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The Wonderful World of Widgy Studios

Recently I have been developing an idea I had to start recording in unusual acoustic spaces not usually used for recording. I set about amassing a lorry load of vintage & modern recording equipment & have now recorded 7 or 8 albums this way. I recorded Idlewild in an old church in Fyfe, Dykeenies, Engerica & Starky in a magnificent Georgian mansion in Wales, Ocean Colour Scene in a huge converted barn in Scotland & so on. There are so many great spaces out there, it seems a shame not to use them if you can. The mansion in Wales that I’ve used 3 time is particularly good, it has 3 amazing drum rooms at least, including a 3 floor high hallway – pure Led Zepplin!! Bands love the beating the odds vibe of it all & it really gets a team spirit thing going on. I love the idea of an album being a snapshot in the life of the band – really capturing where they are at that moment in time & this method seems to really help that feeling. Its definitely not the only way I work – I still love studios too much, but it is another way of getting it done, & mostly it’s a lot cheaper too!

On the right are some photos of a few of those sessions...



Nerd Alert! Gear List

Here's a nerdy equipment list of all the old shit I have to play with!

Guitars
  • 1959 Les Paul Special : My baby! The body is a single piece of wood & it rings like a bell!
  • Gibson Accoustic : Donāt know the model, but it was a gift from James DB & its dead good!
Guitar Amps
  • Diezel Einstein 50W Head : Diezel heads just blow me away & this one has 4 channels, from aggressive, percussive, toneful, surprisingly fenderāy clean, to ridiculous amounts of gain & everything inbetween, its definitely my most versatile amp & I love it!
  • 1975 MKII 100W Marshall Super Lead : You canāt argue with these, it only does one thing, but it does it SO well! Pure glorious, barking, British distortion. A bit like God talking!!
  • 1973 Hiwatt Custom 50 : Pure Townsend! Clanging aggressive clean to a big wide warm distortion. A classic.
  • 1967 50W Selmer Treble & Bass MkIII : Classic point to point hand wired amp that is pure tone. Really good for defining distorted picking parts, but also loves pedals, especially the muff Š which turns it into an unbelievable wall of hell!
  • 1957 Watkins Westminster : Amazing, toneful little red combo with a 8ä elac speaker. Turned up on full this give an unbelievablely aggressive distortion Š all the frequencies a classic 4x12 sound doesnāt have, so when added in it just makes a sound pop out of the speakers. I love this amp SO much, it has to be heard to be believed!
  • Early 60ās Watkins Clubman : Like a higher gain version of the Westminster
  • Early 70ās Selmer Treble & Bass MkIV : Quite a different beast to its sixties counterpart, this sounds more like a 50W Marshall Š this loves a muff too!!
  • 60ās Simms Watts 100W Head : A pure Nashville amp, this is a glistening clean amp that its almost impossible to distort. Amazing tone Š Iāve never heard another clean like it.
  • 1968 Sound City Concord Combo : From the time when Sound City amps were still made in the Hiwatt factory, this has faders for its volume & tone controls & has a funky, Stonsey sound.
  • Late 60ās 4 channel Fender PA : This works as an unbelievably toneful bass amp. Brings out all the character of the instrument & is great really distorted with something normal like an ampeg taking care of the bottom end.
  • ADA MP1 Valve Preamp : Modifyed by Voodo Amps in NY for more gain & more tone. This preamp was used by a lot of rock bands in the eighties (especially Metallica) & has tons of gain, but also a solid state section which can be useful for those jazz chorus moments!
  • Early 70ās 6 channel Laney PA : Another glass clean amp
  • Moog 70ās 4 channel 300W Head : Big powerful PA with Moog EQ on every channel, it was designed for a big modular synth in the 70ās & is fat as fuck!
  • Burman 2x12 Combo : Valve amp hand made in the north of England, the second channel on this has 3 gain stages Š safe to say it goes pretty distorted!
  • Trace Elliot Blues 1x12 Combo
  • Smokey Amps Malbro Light : A tiny tranny amp built into a fag packet, this can occasionally be just what youāre looking for!
  • Smokey Amps Supro : A higher gain version of the Malboro light!
Cabs
  • Mesa Boogie Rectifyer 4x12
  • Marshall 4x12 Loaded with 3 Celestion 30ās & 1 50W Fane
  • Hiwatt 1973 4x12 (50W Fanes)
Pedals
  • Electro Harmonix Big Muff : Couldnāt do without this, a true classic
  • Electro Harmonix Micro Synth : Great weird shit, but the fuzz is cool too
  • Electro Harmonix Poly Chorus : Come as you are, but UFO noises too!
  • Electro Harmonix Hot Tubes : Stupid amounts of gain & great for lead
  • Electro Harmonix Screaming Tree : Treble boost
