For all the boys who went to Plumtree High School in Zimbabwe in the mid 70s, eighties and nineties you will no doubt know who Mr Hogbin or ‘Pin’ is. The wonderful chemistry teacher who was also involved in the backstage stuff during the plays also did most of the recordings at the school. Well after my post of the old reecordings word got to him and he kindly provided a stunning recording from before my time.
Mr Hogbin is now in Botswana and has made a life for himself there. May I say he will probably have the most imacculate garden in the block if my memory serves me right. He hated us hitting sixes into his garden from Pattison field he he he
His final words to me in his e-mail were ……… Enjoyed the prize giving performances on your web site. Thought you might like this one. Long before your time. I am trying to digitise a number of recordings of the school choir but lack time and expertise. All on a cassette tape I made over the years called “Plumtree Sings”
Best wishes,
….Mr Hogbin hopes to do a few more when time allows and when he does I will be more than glad to host them here for the world to remember. Thank you Sir and bring em on. Now – I don’t know if Mr hogbin is into social Media but if he is and you did go to Plumtree do say good day to him and thank him for these free recordings. I was so blessed to hear from him and I am sure you will too. The move to Bots hasn’t always been the easiest so show him some love.
PLEASE NOTE THAT I NOW HAVE A NEW SHOP FOR ALL MY PRESETS AND ANY OLD POSTS REFERRING TO MY OLD SHOP ARE NOW DEFUNCTAll my presets are now here
Just to add my love for this extraordinary piece of gear. It is at the heart of my studio. I have two and they give the most superlative results. Clean, clean, clean high resolution sound. Nothing comes close when clarity is the goal. Reference transparency is the name of the game. I don’t normally say this to blokes but, I love you George.
Well it’s been long time coming but ten years on the anniversary of its release we are doing it again. You wouldn’t believe it but a kind soul called Michael Angel who is also a brother in the Lord has offered to Master Our Zimbabwe for me. And he is asking for nothing in return.
God bless Michael. I will be making a version of Our Zimbabwe available for ‘free’ from here to help the charity. By free I mean that I will be asking for the smallest voluntary donation to my chosen charity, the Mumvuri project. It is an orphan shelter in Banket.
Had a blast today on tms. No no no not test match special.
Daniel, Tom, Rosy and Sb were so cool to hang out with. Thanks guys for having me. Sponsor these guys. This is great cricket coverage with a humourus twist. Loved it.
Had the chance to chat about the newly released paperback edition of blood sweat and treason.
Can I just say that this is about the best plugin I have ever used period. It is amazing. Today I was pretty frustrated with a mix that I am working on for my next album. So I decided to pull out the old trusty Xlutop chainer and chain a few Nebula effects together.
Had another go with using the consoles and now I can say I GET what it is all about. You need to chain these suckers together. So – I updated to the latest version of nebula and also got Alexb’s 4K compressor recently.
What I did was set up a chain in Xlutop chainer. For those who don’t know it is a piece of software that let’s you well – chain a series of FX together. It has horrible latency as it does not report plugin latency to the daw. Anyway – here is what I did.
R2R – MLC input – 4K compressor – Chain of ML eQs ( Hshelf, Hmids, Lmids,Lshelf ) MLC Buss out,R2R
After bouncing down the track and adjusting for latency I am blown away. Get a chainer plugin and it all comes together from a workflow point of view. It is one track at a time and you do need to commit but boy does it sound like I have an SSL anmd Real tape in my home studio.
The great thing with chainer is that you can set up your default chain and adjust per track. Thumbs up from me now….
Now here is the roll call of the top nebula third party producers that take your nebula universe to the next level.
I know this doesn’t look like much as I haven’t done his head but it will completed soon. The outgoing headmaster of Wrekin College in Telford has kindly commisioned me to do his portrait. Should be done by July. Time oh time where art thou? There is always a challenge as an artist to capture the imagination of a client.
Whether it is producing music, writing a story or painting a portrait the challenge remains to balance your ability, your vision and their desires. Not an easy thing to do and when they happen to be a close friend you always want to give your best. As they say – the customer is always right. Thanks for trusting me Mr Drew. Peace
Hey Guys, just thought I would let you all know that my book Blood, sweat and treason , my story , is now in paperback format. I have been truly humbled by the reponse to my autobiography. It has been nominated for three British book awards in the last 11 months ( never won though ) and I have very positive feedback from people who have read it. So thank you all for supporting me and I really hope that you have found my story worth reading. Thanks to the media and my publishers as well who have been wonderful in their support.
The paperback edition and also the newest hardcopy has an extra chapter bringing everything up to date so if you haven’t yet purchased my book you can get extra. Waterstones have kindly offered to stock the book better this year so do support them if you get the chance.
