Quote:
Originally Posted by Tubeguy
As for the remastered Led Zep track, sorry I'm not a fan. To me it looses the magic. The magic many of us are trying now to recreate.
Not everything needs to be fully audible, compressed or in phase. It looses it's inner mystery. That's why I can't stand remastered Beatles. Can only hear it once and than there is nothing else to discover later so I would never buy remastered.
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I did that remix - not remaster; a full remix - and tried to stay as close to the original intent as I could. Which wasn't easy...
Cymbals that end up sounding like wet farts to me is not adding to the "Magic" and hearing the amazing playing of Bonham - as I mentioned listen to the snare kick things he does that's totally lost in the original mix.
That and hearing an undistorted Plant is nice too.
And again - the magic wasn't in the sound equipment used - it was in the players - the session, the day, the vibe.
That and as Quincy Jones mentioned in George Martin's book Making Music,
"No matter how much you do your homework, leave enough room for the Lord to walk through" And I'm not religious - but I know what he means.
One of my rants about this:
http://www.ajawamnet.com/ajawamnet/B...ake_Music.html
There's another great quote from Quincy in the forward to the book, Temples Of Sound. He mentions things like regardless of how good or bad a studio is, and how you go in thinking it'll be this and walk out with something different. And you know 'cause you see it in everyone's eyes. And how it was the players, the engineers, the vibe.
I was doing 20 hour days in studios and recall a lot of schlock. Occassionaly I'd come across a band that had some magic in them. I'd produce these bands on my nickel. One was the backup band for the Debarges. After one (El I think -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_DeBarge ) was thrown in jail, they had to bum bus fair to get to the studio. Someone at some label wanted the band to do some recordings, I recall Samson from Samson and Delilah was producing; and an engineer that worked with some major label stuff was at the desk.
Later in the week I was asked to come in and get a mix up at midnight before they got there. So I went over there with some girl I was dating at the time load up the 2" (before anyone else says it "...that's what she said").
I bring up the bass, drums, rhy guit. Then these three tracks of keys.
We're in tears. I was like wow... and I'm not a big R&B fan.
So Frank the leader shows up. He exclaims - "My rough mix don't sound like that!! What'd you do?"
I said. "uh... just brought up tracks 2-12..." (it was an old Allison style automation were you bounced updated automation data between tracks 1 and 24)
So I leave as the actual engineer and the rest of the band showed up. It's now about 2AM.
I had a session at 4PM the next day. I show up to people laying all over the lobby, hallway sleeping. Frank runs up to me and mentions, "...we lost what you did!!!..."
So I go in, ask the engineer, who appeared to be pretty trashed (he was known to partake in heroin) to hit the autolocator to the head.
Oh my God. Now I know what was on the other tracks. What a waste of time.
So I mention to Frank that the studio owner owes me cash for helping build the place and doing sessions; I can trade time to mix it - just yenz gotta leave (yea, I'm from Pittsburgh)
Couple of days later, I fig's I'd put it up on the machine. I'm alone this time, so I put the 2" up, did the same thing with the first 12 and I'm in tears again. "Damn this is amazing stuff..." I thought to myself.
So I mix it. Going thru the other tracks I ended muting most of what they did. So I give them the mix.
They're floored. They send it off to whomever.
So then I get a call from the studio owner. His brother was in a major cover band in the 'burgh. His party buddy was the original engineer. With disgust on his face he mentioned getting a call from someone (I'm guessing at the label) and telling me that they want me to take over the sessions.
So even tho this was turning into a political nightmare I did it. When I got in there with them, I just asked them to go into the main room and play me a tune.
My god that sound... that magic. Amazing. So they mention OK we'll cut the individual parts and I'm like "no f'ing way..." just hold on a sec, let me load some tape and roll.
We were done with all the tracking, o-dubs and vox in two days. It basically mixed itself. I recall smiles everywhere.
Recall the forward from Quincy in that Temple of Sound book? Read that.
So later I'm with another band at Graffiti - a showcase club that had a lot of soon-to-be famous bands as well as local. The Police did one of their first tours there - the one they mention being in a van and eating Spaghetti-0's.
So I mention to the owner what had happened with the Debarge guys as well as the band I was there with (Deadly by Desire) that I also produced gratis with a bit of financing help from the head band guy's dad. I asked why some things sound so contrived and others just glow with something well beyond this mortal coil. Also should mention he's pretty religious.
"Oh, you can tell things touched by the hand of man, and those touched by the hand of God..."
Ya know Jim Chapin said something in a video that stuck with me - similar idea but not gear so much as players. Jim was Harry's dad (Cat's in the Cradle, Taxi).
Yea... that's the magic. Not some kinda gear.
That's what's missing a lot nowadays ...
And ya know - back in the day we'd have killed for this type of tech. Good lord!!! But we would not have allowed it to get in the way of the vibe - the magic. Just like they did back then with what they had.
Look at Roger Nichols. 5 Grammys. Yea all the audiophiles love Steely Dan playing on their Riga equipped Thorens tables.
He HATED analog... His studio was called Digital Atomics. When they used a 1/2" 30 ips safety for the gold CD of Gaucho instead of the 1610 U-matic/Apogee (what we used back in the day for CD mastering) he was pissed.
It's in his book... and here -
https://www.audiocircle.com/index.php?topic=5605.0
And sitting here at my dayjob I started thinking - this whole thing with equipment, I'm wondering if it's not an extension of wanting to control art by engineers and producers - same sort of thing that happens when musicians get in their own way - kinda like some sort of justification, some wanting to be God-like. Ever see a FOH guy with his hands constantly on the faders? Like he's some sort of wizard? "It's all me man..."
I recall doing monitors at the Carnegie Music Hall at the Carnegie Museum in PGH - I usually did monitors. We were doing the Pitt Jzzz thing with Nathan Davis and that year Grover Washington Jr. I recall I was asked to do a 1/2" 8tk so I'm stage left in the cove sitting on the floor against the wall - the band's running thru some stuff. First year Nathan had an electronic keyboardist.
So I'm sitting there and Grover's manager at the time, Paul Silverhorn asks why I don't sit at the console with my hands on the faders.
"I get them their mix, they ask for this and that, and once they start, it's in their hands - not mine. And if they're real good it's in a lot higher power's hands than even theirs" I state.
"And you get blamed for their f-ups..." I add. Right then there's this hideous "Bwahhhh" low end thing. Bands stops. Nathan with his soprano sax under his arm looks at me and say's "You hear that?"
I look at this kid playing the DX7's. "What did you just play?"
"You mean this?" comping chords with his right hand. "No, the other hand..." I ask. "Bwahhh" "Uh Nathan...." I stammer. He gets it. Right before the show we're in the backstage stairwell and he says "...and yea man I got that kid not do that low end stuff..."
I mean don't get me wrong - as Quincy states in that forward it's all of the human elements that make that work. But you have to know that when the magic occurs it's usually in spite of, not because of. Just like love and hate - you love in spite, hate because of. Love takes more effort.
And as stated in one of my favorite Futurama episodes:
"When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all."
~~ God, in Futurama episode "Godfellas"
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