Walter Sear makes me cry

[inverseroom]

i thought he was yelling at ME!

He was. He was yelling at me, too.

I enjoyed the article a lot, and he should be given his props for his work on the modular synth. But geez, doesn't he remember what people were saying about synthesized music in the fifties? They were saying exactly what Walter Sear is saying about digital recording now.

[Tim Casey]

I loved the interview and agreed with most everything he said. As far as the "lab-coat engineers" in the bad old days, at least they didn't make a mess out of the sound because of what they read about in a magazine somewhere. I personally know lots of home-studio musicians who buy a $1000 mic preamp, connect a $2000 mic to it, compress the living hell out of the input, and then wonder why their recordings sound like crap. And they don't even notice it sounds like crap until a week later!

If home studios had never happened, I wouldn't have been able to record all of my own music, and I've enjoyed that music immensely over the past twenty-five years. And my best recordings sound as good as anything on the radio nowadays, but I think the radio stuff could (and should) sound better.

On a tech note: my only D/A or A/D conversion comes right after the mic preamp's insert point on my mixer. Once it's in my computer, it stays digital until the consumer plays back the CD. Doesn't this negate his argument about multiple D/A and A/D conversions? Doesn't everyone work this way?

[PatrickBrown]

I thought it was a good article, and I try to listen to, and understand, the wisdom of those who came before us, taking the best, and leaving the rest, if I am able.

Concerning the Tech Note comment, in my case, it's more dual, than multiple, conversions with me because I have an Alesis HD24, but take that out into an analog mixing environment, then, one more time, back digital. My best results seem to be 48K,(my only other option is 44.1K) to analog, then to the MOTU at 44.1K, the A/D conversion, using the MOTU's converters, rendering moot any downsampling, and I stay 24 bit till my final bounce to disk, where I dither to 16 bit.

Pat

[radial_bias]

"Hey, you damn kids stay off my lawn!"

[theslumlord]

Most everything has already been said about this interview. Personally, I thought is was one of the better interviews that I've read in awhile.

The last paragraph of the article sums it up best. For me, I think I got the gist of it all.

[@?,*???&?]

Spot on Walter! Keep the anecdotes rolling...lol

I say this because the guys who are good enough to work at this full-time have gotten there because they have developed the chops.

[spankenstein]

On a tech note: my only D/A or A/D conversion comes right after the mic preamp's insert point on my mixer. Once it's in my computer, it stays digital until the consumer plays back the CD. Doesn't this negate his argument about multiple D/A and A/D conversions? Doesn't everyone work this way?

A lot of people treat digital just like they would a tape machine and mix to some other media.

[Tim Casey]

I've always thought that was strange - leaving the computer to mix on an external mixing board. Using DP, each song has it's own mixer; the settings remain the same even if you go back to tweak a mix six months later. I'm also paranoid about multiple D/A - A/D conversions; it seems like you're asking for trouble when you go the external route. I know that some people like the "sound" of a board, but shouldn't a board be transparent?

Of course, to each his own. But I bring this up because we recently had to deal with a really psychotic asshole who was furious that we wouldn't invest a ton of time and money to figure out how to patch in a 32-channel mackie into our DP setup, which we had been using quite successfully for a number of years. I kind of like the idea that all our recordings only use one A/D conversion and no D/A conversions.

[junokane]

Spot on Walter! Keep the anecdotes rolling...lol

I say this because the guys who are good enough to work at this full-time have gotten there because they have developed the chops.

Amen to that. Anybody who has been around as long and has put as much thought and time into the recording of sound as Sear has, well, as far as I"m concerned he can say anything he wants and I'll listen. I may not agree, but I'll listen.

I will say that, as I read through the interview, I kept asking myself when he was gonna say SOMETHING about the songs, man, the songs. But hey, I'd consider myself lucky to be in the same room with a guy with a tenth the experience and know-how as Sear.

And not to go off-topic, but I grew up wearing the Toughskin pants he sells in his department stores. Those buggers would not wear out. Impressive.

[antilog]

I found the article to have some good info, but his attitude is so cliche and boring. I read my ass off, experiment, record, mix, and I do my best for what I've got. I wasn't brought up through the studio frat mentor system. Just because I don't have his means, doesn't mean that I am not valid as an engineer and an artist.

He believes what he believes because he needs to - his ego and the time and resources he spent will not allow him to see any other paradigm.

I will keep doing what I love to do, will keeping feeding my sponge brain, and take from the cranky types what I find valuable.

OT - Don't let money driven people get you down. Most of the studios I've been to, the owners/engineers are driven by a desparate survival instinct, mainly due to gear and how they got it, or other hulking expenses. Like the guys who sell their freedom to the banks to binge on gear and then won't deal with anyone who isn't as "serious" as they are, or as far up the food chain as they are.

Ego driven ignorance.

Do what you do and do it with value.

[mjau]

He believes what he believes because he needs to - his ego and the time and resources he spent will not allow him to see any other paradigm.

Sounds like Foucault meets Freud.
I agree with you.

[super skoda]

I really enjoyed the interview. I thought the guy was right on.

I have to say that I thought his attitude toward monitors was kind of suspect. It sounded like he really cared about the signal path right up until it came time to turn it into sound.

But I liked him any way.

[Electricide]

I think it's awesome that his article about 'heaping manuals and texts' at the employees, and that you had to know how to use everything, came RIGHT AFTER the Sigur Ros article where the guy's like "yeah, we bought it and played with a few knobs, and hardly ever read the manaul."

Go tapeop!

[wayne kerr]

He believes what he believes because he needs to - his ego and the time and resources he spent will not allow him to see any other paradigm.

I disagree. He believes what he believes because he is of a dying breed - a professional. And he IS right, BTW. I got very little ego from the article. But his most profound statement wasn't even about recording:

"This Know-Nothingism, where ignorance is fine, instant gratification. "It's good enough." These are all the phrases that will be the destruction of American culture. It will not be the Taliban. It will not be Al Quaeda. It will be ourselves. Every major civilization has fallen of its own weight. It was never conquered from outside... We're destroying ourselves by sloppy attitutdes, by a lack of dedication... "

Instant oatmeal is no substitute for the real thing.

S/H