recording my demo

[foo]

Well, I can go to my local artist supply store and buy the best brushes, paint and canvas, get me a loft in Taos with the best light on the planet, and it still doesn't mean I can paint.

... and which comes first, the collector's item, or the guys who used them as tools very successfully which made them collector's items?
I believe the reason they're collector's items is because they were used so successfully by the legends. Other gear from the same period is not so sought after simply because it wasn't used on/by (insert name of mega-album/legend here).

Do I have better equipment available to me than George and Geoff had? I think so.

Can I make records that sound like them?

I've got a long, long, long way to go.

... and that's part of the fun, isn't it?

foo

 

[skippy]

Foo wrote: "In a BBC televison special, George Martin confirmed that the whole thing was done on two 4-track machines - one to record the album, and one to 'spin in the backing vocals' ".

Yup- saw the same interview, and I remember sitting there with my jaw on the floor. The coolest thing that I remember him saying was that they actually created essentially a hybrid 7-track by using those two 4-track machines. The first machine had 3 tracks of audio after they bounced most of the basics down to stereo. They then striped the unused 4th track with a 50Hz sine wave. Why? So that they could peel off that track, run it through a honkin' power amp, and use the output of that to drive the synchronous capstan motor on the second deck! In this manner, if the speed of the first deck varied for whatever reason, the second deck would vary right along in "good enough for 1967" sync. If you got the reels spooled up properly so that the second deck had enough time to come up to speed, you'd end up with a serviceable chase lock. Just took a little trial and error and the patience to figure out how much leader was needed...

These guys who produced that sort of music with very little hardware were *gods*. Who needs SMPTE time code when you've a brain that's hitting on all 8, some really bad intentions, a sharp razorblade, a big amp, and a little time to experiment? (;-)

 

[Tim Brown]

You guys need to read All You Need Is Ears by George Martin.
It's a GREAT book, and gives alot of insight into what they were doing.

Do you guys know how they used to cut Lacquer masters? i didn't until I read this book.
They had a huge WEAIGHT inside the walls, and they had to Crank it up to the top of the building. As this weight fell, it turned the gears which in turn would spin the Platter that the Lacquer disc was stitting on!
He said the only way to make sure that they head a steady spin on the lacquer, was to use Gravity to turn it, since the Weight fell at a constant speed!

He said it sucked to have to crank that wight up to the top floor of the building, though! Hahahaha


I agree, that we DO have access to better gear these days. I've recorded in a Studio that was built in the 1950's, and it had all that gear from the late 60's.
Let me tell ya this-some of that stuff sucked big time!

We only hear about the "top of the cream of the crop" gear, and most mixing boards were custom built; that's why studios each had their own sound; some had better designed mixers which the ENGINEERS (as in Electrical/Electronic Engineers) had to design, build and maintain.
Anybody here used a handbuilt one of a kind noise gate before? What about a hand designed Compressor?
I have at this studio....
I used some stuff that looked like it came out of a Frankenstein movie set at that place!!
It had a 30' High by 25'x 50' Live room, complete with an Asbestos "fluff" lined ceiling!
Argh!
They have since remodeled the studio completely, and now it's 24 track Digital HD, with 24 track 2" R2R.
It's pretty nice now (and the Asbestos is gone).


Tim