Paul McCartney at Abbey Road on PBS

curtiswyant · Post by **curtiswyant** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 7:57 pm

HOLY SHIT!!! Did anyone else watch this? Seeing Sir Paul tape looping with wine glasses and a Studer 4-track on TV? Fucking amazing! He's still the best...

earth tones · Post by **earth tones** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 8:26 pm

Just saw that as well. I seriously felt uncomfortable while watching Paul perform some of the songs. Of course, the ones where he was improvising lyrics were weird, but understood, considering improvisation was at play. Some of his "new" songs just put me in a weird spot. The overall vibe of the show was cool. Really laid back with a general feeling of spontanaeity......and Nigel Godrich. What were those pop-screens they were using on his vocal mics?

jmoose · Post by **jmoose** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 10:12 pm

I caught about TWO minutes of it while I was at my friends house.

They were channel surfing from the finale of some "Who wants to marry a cattledog?" reality show.

Anyway, there was Paul with a series of filled crystal glasses, a single U67 above 'em and a Studer J37 to his left...lights, cameras, live audience...the works...

Demonstrating the concept of multi-tracking & overdubbing by recording three tracks of the pitched crystal to form a chord & then overdubbing on top of that...

ALL in about two minutes.

And then it was back to the cattle show.

Shit, when is that special going to be on again?!?!?

Can I order a DVD of it???

I should go over to the PBS site shouldn't I?!?

wwittman · Post by **wwittman** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 10:46 pm

I don't think those were 67's.. looked like lots of 87's on almost everything to me, except for the piano vocal which was a 67...
and the 47's for vocal and acoustic guitar at the other locations.

shows to some degree how lots of one really GOOD mic works fine... it wasn't the hodge podge so many people think they "need" to use.

wedge · Post by **wedge** » Mon Feb 27, 2006 10:51 pm

Do this...

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/broadcast ... dates.html

jmoose · Post by **jmoose** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 12:02 am

Wedge you rock!

I know where I'll be on Wednesday at 2am. Maybe I'll finally pluge for a DVD recorder too...

wittman - It looked like a U67 to me...I kept looking at the the cable & where it attached and from it looked like a big tuchel, not a little XLR...could've been a U87 though...but with a J37 there why not use a 67? LOL

It IS Sir Paul after all!

Man, I'm not like a Beatles freak or anything but it's just sooo cool. Way better then the last Sir Paul PBS thing I saw...him playing blues tunes in a small club. Terrible. I was embarrased for him.

Yeah, this one is wicked.

mus1k_freak · Post by **mus1k_freak** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 7:16 am

yea i caught the last 20 min or so of it, pretty freakin amazing how he just jumped from insterment to insterment and overdubbed all those tracks at the end, with such nice gear there and all his years experience im sure it was a walk in the park for him, but still pretty amazing

Red Rockets Glare · Post by **Red Rockets Glare** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 8:40 am

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/gperf/shows/mccartney

A-Barr · Post by **A-Barr** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 9:13 am

Yeah, that show was pure recording engineer porn. Anyone know what kind of console they were using? I thought it might be a Helios, but I'm not sure. Sounded freakin great though... Also impressive to see a true one-take performer. Thank you PBS!!

nestle · Post by **nestle** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 9:20 am

I know that he has a lawsuit with Apple, I wonder if they were using a Mac for that Protools rig?

Bill @ Irie Lab · Post by **Bill @ Irie Lab** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 9:50 am

"Cattle dog" - LOL in my cubical (I'm new to this department, I'm sure my neighbors wonder what's so funny).

I only caught the last 15 minutes or so, after switching from "How scented candles are making us sick" segment on the local news.

How the mics and for vocal and acoustic on a single stand were set up in front of a chair goes into corner of my studio THIS week. (Not storied vintage Neumanns. Ahh, too bad)

Players working up a tune or singers/songwriters will love the easy comfort and (obviously) I'll be able to get an Abbey Road sound. So simple - so overlooked.

Sir Paul never ceased to amaze (pun intended) but I must say as he career progresses the swing from genius to embarrassment quickens and widens.

Cattle dog! Ha ha ha ha

earth tones · Post by **earth tones** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 10:10 am

Yes. That is what I felt, and what I meant by "his new songs put me in a weird spot". I think I was feeling embarrassed for him. Not that it matters, to him, or any of us at this point. The idea of the show was great, though, and it was worth the awkward moments.

auralman · Post by **auralman** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 10:14 am

A-Barr wrote:Yeah, that show was pure recording engineer porn. Anyone know what kind of console they were using? I thought it might be a Helios, but I'm not sure. Sounded freakin great though... Also impressive to see a true one-take performer. Thank you PBS!!

It was an EMI - Sir Paul himself even mentioned it.

Leopold · Post by **Leopold** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 10:48 am

I used a wonder of obsolete technology called a video cassette recorder to tape the show, even recorded over a left over college porn tape when I couldn't find a blank one.

Eddie

dumbangel · Post by **dumbangel** » Tue Feb 28, 2006 11:15 am

I've just listened to Blackbird in realplayer format. Okay, this guy changed the world 40 years ago, but I think he lost it totally as a vocalist. He's an old man sounding like an old man singing a young man tune. The vocal grace and ease is gone. It's almost painful to listen to that.

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Paul McCartney at Abbey Road on PBS

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