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Post subject: Sound City Doc.
Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 2:27 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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Recently, I viewed a documentary directed by Dave Grohl of the Foo Fighters. I can't believe the semi-fluff they put on T.V. nowadays. Anyway, it was so-so at best, as it reflected on the studio where so many artists/musicians created their top albums. When the studio closes it's like the story just halts and it's ad lib until the ending. I mean don't get me wrong it is interesting listening to people talking about life experiences in all and it does present the question of how the music industry is going to keep its humanness but it lacked a deeper substance. I know there is always a risk of overexposure but the film didn't go deep enough into the lives of the cast. It did present two different sides of the musical fence, one analog recording and two, digital recording. And, in the end, Mr. Grohl did obtain the orginal mixing console, (as if the film didn't focas enough on gear as it is). Two out of four stars in my opinion! :wink:


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Post subject: Re: Sound City Doc.
Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 2:33 pm
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1. This was discussed last week in a thread.

2. Dude, you're tough! At least it's a music movie, a documentary, that shows things like the famous board, musicians, discussion of the digital/analog thing you note, etc. What's fluff is all the Vampire movies and every single other movie made last year except this one! You don't see Hollywood making even one single movie that even *tries* to be a documentary about music or recording or anything like this.


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Post subject: Re: Sound City Doc.
Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 2:41 pm
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Her Wanna wrote:
1. This was discussed last week in a thread.

2. Dude, you're tough! At least it's a music movie, a documentary, that shows things like the famous board, musicians, discussion of the digital/analog thing you note, etc. What's fluff is all the Vampire movies and every single other movie made last year except this one! You don't see Hollywood making even one single movie that even *tries* to be a documentary about music or recording or anything like this.


Glad to see you can count to two. :P :lol: :twisted:


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Post subject: Re: Sound City Doc.
Posted: Thu Sep 12, 2013 6:04 pm
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You're a bad boy, Jimmy.

I'd give it 2-1/2 out of 4. It was okay.

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Post subject: Re: Sound City Doc.
Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 12:00 am
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I thoroughly enjoyed it. The documentary wasn't about Dave or the Foo, it was about how that mixing console made sound city and the artists that used it, it was a one of a kind console. The story ends with the console finding a new home to carry on making magic instead of being tossed out to a trash heap. I thought the story line had a brilliant flow.

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Post subject: Re: Sound City Doc.
Posted: Fri Sep 13, 2013 11:14 pm
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Well it really isn't, or wasn't a one-of-a-kind console. Neve made all kinds of consoles, lots of them bigger and smaller than the one at Sound City and some of them just like it. They all basically used the same technology, the same mic preamps, the same faders, power supplies, etc. However, few Neve consoles ever made anywhere near as many hit recordings as that particular one.

George Martin bought 3 Neve consoles at one time to install at his Air Studios. His input was instrumental to Rupert Neves in setting up the EQ banding points in Neve preamps. These EQ banding points came to be known as the "British EQ" mic EQ format and differed somewhat from the preceding mic preamp EQ banding points.

I know of one in Canada and one in Monserrat that are still in use plus several still in use in Rupert Neve's native UK including at the BBC.

A massive 80 channel Neve, about double the Sound City Neve console, is still in use today at Sonic Ranch near El Paso.

As much as the console, which is made to be the heartbeat of the film, I think part of the magic was in the room and the general funky atmosphere. The room itself, sort of like Sun in Memphis, had a signature sound to it. Sound City might have been, at one time anyway, the best place on earth to record drums and and amped electric guitar onto analog tape.

I found the film fascinating. I would never have guessed by listening that Fleetwood Mac recorded all instrumentation and vocals as if it was a live performance. I suspect the documentary was misleading about that since such a take would have likely been the scratch track and then the individual instrumentation and vocals would be re-recorded separately onto additional tracks which were painstakingly mixed for the master mix and all vestiges of the scratch track eliminated in the final mix. However that part of the process wasn't detailed, but surely happened. The way it was detailed in the film was the down and dirty way you'd do it in a 2 track studio and I doubt that really happened, ever. That's the whole point of having a 32 track machine.

