gamma five

This image is placed in the center of the booklet of the cd "Somewhat Crazy". And yes, it is a successful approach to the topics of some songs on "Somewhat Crazy".

Gamma Five was a cooperation of many musicians in Hamburg, and thus several styles joined this project. In the time of Gamma Five very unique and sometimes mysterious songs were created. This images reveals a slight hint to the spirit and background of Gamma Five.

Gamma Five started as a rock studio project in 1990. Especially the first tape in 1991 consisted of eleven new coherent songs. It was a tremendous step in terms of compostion and studio technique.

For the first album the analogue parts were recorded on a fostex 4-track cassette-tape recorder. A Roland U-20 Rom-player provided the sample-sounds piano, organ and synth-sounds. The Yamaha TX81Z contributed the hard rhythm sounds and an Alesis HR-16-drum-sampler added the drum sounds. All this was controlled by an Atari Computer with the software "Emagic Notator".

In this first time the end-mix was recorded on a SABA CD-278 High-Com Cassette-tape machine. Of course only on metal-cassette tapes.

In the nineties the equipment was improved by a Yamaha digital mixing console which could totally be automated by midi. The new main sound provider became an Akai A3000i-sampler. Analogue signals were recorded on a Tascam 238 dbx 8-track cassette machine.

In the second half of the nineties this Tascam machine was substituted by the "Emagic-Logic" software on a windows computer. This computer DAW was able to record signals directly on harddisc. A revolution!

The final mix was recorded on a SONY DTC-57 DAT-Recorder. But guess what happened: After a time the good old DAT machine was substituted by a Pioneer cd recorder and by a Marantz CDR-630 cd recorder.

The aim of all these techniques were the composing and recording of songs. It was the combination of innermost impetuous untamed passion with rational meticulous technical work.