First Impressons of a Zoom R16

My Zoom R16, ready to go!

Pros:

• Lightweight and portable
• Built-in Stereo Mics, Tuner and Metronome and lots of effects
• 24Bit 8 channel simultaneous recording XLR
• Control Surface and Interface
• 6 AA Battery power.
• Price

Cons:

• Preamps are average
• Workflow is fiddly
• Only 2 channels have 48Volts
• Only 1 HI-Z Channel

The R16 is a digital recorder, audio interface and control surface. When I opened the box it reminded me, bizarrely, of an old Commodore Amiga. It's nice to see that Zoom don’t waste time (or materials) on excessive packaging; the box neatly fits the unit, USB cable and power pack. For this reason, the box remains useful for storing and transporting the recorder. The difference between something being lightweight and feeling cheap is a fine line but I think Zoom got it just right. The sliders and gain controls are sturdy enough to hold their position even if the unit is knocked. Once out of the box you can simply turn on, plug-in, select a track and hit record. In fact, thanks to the built-in microphones, you don't even have to plug-in. Tracks seven and eight, when armed, record directly from the two built-in microphones which, I can report, are surprisingly good. These are perfect for capturing those spontaneous song ideas as they happen.

Channel 1 features a Hi-Z switch to handle high impedance for DI-ing passive electric or bass guitars and channels 5 and 6 have a phantom power supply for use with condenser microphones. This means you'll likely be using dynamic microphones for the other channels. Strangely enough, I actually prefer the sound of a dynamic microphone over a condenser but unfortunately the preamps in R16 are its weak point. They are unable to provide enough clean gain to work effectively with dynamic mics in the way Soundcraft and Mackie Onyx can. Even with condenser microphones the sound is clear but generally unflattering. An acoustic guitar and vocal recorded with, for example, two SM58s would have all the sonic glory of a demo cassette tape being recorded as it played through a speaker on a ribbon mic wrapped in a sweaty sock ! Or in two words: DULL + HISSY. Nevertheless, in a band setting, with high sound pressure levels from drum kits and amplified guitars I have no doubt that this will do the job. A small desk with decent preamps could be used to enhance the recording quality.

On a more positive note, the R16 can record 24 bit with all the channels recording simultaneously. I was surprised to find that they have a built in tuner and metronome. Of course, being in tune and in time makes overdubbing so much easier. It also has an array of effects, EQ and panning which can be assigned to any track. Recorded tracks can be swapped and bounced, which is essential as only channels 5 and 6 can accommodate condenser microphones. As you can imagine, with a machine capable of so many functions and yet furnished with so few controls, the workflow is quite fiddly and takes some getting used to. The instruction manual is packed with flowcharts, diagrams and hints and so, on first glance, many people will probably flip from back to front, exhale heavily, close the manual and sling it back in the box until they have a spare three months to figure it all out. Actually, it’s not that difficult; it’s pretty intuitive. The more finer points of setting up ‘markers’ and ‘punching in’ I’ll probably leave for a later date but the majority of it, I’m pleased to say, looks more complicated that it actually is! The other great thing about this recorder is that it will run on six AA batteries so you can take it anywhere - no need for a bulky power pack and extension cables.

I don’t think it’s going to put any recording studios out of business but this is an extremely useful piece of kit for recording at different locations. It also works as an interface for your DAW and a control surface so that the physical sliders will control the virtual ones in Logic or Cubase. Recordings made on this will need moderate post production to bring them up to scratch, but if you have some nice preamps and mics to hand it will serve you very well. I picked this up with a 16GB SD card, plus the 2GB card that comes with it for £290, not bad when you consider that the early Fostex DMT8VL harddisk recorder cost £999 back in 1996. You can link two of these together so you’d have a 16 track recorder for under £600, but apparently there is some latency on the second unit when linked. This could easily be rectified in your DAW. I think you get a lot for your money with the R16 convenience is the key this is a perfect tool for the singer songwriter and band member. I'd recommend this.

The Late, Great Bobby Charles

Bobby Charles (1938 - 2010)

I was recently working on a proposal for an essay on Chicago blues and I was thinking of Bobby Charles because he was signed to the Chess record label. With the intention of trying to contact him, I searched the Internet. I was saddened when I discovered that he passed on in January 2010.  I have been a fan of Bobby for some years. Bobby Charles is one of my top albums of all time! After some research I quickly learned that, even if he was still with us, the chances of getting to speak with the reclusive songwriter would have been slim.

Bobby Charles (February 21, 1938 – January 14, 2010) was an American singer and songwriter. His best know titles include “See You Later Alligator” and “Walking to New Orleans”. In 1938 Bobby was born Robert Charles Guidry in Abbeville, Louisiana. He later dropped his Surname for professional purposes.

