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Tuesday, June 27, 2006
To cut a better track
Here, There and Everywhere
by Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey
While it's George Martin, the Beatles' producer, who is often called the "fifth Beatle", the contribution of Geoff Emerick, engineer on most of their albums, is not as well known or understood. Here, There and Everywhere is Mr. Emerick's memoir of his career as audio engineer.
Stories of the Beatles in the studio are, of course, the mainstay of the book. Much of them require a knowledge of -- or an appreciation of -- basic recording techniques to fully appreciate, but understanding is not hampered by a lack of studio knowledge. Studio politics, outdated "state-of-the-art" recording facilities, the British concept of knowing your place socially are all important themes in this fascinating volume.
The authors deftly avoid one of the most common errors when writing about celebrities -- they do not presume to know John, Paul, George, or Ringo beyond their actions in Mr. Emerick's sight. (With the possible exception of Sir Paul.)
When the authors speculate on motives, it's always very clear that this and a pound will buy you a cup of coffee. The book also avoids crucifying the lads -- and the producer, for their flaws. The closest to a vile villain in this is the studio management, although Mr. Emerick is obviously grateful to them for his first studio job as a boy just out of school.
Mr. Emerick is at once the very visible and insecure main character of this story, an unquestionably reliable narrator, and a multitrack monkey in the control room, utterly out of the way save when his experience is needed for a thorny problem. This is a difficult and fragile balance, and it's impressive writing on the part of this team.
Recommended to Beatles fans, and to anyone who's every recorded on a portastudio. (Also of interest: Ticket to Ride by Larry Kane.)
books, music
by Geoff Emerick and Howard Massey
"The Beatles exist apart from my Self. I am not really Beatle George. Beatle George is like a suit or shirt that I once wore on occasion and until the end of my life people may see that shirt and mistake it for me."
George Harrison
While it's George Martin, the Beatles' producer, who is often called the "fifth Beatle", the contribution of Geoff Emerick, engineer on most of their albums, is not as well known or understood. Here, There and Everywhere is Mr. Emerick's memoir of his career as audio engineer.
Stories of the Beatles in the studio are, of course, the mainstay of the book. Much of them require a knowledge of -- or an appreciation of -- basic recording techniques to fully appreciate, but understanding is not hampered by a lack of studio knowledge. Studio politics, outdated "state-of-the-art" recording facilities, the British concept of knowing your place socially are all important themes in this fascinating volume.
The authors deftly avoid one of the most common errors when writing about celebrities -- they do not presume to know John, Paul, George, or Ringo beyond their actions in Mr. Emerick's sight. (With the possible exception of Sir Paul.)
When the authors speculate on motives, it's always very clear that this and a pound will buy you a cup of coffee. The book also avoids crucifying the lads -- and the producer, for their flaws. The closest to a vile villain in this is the studio management, although Mr. Emerick is obviously grateful to them for his first studio job as a boy just out of school.
Mr. Emerick is at once the very visible and insecure main character of this story, an unquestionably reliable narrator, and a multitrack monkey in the control room, utterly out of the way save when his experience is needed for a thorny problem. This is a difficult and fragile balance, and it's impressive writing on the part of this team.
Recommended to Beatles fans, and to anyone who's every recorded on a portastudio. (Also of interest: Ticket to Ride by Larry Kane.)
books, music
Labels: music
Saturday, June 24, 2006
A Brief History...
The Illustrated A Brief History of Time
The Universe in a Nutshell
by Stephen Hawking
It's tempting to write that A Brief History of Time was illustrated in 1996, eight years after initial publication, merely to compete with the standard set by Carl Sagan's seminal work of science popularization, Cosmos. However, Hawking's book, while well-written and quite the engaging history of the field, doesn't benefit from being illustrated. While I never read the original, un-illustrated copy I received as a teenager, the pictures felt like so much graffiti. While diagrams of relativity and string theory concepts are quite necessary, portraits of scientists, old paintings, pictures of the galaxies rushing outwards -- while pretty, are simply not needed and are, frankly, distracting.
Professor Hawking's prose is, unsurprisingly, exemplary. The book is never boring, and usually fascinating. There are sections where he explains his own contributions to the field that could have been expanded upon.
***
Such stories are told, in the 2001 The Universe in a Nutshell. More of a commentary on recent scientific thought, this volume, while less expansive than its predecessor, is in some ways more interesting that the seminal Brief History of Time (which has been published, so far, in three editions, counting the initial publication, the illustrated/expanded edition, and the 2005 A Briefer History of Time). The illustrations, while still distracting, are cleverer and more engaging. The book would still be perfectly understandable without them, though. (Although significantly shorter!) The book (both books, in fact) are absolutely gorgeous, by any standard.
***
Both books are highly recommended, in any edition you come acros them. No matter how much science you know (or think you know).
Note: The author byline at the top of this page links to to Professor Hawking's website. The site holds, in addition to standard author-site pages, a wealth of information not just about the man himself, but articles on disability technology, lectures, publications, and a glossary of terms. It's well worth your time.
