WHEN Agroup of authors, the ‘Bike Writers’, decided to publish a book on the epic journey of 50 cycling teams from Holland to Italy as part of the Tour for Life charity project in aid of Médécins Sans Frontières (MSF), the idea snowballed into recording an album as well. “A book is nice, an album is better,” explains Frans Hagenaars, owner of Studio Sound Enterprise, who took on the recording and mixing of the project. “The Bike Writers came to see my business partner Ferry Roseboom, director of Excelsior Records, home of artists such as Triggerfinger and Fixkes, to produce the record.” Roseboom and Hagenaars, both bicycle aficionados, then contacted singer-songwriter JW Roy, to complete the team. “Apart from featuring specially written and composed songs, we wanted to make the album really special and went on the lookout for a location to record the tracks,” adds Hagenaars. “It was JW who suggested we go to Sint Willebrord, close to the Belgian- Dutch border. The village really is the cradle of Dutch cycling with legendary bicycle racers such as Wim van Est (former Tour de France winner) and Rini Wagtmans living there. We discovered that the genuine bicycle repair and maintenance workshop of legendary mechanic Hubert van Hoydonk still existed – this is the place where all bicycle racers bought their machines and had them ‘tuned’.” Now retired, van Hoydonk left his workroom completely intact, and agreed to offer the Sporthuis Hubert for the recording sessions. Meanwhile, Roseboom contacted Dutch language songwriters and artists wanting to support this musical experiment within the Tour for Life project. “Well known singers such as Guus Meeuwis and Sam Valckenborgh (Fixkes), and of course JW Roy, immediately agreed to team up with the Bike Writers, and we’ve managed to get an incredible line-up for the recordings,” says Hagenaars.
Artists such as JW Roy and Guus Meeuwis (on the floor) took part in the project
For the recording sessions,
which took two weeks, Hagenaars transferred part of his studio equipment to the cycle repair workshop. “The acoustics were the main concern,” he says. “I have to admit that I’d already agreed to do the job – I was surprised to see the actual situation in which we had to work. I found the solution in the use of ‘mellow’ microphones, to avoid geting too much information of the room on the recording.” The drums were captured
with two Neumann U 67 tube condenser microphones in a ‘Glyn Johns’-style set-up. For the double bass, Hagenaars used a vintage RCA PB-90 microphone. “I selected the PB- 90 for its warm character and its ability to include some of the room’s ambience,” he explained, adding that Neumann V76 and V72 microphone preamps were used during the recordings. All of the recording was
effected on the latest version Pro Tools HDX with two new Digidesign HD 16 x 16
In March, Dutch language songwriters, artists and musicians gathered in a former bike repair workshop for the recording of a bicycle- inspired album, writes Marc Maes
“A book is nice, an album is better” Frans Hagenaars, Studio Sound Enterprise
The house band: standing (L-R) Frans Hagenaars (owner SSE studio), JW Roy, Jeroen Kleijn, Reyer Zwart; seated: Roel Spanjers, Cok van Vuuren
converters. “I’ve been working with an Apogee AD 8000 system for the past 10 years and this first recording on the HDX digital workstation was a bit of a challenge but worked out well,” enthuses Hagenaars. The singers were backed by
a group of experienced studio musicians, allowing Hagenaars to undertake a swift recording process with 10 out of the 14 tracks being cut in one take. A champions’ choir featuring
bicycle race legends such as Peter Winnen, Rini Wagtmans, Michael Boogerd, Koos Moerenhout, and Jacques Hanegraaf added extra atmosphere to the recordings. The tracks were mixed in SSE studio on a Trident 80B series console with ATC speakers. “We want to release the CD on
25 June, right before the Tour de France. With the Bicycle World Championships taking place in Maastricht, we have a second
launch in September,” say Roseboom and Hagenaars. “The album, titled Sint Willebrord Sessions Vol. 1: Sporthuis Hubert, will be sold at sports events and on the regular CD retail circuit in Belgium and Holland. Backed by the country’s leading bicycle teams (Rabobank, Vacansoleil en Project 1t4i) all proceeds of the album sales will be donated to Tour for Life/MSF.” www.bikewriters.nlwww.soundenterprise.nl