- FROM 35 YEAR OLD TAPES!

The existing release of Touch Me always suffered from a lack of "sparkle" and also a lack of real "bottom end". Why the CD ended up sounding the way it does is for a number of reasons. Firstly, the album was recorded at the Enid's home on a home made desk - this gives it plenty of character!

The home made desk introduced mains hum into the recordings in varying quantities and this prevented the original mastering engineer from addressing the problems with the lack of bass; if he added bass he'd be also turning up the hum, which in some places was quite severe.

Fortunately, we now have some very sophisticated software plugins for coping with exactly these kind of problems. I used a plugin that features several notch filters based at mains frequency (50Hz) and then the first eight harmonics. This has the miraculous effect of clearing out pretty well all the hum without having a noticeable impact on rest of the sound.

The other main problem with the tape was clicks, scrapes and pops caused by various things such as:

1. Static discharge from the tape spools.

2. Electrical equipment turning off or on during recording, eg. a fridge.

3. Actual sounds made during recording such as chair creak, woodwind intruments valves etc.

4. Dodgy equipment / wiring.

In the world before digital, the only way to reduce these types of annoying sound was to remove some of high frequencies in the recording by using an equaliser, hence a dull sound.

REMOVING CLICKS AND POPS

With a modern digital work station - and a bit of skill and patience - it's now possible to remove clicks and pops by manually re-drawing the actual waveform. This requires a little "artistic licence" or guesswork, but the results are that the annoying sounds are completely removed without noticeably affecting the sound. In the example below, the click has been drawn out of the left channel but remains in the right:

After removing all the nasty noises, this left me free to adjust the sound with a bit of EQ exactly as it required. The recording was fairly lacking in bass so I used a plugin that generates new bass harmonics to really fatten up the sound. The top end was pretty good straight from the tape and with the clicks removed it could be adjusted in real-time according to the programme material, without highlighting any nasties. 

Robert and I are pretty pleased with the results, which are certainly an improvement on existing CDs in circulation. Touch Me is now available as an HD FLAC download along with several other new titles in the HD Download section of the website. A CD version will follow soon.

Tickets ... venue website

Venue website + Tickets

Tickets ... venue website

So what's more festive than pure and utter gluttony? Every Enidi member was invited to bring a cake. This was a plan which simply couldn't fail, right? Well, the cakes kept coming, and coming and coming! RSVPs had indicated there would be a cake to people ratio of 1:4. Um, turned out to be more like 4 cakes per individual!!! If you didn't arrive diabetic, then you left diabetic. The cakes were all amazing. They came in all shapes, sizes, colours, decorations and flavours. If you were going to die happy, that was the day to do it!

Eating RJG's famous Chilli whilst wearing a cracker hat proved an excellent start. A true indication that people were in the mood to stray from the conservative and join in with the spirit of things. The room was PACKED! Not a single seat going spare. You could barely move. In fact, a game of "pass the plate" had to be played...

PASS THE PLATE - The Rules: Pass the plate of Chilli from the person on your left to the person on your right. If you are at the end of the line, you win a meal! (Batteries not included.)

Next up... PARTY GAMES! Ok, some people there were a bit long in the tooth for Simon Says, Musical Bumps or Sleeping Lions (well, maybe Sleeping Lions would have worked...) and suggestions of Twister were also rejected. However, Jane Armstrong - The Enidi Secretary Superstar - hosted a marvellous show of "Have I Got ENID News For You?" Two teams made up of both Enid and Enidi battled it out to win one of Janes homemade clocks! Most importantly, it was an opportunity for people to heckle! And heckle they did. Not an question went unanswered, and the audience gathered just as many points at the teams did. Bravo! It was hungry work. Luckily there was plenty more cake still to be eaten!

Finally, came the endings of endings. The first ever LIVE performance of INVICTA!!! Would it sound as good as the record? Could Joe really manage those girly Counter Tenor notes live? Was the band sober enough to remember what they were actually doing? Yes, to answer all questions. Yes! In fact, many people aclaimed it was better on the night than on record. That can only bode well for the 2013 tour (dates to be announced in the next couple of weeks). So here's to a fantastic new year!

Now let's get on with RESET!

Please email voteprog@futurenet.co.uk with your votes! Polling closes on December 31st. Thank you!

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You can vote for us in any of the following categories:

Best Band

Best Album

Best Female Vocalist

Best Male Vocalist

Best Guitarist

Best Bassist

Best Keyboard Player

Best Drummer

Best Reissue

Best Multimedia

Best Event

Non-Event

Best Venue

Tip For The Top: Band for 2013

Prog Heartthrob 2012

Prog Icon 2012

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