Uwe Schmidt

In the Sound on Sound article "Uwe Schmidt: Recording Yellow Fever," it is mentioned that Uwe Schmidt's studio setup includes a UREI 1178 compressor as one of his primary outboard gear pieces, alongside the Digi 002 Rack.

Uwe says, "In those days I used an Akai S3200 sampler, Akai MPC3000 sequencer and an Akai eight-track digital recorder for overdubbing," in this article.

"The first Señor coconut album, El Gran Baile, was more about combining audio tracks and cutting and pasting samples together to create a Latin atmosphere — it wasn't about songs or melodies. In those days I used an Akai S3200 sampler, Akai MPC3000 sequencer and an Akai eight-track digital recorder for overdubbing. It was a very minimal setup."

"I didn't have a total recall system back then, so I had to program the entire structure from top to bottom and had to mix the song down in one pass. I did use a Yamaha 02R digital mixer, but that had very limited recall, so it was very difficult and I needed a lot of concentration and focus. It usually took me a month to do a song."

By the time work started on *Yellow Fever! *the Akai hardware had been replaced by a 1.33GHz Apple 12-inch G4 Powerbook and a Digidesign Digi 002 Rack Firewire interface, running Pro Tools LE. The new setup, with its total recall and more sophisticated audio editing tools, made it possible for Uwe to entertain a more ambitious method of production.

By the time work started on Yellow Fever! the Akai hardware had been replaced by a 1.33GHz Apple 12-inch G4 Powerbook and a Digidesign Digi 002 Rack Firewire interface, running Pro Tools LE. The new setup, with its total recall and more sophisticated audio editing tools, made it possible for Uwe to entertain a more ambitious method of production.

By the time work started on Yellow Fever! the Akai hardware had been replaced by a 1.33GHz Apple 12-inch G4 Powerbook and a Digidesign Digi 002 Rack Firewire interface, running Pro Tools LE. The new setup, with its total recall and more sophisticated audio editing tools, made it possible for Uwe to entertain a more ambitious method of production.

Uwe Schmidt's minimalist studio, based around an Apple Powerbook and a Microkorg keyboard. The mic is a Soundfield ST250.

"For marimba and vibes I used the modern classical orchestra method of recording; placing the KM84s approximately 40 to 50 cm above the plates so that they captured the entire range of the instruments," recalls Uwe. "For some takes we also positioned a pair of the Studio Projects C3s under the marimba for a less percussive signal. We ended up with eight marimba signals which I mixed down to mono."

"I mostly used the Sony Oxford EQ and Dynamics for processing and the version of Amplitube that comes free with Pro Tools for effects," explains Uwe. "I didn't really use any delays other than for the odd little dub-style effect parts, but if there are any they will also be from Amplitube. Sometimes I used very cheap reverbs, like the D-Verb, which comes free with Pro Tools, and I used a lot of reverbs from Amplitube. Then there is also a bit of Waves Renaissance Reverb. I usually put two reverbs on each song; one small, close one and a distant one. I wanted the quieter instruments like the saxophone section to sound close and strong, and the loud instruments, like the trumpet and trombone, to be far away at the back of the room as if there was one mic standing there listening to them all. Having said that, I based the sound mainly on records from the '70s where some instruments were recorded together, some separately, then the reverbs were added afterwards to create a particular space. I didn't want to overdo the reverb so it's all relatively dry, and there are also a lot of unprocessed sounds in the mix."

"By listening to all the tracks in a row I can hear the mistakes, so I balance all the songs using a touch of EQ and Waves' C4 multi-band compressor to make it a bit more even."