Charles came from a poor Cajun family and grew up making up his own songs because he could not read any music. He could not play an instrument or read music. Songs popped into his head, fully formed. To capture them, he’d sing into the nearest answering machine; sometimes he’d call home from a convenience store pay phone.

“I can hear all the chords up here,” he said, pointing to his brain, “but I can’t tell you what they are.”

His early influenced came from Hank Williams, Fats Domino, Ray Charles, Percy Mayfield and of course a lot of French Cajun music. His parents mostly listened to the French stations but he explained how he ‘freaked out’ when he found the country and R’n’B stations on the radio; Going to the River by Fats Domino changed his life!

During his school years Bobby used to hang out with swam-pop legend Warren Storm. The two used to make demos in their bathroom, using the bath as their echo chamber. Before Warren had a set of drums they would hit cans. His first joined a band called Cardinals, which were a local band and later had to change their name to the Clippers.

He was recommended to Leonard Chess by a local record storeowner. Chess arranged for “See You Later Alligator” to be recorded in New Orleans with is band mate, Harry Simoneaux, taking the sax solo and Fats Domino’s backing band at his disposal. Later Leonard decided to record him in Chicago and sent him a plane ticket. Up until this point Bobby had only spoken to the Chess brothers on the phone. He was me by Phil Chess, who promptly exclaimed ‘Good God! Leonard’s gonna have a heart attack’. Bobby describes Leonard’s reaction, “Leonard just kept lookin’ at me like he was waiting for me to change colour!”

He subsequently became the first white artist to be signed to the Chess label. His studio band was made up of members of the Muddy Waters and Little Walter bands. He also joined package tours with stars like Chuck Berry.

Berry told Rolling Stone how, when they were on an 11 night tour, Bobby would go in the front door and get the hot meal, while Chuck would have to go in the back and get sandwiches. Bobby would give the hot meal to Chuck and they’d swap; Bobby preferred sandwiches.

Despite developing a close relationship with Leonard Chess, he earned little money from his contact.  He was later approached by Imperial Records and signed a deal that was “bad one! I’d write the songs and they’d take ‘em.”

Around ’63 he recorded for smaller labels and then wanted to set up his own label in Louisiana. He was having his songs cut by Fats Domino and Clarence ‘Frogman’ Henry. It was around this time that he met Stan Lewis; an independent record storeowner which operated a mail order services covering most of the country.  Together with Lewis, Bobby, set up the Jewel Records. It was through Bobby’s contacts with Chess that it became a leading independent label. They were supposed to own half each. Unfortunately, due to his lack of business knowledge, Bobby, “got taken for a ride on that too”, so then he “got really depressed and disappointed with the business…stayed away from it.”

In 1972 he teamed up with members of The Band and other musicians, such as, Dr. John, Ben Keith and Bob Neuwirth to record a self-titled album for the Bearsville Label.  [Review to follow]

On November 26, 1976, Charles was invited to play with The Band at their farewell concert, The Last Waltz. Charles played “Down South in New Orleans”, with the help of Dr. John and The Band. Click here to watch the video.

Bobby Charles at The Last Waltz

In the 1970s, Mr. Charles wrote a song called “The Jealous Kind.” Joe Cocker recorded it in 1976, followed by Ray Charles, Delbert McClinton, Etta James and Johnny Adams. Kris Kristofferson and Gatemouth BrownTennessee Blues covered Mr. Charles’ “,” as did newcomer Shannon McNally. Muddy Waters recorded “Why Are People Like That”; so did Houma guitarist Tab Benoit on his Grammy-nominated 2006 album “Brother to the Blues.”

He co-wrote the song “Small Town Talk” with Rick Danko of The Band. “Promises, Promises (The Truth Will Set You Free)” was co-written with Willie Nelson.

Charles continued to compose and record (he was based out of Woodstock, New York for a time) and in the 1990s he recorded a duet of “Walking to New Orleans” with Domino.

In September 2007, The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame honoured Charles for his contributions to Louisiana music with an induction.

Charles collapsed in his home near Abbeville and died January 14, 2010.



Sources:

Harris, P. 2000. Walking to New Orleans – The Jewel and Paula Recording 1964-65 (London: Demon-Westside) Notes to WESA 874.