Tags: books
The Universe in a Nutshell
by Stephen Hawking
It's tempting to write that A Brief History of Time was illustrated in 1996, eight years after initial publication, merely to compete with the standard set by Carl Sagan's seminal work of science popularization, Cosmos. However, Hawking's book, while well-written and quite the engaging history of the field, doesn't benefit from being illustrated. While I never read the original, un-illustrated copy I received as a teenager, the pictures felt like so much graffiti. While diagrams of relativity and string theory concepts are quite necessary, portraits of scientists, old paintings, pictures of the galaxies rushing outwards -- while pretty, are simply not needed and are, frankly, distracting.
Professor Hawking's prose is, unsurprisingly, exemplary. The book is never boring, and usually fascinating. There are sections where he explains his own contributions to the field that could have been expanded upon.
Such stories are told, in the 2001 The Universe in a Nutshell. More of a commentary on recent scientific thought, this volume, while less expansive than its predecessor, is in some ways more interesting that the seminal Brief History of Time (which has been published, so far, in three editions, counting the initial publication, the illustrated/expanded edition, and the 2005 A Briefer History of Time). The illustrations, while still distracting, are cleverer and more engaging. The book would still be perfectly understandable without them, though. (Although significantly shorter!) The book (both books, in fact) are absolutely gorgeous, by any standard.
Both books are highly recommended, in any edition you come acros them. No matter how much science you know (or think you know).
Note: The author byline at the top of this page links to to Professor Hawking's website. The site holds, in addition to standard author-site pages, a wealth of information not just about the man himself, but articles on disability technology, lectures, publications, and a glossary of terms. It's well worth your time.
Tags: books
Monday, June 19, 2006
Dinner
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Hurt chin, arms
Bicycle accident. I had 10 stitches put in in the RWJ ER, split my chin and got a cut inside my mouth. (Damn teeth.) Didn't break my arms but it feels like it. Oddly enough, my finger (not the thumbs) are mostly ok.
Antibiotics and painkillers. No guitar playing. Sleep.
Tags: ow
Antibiotics and painkillers. No guitar playing. Sleep.
Tags: ow
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
WPM3
WordsPicturesMovies's brand-new short movie "An Excellent Lover" is now up for your viewing pleasure. Yes, that's me on the couch. This is the best film yet by WPM.
Google Video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7288902364113359658
YouTube:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7hEbTPo0pqA
Words Pictures Movies website (The production company)
http://www.wordspicturesmovies.com/
MySpace:
http://myspace.com/wordspicturesmovies
Please tell them what you think! And rate the film on YouTube.
Tags: movies
Google Video:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7288902364113359658
YouTube:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=7hEbTPo0pqA
Words Pictures Movies website (The production company)
http://www.wordspicturesmovies.com/
MySpace:
http://myspace.com/wordspicturesmovies
Please tell them what you think! And rate the film on YouTube.
Tags: movies
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Mixing Board 2
Problem solved. Turns out I had it hooked up all wrong. Some back story:
There's an entire guide to recording music, up at Tweakheadz Lab. The article I was reading on how to set up a mixer like the pro studios links to a diagram, which I foolishly followed. Turns out that the diagram is incorrect. I read through the article thoroughly, and read through my manual switch-by-switch, fader-by-fader, potentiometer-by-potentiometer.
I recorded three tracks of guitars and one of bass on All I Remember, and some more guitar/bass on a cover song that will never see the light of day, unless a major TV show decides to send me rights to their theme song out of the blue.
--
An aside: Nate asked me why there's no commenting mechanism here. If you want to reply to these postings, email me (my address is here) and, if enough people email me, I'll restore the commenting mechanism. I got sick and tired of people telling me they like m blog, but every entry indicating "0 comments".
Tags: music, blog
There's an entire guide to recording music, up at Tweakheadz Lab. The article I was reading on how to set up a mixer like the pro studios links to a diagram, which I foolishly followed. Turns out that the diagram is incorrect. I read through the article thoroughly, and read through my manual switch-by-switch, fader-by-fader, potentiometer-by-potentiometer.
I recorded three tracks of guitars and one of bass on All I Remember, and some more guitar/bass on a cover song that will never see the light of day, unless a major TV show decides to send me rights to their theme song out of the blue.
--
An aside: Nate asked me why there's no commenting mechanism here. If you want to reply to these postings, email me (my address is here) and, if enough people email me, I'll restore the commenting mechanism. I got sick and tired of people telling me they like m blog, but every entry indicating "0 comments".
Tags: music, blog
Labels: music
Mixing board
My mixing board is defeating me! I re-hooked it up Friday night after doing sound at a movie (where I ended up using someone else's board that I was unfamiliar with, but that's another story) and now it's recording the tracks I'm monitoring onto the track I'm recording. Arrrrgh! I need a studio-quality sledgehammer.
The tracks I recorded yesterday (for When I Was a Monkey) are likely toast.
I confirmed that the rig is wired correctly. I now will go through the manual and check that every single button and dial is correctly set. I hate mixer manuals, they're all terribly tersely written. They make programming books look like beach reading.
Tags: music
The tracks I recorded yesterday (for When I Was a Monkey) are likely toast.
I confirmed that the rig is wired correctly. I now will go through the manual and check that every single button and dial is correctly set. I hate mixer manuals, they're all terribly tersely written. They make programming books look like beach reading.
Tags: music
Labels: music
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