LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: Belgium-born, Dutch guitarist and bass player Christian Olde Wolbers seems to be a good candidate for the title of the hardest working man in show business.
Newly armed with a Soundelux E47 tube microphone, Wolbers is currently hard at work on a host of projects in his personal studio, from producing song demos for Pink to pre-production on the next Fear Factory album.
Wolbers, a longstanding member of Fear Factory, who also finds time for
studio sessions, and even a band side project, Kush, is obviously very
pleased with his new Soundelux mic. "It's very, very clear and present,"
he
enthuses. A top-notch microphone is a critical component for a home-based
Pro Tools recording environment, Wolbers believes. "As long as you have
a
good setup - a good mic, a really good mic pre - you don't need a lot more.
That's what's so great about Pro Tools. You can do so much in
post-production now. I just try to record a nice, clear, clean signal and
you're golden for later." Wolbers purchased his
E47 through Mike Nehra of Vintage King.
Soundelux Microphones recreate as closely as possible the sonic signatures
of the most important vintage microphones, but without the associated price
and high maintenance of the original classics, using modern materials and
assembly, hand workmanship and a very critical ear. The E47 reintroduces the
smooth response and big sound of the original 1950s tube mic, offering the
same variable pattern operation with improved headroom and top-end.
Fear Factory engineer Christian Olde Wolbers enjoys
the Soundelux E47 for a variety of projects.
Wolbers maintains a high quality front-end by pairing the Soundelux E47 with
another modern update of a classic, Universal Audio's 6176 channel strip. "I
have some nice outboard preamps," he continues. "I have some Vintech
Audio X73s. They also sound really good with the Soundelux mic going into them."
Digidesign Pro Tools with Apogee Rosetta converters completes the recording
path.
A seemingly non-stop music-making machine, Wolbers, who produces under the
moniker "The Edgecrusher," says he has a lot of musical ideas waiting
to be
turned into completed songs. "I've been recording a lot at the house, so
it's good that I have the mic, so that I can do everything right here,"
he
says. "I have so many tracks sitting around, probably 500 different songs
and beats and rough ideas. I've been making CDs and getting them into
artists' hands."
What's currently top of the "to do" list? "I'm trying to write
some demos
for Pink, and I'm doing the Fear Factory album. We've got twenty-four Fear
Factory songs that we're working on," reports Wolbers, who was originally
the band's bass player, but has since switched to guitar. "We're doing
pre-production now, so we'll probably be recording by the end of April.
We've started doing the demo vocals. We're trying to keep a lot of the demo
vocals that we've created in pre-production because some of those turn out
to be amazing sometimes."
Wolbers, who has also toured and recorded with Cypress Hill, has contributed
to projects by bands such as Biohazard and Front Line Assembly, and
additionally gets called for studio sessions with artists such as Snoop
Dogg, Everclear and Ludacris. "I work with a lot of hip-hop artists. I'm
connected with a lot of the producers that work in those circles. A lot of
times I'll get hit up to play some guitar or play some bass."
Then there is the side project. "I also have another band, called Kush,
with
B Real from Cypress Hill, Stef [Stephen Carpenter] from the Deftones and
Raymond [Herrera] from Fear Factory. Fieldy from Korn is going to be playing
bass. We're probably going to be working on that later this year, too."
Meanwhile, Wolbers is working hard to complete some demo songs to submit to
Pink. "I really hope to land a track on the Pink album," he shares.
"That
would be awesome. I wrote her some songs already but I have a load of ideas
for more songs. I'm trying to put those songs together as well as possible
for her to work with."
On top of all the studio work, Wolbers has still somehow managed to find
some time to help design a guitar. "I have a signature guitar that just
came
out, from Jackson Guitars. There's a six- and a seven-string model," he
says, adding, "I'm just so busy. I wish I could split myself into four
people!"
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