Hi, I will be glad to explain things, but it's going to be a bit wordy, I hope you don't mind.
About the early years: somewhere in the beginning of 1991 a very young band called 'The Gathering' came to my place, which was a very small house with a very small shed where a tiny little studio was situated. The tracking room was some 4.5x2.5m and the control room was some 2x2.5m. I had just bought an old Fostex B16 tapemachine, 16 tracks on 1/2 inch tape, kind of home studio gear. And I had a small Seck mixing board and a small number of decent microphones, but nothing special.
This is a Fostex B16 and the 7" and Always were recorded with this machine. The machine is still waiting in a dusty corner of the studio nowadays.
The band was a group of young guys, between 16/17 and 22 I believe and I think we had a good time, made very nice music. The reason why the keyboard is missing in the first bars of where the band comes in, in 'In sickness and Health' is because we had some problems with the timing so we left it out. I do have the tapes though and we could fix this 'problem' by computer these days, but you don't even need the tape to fix this. Every guy with a prog like Adobe Audition will be able to fix it.
In juli 1991 I bought a huge house with a 250m2 barn behind it and I built myself a bigger studio. In march 1992 (I believe), The Gathering came to record their first album 'Always'. I still had the old Fostex and the same gear was used like was used for the 7". It was a great experience for me and I still cherish that time. You must understand that under the conditions and with the homestudio gear which was used it is a nice album.
Marike Groot was a friend of mine and she did the female vocals on Always.
Their second album 'Almost a Dance' was recorded at Spitsbergen Studio and I think it was recorded with a two inch tape machine. Spitsbergen was a professional studio at the time with hi end gear plus the album was produced by a very talented guy named Tom Holkenborg who is worldfamous now as Junky XL.
AaD sounds a lot better than Always and I'm the first to admit this. I do have a two inch tape machine since 1998 and this is by far the best sounding gear, even in 2007. A two inch tape sounds much better than any digital gear, but that's another discussion.
About the recordings of TG at my place, I saved everything I recorded with the band, I even kept the letters they sent me and the rehearsal cassettes Hans sent me. A very nice drawing by Bart and signed by all the guys is still on the controlroom wall.
Having recorded between 800 and 900 bands I can say that the Gathering is the most talented band I have ever had the pleasure to work with. To be honest I have had some difficulties with Hans which was for the major part my fault. Hans is a very nice and great guy, but very sensitive and emotional and I used to be as emotional, but rather blunt. There were problems with the first record company and I was standing between them.
So we lost contact which I very much regret. Now that I'm getting older I can understand how Hans felt and the only thing I can say is that I've made big mistakes towards Hans and I'm very sorry for that.
In 1994 the band came to my place to record demos for 'Mandylion'. I had a new 24 track tapemachine, a Tascam MSR24S, (which I still have)24 tracks on 1" tape.
This was the first time I met Anneke, a beautiful young female vocalist and I was astonished by her voice, her way of expressing her feelings through her music and I still get tears in my eyes from her 'In motion part one' from 1994.
This afternoon I went to the archive and found the tapes, two of them. On tape 1 there are 5 songs:
Eleanor, Solar Glide, Fear, In motion (take 1), Solar Glider (take 2)
On tape 2 is only the take 2 of 'In motion' and I believe a take of 'Mandylion'.
The tapes are in great shape and stored in plastic bags in their boxes. I also found the safety copies of the 'Always' album, on 1" tape as well.
I also found two tapes of the first album by a band called 'Voyage' which band is called 'Within Temptation' these days. Another tape with two songs by The Heideroosjes with the songs 'Lul' and 'Vietnam' and another tape with three songs by a band called 'Pestilence' , a demo for their final 'Spheres' album.
More about The Gathering: this is a band that needs a particular kind of sound, with lots of atmosphere, width and deepness. It's kind of a very nice 'soundscape' which you can find on every album they recorded.
The rest of the afternoon I've spent on listening to the albums I have. I listen on a pair of huge classic monitors (IMF RSPM MK4) and I listen with my producers hat on.
I listened for the last time to TG many years ago and this afternoon I took the time to listen very carefully and not biased. It was a whole different experience to me than it used to be and all I can say is that TG makes beautiful music. I used to think they made some giant steps in music, but actually there's a very clear red line through their whole discography.
The first mix of Always was done in a couple of evenings but yet it sounds the most exiting and orghanic of the three different releases. The original Always wasn't mastered at all and has a lot of atmosphere.
The remix which I did for the record company lacks the small mixing mistakes from the first one, but sounds different. It was all done by hand, manually and this is very difficult. Like I said, the Gathering needs a certain kind of sound, the music is an adventure.
The third release of Always has been mastered and compressed, which is a more 'modern' sound. Personally I don't like this sound much but I can imagine people like it. It has something to do with the
loudness war that started during the nineties and still takes place nowadays.
I've been listening to the music and enjoyed it like never before and I must say that to me Almost a Dance is the best sounding album. Mandylion and Nighttime Birds are a bit harsh sounding to me, Anneke's voice is a tad shrill IMHO.
HTMAP sounds a lot better, especially Anneke sounds warmer and in the quiter parts this album sounds wonderful, in the more heavy parts it sounds pretty compressed. Frail for example sounds great.
If then Else sounds compressed as well and like I said, I think TG needs a more open sound, not this heavy compression, but thats just my opinion.
About the anniversary disc: I don't have this but I do have the multitrack tapes. The mix was done pretty hasty and IMO it could have been done better. I would have been very happy to make a better mix in coöperation with the band. It would be a pleasure to me to even fix the missing keyboards in the 'Downfall'version of In sickness.
If I could be able to make up with Hans and forget about our bitching eachother it would make me a lot happier. I would gladly drive to his place and drink a beer with him and talk things over.
I read here that TG has some difficulties about financing their upcoming recordings. Well, I'm 64 now, a granddad and kind of retired, but I still have this big studio. It would be my pleasure to record again with TG and make this beautiful soundscape I was talking about and I would be happy to do this for free, yes, for free.
Sorry for the long post.
Peace.