Wang Chung - Dance Halls Days

[marble falls]

?si=CZaNLHq7pVJuwfb8

[The Polack MSgt]

1. The even more rare phenomenon, the 2 hit wonder!

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2. Three time wonder, To Live and Die in LA.

[The Polack MSgt]

3. Your right, I forgot that one.

I get older and my memory gets mushy

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4. And then they were gone. They kinda felt like random guys who were good, but not spectacular musicians ...

... with very good production and a three pretty good songs. if they were careful with their money, they could have opened a pub or a takeaway restaurant.

I've learned to embrace my mush brain.

[ProfessorGAC]

5. I Love That Bright, Shimmering Guitar

Reminds me of Jamie West-Oram from The Fixx. Or maybe Andy Summers in The Police.
Really cuts through but still subtle.

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6. I like the way their rhythm surges. It's all nothing fancy, but the production makes it eminently listenable.

[keep_left]

7. '80s production totally ruled. Roland JC-120 amps, ...

...brickwall compression, and Dimension D (expensive chorus box). That was basically the '80s squeaky-clean guitar tone, particularly for West-Oram, who really perfected that sound.

[ProfessorGAC]

8. An Add

I used a Boss Acoustic Guitar Simulator box for my ultraclean tone.
I don't think the box actually makes it sound like an acoustic but it allows some filtering to set the tone really thin.
I also used a Dimension C, not the D. I didn't use any compression live though. I guess I relied on the slight natural compression of a tube amp. (I have both a Boogie & a Marshall.)
I saw The Fixx at The Vic in Chicago 20+ years ago.
Jamie could get those sounds live so, you're right, he perfected it.

[keep_left]

9. Hi, guitarist and audio engineer here...

...I forgot about that Acoustic Simulator pedal. I believe it's out of production now, but maybe I can find one on EBay...it makes sense that you could get that kind of sound out of it. Another studio trick used all the time back then: DI guitar (using a direct box into the console), brickwall compressed, and then run through an Aphex exciter and usually a ton of stereo chorus (it was the '80s, after all).

The Dimension C (recently reissued) is the pedal version of the big rackmount Dimension D. That's the late '80s guitar sound in a box right there. Roland also made a couple of other rack units that had digital emulations of the analog Dimension D. There was one from the '90s, the SDX-330, which is hard to find these days. Very few were sold, as expensive chorus/flanger boxes, especially rackmount ones, weren't really fashionable in the '90s.

I know that for some time, West-Oram had at least a small rack of studio-grade processing he lugged around. I'm pretty sure the compressor he favored was the Valley People Dyna-Mite, known for its brickwall compression. He's back to using a lot of pedals now, but I wouldn't be surprised if he still has that Dyna-Mite. He was known for using Mesa/Boogie amps on the '80s records, but I don't know what amps he uses these days.

[ProfessorGAC]

10. I Only Have 1 Rack Piece

TC Electronics unit that separately does delay & reverb. The delay said also does flanging & chorus, but it's not programmable so, that requires fiddling with knobs, so I use the stomp box for chorus.
Actually, there's 2 things in my rack, as I have a Korg tuner in-line, too.
I haven't performed live for years. But, I've done a couple thousand gigs over my time.
If you haven't heard these, this is my home recording stuff. I have limited gear & the recording is done on a Fostex 16 channel durect to hard drive recorder. BTW: I'm playing & singing all the parts
https://SoundCloud.com/user-134084288

[keep_left]

11. Thanks for the link...sounds good!

Will give it a closer look (or listen) soon.