BrettB
Well-known member
Surfer Rosa idd sounds awesome. It got this dirty abandonned place sound, hard to describe it, but absolutely fantastique!
L
littledog
New member
Ace:
I gotta say, i think maybe you are confusing this website with someplace else. The vast majority of discussions around here consist of people arguing for months at a time over which is the best preamp for less than $200.
Admittedly, I am a relative newcomer, but in my entire time here I have never seen even one post saying that the beatles recorded on crappy gear.
As far as gear snobs, you'll find the statement: "good songs, talented musicians and knowledgeable engineers are far more important than great gear" repeated so often it's almost a mantra. Then you have the omnipresent Harvey Gerst - the chief guru of getting quality results out of low cost gear.
That some of us may fantasize about owning premium equipment is no more unnatural than others who may dream of owning a yacht or a Lamborghini.
I think you raided the wrong apartment.
I gotta say, i think maybe you are confusing this website with someplace else. The vast majority of discussions around here consist of people arguing for months at a time over which is the best preamp for less than $200.
Admittedly, I am a relative newcomer, but in my entire time here I have never seen even one post saying that the beatles recorded on crappy gear.
As far as gear snobs, you'll find the statement: "good songs, talented musicians and knowledgeable engineers are far more important than great gear" repeated so often it's almost a mantra. Then you have the omnipresent Harvey Gerst - the chief guru of getting quality results out of low cost gear.
That some of us may fantasize about owning premium equipment is no more unnatural than others who may dream of owning a yacht or a Lamborghini.
I think you raided the wrong apartment.
Armistice
Son of Yoda
I don't often post here, but I thought I'd share my experience - I bought a Roland VS840 about 4 or 5 years ago, upgrading from the old Fostex cassette 4 track - I'm sure we've all been there.
My intention at the time was to keep recording and creating music for my own pleasure because that's what I've always done. After stuffing around with it for a while I was blown away by the sound quality of digital recording, and thought "Why don't I record an album?" Couldn't think of a reason why not (I'm strictly a hobbyist with this stuff, by the way). So damnit, I recorded 16 instrumental tracks all with acoustic and electric guitars plugged straight into the machine, a bit of bass, some Alessis drum machining and some "interesting" sounds from a very old Korg synth. And too much reverb, of course!
When I finished I rang a CD duplication place and they said they'd duplicate it onto CD for me, I just had to have it on ADAT. WTF was ADAT??? I soon figured it out though and hired one for the day, transferred my songs over, went to the CD place and paid my money and got my CD done. Lordy, lordy I'm a rock star!
I only had a hundred CDs and I cajoled various workmates and others into parting with cash for it, and was so chuffed with it all that I did another sixteen songs and another CD, which I got done properly this time, onto a real CD (instead of CD-R) with printed CDs and cover art and everything. It was a dream coming true as far as I was concerned.
I've still got a few boxes of the damn things but I've sold a few as well, and got my money back on it. Even sold them on the internet to people I don't even know.
I hadn't heard the term "mastering", didn't know what a condenser vs dynamic was, had no idea of what compression was and a thousand other things I've since learned UNTIL AFTER I'D ALREADY ACCIDENTALLY MADE TWO ALBUMS. No-one ever chipped me on my sound quality amongst all the people I've sold CDs to.
Yeah, I've upgraded since and am now using an AW4416 and decent mikes and preamps and compressors and all the rest.
THE POINT?
1. If I knew then what I know now about recording, I NEVER WOULD HAVE RECORDED THESE CDs - it would have been too daunting, I mean I knew nothing at all....
2. I'm the luckiest man alive - the technology has become available to do what I love, and by and large, I can afford it! This has never been possible in the history of the world before now!
What has this got to do with the Beatles and their esoteric gear?
Lots - yeah, I can hear the sonic flaws in my 2 CDs now, and I know exactly what I'd do to fix them, in hindsight.
The people you're gonna sell your music to probably aren't on this BBS - and don't have the knowledge of sound that you and all the other posters have - they can't actually tell the difference in lots of things until it's pointed out to them (and I'm not, in any way, dissing members of the board, who've been a great help to me in the past).
This is not to say that you can sound crap and get away with it - just that lots of the stuff we all agonise over is not audible to lots of people who buy music.
JFDI as the Nike people say - buy the best you can afford, record, experiment, ask questions - as whatsisname at Prorec often says - "it's the witch, not the wand". Just don't spend years perfecting that which by its nature can never be perfect....
Thank you for listening, I feel much better now and will relinquish the soapbox....
Cheers
David
My intention at the time was to keep recording and creating music for my own pleasure because that's what I've always done. After stuffing around with it for a while I was blown away by the sound quality of digital recording, and thought "Why don't I record an album?" Couldn't think of a reason why not (I'm strictly a hobbyist with this stuff, by the way). So damnit, I recorded 16 instrumental tracks all with acoustic and electric guitars plugged straight into the machine, a bit of bass, some Alessis drum machining and some "interesting" sounds from a very old Korg synth. And too much reverb, of course!
