The View From The Drey

The Squirrel

Well-Known Member
I just had a conversation with my brother in law who apparently is a headphone junky. He was telling me he keeps buying more and more expensive headphones and they are SOOOO worth it.

They usually have big collections of headphones and amps. It ends up costing as much as a large system, but takes up less space and doesn't disturb the neighbors. They'll match certain headphones with certain amps for certain types of music.

EnitreCollection.jpg
 

qclabrat

Well-Known Member
They usually have big collections of headphones and amps. It ends up costing as much as a large system, but takes up less space and doesn't disturb the neighbors. They'll match certain headphones with certain amps for certain types of music.

View attachment 46756
you have one source to drive all them? I spent two days in Akibara just listening to open are goodness.
 

jmanic

JORBA Board Member/Chapter Leader
Staff member
JORBA.ORG
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Subscribed.
I'm in for Oasis stories, even if they are second hand. Maybe you could use those as filler?
 

The Squirrel

Well-Known Member

Studio Story-Raw Power (literally)


Up to this point I had been engineering for some time and I had become oblivious to the artists that I was working with, but when I saw that I would be working on Iggy Pop’s Raw Power, I sort of lost it a little. My taste in music had been changing over the years, but no matter what it was at the moment deep down inside I was a punk. If you don’t know much about this album, it is a landmark recording. This record defined what was to be the punk movement, which was to take off only a few years later. It is ranked 125 in the Rolling Stone’s top 500 albums of all time. If you’re still not sure about this music, then maybe you’ll remember this:



What really raised the bar for me was that Iggy was remixing this album with a good friend of mine. There always seemed to be a dispute about the original mixes, which were done by Iggy, then redone by David Bowie. The mixes always had a “thing” to them. So why they were remixing it was always lost on me. On top of that, Iggy was overseeing the new mixes and coming to the mastering session.

On the day of mastering I was a little amped up. I wanted everything right beforehand, so I could really focus and nail this one. I received the tapes late and was trying to align everything and they all walk in, producer, engineer and Iggy. Now I’m behind the 8 ball and I look up at Iggy and Iggy looks at me and without introduction he thrusts a copy of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness at me and says “my record has to be louder than this”. I owned this album, so I knew how it sounded and how loud it was. Even though I wasn’t ready I was starting to feel better about the day. I finished my alignment and hopped to it.

This is where everything starts going downhill. FAST.

I hit play to start working on the first tune, “Search and Destroy”. At this point Iggy starts pacing in front of the speakers with intensity that actually shook me a bit and made it hard to actually listen and concentrate. As I compared the sound and volume to The Smashing Pumpkins I’m finding that I’m exceeding all expectations. Iggy is still pacing like a caged tiger and not saying anything. I’m amazed how big and loud I’m making this without any technical issues. It was like I had solved the eternal audio problem. Then I realize that I’m listening incorrectly. I’m not listening to the digital converter, so I don’t really know what the final outcome will sound like. Iggy’s pacing faster and faster, the producer and engineer are talking, and it’s incredibly loud so I’m thinking I can slip the puck by everyone and make the switch without anyone noticing. WRONG. I flipped the switch and Iggy stops in his tracks. He looks me right in the eye and says, “Perfect, print it!” Holy $h!t, nailed.

The change in sound when I switched was profound. The music went from sounding big and loud to sounding like the back of a jet engine. It was indistinguishable from music and the layer of distortion was thick. Now I’m hosed. I have to explain what was wrong and I’ll have to start building the sound again. It would be egg on my face, but this is a big record and I just have to suck it up. So, I stop the machine and explain what happened. Iggy just looks at me and says, I don’t care, just make the CD. I start putting my foot down, but Iggy will have none of it. His intensity is growing, it’s directed right at me and I’m starting to realize that I’m on the losing end of this. I quickly come up with a compromise, I’ll do a pass the way he wants it and then I’ll do a technically correct pass and we’ll both compare. Of course, I’m convinced that once he hears the difference I will win him over with a better sounding disc.

He agrees and walks out only having listened to the first tune of the album. After hours of work, I make a CD the way he wanted it and I made a CD the way I felt comfortable, technician that I am. I gave it a day and listened to both CD’s back to back. I listened to my version first and when it was done I was rather proud. It sounded great. Then I listened to Iggy’s version. When it was done I jumped up out of my seat and just wanted to punch someone in the face, and at that moment I understood. The silence was deafening and even though it sounded like crap it had a subliminal energy my version didn’t. Like grabbing a live wire and holding on for dear life. I called Iggy and he laughed at me, telling me he didn’t even listen.

When this record was released I became public enemy #1. It was so bad and so loud that my reputation went down the tubes (among those who care about this stuff). They say, you’re only as good as your last record, and I was starting to think this would be my last record. To this day it’s still considered one of the loudest albums made and that’s not a reputation I’m happy with.

