also be more DSvintage / Westland Studio collaborations coming soon… so I’ll keep you posted.
I past some time, (in an after hours lock-in), cranking some dirty old guitars through tubes and 4×12′s, with my old buddy Alwyn Walker – who now manages Westland and continues to produce and engineer all sorts of bands and artists from there. Westland has witnessed many great artists since it opened its doors in 1976. Some of the world’s most renowned musicians have worked on stuff at Westland, including U2, Thin Lizzy, Bob Dylan and Massive Attack to name but a few.
The Live Room is massive and has plenty of options, using sliding glass doors enable the creation of amp rooms and boothes, if you want it to be a little less massive. The control room is dominated by the SSL, the studios main feature and a big part of the Westland sound. Its a piece of 80′s history. When things were made to last. EQ & Dynamics on every channel, along with the classic SSL Bus Compressor deliver that unmistakable studio sound that is unattainable with software, laptops and computers alone.
I also loved the sound of the Baldwin Grand, the second best piano I have ever heard and thats only cause I got to hear the Grand that used to be in the Hit Factory when I was in New York. This baldwin has got a lovely strong tone and plenty of punch beef. Very cool Hammond and Leslie setup too and a funky Philicorda and something called a Fun Machine hahaha.
Few nice bits of outboard, Urei 1176, AMS Delay & Reverb and Avalon Comp / EQ. Old Skool Otari 2Inch Tape… NICE. Pro Tools HD 10 and your usual Neumann‘s, AKG’s and all sorts of Amps’s and Noise boxes that you can play around with.
If anyone is interested in recording or booking the studio, please get in contact with Alwyn at +353 87 9668333 and he will be happy to give you all the details and a tour or just email westlandstudios@gmail.com.
I brought some of my favourite sounding guitars from the store – the Kapa Challenger, The Sillvertone Amp in Case, my killer Jesus Saves Custom and old Norma, which Alwyn fell in love with after a single note. Norma might become a permanent fixture on the wall at Westland.
We were using an Orange Dark Terror Alwyn had in for review and his lovely sounding old Marshall 4×12. The guitars sounded great with everything cranked; Kapa delivering the hottest signal known to man, Jesus delivering his signature killer bite and Norma delivering that savage, snappy response.
It was great to hear the stuff through a nice big cab, in a nicely treated room where the guitars really feel at home and become powerful tools to create really original sounding records. Thats what these guitars are all about. Hanging round studios delivering unique and original tones that make the end user sound different than the now regular, new buy, or overpriced Strat’s and Les Paul’s.
