Entertainment For Lively Minds
Bite Me, Avatar! It's The Word's Multi-Dimensional "Live In The Studio" Podcast!
The new issue of The Word features a major investigation by David Hepworth into the decline of the traditional recording studio and looks at how that changes the way records are made and how it eventually affects the kind of music you listen to. To talk about these issues Mark, David and Fraser went to Gold Top studios in north London. Gold Top is run by Neil Brockbank, producer of Nick Lowe. A believer in recording live with the musicians, as far as possible, playing together, he describes the changes that have taken place in the way music is recorded from the Beatles through Frank Sinatra to Ricky Martin and beyond and looks at the implications that has for what we listen to.
If you want to make sure that you get the podcast every week, go here and if you just want to listen to this one stream below.
erm sure it's great as usual
but everytime I click the youtube clip it says it's private and i have to be your friend to watch it.
Thanks
It should be available now.
confused me with the headline
Since you're talking about studios, I thought you were referring to the world famous Avatar Studios in NYC (previously known as The Power Station).
Maybe I am just easily confused.
BTW just got the Ian Dury issue out here in the colonies, splendid job as always. Wreckless Eric looks a bit unlike himself in that picture next to his interview in the Dury piece.
It's clearly not him, but who is it?
Spedding? McIntosh? Any guesses, anybody?
The Beatles' first album.
Indeed Please Please Me was recorded in a day, however there's mitigating circumstances to put a damper on their efforts.
Four tracks were already in the can, having been already released as the A and B sides of the group's first two singles. This includes the title track. Therefore only about 23 or so minutes of new material was actually issued on the album.
Six of the remaining tracks were covers that the band had been playing as part of their live set for some time, and were knocked off pretty quickly, some in just one or two takes.
There were therefore only four group compositions to be worked on - Misery, I Saw Her Standing There, Do You Want To Know A Secret and There's A Place. They did also attempt to record Hold Me Tight, but decided to shelve it for the time being.
Gold Top
I have recorded at Neil's fantastic studio and met the man himself!! What a treat to find the new podcast coming straight from Gold Top.
Ace!!
I'm sure someone is working on a plug-in...
that replicates that old school variation in tempo.
That was really interesting... it sounded like you all had great fun recording it.
Great Podcast - a plea for questions
Great podcast. I love the line that there hasn't been a record out of time since 1980 and one out of tune since 2000.
One small point of order. Could requests for podcast listener questions be replicated on the web site as well as twitter? (For some reason twitter is blocked in my current place of employment!)
Thanks
That was brilliant
I dont seem to have the option to stream the last two podcasts
Any ideas why?
I dont have the usual "play" icon to click on.
Is it my computer? It is running on Vista and is 2 years old so I guess not.
Suggestion
For some reason I can't stream on this page, but I can if I click on Podcast on the blue strip at the top of the page. I'm also running on Vista.
Can get there from here
http://feeds2.feedburner.com/WordPodcast
This is another place to stream from.
I had the same problem. I'm running Windows 7 at home and XP at work - not there on either.
Why so much emphasis on Pro
Why so much emphasis on Pro Tools? It's a prohibitively priced, spoilt brat of a program that practically demands a computer to itself. The likes of the friendly Cubase have been popular with musicians for decades. It still doesn't mean everybody instantly knows about the black arts of EQ and mastering. That's still expert knowledge.
Fact is, the done thing for years now is to record everything dry and add the effects during the mix. The days of echo chambers belong in the 50s.
You do still need studios because of those pesky drums. If you insist on using an acoustic kit, then you'll need a space to set it up along with a forest of mics to record it. It's also a bit awkward trying to fit a string section in a one-bed flat.
It's still about capturing a performance. Recorded music is now practically worthless, so the premium is on the one-off live performance. So people who can play are once again in demand.
Personally, I spent my youth lusting after various guitar-amp combinations. Now I think it's great that, with the right gadget, I can digitally model the sound of just about every amp ever - not to mention the sawtooth growl of a Moog modular system. Of course, everybody else can as well. Perhaps we're merely nostalgic for the days when the means of production was inaccessible to the common herd.
All these gadgets are useless unless you have a ... oh, what's it called again? A tune - that's it!
Thoroughly enjoyed
D H's informative and insightful piece in the mag - looking forwards to listening to the podcast.
Joe Boyd has spoken at some length on the subject of studios and recording,
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jun06/articles/joeboyd.htm
(especially interesting on REM and Norah Jones),
and one of his top recording venues discussed,
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/oct08/articles/soundtechniques.htm
spiritual home of early Fairports, Thompson, Drake, Denny et al. (again - sadly no more, now some sort of flats if I remember correctly).
The magic seems to be a combination of space, knowledgeable engineer tightly drilled and focussed band in possession of good arrangements. Easy really.