I have a more respect for Dave Grohl after watching this film than I did before. Don't get me wrong because I thought he was a creative and innovative artist before. After seeing this film I feel that this is a guy that genuinely cares about music, how to record it and music history.

Mr. Grohl's likely found that the console doesn't sound quite the same in it's new home though. The recorded output of the console also would not sound the same because the Studer analog tape machine has a slightly different character than the Ampex 32 track machine at Sound City for one reason. They didn't say where that Ampex wound up, but it wasn't seen at Grohl's new studio. It too was part of the equation. The room & general funk of the place, the board, the mics & their placement, the engineers, the Ampex 32 track machine. It all was part of the formula at Sound City and it will never be duplicated anywhere else. Just having the console alone won't do it. You need that room.


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Post subject: Re: Sound City Doc.
Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 3:57 pm
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CRGuitarMan wrote:
You're a bad boy, Jimmy.


I haven't been called "Jimmy" since grade school! :lol:
Nice one CRGuitarBoy! :D


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Post subject: Re: Sound City Doc.
Posted: Mon Sep 16, 2013 4:10 pm
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I've seen it twice already. I wish there were more like this.

Maybe someone will do one about Criteria in North Miami. Some of my most favorite albums from the late '60s and early '70s were recorded there. Lots of history -- Allman Brothers, Clapton, Atlantic Records and Tom Dowd -- and then the Hit Factory bought it.

If you're into this kind of thing, the old Criteria website is still online and hasn't been updated since about 1998. Not sure who's footing the bill for it.
http://criteriastudios.com/


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Post subject: Re: Sound City Doc.
Posted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 11:50 am
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I'm new to recording and I found the discussion of the Neve board fascinating. I had never heard of one before. In the weeks since I saw the documentary I've heard several musicians talk about Neve boards - the most recent is a clip of Sheryl Crow talking about her Nashville studio. How did I miss this before?

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Post subject: Re: Sound City Doc.
Posted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 12:08 pm
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AaronK wrote:
I thoroughly enjoyed it. The documentary wasn't about Dave or the Foo, it was about how that mixing console made sound city and the artists that used it, it was a one of a kind console. The story ends with the console finding a new home to carry on making magic instead of being tossed out to a trash heap. I thought the story line had a brilliant flow.


I agree. It doesn't matter whether that mixing console was a one of a kind or not. Maybe it was. Did you ever try out five guitars of the same make, same year, same materials, but one just calls to you because it plays and sounds better than the rest? That's what that console at Sound City was like. Countless hits were recorded with that console and that's all that matters. I really don't believe any two things are exactly the same. There's always something magical about one and lousy about about another. Cars, amps, guitars, effects you name it. I know a recording guy that has a pair of headphones he can't live without. :wink:

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Post subject: Re: Sound City Doc.
Posted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 1:28 pm
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I thought it was fascinating from beginning to end. Dave did a very good thing in preserving the board. Would you take apart SRV's #1 for parts or Clapton's Blackie for that matter. That was the point. It's about the history, a technology, and a craft that's being displaced by digital everything. Someone has to save us from ourselves.


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Post subject: Re: Sound City Doc.
Posted: Wed Sep 18, 2013 1:58 pm
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Back then, everything had fairly loose tolerances. That's why the amps sounded so different in the same model or series. If you compound 5 or 10% in the resistors alone you can get a pretty big difference from console to console. It is a fascinating documentary and IMO Dave did an outstanding job. There's a lot of history there that's just as important as Clapton, Beck or SRV's gear that's for sure.
Look what we have today. Digital recording cheapens the whole art form just like digital photography destroyed my whole field of photography. It turned it into 1's and 0's, algorithms, sanitized it and took everything organic out of it. All I know is I want my personal sound to be as organic as possible. That's one of the reasons why I started building my own stuff and now I started building stuff without PCB's. Very old school. It's harder, but I think it's worth it in the end. :wink:

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Post subject: Re: Sound City Doc.
Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2013 10:44 am
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I quite enjoyed Sound City. There was lots of history to take in, and that's the kind of thing I like. I've also been getting very into recording of late, so learning about Neve boards and such was really nice. All in all, I really like the movie. 8/10 IMO.


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