John Spence - Studio Engineer On The Reptile House E.P.
Posted: 18 Jul 2021, 01:22
The following was written for Phil Verne's 'The Sisters Of Mercy 1980-85' Facebook Group and Phil has kindly offered it for the perusal of those Heartlanders who don't do Facebook. It is the recollection of John Spence , the recording and mastering engineer at Ken Giles' Bridlington Studio for the recording of The Reptile House E.P. (John's bio follows his piece.)
JOHN SPENCE :
"The five tracks on the EP were mixed in one long 38 hour session."
"I was involved from the beginning but Ken Giles spent a good bit of time showing me the set up he had used for recording the drums from the Roland TR 606. Ken was running a big PA at that time and he would bring in a PA stack consisting of a 4x15 folded bass bin, a 2x12 midrange cabinet and a Piezo tweeter cabinet. The mono output from the 606 would be fed into a desk and out into this speaker stack. The bass bin was mic'd with an EV RE20 which was fed into one channel of the studio desk. The mid cabinet was mic'd with a Shure SM57 and fed into another channel and the high end was mic'd with another 57 and fed into a third channel. This gave us some degree of separation for the three main drum components...bass drum, snare drum and hi hats which would end up being mixed onto one track. Each of the mic input channels had a parametric equalizer inserted into the signal path and, once these three mics were routed onto one track of the 8 track tape machine, I would set to and create a drum sound/mix. When I was happy with it Andy would step in and start tweaking it. He would sit for hours listening to just the bass drum mic and fiddling with the eq, then the same with the snare channel and the high channel. At first I assumed that he was trying to achieve a certain sound but I later realized that he didn't actually know what he was doing, he was just finding out what each frequency sounded like. I added compression to the drum mics which Andy had never come across but he liked the effect. We would have recorded the drums for all the songs in one go having spent many hours achieving the sound. At some point (but not on the RH EP) Andy discovered that it was possible to synchronize two 606s which meant we could separate out the snare drum to a channel of its own which gave more options at the mix. From here on I have very little memory of events. The rest of the band spent most of the time lying around in sleeping bags on the studio floor and I don't remember who did what. Recording the vocal was challenging because Andy sang very, very quietly. I suspect it was the only way he could hold the pitch in the lower register. Ken's best vocal mic at that time was a Shure SM7, a good mic but with a very low output level so it was a struggle trying to get a decent recording level onto a 1" 8 track tape machine with no noise reduction system. At one point Andy asked me to point a mic directly at his throat and mix it in with the main vocal mic. We pursued that for a while but it didn't really work. He always wanted his voice to sound lower and deeper. The mixing process was not difficult but very time consuming. I would bring up the drum track on a desk channel, set a basic sound and level then Andy would sit for 3/4/5 hours twiddling with the eq and sends into a couple of effects. During this time I would hover around, smoke, drink coffee and read. When he declared himself happy with the drum sound I would then bring up the bass and the process started again followed by the guitars and vocals. i would balance up as we went along and take care of the technical side. One very distinct memory I do have is of when we'd finished the mixing and I'd edited the 1/4" tape to make a Production Master (tracks in the right order with the right gaps etc). Andy brought the rest of the band in to listen to it. When it finished there was no invitation to comment or offer any creative input...just "there it is". Sorry there isn't more detail but as I've said previously it was "just another session"."
The Engineer John Spence:
The career of recording and mastering engineer John Spence began in 1981. After playing guitar with bands during the 1970s, followed by two years experience on a touring concert PA system working with (among others) The Blues Band, Bad Manners, Southern Death Cult, Sex Gang Children and Geno Washington, John moved into studio work and quickly gained a reputation as a skilful and patient engineer.
His induction into the recording profession was by no means conventional; early clients included The Sisters of Mercy, The Three Johns, March Violets and The Mekons, all of whose influence helped to fashion John’s approach to making records.
Through the eighties his client list expanded to include The Revillos, John Parr (two albums featuring amongst others The Phoenix Horns) and in 1988 John recorded the seminal “Bummed” album by Happy Mondays working alongside the late legendary producer Martin Hannet. Since 1989 John has enjoyed a creative and inspiring relationship with Bill Nelson (Bebop Deluxe/Red Noise). With Bill as producer John has recorded and mixed albums for international artists such as Roger Eno, Kate St.John, Yumiko Morioka, Nautilus Pompelius and Channel Light Vessel as well as Bill’s own “Practically Wired” and “After the Satellite Sings” albums.
Continuing through the nineties credits have included arranging, programming and performing with The Giantkillers (MCA Records), three albums with The Toy Dolls (Trojan Records), recording and mixing an album by Lolita no.18 ( a high profile Japanese punk band) for Sony Records Japan and various projects with The Beautiful South. John’s work during these years with progressive rock bands Castanarc (four albums) and Mostly Autumn (six albums) clearly show that he is adept at recording big productions which include choirs and string sections.
The last few years have seen many of the above artists return to work with John as well as new projects with Paul Heaton, The Glitter Band and several emerging bands and artists such as Audio Subscene, La Bete Blooms, Emma Rugg and the Hillbilly Troupe.
John Spence's vast experience and Fairview's long standing reputation are the reasons that clients continually return to the studio. This is the highest compliment that can be paid to him and he gratefully acknowledges their support.
