The Psytek Project – The fight to keep the dreams alive!
After the downfall of Megaupload I’ve had to re-upload all of the previously uploaded Master Scratch Tapes that I have Cleaned and Remastered. Plus I have finally finished what was left from the NG83 community. I would like to send a special thanks to all who have contributed to providing the source material for this project especially to Phil Littlechild for keeping it real with the Pie.N.Ears Blog and uploading help etc…
You can now find all of our hard work here at Pie.N.Ears
MasterScratch- The PsyTek Project *** updates***
Psy Tek has put alot of hard work into cleaning up the 28 year old MasterScratch tapes from Nottinghams Rock City days. Anyone who has tried to convert old tapes from the 80s or 90s to mp3 knows what quality to expect, with a lot of hard work and effort , its possible to get them sounding as new.
Here are his latest volumes of the cleaned up versions.
Both sides of the tapes are in one zip file.
MasterScratch – The PsyTek Project
PsyTek (John Davies of HOC Sound System and hands on recordings) has used his 10 years of knowledge and studio experience to clean up the Master Scratch tapes. These tapes are over 28 years old and PsyTek makes them sound like you just bought them from HMV as CD’s.
The work gone into these is no different from cleaning up a film to convert it to HD, by stopping every time to hear a hiss or pop, taking out the offending sound Much respek PsyTek, keep up the good work!
Here is where you can download the finished products: The PsyTek Projest
HOC Sound System at NOTTINGHAM ROLLERDISCO @MARCUS GARVEY
HOC Sound System will be at the Nottingham Roller Disco at the Marcus Garvey Ballroom Lenton Boulevard, Nottingham NG7 2BY United Kingdom on Saturday 17th September.
We will be starting at 4pm and going on til the early hours. Yes there will be a bar. Hire skates will be available.
The Garvey is a legendary Nottingham venue and has a REAL WOOD floor. It has a large floodlit/cameras car park. It is also very easy to get to being just off the main road into Nottingham.
we will be running the following 3 sessions.
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1. in association with Take 1 studios. SKATE 1. family skate session (soft drinks only,food on sale) under 18′ & families entry £3.50 skates£1.00/£1.50
2. SK8SHAKK. Dress up and get down to retro disco,cheese and rollergirl anthems. Dj Chopper ( Trent army, Detonate) spinning the tunes ( full bar) 18+ tickets £8.00 more on the door ( if available )
3 Oldskool allnighter playing all the tunes from back in the day MC on the mic the legendary TommySly Thomas, Luke penning (MK rollers, Derby allnighter) plus DJ IPAD & guests (full bar )18+ tickets £6.00 on the door £12
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If you are travelling up for the event please contact us to get your group discount and guaranteed entry.
The All New Flourish Records Rehearsal Studio & Studio Upgrade
Flourish Records have now got their new rehearsal studio finished and fully kitted out above the Flourish recording studio:
The Flourish Record recording studio has also got an upgrade, we now have a nice new 32 channel Mackie analogue Mixing desk plus an extra 8 ins and outs on the computer making a total of 16 in s and outs with another 8 more to come:
For more Information: here
New tracks for licensing from
Well I know I’ve not been writing much here in recent weeks but that’s because I’ve been busy writing and producing at the “hands on recordings” studio here in Nottingham, and now I have two new tracks for licensing.
The first track is called “Hope” written by me John Davies (PsyTek) and it’s mainly an instrumental soundtrack or soundscape that has a haunting piano running through the track with string sections that build up to create an emotional crescendo, while modern beats bring it bang up to date. I think it would be perfect for film, TV or indeed any corporate situation.
The second track is called “Save The World” Written and sung by Del St Joseph who has had a long successful history in the music industry with several hits under his belt. One of which being, “Please Don’t Go,” by K.W.S, (UK number 1 for 6 weeks, number 4 US Billboard Chart 1990/1). It’s produced by me John Davies (PsyTek) founder of hands on recordings and the session keys were done by Will Joss. The track is a pop track for either a male or female, young or old that wants to take advantage of this emotional love song. It starts with a plucked string section that is repeated through each verse then POW! a big trance like anthem synth takes you through the chorus emphasizing the emotion sung by the singer. Del pitched it to me as a track he’s always wanted to write.
Well I hope you enjoy the tracks and if anyone is interested please don’t hesitate to get in contact.
HOC Sound System at the Albert Hall
On Friday 4th February 2011 HOC Sound System put their 7KWatt Logic System PA into the Osborne Suite of the Albert Hall Nottingham. The system was hired for a live band that was backing for a female vocalist. This was the full 6 speaker system into a 250 to 350 capacity venue. Needles to say the Chevin Research amplifiers were not turned up anywhere near their maximum as this was a posh affair full of Law folk and such and we didn’t want to scare anyone.
Vinyl Vs CD’s For DJing
I often get asked this very question as I am now an avid CD DJ. As an ex vinyl DJ of 12 years I can say that vinyl is still relevant as it does have a larger dynamic range in comparison to digital formats like CD and I have many “vinyl only” DJ friends who will fight for the cause and won’t have it any other way. However, the sound engineer in me knows that every time a vinyl is played the recording is damaged so over time you end up with a noisy mess of distortion that once was an amazing tune whether they’re dubplates or standard vinyl. This was one of the many reasons why I changed over to CD DJing and to be honest I’ve never looked back. Now apart from the fact that the recording will always stay the same, and it’s small and convenient, I also get to play live all of the tunes I’ve made to see how people react. Now that in itself is an amazing thing, well at least to me. Plus as a sound engineer I boost the recordings and re-copy them back to CD in my studio with software like the “Waves L2 Ultramaximizer” which makes a huge difference, believe me the tunes sound larger than life when this is done. This process also helps when you’re converting mp3’s to CD audio as mp3’s are a compressed data form of the original and you basically lose a large chuck of the original track to which this process can often disguise.
