Sound City film, lots of tapeoppery

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agershon
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Post by agershon » Fri Mar 08, 2013 10:06 am

Nick Sevilla wrote:
That is the whole point of making music, isn't it?
Bingo.

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Post by MichaelAlan » Fri Mar 15, 2013 1:32 pm

Nick Sevilla wrote:
agershon wrote:Details aside, I was inspired by the movie.

I came to my band after watching and demanded we quit recording tracks separately, at home in front of our own computers, both engineer and performer.

Last weekend we all set up in my garage and hit record. We nailed drum/bass/piano tracks for two songs in under 3 hours and IT WAS FUN.
That is the whole point of making music, isn't it?
Killer.

I also enjoyed this film. Guy's an animal.
All energy flows according to the whims of the great magnet...

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agershon
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Post by agershon » Fri Mar 15, 2013 3:14 pm

I just listened to the whole "Real to Reel" album. I really wanted to like it.

Meh?

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JGriffin
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Post by JGriffin » Sun Mar 17, 2013 12:24 am

Watched it last night. I thought it was a pretty cool story, and a few things jumped out at me.

- the image we have (or I have) of 70s rock bands recording in palatial places like Record Plant vs. the fact that so many astounding records were made in such a total dump. Seriously, I always wondered why the inner sleeve band photo on You Can Tune A Piano But You Can't Tuna Fish showed the band posing in front of an ugly grey plastic sheet, but it was probably the nicest background they could find in the place.

- the painstaking account of the gradual failure of the studio's business model as set against the creeping advance of digital/computer recording, and not a single interviewee said "gee, maybe we should have figured out a way to adapt to the changing landscape" or "hey, our studio's major successes grew out of an investment in the exciting new technology of the day (the mixing console that's the main character in this movie), and our studio's failure was a result of religiously avoiding the exciting new technology of the day (digital) twenty years later...that's odd."

(and yes, I know the entire big-studio world has collapsed, and it was probably unavoidable, but still.)

- the way everyone who talked about Trent Reznor had to dance around the fact that he's embraced the computer recording paradigm that they're blaming for the failure of their studio. "Well, sure, he's a Pro Tools guy but he's one of the good ones."
"Jeweller, you've failed. Jeweller."

"Lots of people are nostalgic for analog. I suspect they're people who never had to work with it." ? Brian Eno

All the DWLB music is at http://dwlb.bandcamp.com/

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Nick Sevilla
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Post by Nick Sevilla » Sun Mar 17, 2013 1:06 am

dwlb's post is good.

I agree that this small studio could have survived if they embraced digital.
Well done digital is as good as anything else.
Badly done tape can suck as bad or worse than anything else.

Again, it's the Operator, not the Tools.

As an excellent example : Roger Nichols.
Howling at the neighbors. Hoping they have more mic cables.

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Post by Marlowe » Sun Mar 17, 2013 6:46 am

I just saw the film last night.

Firstly, I enjoyed it and commend Grohl for doing it. Although I am not much of a Foo Fighters fan (I liked the first two), I love his drumming and he seems like a good guy with his heart in the right place.

Overall, I learned a lot I didn't know and agree with the original poster's points.

I definitely thought the PT-bashing part was a little simplistic and one-sided. I too found the end to be the weakest part. I would have preferred a smidge of that stuff in the film with the bulk of it relegated to DVD bonus-land.

The other thing I thought was... OK, Grohl certainly knows that the room is a huge part of the sound of the studio but he acts as if it's all about the board. He seemed to have an obsession with board. He's also a man of serious means. Here he is lamenting the studio's demise in a big way but what could he have done to preserve the legendary room? Now he's got the board but the other half of the equation is lost.

I felt that despite his deep passion for the studio, it seemed Grohl wanted the board in his own studio more than he wanted to preserve the full picture of what made that place so legendary.

I wish they had covered this aspect. Why no word about the fate of the room?

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Post by Jim Williams » Wed Mar 20, 2013 8:11 am

Leopold wrote:And I'm sure that Neve sounds great but that "mojo" piece of gear myth is exactly that, a myth. The more records I make, the less and less important the gear becomes, but I guess they have to make it like the Lord of the Rings or something...the Journey of the Neve...