I was able to make amends with the fans a little over a decade later when I had the chance to redo this album remastering the original mix as well as the new mix.



I don’t listen to this album anymore.
 

pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
To this day it’s still considered one of the loudest albums made and that’s not a reputation I’m happy with.
Isn't this on Iggy? He wanted that sound, it's his album...but at the same time I can see this being a no win situation for you.
 

Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
speaking of Iggy, looking forward to trainspotting 2 in a couple months. my spouse will hate it.

Good story.
 

The Squirrel

Well-Known Member
Not the way the fans see it. I've taken it for more bad decisions by artists than you can imagine. It was my screw-up, but it was his decision.

I did one of the first box sets for Sony way back when. Decisions were made by the artist and the producer. The first review slammed me and the product manager(?) because it's never the artists fault and the producer was a friend of the reviewer.

It's just the way it is.
 

Delish

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Excellent.

When you called him to concede defeat how did you address him? "Iggy"? "Mr. Pop"?
 
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The Squirrel

Well-Known Member
For me, at least, this time with Ig was one of the most intense moments of my life. It was like he had an electrical field around him. Crazy energy field.
 

pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Not the way the fans see it. I've taken it for more bad decisions by artists than you can imagine. It was my screw-up, but it was his decision.
So after his decision did you address him like Utah addresses me after using 8 CO2's to fix a flat tire...FUCK, IGGY??!!!!
 

The Squirrel

Well-Known Member
I'm planning for next week. As a curveball, I'm thinking the Wide Spread Depression Jazz Orchestra. Or...I always wanted to be a lifeguard.
 

The Squirrel

Well-Known Member
Training:

I’m 4 weeks into my 2017 training. I’m actually feeling pretty good. I’m riding 4 mornings a week and lifting 3. I take my rest days when my body tells me to, like this morning. It might not be the wisest way to train, but I have to stay active to keep my collateral vessels working well. I started well last year, but began to take a nosedive in May and didn’t recover until CX season started. Of course my hope is to carry my early training success into the summer and be in better shape for the fall season.

Nutrition:

For my reversal to really be working I need to keep my body fat at 10% or lower. I’ve been as low as 7%, but recently my body fat has crept up to 14%. My weight has come up as well. None of this makes me very happy especially since I’m very good with my diet. I’m having a hard time putting my finger on it. I think it’s the snacking, especially in the evening. My snacking ends up being fruit, a handful of nuts, a couple of dates or some almond butter on a ancient grain tortilla but I pay for it during my AM weigh in. I think I’m going to start journaling my nutrition to find patterns.

Mystical Studio Story

As with all my early sessions I was assisting someone else. Being in this position really helped hone my intuition. This particular session was with a very laid back freelance engineer. This guy was the definition of calm. So when he came to visit me the week before the session I became very concerned. He explained that we would be recording Meredith Monk. Meredith was known for her vocal pieces:




This didn’t seem to warrant the panic, but then he added that the producer was a musician from a famous 70’s fusion group. This group was once signed to the record label that I worked for and owned the studio. As the story went, the group and label parted ways, but it was not amiable. As the relationship broke up this producer put a “jinx” on the label. Superstitious or not, the engineer was spooked. His request was to take extra care in the set-up. He wanted to use 6 of our special vintage microphones. He wanted new tubes in the microphones and extra burn in time so everything was stable. The list went on. I spent the week making sure every “i” was dotted and every “t” was crossed. It seemed like overkill to me, but hey, it’s what I got paid minimum wage for.

Day of the session the engineer came in very early. He was happy with my effort and we waited for the artists to arrive. As they arrived and warmed up it was clear that everything was functioning perfectly and the engineer was finally relaxing. This date was totally in the bag. I’m sitting at the tape machine and the engineer is at the console and who walks in but the producer. The mood immediately turned 180 degrees. The producer sat down silently. As the session started the microphones started to fail one at a time. ALL of the microphones. Now even though the mics were old, they never failed and with new tubes it should not have been an issue. BUT, they were failing, one at a time. They’d start to make this crackling sound, and then they fizzed and POP, dead. The artists don’t know what’s going on, the engineer was about to boil over and the producer is sitting there silently with a silly grin on his face. As the last mic flickers off the engineer stands up, grabs the chair and throws it right at my head. I duck and the chair hits the wall. He storms out. The producer gets on the talkback and says “I guess the session is over” and he walks out. The group realizes nothing’s going to happen and they leave.

I’m still spinning from what just happened. This was way too crazy for me. I call for the tech to figure out what went wrong because I know my planning was on point. By the time he shows up all 6 mics are working again.