John is a freelance recording and mastering engineer with many years experience and a thorough working knowledge of recording technology. Visit him at www.johnspencerecording.co.uk and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/johnspencerecording/
JOHN SPENCE :
"The five tracks on the EP were mixed in one long 38 hour session."
"I was involved from the beginning but Ken Giles spent a good bit of time showing me the set up he had used for recording the drums from the Roland TR 606. Ken was running a big PA at that time and he would bring in a PA stack consisting of a 4x15 folded bass bin, a 2x12 midrange cabinet and a Piezo tweeter cabinet. The mono output from the 606 would be fed into a desk and out into this speaker stack. The bass bin was mic'd with an EV RE20 which was fed into one channel of the studio desk. The mid cabinet was mic'd with a Shure SM57 and fed into another channel and the high end was mic'd with another 57 and fed into a third channel. This gave us some degree of separation for the three main drum components...bass drum, snare drum and hi hats which would end up being mixed onto one track. Each of the mic input channels had a parametric equalizer inserted into the signal path and, once these three mics were routed onto one track of the 8 track tape machine, I would set to and create a drum sound/mix. When I was happy with it Andy would step in and start tweaking it. He would sit for hours listening to just the bass drum mic and fiddling with the eq, then the same with the snare channel and the high channel. At first I assumed that he was trying to achieve a certain sound but I later realized that he didn't actually know what he was doing, he was just finding out what each frequency sounded like. I added compression to the drum mics which Andy had never come across but he liked the effect. We would have recorded the drums for all the songs in one go having spent many hours achieving the sound. At some point (but not on the RH EP) Andy discovered that it was possible to synchronize two 606s which meant we could separate out the snare drum to a channel of its own which gave more options at the mix. From here on I have very little memory of events. The rest of the band spent most of the time lying around in sleeping bags on the studio floor and I don't remember who did what. Recording the vocal was challenging because Andy sang very, very quietly. I suspect it was the only way he could hold the pitch in the lower register. Ken's best vocal mic at that time was a Shure SM7, a good mic but with a very low output level so it was a struggle trying to get a decent recording level onto a 1" 8 track tape machine with no noise reduction system. At one point Andy asked me to point a mic directly at his throat and mix it in with the main vocal mic. We pursued that for a while but it didn't really work. He always wanted his voice to sound lower and deeper. The mixing process was not difficult but very time consuming. I would bring up the drum track on a desk channel, set a basic sound and level then Andy would sit for 3/4/5 hours twiddling with the eq and sends into a couple of effects. During this time I would hover around, smoke, drink coffee and read. When he declared himself happy with the drum sound I would then bring up the bass and the process started again followed by the guitars and vocals. i would balance up as we went along and take care of the technical side. One very distinct memory I do have is of when we'd finished the mixing and I'd edited the 1/4" tape to make a Production Master (tracks in the right order with the right gaps etc). Andy brought the rest of the band in to listen to it. When it finished there was no invitation to comment or offer any creative input...just "there it is". Sorry there isn't more detail but as I've said previously it was "just another session"."
The Engineer John Spence:
The career of recording and mastering engineer John Spence began in 1981. After playing guitar with bands during the 1970s, followed by two years experience on a touring concert PA system working with (among others) The Blues Band, Bad Manners, Southern Death Cult, Sex Gang Children and Geno Washington, John moved into studio work and quickly gained a reputation as a skilful and patient engineer.
His induction into the recording profession was by no means conventional; early clients included The Sisters of Mercy, The Three Johns, March Violets and The Mekons, all of whose influence helped to fashion John’s approach to making records.
Through the eighties his client list expanded to include The Revillos, John Parr (two albums featuring amongst others The Phoenix Horns) and in 1988 John recorded the seminal “Bummed” album by Happy Mondays working alongside the late legendary producer Martin Hannet. Since 1989 John has enjoyed a creative and inspiring relationship with Bill Nelson (Bebop Deluxe/Red Noise). With Bill as producer John has recorded and mixed albums for international artists such as Roger Eno, Kate St.John, Yumiko Morioka, Nautilus Pompelius and Channel Light Vessel as well as Bill’s own “Practically Wired” and “After the Satellite Sings” albums.
Continuing through the nineties credits have included arranging, programming and performing with The Giantkillers (MCA Records), three albums with The Toy Dolls (Trojan Records), recording and mixing an album by Lolita no.18 ( a high profile Japanese punk band) for Sony Records Japan and various projects with The Beautiful South. John’s work during these years with progressive rock bands Castanarc (four albums) and Mostly Autumn (six albums) clearly show that he is adept at recording big productions which include choirs and string sections.
The last few years have seen many of the above artists return to work with John as well as new projects with Paul Heaton, The Glitter Band and several emerging bands and artists such as Audio Subscene, La Bete Blooms, Emma Rugg and the Hillbilly Troupe.
John Spence's vast experience and Fairview's long standing reputation are the reasons that clients continually return to the studio. This is the highest compliment that can be paid to him and he gratefully acknowledges their support.
John is a freelance recording and mastering engineer with many years experience and a thorough working knowledge of recording technology. Visit him at www.johnspencerecording.co.uk and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/johnspencerecording/
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