The Pioneer CDJ-1000 CD DJ Decks that I use are worth mentioning too, they enable you to do so much more than you ever could with vinyl decks. For example you can make it so that you can speed up or slow down a tune like you can with vinyl decks but this time without the change in pitch. Now apart from the obvious advantage of this it also means that the little nudges a DJ will do to keep a track in time are now disguised, you don’t get the sudden change in pitch going up and then suddenly down again, especially when you put the decks into “CDJ mode” not “vinyl mode.” Vinyl mode makes the decks behave like a record deck but you still have the option of turning the “change in pitch” on or off. While CDJ mode makes them behave more like CD decks but when you speed the CD up or slow it down with your hand you can be as rough as you like and the track won’t skip. I often start a track off in vinyl mode (simply because I can’t resist doing the backwards and forwards motion you do with vinyl to get the track to start at the same time as the other track you’re trying to mix into) and then change over to CDJ mode so I can be as rough as I like and just concentrate on getting into the groove! Now I can’t finish off talking about these wonderful decks without saying something about the tempo change range. On Technics 1200 vinyl decks the tempo change range is + or – 8% of the original tempo of the track. While on the CDJ 1000’s the tempo change range has 4 range modes: + or – : 6, 10, 16 and then what Pioneer calls “WIDE” which is basically + or – 100%. This means that you can literally mix any track into any other track you like. This is something I had always dreamed of as a vinyl DJ but never had the chance until I made the change to CD’s.
The “hands on recordings” Recording Studio (more than the sum of it’s parts…)
This is my humble recording studio it’s been going strong for about 10 years now and it’s seen lots of action for recording, production, post production and mastering. As you can see it’s mainly software based but don’t be fooled into thinking that this limits me from producing professional work. Lots of people make the mistake of thinking that you need lots of expensive hardware to do a professional job but this is far from the truth. It’s not so much what kit you have, it’s more knowing how to get the best out of what kit you have. Due to my Music Production courses at NCN Clarendon College and the Square Centre recording Studio in Nottingham up to HND level, plus the work experience I did working for a voluntary project based at the, Square Centre recording studio called, “Soundtracks,” which had other voluntary projects such as, “Fallen Angels,” and, “Include,” where I ran numerous recording and production sessions for young people to whom normally would not be able to afford studio time in a commercial recording studio which in all gave me a good solid foundation. Then after that in this very studio I worked with producer/songwriter/vocalist, Del St Joseph who has had a long successful history in the music industry with several hits under his belt. One of which being, “Please Don’t Go,” by K.W.S, (UK number 1 for 6 weeks, number 4 US Billboard Chart 1990/1), as his Chief Engineer helping him start up his Production Company “Fourjayz”. Over the years we collaborated with producer Mike Pela from London who has a long production history in the music industry with artists like, Sade, Savage Garden, Erasure, Boy George, Ace of Base, Maxwell and Everything but the Girl. All of this education and experience enables me to get the most out of what I have.
A Bit About My Kit
Computer
I’m running a Quad Core PC with a M-Audio Delta 44 audio interface (M-Audio are owned by Avid who also own Pro Tools) using Logic Platinum 5.5 on Windows XP with lots of VST/DirectX instruments and plugins.
Hardware
My mixer is a Mackie 1604-VLZ Pro which I love. It’s so clean and has an enormous amount of headroom which lots of mixers at this price range don’t seem to have.
My monitors are the wonderful industry standard Mackie HR824’s which match perfectly with the Mackie mixer, and due to them being active there’s no power amplifier getting in the way colouring the sound.
My midi interface is a MOTU midi express which enables me to interface almost any midi kit I throw at it whilst keeping everything in time.
Then there’s the latest addition to the studio the amazing Blue Bluebird condenser microphone this is a truly great mic with a dynamic range that most condenser microphones don’t have at this price range.
Here are some examples of some of the more recent work done here:
Mortality by Tribal Infinity PsyTek Remix
Hypnotized by Kat Starr PsyTek Dance Remix
Watch this space for more on what’s happening at the Hands On Recordings studio
Kat Starr – Flourish Records
Kat Starr is Flourish Records hottest singer/song writer to date. This girl has true talent and believe me she is going places. Listen out for her on BBC Radio Nottingham on the run up to Christmas. However, if you simply can’t wait that long to get a taste of her truly talented music you can listen to some of her examples here and a remix done by me “PsyTek” can be found here.
Kat Starr was born and raised in Warrington and began to learn classical piano at the age of eight. She later went on to study Music at the British Academy of New Music in London.
Since then Kat’s musical journey has seen her play in front of Prince Edward as part of her extensive range of live performances.
Strongly influenced by Joni Mitchell, Kat had developed a personal style of writing, which draws together striking melodies and fantastically crafted piano movements.
Blended with the soulful rhythms of her band, Tincture, her songs and performances stir audiences with an intoxicating musical cocktail.
Please watch this space for release dates of the first releases of Kat Starr. We love her music and we hope you will too! Peace
hocsoundsystem 