Historical question

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bjshea

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I am writing a novel that focuses on four guys who start a band in college in 1989. I am not a musician and need help faking some of the parts about them playing and recording. Can some people help with the following questions? Either here or via e-mail at writer@regularguycolumn.com

Thanks in advance.

1. What kind of affordable recorder for demos would someone have been able to get in 1989? How much would osmething like that cost? What other equipment would they need? How hard/easy would it have been to set up and use?
2. What kind of disagreements about sound would guys in a band and somene helping them record get into?
3. How difficult would it have been for someone in Pittsburgh to find a real studio to record and then produce a CD and distribute it?

I may have more, but this would be a great help. Thanks again.

brian
 
Usually in those days it would be a tape based multitrack. The 4track casette units were a few hundred bucks, 8 tracks close to a grand. There were of course 4,8,16,24 track reel to reels with varying costs. ADATS were just coming out and were several grand.

A lot of arguments involving sound usually use weird colors or terms to describe the sound or they refer to other bands. Using 89 bands- The drummer might want the Guns N Roses snare sound but with the Iron Maiden kick and Rush toms. The guitarist might want a Van Halen crunch but with a U2 clean sound. The singer might want his voice to be washed in reverb like The Cure but not quite as much as Depeche Mode.

Some words used to describe sounds are crunchy, smooth, fat, thin, silky, dirty, clean, crystal clear, warm, muddy.

A typical argument would be the guitarist saying "dude that snare sounds like shit".

Drummer- "Fuck you it sounds awesome. It's got the crack of metallica but with more of a Def Leppard body."

Gutarist- 'Dude it's got the crack of a plumber and the body of your grandmother.'

Drummer- 'Yeah, well nice pink guitar, fag! It doesn't even go with your red Reebok high tops."

Guitarist- "Dude fuck you, this guitar has the same pickups that Brian May uses."

Singer - "Will you guys shut up. Nobody cares about the drums and guitar sound anway except other drummers and guitarists."

Guitarist - "Fuck you, when you learn to actually play an instrument your opinion might matter."

and so on.


The Bitch Slap diaries over at Mixermans forum on www.Prosoundweb.com should give you some good inspiration.

You can email me at texroadkill@yahoo.com if you have any questions. I'm not familliar with Pittsburg but I was gigging in northern california from about 87-91.
 
TexRoadkill said:

A typical argument would be the guitarist saying "dude that snare sounds like shit".

Drummer- "Fuck you it sounds awesome. It's got the crack of metallica but with more of a Def Leppard body."

Gutarist- 'Dude it's got the crack of a plumber and the body of your grandmother.'

Drummer- 'Yeah, well nice pink guitar, fag! It doesn't even go with your red Reebok high tops."

Guitarist- "Dude fuck you, this guitar has the same pickups that Brian May uses."

Singer - "Will you guys shut up. Nobody cares about the drums and guitar sound anway except other drummers and guitarists."

Guitarist - "Fuck you, when you learn to actually play an instrument your opinion might matter."

and so on.
Click to expand...

LOL!

LMFAO :D
 
Ahhh...the olden days. How about a Teac 3340 reel to reel four tracker. Easy to get and use at that time.
Tex pretty much has the clever banter between band mates down pat.:D
 
Tex left out the part about the drummer fucking all the other bandmates girlfriends...............

And how CHEAP dope was in the late 80's..............
 
c7sus said:
Tex left out the part about the drummer fucking all the other bandmates girlfriends...............
Click to expand...

What kind of skanky ho's were you hanging out with? Drummers are only one step above roadie. :D

Compared to what we were paying in CA weed is a lot cheaper and the price of blow is dirt cheap around here. It must be because of all the meth competition and being so close to the border.
 
How cheap is dirt cheap? The last I had in 2000 was $90/gram.

I got burned by the dude the next time I tried to cop.:(

Fucking dopeheads!
 
