FSOL Production Techniques

[dubmasta]

Going to start this thread by asking you guys to elaborate (in detail if possible) on reverb treatment by FSOL on the main break from Dead Skin Cells. Thanx in advance.

[Ranxerox]

I don't claim any special insight into how they work in the studio, just what I've read same as everyone else.

But Brian has mentioned their habit of using effects chains of reverb into delay and then other effects, as well as 'deep compression ', which I take to mean low threshold, soft knee and/or high ratio settings.

For reverb they used among others, the humble Alesis Quadraverb and Yamaha SPX90, and for delay the Roland Space Echo tape unit and Bel BD80 digital. I don't think they were above using the slightly weird effects built into the Korg Wavestation A/D for external processing, such as the vocoder algorithm.

Being heavily into sample manipulation, it's likely they sometimes sampled percussion sounds 'wet', meaning the delay and reverb tails could grow longer or shorter depending on transposition of the sample, as well as the effect of further voice processing in the sampler itself (filter, amp envelope, onboard effects etc.)

I've always felt Brian to be a master of compression. I'm convinced they were using sidechaining before Daft Punk made it fashionable in dance music, although I have no evidence other than my ears. The Soundtracs Jade console they were using by the time of Lifeforms had a built-in dynamics processor in every channel, which would have made it possible.

[Enofa]

'Q' was put through "too much compression" in Brian's words, which gives it its unique pumping texture. Similarly some recent tracks like 'Stereo Leak 70' (what do you mean it's nearly a decade old? Shh).

FSOL has always been live mixes done through analogue desks.

That's about all my insight.

[mcbpete]

FSOL has always been live mixes done through analogue desks.

If it's still the same desk as this:



Then I think (maybe!) it's an API 1608



The Dead Skin Cells sounds like it's maybe a delay then going into a slight reverb (and maybe also slight flanger?), you can hear a repeated echo sound with the 'snare' hit (most prominent on the final hit at 4.15) that sounds more delay than reverb, so perhaps Bel BD80 digital -> Eventide Instant Phaser (though apparently the aforementioned BD80 also does chorus and delay so maybe it's used for both here)-> Quadraverb ?

[Ranxerox]

FSOL has always been live mixes done through analogue desks.

If it's still the same desk as this:



Then I think (maybe!) it's an API 1608

No, the desk in that photo is a British Soundtracs In-line 36, probably an IL3632. Pretty sure they replaced it with a Soundtracs Jade some time in the mid-90s. The Jade had built in channel dynamics and automation, but the In-line didn't.

Regarding the reverb on the drums, it's really hard to pin that type of effect to a specific device, especially if FSOL liked to tweak the effect parameters. A lot of reverbs from the 80s and 90s used modulation within the reverb algorithm itself, kind of like a chorus, to break up the reverb tails and make it less metallic. On the flip side, heavy modulation would make the reverb sound dark and watery, kind of like the drums on a Cocteau Twins record.

[mcbpete]

the desk in that photo is a British Soundtracs In-line 36, probably an IL3632

Oops ... Just 'google-imaged' it and yep I think you're exactly right. APIs have the slanted top section and then the vertical VU meters and yep the ones you mentioned are all flat with a slanted lit led-light metering

[Enofa]

Yeah they’ve always used Soundtracs - Tim Jones, who sorted them out with Earthbeat and some gear back in 1990 (hence the executive producer credit on many J&P releases), works for Soundtracs and actually still maintains the 9LW desks when they need an MOT.

[Ranxerox]

I wish I'd known that about Tim when I bought a Soundtracs Solo 32 from him years ago, I would have bent his ear about all things Earthbeat related! More recently he built a mixer PSU for me.

I think Soundtracs stopped trading some time ago after they spun off their digital live console brand (DigiCo). I always liked Soundtracs consoles for their sound, but not so much for their reliability...

[dubmasta]

Thanks guys. I didn't expect any replies to this honestly, some people must have thought Im going insane to ask that kind of question. I just wanted to hear your thoughts and possibly discuss this topic out of curiosity.
Let's say somebody pops out of nowhere in 2025 and begins to play live FSOL like music that has elements of Lifeforms, ISDN and Dead Cities. Would it sound like playing Beatle-music in the 90's?

[Ranxerox]

There's a lot more scope for live FSOL-like musical performance now than there was in the 90s. Live music technology is vastly more powerful, reliable and relatively affordable, and the learning curve not as steep (as you would expect after 30 years of progress).

I personally don't think classic FSOL sounds dated, but they did lift a lot of samples in their music back then, which might be an obstacle nowadays in the era of copyright strikes and litigation.