  • Durham Electronics Sex Drive : The best drive pedal Iāve found, so tuneful & great for bass too, as it loses none of the bottom end
  • Sustain Punch Creamy Dreamer : A modified, hyped up muff. As used on Siamese Dream
  • DNA Ananlogic Gain Fucker : Obviously I bought this just for the name, but it turned out to be an amazing fuzz pedal, think Marilyn Manson type distortion!
  • Hot Cake : Great boutique drive pedal, for when it needs to be just a bit more!
  • Turbo Rat : Hyped up rat
  • Moogerfooger Low Pass Filter : Funky envelope filter, but also great for sub bass
  • Ibanez Turbo Tube Screamer : Modded to have the original chip from the early 80ās classic TS9 Š everyone knows what this sounds like!
  • Ibanez FL9 Flanger : From the same period as the original TS9, this is a good deep flange.
  • Roger Mayer Voodoo Boost : Good for bass distortion.
  • Roger Mayer Crossroads X2 : The best splitter pedal there is, one output is isolated, so no hums, no top end loss & no gain loss.
  • Roger Mayer Spitfire : Halfway between a drive & a fuzz. Funky looking too!
  • Boss FZ2 Hyper Fuzz : James Dean Bradfieldās favourite pedal Š great gain boost with eq, but the fuzz 2 setting is so extreme it takes your head off! Like Satan talking!!
  • Bass SD1 Super Overdrive : Great for lead
  • Fender Trem : The trem circuit from a Fender Twin in a pedal Š handy!
  • DOD Ice Box Chorus : Crap 80ās chorus!
  • DOD Stereo Phaser : Crap 80ās phaser (actually, its not that bad!)
  • Analogue Delay Pedal : Canāt remember its name, but it sounds like a Boss DM2 (bucket brigade analogue delay), with a the clangerous results youād expect.
Drums
  • Ludwig 14x6 Hand Hammered Bronze Snare : As used on Led Zep IV, this is the most versatile snare I have ever come across. From thuddy detuned 70ās fatness to really aggressive ringy modern rock. I have a 24 piece extra wide snare on it, & it sizzles!
  • 60ās Rogers Powertone Snare : I know this can be a great drum, as a band I worked with had one & it sounded amazing, but Iāve never really found the right skins/ setup for it & its never blown me away. Advice gratefully received!
  • 60ās Rogers R360 Snare : Really ringy & attacking Š dead skaāy
Keyboards / Synths / Weird
  • Korg MS20 : Probably my favourite piece of equipment! The filter is unbelievably aggressive Š thatās a wurli going thru it to make the peeeooooww noise on If You Tolerate This, so I will always love it as my No1 synth!
  • 70ās Solina String Orchestra : Beautiful, cold, eastern European strings Š thatās solinas you hear all over Radioheads The Bends, especially Street Spirit.
  • Korg DW6000 : I just keep this for sentimental reasons as we used it on La Tristessa Durearu!!
  • Digitech Vocoder : Yes, the one Cher used, but can be made to do cool stuff too!
  • Korg Kaoss Pad : Rarely used, but one day will do something really cool, & make me glad I bought it!
  • Alesis Air Fx : Similar to Kaoss Pad, but had 3D control, actually has a really good sub harmonic synthesiser on it
Mics
  • 2 x Microtech Geffel UM70 : Gefell are the eastern European Neumann Š the company were split in 2 when the wall went up, so Gefell carried on making mics to the original Neumann designs. This one has the same capsule as a U47 & is a great multi purpose large diaphram condenser.
  • 2 x Geffel MV691 with M70 cardiod capsules : Lost classic, this is a great 70ās mic the has a really warm but up front tone. Great on overheads, & does a really nice Neil Young thing on acoustics.
  • 2 x Geffel PM750 with m70 cardiod capsules : Basically the same mic as the MV691 but with a rubbish sounding guard for use with vocals, that can thankfully be removed!
  • 1 x AKG 414 : All time classic that sounds great on everything.
  • 2 x Blue Baby Bottles : Really good multipurpose large diaphram condenser, especially good ambient mic.
  • 3 x Apex 460 Valve LDC : James Dean Bradfields favourite vocal mic Š its really cheap, but Iām yet to hear it sound bad on anybody. Every engineer Iāve lent this too has bought one!!
  • 1 x Audio Technica AT4050 : Sounds like a 414 & can take inhuman SPLās. Great on amps.
  • 1 x Audio Technica AT4033 : Really good on amps too!
  • 2 x Audio Techinca AE2500 : Really cool duel element mic with separate outputs for dynamic & a condenser capsules. Designed for kick drum, this also sounds really good on bass amps & is a great one mic solution for guitar cabs.
  • 2 x Groove Tubes MD1B : Really nice on overheads
  • 2 x Groove Tubes GT66 : Can handle really high SPLs, enabling you to get a valve mic up close on a loud guitar amp. Nice forward middly tone.
  • 1 x Calrec Valve SDC : Silky top end, great pointing at the floor in front of a kit compressed to fuck!
  • 7 x Oktava MK012 : Utility small diaphram condenser. 80% of the time this is 100% as good as a KM84! Ie crap on acoustics of overheads, but every bit as good up close on a amp or a hihat.