Q. What kind of affordable recorder for demos would someone have been able to get in 1989?

A. A Tascam 80-8 1/2" tape Reel to reel, (With slightly worn heads). A couple of used Tapco mixers with big knobs!

Q. How much would something like that cost?

A. $500.00 cash, purchased in the parking lot of a music store from a slightly nervous looking skinny guy with long stringy blond hair. He was chain smoking camels and his coughs smelled a lot like grass? er you know what. 1989 in Phoenix, AZ.


Q. What other equipment would they need? How hard/easy would it have been to set up and use?

A. Four Shure SM58's and 4 more radio shack cheapo mikes used for drums, easy to use.

Q. What kind of disagreements about sound would guys in a band and somone helping them record get into?

A. "I can't hear myself, every body else turn down!"


Q. How difficult would it have been for someone in Pittsburgh to find a real studio to record and then produce a CD and distribute it?

A. About $20-30 bucks an hour for a nice place with a 16 track Ampex

Dom

:rolleyes:
 
don't forget the home studio walls covered with old egg boxes as a sound treatment....better yet...half covered.. :D
 
Oh, cheap drugs are already in there. Don't have to be a musician to remember that. :D Thanks for all the help and entertainment. Should I make my drummer character more flaky now? :p
 
You know the stage is level when the drummer drools equily out of both sides of his mouth.
 
Track Rat said:
Ahhh...the olden days. How about a Teac 3340 reel to reel four tracker. Easy to get and use at that time.
Click to expand...

Depends on their budget. :)

All bands I was in at that time used some kind of four track porta studio.
 
TexRoadkill said:
What kind of skanky ho's were you hanging out with? Drummers are only one step above roadie. :D
Click to expand...

Pah! No way.


Oh, btw, ever had a female drummer? Me neither, but some of my friends have. It INVARIABLY end up with all the guys in the band falling head over heels in love the with drummer, she dating one of the guys, then breaking up and leaving the band.

NEVER get a female drummer. They don't last. :)
 
joro said:
don't forget the home studio walls covered with old egg boxes as a sound treatment....better yet...half covered.. :D
Click to expand...

Some of my friends did that in the rehearsal studio in the school basement. Then some idiot put a drum over a 200 watt lamp. The drum promptly caught fire, the egg cartons went *POOF*, the electricity in the school went out, the fire department came we all got to go home and my friend came in the paper next day for "rescuing" me from certain death.

(It was quite brave of him, he ran through the smoke to knock on the door to warn me, but I was never in any actual danger, though he couldn't have know that, of course. The local paper made it sound like he had dragged me through the flames. :) )
 
Well, I've got a couple of things to add to the good old "inter-band arguments" topic.

I was in a band up until a few weeks ago and here are a few of the things that went on in our early days:

Arguments between lead guitarist and drummer over excessive amounts of mickey taking about guitarists middle name.

Arguments when 2 people in the band dated the same girl (one after the other!)

Fighting which involved the bass-guitarist launching his bass across the room at the singer (soon to be former singer, and soon to be former bass player)

Our 1st gig the bass player got very drunk and when we came back on for the 2nd set I noticed an empty sound....... the bass player didn't switch his amp back on, he was still grooving along however!

Constant moaning at the lead guitarist's volume levels (after rehearsals, your ears would ring for 2 days - He had a 100w Marshall Super Lead running through at least 2 1960 Marshall Cabs)

Other guitarist moaning when people don't play the songs he wrote propery (why the fuck did you double up the beat at the end? It's supposed to be SLOOOWWWWW!) etc.. etc..

Our former singer (as mentioned above) threatening to sue us if we used any of his lyrics at our next gig we played (despite the fact it was to about 20 people in our local boozer!)

All in all very childish I'm sure you'll agree..... we were only 19, though!

Cheers,

Rich
 
I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad I never had enough talent to play music after hearing these stories. Very good stuff, guys. :D
 
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