Marcus, G. 1969. Roll Over Chuck Berry. Rolling Stone. 14th June. Issue 35. p.16.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2010/jan/15/bobby-charles-obituary

http://www.nola.com/music/index.ssf/2010/01/bobby_charles_louisiana_songwr.html

http://www.americansongwriter.com/2010/01/r-i-p-bobby-charles/

Rock Drummer, (Slammin') Sammy Creason

Slamming Sammy
Rock Drummer
(1944 – 1995)

For me, Sammy is one of the all-time great drummers, whether in the studio or at live gigs he always came up with the goods. He worked with a diverse cast of musicians and cut his teeth along with the first generation of Rock'n'Rollers, such as, Joe Lee, Larry Donn, Billy Lee Riley, Bob Tucker, Sonny Burgess and Carl Perkins. He went on to session as a member of the Dixie Flyers for Atlantic with Jerry Jeff Walker, Tony Joe White, The Memphis Horns, Aretha Franklin, Delaney and Bonnie, Carmen McRea, Ronnie Hawkins, Petula Clarke, Donnie Fritts, Dan Penn, Bob Neuwirth, Rita Coolidge and of course Kris Kristofferson.

The recordings from the early seventies demonstrate his mastery as a drummer. He had the pleasure of backing some of the finest songwriters we have ever seen, and his ability to interpret their songs is astonishing. Take Kristofferson live at the Philharmonic, as an example, where the performance is essentially unplugged, Sammy lays into some solid funky beats and yet he remains sensitive to the nuances of the songs. A lesser drummer would have drowned the whole band out in such a venue.

Sammy appeared in a couple of movies along with Kristofferson: A Star is Born and Songwriter, as part of Kris's band, but also in Sam Pekenpah's Convoy, as one of the Jesus Freaks. Below, is one of Sammy's funkier moments with the Memphis horns. There isn't much in the way of video or pics of Sammy, but he's sure left his mark on countless recordings.

Convoy the Movie

It’s hard to believe that there was once a time, when one of your parents would lift their head from the pages of a TV guide and say, excitedly and without irony, “Here y’are son, Convoy’s on tonight!”, but there was. When I was young, a statement like this could change the course of my whole day. All further activates would have to be arranged so that, by the time the United Artists logo appeared, I’d be sat frog-legged glaring at the glowing TV screen waiting for the first sign of the black juggernaut to appear over the ridge and cruise down the snaking blacktop to the funky soundtrack of the C.W. McCall song.

This movie combined two popular crazes of the time, CB radios and trucks. Well, perhaps even three – country music also seemed to permeate the peripheries of popular culture in the late seventies/early eighties. The film was actually inspired by the C.W. McCall song. EMI bought the screenrights to the song and Peckinpah read the script under the influence of coke and booze. He was aware that Smokey and the Bandit had just grossed $61 million the previous year and saw this as a chance to gain a box-office hit. His current cash flow problems made Sam believe that he was in no position to decline any offers (Weddle, 1996).

Well, looking back the plot is ridiculous; a couple of truckers happen to be on the same stretch of road as a living legend trucker (we're not sure why he's a legend), they call Rubber Duck (because it rhymes with luck) and who’s played by Kristofferson. They all end up getting tricked and shaken down by a bent, and obviously racist, cop, who they call Dirty Lyle (Borgnine). He tracks them down again at a filling station, and this time violence erupts, in classic cinema brawl fashion. RD gets called to the fight via the CB while trying to something else that rhymes with “duck”, with a waitress. From them on, he’s on the run with MacGraw’s character as a stowaway. Feeling equally outlawed, his fellow truckers decide to join him, and then others start to join what becomes a convoy of semi trucks that stretches for miles. You can imagine the truckers calling home…”Sorry love, I won’t be in for dinner tonight; I’m joining the convoy! Don’t wait up.” They resist all attempts by the law to stop them; smashing through roadblocks and trashing few cop cars. It's no surprise then, that the film concludes (or does it?) with Dirty Lyle blasting the s**t out of RD’s Mack with an M60 machinegun.  As is the way with so many US films, whenever the nation is confronted with something they do not understand – be it a visitor from Mars, a rare creature, a secret city or just one of their own sons trying to live life and be free, they summon the might of the millitary and blow the living crap out of it!

As imbecilic as this plot is, I still have a lot of affection for this flick; probably more out of nostalgia than anything else. Like a lot of movies shot around this time, they still look cool, the colours, the grain of the analogue film and the time taken to compose cinematic shots of the open road. Convoy was part of a genre that was made up of movies and TV serials such as BJ and The Bear, Smokey and the Bandit, the Dukes of Hazzard, Two-lane Blacktop, Vanishing Point and Dirty Mary and Crazy Larry. It could be argued that these offerings convey post-hippie, notions of freedom, symbolised by the road. Nevertheless, they represented a time, unlike any we will see again. It certainly captured the imaginations of moviegoers, because Convoy was a box office hit.

Something I find of interest today is the cameo appearances from Kris Kristofferson’s band members, Donnie Fritts, Sam Creason, Stephen Bruton, Mike Utley and Terry Paul, who play the roles of the Reverend and the Jesus Freaks. Buy the Movie.

I do not own the images used in this post. They are not intended for commercial use, just to illustrate the scenes within the movie. If you are the copyright owner and wish for them to be removed please contact me.