When I finished I rang a CD duplication place and they said they'd duplicate it onto CD for me, I just had to have it on ADAT. WTF was ADAT??? I soon figured it out though and hired one for the day, transferred my songs over, went to the CD place and paid my money and got my CD done. Lordy, lordy I'm a rock star!
I only had a hundred CDs and I cajoled various workmates and others into parting with cash for it, and was so chuffed with it all that I did another sixteen songs and another CD, which I got done properly this time, onto a real CD (instead of CD-R) with printed CDs and cover art and everything. It was a dream coming true as far as I was concerned.
I've still got a few boxes of the damn things but I've sold a few as well, and got my money back on it. Even sold them on the internet to people I don't even know.
I hadn't heard the term "mastering", didn't know what a condenser vs dynamic was, had no idea of what compression was and a thousand other things I've since learned UNTIL AFTER I'D ALREADY ACCIDENTALLY MADE TWO ALBUMS. No-one ever chipped me on my sound quality amongst all the people I've sold CDs to.
Yeah, I've upgraded since and am now using an AW4416 and decent mikes and preamps and compressors and all the rest.
THE POINT?
1. If I knew then what I know now about recording, I NEVER WOULD HAVE RECORDED THESE CDs - it would have been too daunting, I mean I knew nothing at all....
2. I'm the luckiest man alive - the technology has become available to do what I love, and by and large, I can afford it! This has never been possible in the history of the world before now!
What has this got to do with the Beatles and their esoteric gear?
Lots - yeah, I can hear the sonic flaws in my 2 CDs now, and I know exactly what I'd do to fix them, in hindsight.
The people you're gonna sell your music to probably aren't on this BBS - and don't have the knowledge of sound that you and all the other posters have - they can't actually tell the difference in lots of things until it's pointed out to them (and I'm not, in any way, dissing members of the board, who've been a great help to me in the past).
This is not to say that you can sound crap and get away with it - just that lots of the stuff we all agonise over is not audible to lots of people who buy music.
JFDI as the Nike people say - buy the best you can afford, record, experiment, ask questions - as whatsisname at Prorec often says - "it's the witch, not the wand". Just don't spend years perfecting that which by its nature can never be perfect....
Thank you for listening, I feel much better now and will relinquish the soapbox....
Cheers
David
Blue Bear Sound
New member
I too, agree that ACE is barking up the wrong tree with his comments at this site.......
I suggest he post his comments on rec.audio.pro instead!
I suggest he post his comments on rec.audio.pro instead!
H
housepig
New member
**The people you're gonna sell your music to probably aren't on this BBS - and don't have the knowledge of sound that you and all the other posters have - they can't actually tell the difference in lots of things until it's pointed out to them**
How true is this?
After upgrading my gear (from Peavey mixer & Tascam 4-track to Mackie / ADATS / Tannoy monitors etc...) and re-recording a bunch of my band's stuff, I played some masters for my sister.
Played song #1. "What do you think?"
"sounds great."
Played song #2. "How about this one?"
"Is that the same song?"
different tempo, different key, different lyrics.... ARRRRRRRGTGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!
So yeah, the fact that we sweat over the compression settings on the kick drum in the first and third verses is lost on 98% of the listening populace...
to qoute (really loose, from memory) from Frank Zappa's autobiography:
"Does it have a 4/4 beat that I can dance to? Does it sound like another song that I'm familiar with? If so, I like it - VERY MUCH. And I want to hear more stuff that sounds JUST LIKE IT."
Or the girl who came up to me insisting that she couldn't dance when I dj'd, because I played too many songs that she didn't know, so she couldn't dance to them... like P-Funk.
sorry, I'm rambling now.....
- housepig
How true is this?
After upgrading my gear (from Peavey mixer & Tascam 4-track to Mackie / ADATS / Tannoy monitors etc...) and re-recording a bunch of my band's stuff, I played some masters for my sister.
Played song #1. "What do you think?"
"sounds great."
Played song #2. "How about this one?"
"Is that the same song?"
different tempo, different key, different lyrics.... ARRRRRRRGTGGGGHHHHHHH!!!!
So yeah, the fact that we sweat over the compression settings on the kick drum in the first and third verses is lost on 98% of the listening populace...
to qoute (really loose, from memory) from Frank Zappa's autobiography:
"Does it have a 4/4 beat that I can dance to? Does it sound like another song that I'm familiar with? If so, I like it - VERY MUCH. And I want to hear more stuff that sounds JUST LIKE IT."
Or the girl who came up to me insisting that she couldn't dance when I dj'd, because I played too many songs that she didn't know, so she couldn't dance to them... like P-Funk.
sorry, I'm rambling now.....
- housepig