Ask a music scene micro celebrity

[Ribbo]

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Variance: and this matters to me why?

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Variance: and you not caring matters to me why?

[Triumph36]

ribbo you are seriously terrible at bbv and bbv4life - stick to posting hidden brag hands in the omaha forums plz

[Ribbo]

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ribbo you are seriously terrible at bbv and bbv4life - stick to posting hidden brag hands in the omaha forums plz

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Variance: and you not caring matters to me why?

[king of the deck]

Good Jon Brion question. Cmon Steve... what do you think of Brion

[electrical]

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Have you listened to Brian Eno's work (personal and collaborative) and wondered how creative he would be if his digital "toys" were taken away?

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Eno has answered this question for us. The records he made before he had access to samplers and digital editing are all unique, timeless and fantastic. Since then, meh.
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Is there any sound or effect created using Protools that you simply can't recreate in an analog environment?

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Not with a little effort, no.

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Or perhaps is that just not the point, that the music should be transmitted in its purest form from the studio experience to the commercial release.

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I just think most bands ought to be repected as they exist in nature, and I don't have a strong enough ego to presume that I can "improve" a band by making them change to suit me, or using software to determine the parameters of their weaknesses.

[electrical]

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Similarly, how do you regard artists whose idiosyncratic recording style is essential to their musical expression? I think of Jandek, for one, where the hiss and tin are actually as much music as the voice/gtr/whatever. Or Royal Trux, who used effects with a kind of historical and theoretical sophistication...

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Those people make records they do (and have what value they have) precisely because a producer didn't make them change their idiosyncrasies. Bands ought to be allowed to make the record they want to make, without anybody shoe-horning them into a prescribed aesthetic.

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I mean, isn't recording as straight up documentation kind of like a painter limiting himself to portraiture?

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No. A recording engineer isn't a painter. A recording engineer works (or ought to work) under the direction of his client, not ask the client to work to his direction. If a band wants a sound abstracted from reality, fine, but that abstraction ought to be their idea.

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Isn't any tool useful in the right hands?

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In the abstract, sure. But when the things a tool makes easier (editing and manipulation, or, say, automatic machine gun fire) are so subject to disfiguring abuse, there are precious few "right" hands. The tool itself may not be the problem, but having it in use is almost always worse than not.

[electrical]

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have you ever worked with jon brion on any albums? any thoughts on him in particular?

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I haven't worked with him. I've only heard a little bit of his work, and it isn't music that really moves me, but it seems to be executed competently. I guess I don't have much of an opinion on him or it.

[Max Raker]

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Was Phil Spector as innovative and important as Rolling Stone says he is?

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Oh hells yeah. Most record producers are parasites on the careers of bands and artists, but Phil Spector was actually the creator of everything on the records he produced, regardless of whose name was on the credits. He was also an extreme sex perv freak, gun nut and paranoid coke fiend. he was about as high-roller as dudes like that can be, and it all drove him nuts. Unique character.

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Have you ever met Phil or was good friends with anybody who has worked with him? I have heard some pretty crazy stories about him including one in which he tied up John Lennon during a session and pointed a loaded gun at him. Not sure if it is just gossip, but it seems like even in a field that has its share of unstable people, Spector manages to stand out.

[killideas]

Recording the Godspeed record where there any particular challenges recording a group that big (or perhaps they were pared down for recording?). They have a reputation for being this quiet shadowy group. True? I've always assumed this was a rep that came from not talking to the media etc so media just makes something up. Also any particular reason you didn't mix the record? Was the final project much of a departure from what left your studio? How long did the record take to make? thnx.

[damntang]

Hi Steve,

Who is the drunk wrestling you at the end pig pile?

Have you got any new jokes?

Will Shellac ever play outside of London or ATP in the UK?

..and my friend asks

"There is a big black song with with like a party blower on it and it sounds like it's coming from a very specific place in the headphones - I want to know how you do that, it's spacial field is extremely realistic. I was walking through lichfield listening to it one day, and I thought someone in the street was doing it"

Have you heard of an album called 'The Holy Bible' by Manic Street Preachers?

What do you think of the current British music scene...new rave etc?