  • 2 x Oktava MK319 : Good cheap funky room mic
  • 1 x Oktava MK219 : Not quite so good cheap funky room mic!
  • 4 x Shure SM7 : Prior to the Apex, my favourite vocal mic. Enables the singer to hold the mic as much as he wants with no handling noise & sounds really good. Great for rock vocals, they can scream as loud as they want into this! Also great on snare if you can fit it in, & also better than a 57 on an amp. The 5 iron of mics, you could use this for anything!
  • 5 x Shure SM57 : Do I need to tell you about this?! Albini inexplicably hates them, but they do the job, donāt they?
  • 2 x Beyerdynamic M201 : Hypercardiod dynamic, this is awesome on toms, eliminating almost all the spill & sounding really aggressive & forward with it. Albini describes it as the mic a SM57 would be if it was a mic!
  • 1 x AKG D12 : A really old 50ās one! Classic bass/ kick drum mic
  • 2 x AKG D190 : Funky old dynamic, a development of the classic Beatles drum mic the D19 Š how come developments are always bad?!
  • 1 x Oktava ML52 Ribbon : Not the greatest ribbon mic in the world, but it does do that dark funky thing when its required
  • 2 x NS10 cones wired as sub mics
  • Misc crap old mics for weird or funky shit!
Protools
  • 48 I/O TDM System with bunches of plug ins
  • Well specād LE rig on my laptop for auxillary duties, BVās etc
Desks / Mic Amps
  • 12 Channel MCI/Sony MXP2000 (All Mic Channels) : Still a classic MCI mic amp, but when Sony bought MCI they set out to make the ultimate broadcast console. There are transformers everywhere in this beast making it weigh a ton, but sound silky smooth. Tons of headroom, the EQ is really musical, it kind of reminds me of GML Š you can wind on loads of top end without it sounding processed & the bottom is controlled & warm. The mic amps also like being pushed & break up very musically. I love this desk!
  • 12 Channel MCI/Sony MXP2000 4 Mics/8 Lines : As above but only 4 mic amps & the rest lines (used for outboard eqās)
  • 2 x 60ās Siemens Mic Preās racked : Really cool German 60ās preās. Great on room ambience & acoustics especially.
  • 1 x Telefunken V76 Valve Beatles mic pre : A classic for a good reason, this is my secret weapon!
  • 1 x Electro Harmonix Valve Pre : Inexpensive but a really great little pre Š great for driving funky drum room mics.
  • 1 x 2 channel RNP preamp : Really clean & tight. Great transient response.
  • 1 x 4 Channel Grommes Valve 60ās Broadcast Console : I use this mostly for distortion (it especially loves snares), but also a good mic pre/mixer in its own right.
  • 1 x 4 Channel 50ās Tube Vortexion Mixer : Joe Meek mixed all his records on one of these. Surprisingly clean for a valve mixer.
  • 1 x 4 Channel Wem Audio master : I stick drums thru this for distortion & it sounds awesome!
  • 1 x 4 Channel Binson early 60ās pa : All tube mixer I use to distort stuff (again!)
  • 1 x Tascam 16 channel monitor board
  • 1 x Tascam 24 channel monitor board
Dynamics Processors
  • Urei 1176 Silverface : Classic everything compressor!
  • Urei LA4 Blackface : My favourite vocal compressor.
  • Tubetech LCA2B (2 Channel) : Unbelievably thumpy on drums, it also rocks on bass & across the mix.
  • Alan Smart C2 SSL Compressor (2 Channel) : Has the crush setting that brings drums right to the front, itās also the classic SSL bus compressor.
  • SPL 4 channel Transient Designer : Indispensible for mixing drums Š I have no idea how this works, but I know it DOES work!
  • ADR Scamp Rack Comressors x 7 : The compressor circuit from a compex, the compressor Led Zep used to get the When The Levee Breaks drum sound, & Iāve got 7 of them!! Also really good on distorted guitars.
  • CBS Volumax : 70ās mono FM limiter thatās really extreme on drums. Squashy
  • CBS Dynamic Presence Equaliser : Another radio processor, is an aural exciter that works in combination with the volumax to create bright & squashy!
  • Joe Meek SC2.2 (2 Channel) : General purpose optical compressor.
Misc
  • Little Labs PCP : 3 channel guitar splitter & audiofile Di, it also has 3 reamps. Each channel can be phase reversed & earth lifted, which basically means you can run 3 amps at once with no hums or phase problems, which really rocks. This box changed the way I worked, it is fucking genius.
  • Little Labs Redi : Passive DI thatās great on bass especially & also has another reamp!
  • AKG 6 channel 48V Phantom power box & various audio problem solvers
  • 4 channel headphone amp
  • Plenty of good headphones!
  • Huge collection of leads, stage boxes & every XLR to whatever converter known to man!
Monitoring
  • Dynaudio BM15A Midfield Powered Monitors
  • Advent Powered Partners powered nearfield monitors
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