Let's not have any misunderstandings here okay? I have come back here for a moment at the urging of a friend in this group who emailed me.
A few points and you may 'elitest jerk' me all you want.
If I seem to be an 'elitest jerk' that is my prerogative I guess, or yours to perceive me as one. What I really am, is VERY busy trying to keep the world of recording moving forward with my mike designs, recording and producing efforts, and getting the last album I will ever play on due to the loss of my hands out the door for release.
I tried as hard as I could to make my points logical and concise, and I think many of you need to reread the post at the top of this thread =in its entirety= AND -not- focus on whatever sets you off.
My info -isn't- old, I assure you. And though 49, I get PAID to hear and detect microscopic differences, which over generation after generation add up! It's why people like Celine Dion and Linda Ronstadt George Massenburg et al, use our 0.9 micron diaphragms. =Someone= must hear a difference or we'd have been outta biz long ago! I still produce and master every day. I still sing and record. If you want proof of what my efforts can accomplish I suggest you visit the mp3.com page and =listen= to the results.
The only reason I may seem like a jerk is because it may seem outlandish to you, but being a pro who doesn't normally (anymore) stick his head in the door at these places, I HAVE to ask that if I AM going to take the time to try and explain or express a =point of view= based on 35+ years of recording experience, (once again, bio and history on MP3.com page "Info" tab,) I don't want to have to slog through -opinions- from =anyone= no matter how 'distinguished' stated as ='facts'=. (Please re-read entire prior sentence 'til understood before reacting!) Thus my request for humility and respect, and this is NOT motivated by an over active 'elitest jerk' ego.
It IS motivated by the effort and time I have available to take the immense energy required to expound upon =anything= as I do this for my bread and butter and passion.
I work in a world where we =respect= each other enough to never issue the kind of irresponsible statements like were issued by some here... No names (yet). If you want to have a flow of info from people like myself, (pros with experience working on the records that not only sell, but sound good, and that many of you try and emulate and learn how to do on a budget,) hopefully, try and get it into your heads that this =isn't= ego, it's =practicality=. Ego, I believe would simply be what is demonstrated by insisting you're RIGHT and no other view can be wrong, and if I have said this, PLEASE point it out to me so I may expunge it from my errant ways.) YOU need to check your own overinflated egos at the door, and -listen-, -consider- and =then= and only then, respond.
Like any true scientist, which I am, in addition to being an artist, I am VERY careful what I state as a 'fact'... I would never say anyone or anyTHING is just plain =wrong=... I -know- better.
I am not some elitest recordist who thinks everything has to be from Outer Space to be any good or make a sonic diff, either. My own records were all recorded in my living room on a Fostex 1" analog G24S, and again, why not =visit= the mp3.com page, =listen= to what I accomplished, and READ the lyric sheets, MANY or MOST of which have =extremely= detailed info on them about mikes used on which instruments, the type of instruments, cables, preamps, console, monitors, mastering chain, etc. and all for your perusal. No tricks up my sleeve I ain't willing to share.
After doing that, (and for those of you who like good music, I assure you it must be half decent, or the players I had work with me for free [my budget was shot] and toured with, some of the finest in the world, I would not have had the privilege and honor of working with) and looking at the sheer amount of data I =freely= give away on that site, (listen while you learn or compare or whatever) and you have a question or two and are =interested= in hearing my reply and not insisting on your own take on things, while of course being welcomed to your own =responsibly expressed= point of view, I MAY take the time and effort to answer it IF MY ENERGY LEVEL permits.
Lastly, I am not an idiot, whatever else I may be, and I can spot a thinly disguised sarcasm a mile away, such as the 'politeness' and irresponsible (from a science standpoint) statements of Mr. Regebro about what IS and ISN'T. May I suggest to you sir that you have no more idea of what IS or ISN't an absolute than I have, and I do -not- operate in a world of absolutes. As a physicist I operate in a world of things which are "highly suggestive of". It's called the Heisenberg priciple, and may I suggest you STUDY it.
As for my science qualifications, which do not appear on the mp3 pages, suffice it to say that though I am self-taught, it is true, yet I worked directly under the Deputy Director of the NIST on the SCSCP (the Super Conducting Super Collider Project, killed by congress, it was to be a 4 mile cyclotron, dwarfing that at Fermilab,) still do occasional work at JPL with the Deep Space Mission Control Group involving Digital Imaging and Recovery, (my dear departed friend Dick Heyser [inventor of TDS or Time Delay Spectrometry we use every day in my lab] crashed the first Surveyor on the moon <g> ) and 3D Image Analysis based on the VP-8 Image Analyzer technology used to examine the Shroud, (not to mention the cosmos) and still work with clients like NASA and Lawrence Livermore on peacetime cosmological studies when time (that most elastic yet seemingly in short supply of mediums) permits, etc.
Granted not a genius, but at least a rudimentary understanding of physics.
To conclude, I ask for respect, for reasons most of you evidentally don't get. I am asking that you respect =each other= not just me, and =humility= because we cannot throw blame at another without taking some on ourselves. The way many of you handle each other here (let alone visitors!!) is a -disgrace- to yourselves. Not so much to me. I'm used to this kind of crap from the know-it-alls that populate the earth. But you actually wonder why GM or others don't come here? Are you kidding? I make myself accessible to you, and get the feeling before I even parachute in that I'm surrounded by enemy sniper fire. True or not, IT'S HOW IT FEELS.
But here in your own sanctum? Well, we had a saying in the AF, "Don't s**t where you eat."
My attitude, in a nutshell is, if you'd like to see more working stiffs like me here, you need to work on your manners to attract them. If I spoke to one of my colleagues with the blatant egotism, bloated arrogance, and complete disregard for the accomplishments of one's life works and with the disrespect I have found here, I would alienate them quickly and rightly so. If you think I'm an elitest for that, very well. I am a humanist. That would be evident, were you not peering through your own dark glasses, and perhaps I through mine.
If you cannot see the humility in me even =coming= here, that's -your- problem. Humiliat-ING is more like it. And this =isn't= about EGO... it's about TIME and spending it wisely, (discoursing with those either at your level or wishing to attain it, or having enough humility of their own to demonstrate their willingness to learn, in SPITE of what they think...) or unwisely, taking all one's energy to defend oneself from baseless and half-cocked remarks because in this case, my own rep is =important= to me.
I believe in communication, however, even up to the point of fruitlessness, and if you think about it, this was only worth writing, because I take my job seriously. And part of that job is educating. But I have no time to educate those who already know. If that's elitest jerkism, then I am the biggest on earth. If it is simply not having time to pussyfoot around with nonsense, and defending every sentence I utter or write, SORRY, I'm BUSY!! Shouldn't take a genius to understand that.
SP
http://www.mp3.com/stephenpaul