Eddie
I worked at Sound City back in the 1980's, before "Nevermind". It was a dumpy studio with a funny odor. The Neve was beat up and several channels didn't work. It had shagg carpet on the walls and it was somewhat depressing to work there. The room didn't sound any different than any house or garage with shagg carpet on the walls. Asthetically, it was set up in an industrial park in stucco Van Nuys, down the street from my old shop. You have arc welders and stuff next door.

Funny how a couple of good selling recordings changes perceptions towards studios.
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Post by lyman » Thu Mar 21, 2013 10:36 am

Jim Williams wrote:
Funny how a couple of good selling recordings changes perceptions towards studios.
Not for you though, eh.

Perhaps people are taking an interest in the studio because they love listening to the music that came out of it. Reducing it to "a couple of good selling records" is just a caricature in order to invalidate somebody's differing point of view.

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Leopold
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Post by Leopold » Sun Apr 07, 2013 8:42 pm

agershon wrote:Clips from Letterman last night:

Dave sits down with Dave to talk Sound City Movie http://bit.ly/ZflwD0

Sound City players featuring Stevie Nicks LIVE ? Watch "You Can't Fix This" http://youtu.be/IArjEzvUOo0
That lady is so full of herself it's not funny. At the end of the show, after she finishes her bellydance, she tells Letterman something about Dave Grohl forgetting to mention...blah blah blah I did....really? So having you in the film,having you on the record, having you in the band, having you on Letterman isn't enough...you're still looking for more "credit"?
"I raged against the machine and all this money came out!" Bart Simpson

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Brian Dorn
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Post by Brian Dorn » Mon Apr 08, 2013 8:11 am

Leopold wrote:The more records I make, the less and less important the gear becomes
I really agree with this. You need some gear, obviously, but not much.

I enjoyed the film. My favorite quote in it came from Reznor: "Now that everyone is empowered with these tools to create stuff, has there been a lot more great shit coming out? Not really. You still have to have something to do with those tools."
www.briandorn.NET

"Now that everyone is empowered with these tools to create stuff, has there been a lot more great shit coming out? Not really. You still have to have something to do with those tools." -Trent Reznor, Sound City

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Post by Justine_X » Sat Apr 13, 2013 9:12 am

Anyone able to identify the hollowbody bass Josh Homme is playing during the "Mantra" jam with Reznor? It's around the 3/4 mark in the film.

Thought it might be Epiphone or Hofner, but the headstock doesn't seem to match:

Image

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Leopold
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Post by Leopold » Sat Apr 13, 2013 6:08 pm

Justine_X wrote:Anyone able to identify the hollowbody bass Josh Homme is playing during the "Mantra" jam with Reznor? It's around the 3/4 mark in the film.

Thought it might be Epiphone or Hofner, but the headstock doesn't seem to match:

Image
Maybe a custom Maton? He seems to only play those guitars now a days.

E
"I raged against the machine and all this money came out!" Bart Simpson

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Post by hunterchristy » Sun Jun 02, 2013 11:42 am

fossiltooth wrote:I have an ok review of it out as well. Slightly more diplomatic still, but I couldn't help but share some of the same concerns under the surface

hahahaha fuck yeah, you linked my "WTF?" thread in your article!
agershon wrote:I came to my band after watching and demanded we quit recording tracks separately, at home in front of our own computers, both engineer and performer.
the very next band i went in the studio to record, i made the drums/bass do this. we did the rhythm tracks for the ep in 2 days. and it was like..."wow...it CAN be this easy..." AND...little to no editing or anything, cus i really CANT do buy so much. "just gotta do it again!"

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CraigS63
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Post by CraigS63 » Sat Jan 11, 2014 7:42 am

Late to the party (just saw the movie on VH1), I liked it, I had no expectations and didn't know much about the studio before I saw it.

It was a little strange that they put some Gary Numan video clips up when talking about sequenced/Pro Tools music, the videos they used were from Pleasure Principle-era ('79-80), a few years before computerized sequencing of stuff. I wasn't clear on McCartney's connection to the studio either. Needed more Cheap Trick.

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Post by drumsound » Sat Jan 11, 2014 8:45 pm

CraigS63 wrote:Needed more Cheap Trick.
Absolutely!

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