Engineer, producer and artist never returned to the studio again.
 

qclabrat

Well-Known Member
Studio Story-Raw Power (literally)

Up to this point I had been engineering for some time and I had become oblivious to the artists that I was working with, but when I saw that I would be working on Iggy Pop’s Raw Power, I sort of lost it a little. My taste in music had been changing over the years, but no matter what it was at the moment deep down inside I was a punk. If you don’t know much about this album, it is a landmark recording. This record defined what was to be the punk movement, which was to take off only a few years later. It is ranked 125 in the Rolling Stone’s top 500 albums of all time. If you’re still not sure about this music, then maybe you’ll remember this:



What really raised the bar for me was that Iggy was remixing this album with a good friend of mine. There always seemed to be a dispute about the original mixes, which were done by Iggy, then redone by David Bowie. The mixes always had a “thing” to them. So why they were remixing it was always lost on me. On top of that, Iggy was overseeing the new mixes and coming to the mastering session.

On the day of mastering I was a little amped up. I wanted everything right beforehand, so I could really focus and nail this one. I received the tapes late and was trying to align everything and they all walk in, producer, engineer and Iggy. Now I’m behind the 8 ball and I look up at Iggy and Iggy looks at me and without introduction he thrusts a copy of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness at me and says “my record has to be louder than this”. I owned this album, so I knew how it sounded and how loud it was. Even though I wasn’t ready I was starting to feel better about the day. I finished my alignment and hopped to it.

This is where everything starts going downhill. FAST.

I hit play to start working on the first tune, “Search and Destroy”. At this point Iggy starts pacing in front of the speakers with intensity that actually shook me a bit and made it hard to actually listen and concentrate. As I compared the sound and volume to The Smashing Pumpkins I’m finding that I’m exceeding all expectations. Iggy is still pacing like a caged tiger and not saying anything. I’m amazed how big and loud I’m making this without any technical issues. It was like I had solved the eternal audio problem. Then I realize that I’m listening incorrectly. I’m not listening to the digital converter, so I don’t really know what the final outcome will sound like. Iggy’s pacing faster and faster, the producer and engineer are talking, and it’s incredibly loud so I’m thinking I can slip the puck by everyone and make the switch without anyone noticing. WRONG. I flipped the switch and Iggy stops in his tracks. He looks me right in the eye and says, “Perfect, print it!” Holy $h!t, nailed.

The change in sound when I switched was profound. The music went from sounding big and loud to sounding like the back of a jet engine. It was indistinguishable from music and the layer of distortion was thick. Now I’m hosed. I have to explain what was wrong and I’ll have to start building the sound again. It would be egg on my face, but this is a big record and I just have to suck it up. So, I stop the machine and explain what happened. Iggy just looks at me and says, I don’t care, just make the CD. I start putting my foot down, but Iggy will have none of it. His intensity is growing, it’s directed right at me and I’m starting to realize that I’m on the losing end of this. I quickly come up with a compromise, I’ll do a pass the way he wants it and then I’ll do a technically correct pass and we’ll both compare. Of course, I’m convinced that once he hears the difference I will win him over with a better sounding disc.

He agrees and walks out only having listened to the first tune of the album. After hours of work, I make a CD the way he wanted it and I made a CD the way I felt comfortable, technician that I am. I gave it a day and listened to both CD’s back to back. I listened to my version first and when it was done I was rather proud. It sounded great. Then I listened to Iggy’s version. When it was done I jumped up out of my seat and just wanted to punch someone in the face, and at that moment I understood. The silence was deafening and even though it sounded like crap it had a subliminal energy my version didn’t. Like grabbing a live wire and holding on for dear life. I called Iggy and he laughed at me, telling me he didn’t even listen.

When this record was released I became public enemy #1. It was so bad and so loud that my reputation went down the tubes (among those who care about this stuff). They say, you’re only as good as your last record, and I was starting to think this would be my last record. To this day it’s still considered one of the loudest albums made and that’s not a reputation I’m happy with.

I was able to make amends with the fans a little over a decade later when I had the chance to redo this album remastering the original mix as well as the new mix.



I don’t listen to this album anymore.

haha, when you started this blog, I wrote you a question on the loudness of music and if 90s Metallica killed the art of engineering. I ended up deleting before I sent it, since it sounded too forward. think I know your position there
 
Last edited:

Patrick

Overthinking the draft from the basement already
Staff member
Damn, i was hoping for the Blotto story. ;)

gremlins are everywhere. I'm an instrument rated pilot - first cloud i flew into without an instructor, the engine quit.
Restarted when i popped out, and saw that there were plenty of places to land, as long as i didn't f-up the glide.
New scivvies were required.
 

The Squirrel

Well-Known Member
I had forgotten about this one and it just popped into my head this week. I couldn't pass it up. The bathtub story resurfaced this week as well. I wrote it down so I don't forget it.

I can't imagine flying and losing power. I'm not sure I could hold it together. I freaked a little just reading it.
 
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