A Memory From 1981

KMA Studio

KMA was very cheap to record at, because Kevin Arsenault (whose initials it was named after) did "sound on sound" recording.
That meant that you would sing and play and Kevin would record you on a reel to reel, high quality tape, using DBX™ noise reduction.

And then he would play it back, after equalizing it, and you would add parts to it, while being recorded by a second reel to reel.

This was a science of Kevin's which involved him using a white noise generator; and then recording the white noise -which is supposedly every frequency, all at the same time; the comparison to color stemming from the fact that the color white is "the presence of all colors."

He would then see which frequencies were being boosted or cut in his studio, and then adjust accordingly.

What normally resonates in the typical household shower, for example, would be the shorter wavelengths that are bouncing off the wall 3 feet in front of the person who might be singing.

The sound would echo a mere 5 milliseconds later, after traveling 6 feet.

Humans are supposedly unable to discern an echo shorter than 28 milliseconds.

But we are also supposedly also unable to distinguish individual frames of a video if they are changing faster than 28 times per second.

Any slower than that, and people would be able to see the movie "jerking."

But, the infamous subliminal popcorn and Milk Dud frames were inserted into the movie somewhere because the projectors were running at at least the prerequisite speed for it to be too fast for people to consciously see.

So, singing in the shower gives you an echo that is 4 times shorter, depending upon your shower, than what we are able to discern consciously.

But, like the guy who finds himself lunging for the concession area to purchase Milk Duds as soon as intermission time comes (because of the "She'll give it up for Milk Duds" on the big screen for about 33 milliseconds) might illustrate; you can "kind of in a way" hear the 5 milliseconds when you are in the shower; and I think, by adding a slapback echo 5 milliseconds upon something, makes it sound more; I don't know (naked and covered in soap suds?) fuller sounding; and the frequency boosted would be mathematically around 200 hz. or right in the middle of Barry Manillow's low mid range, if you know what I'm sayin'...

So Kevin Arsenault actually made pretty decent recordings with his sound on sound setup.

But, you couldn't make a mistake while doing the second part along with yourself on the first track, or you would have to start again.

Kevin still lived with his mother in the family home at the age of 29, when I knew him.

He had gone off and done a "tour" with the Coast Guard, before returning home.

He stopped me one afternoon when I was riding my moped.

It was a good 2 years before I would meet him in the capacity of recording engineer in his basement. I was 16 at the time and naive enough to buy into his Monte Carlo with the flashing blue light on the dashboard being anything that I should have to stop for.

I had taken the muffler off the moped, as part of troubleshooting it, after it had become a little sluggish.
Taking the muffler off the thing unleashed the full power of its 49cc liter engine, along with the full noise of it.

So, out of the Monte Carlo with the flashing blue light stepped Kevin, wearing the uniform and badge of the security company that he worked for, who informed me that my moped was "illegal as shit" like it was.

So, Kevin was taking his status, as an unarmed security guy at a factory one town over to it's limit.
He probably bought the flashing blue light himself.
This was 1979.

But, he let me slide with a verbal warning that time, and I went my way.

I had been passing his house on the thing at all hours of the morning, because of my job at a restaurant/bar. It was about as loud as a chainsaw.

But, he eventually put a band together called "Moving Parts" that had my friend Ted as the drummer. Kevin had maturity and discipline and common sense enough to make up for what his 17 year old band mates lacked.

I suppose Kids Who Are Still Living With Their Parents" could have been the name of the band.

But Moving Parts had gigs every weekend at one place or another.

One thing Kevin did was to find music in the "cutout" rack of Underground Records in Boston -albums that had been severely discounted for whatever reason- which he would listen to, in order to find a lot of good music that hardly anyone else had heard.

These might as well have been original songs, because they were the only band that played them.
After some of those songs began to grow on people, those people would have to go see Moving Parts in order to hear them.

Unless they happened to have grabbed a copy of the same discontinued album by the same obscure band as Kevin did.

It was a good marketing strategy on Kevin's part.

Mr. Arsenault was not without his own personal problems.

One time, he wrote a suicide note, after a breakup with a certain girl; and then he swallowed down a bunch of sleeping pills with a few glasses of wine. That was on a Friday evening.
Early Monday morning, he woke up; tore the note up; and then went to work...