Monday 14 September 2009

The studio is a poisoned chalice

Writing and routining new songs at Gill’s studio over the weekend, and worrying over a noisy pot on the mixing desk that just wouldn't quieten down, we got to talking about Les Paul , and his genius. As Brian Eno pointed out , the three greatest leaps forward in the creation of music over the last two hundred years were the invention & perfection of the piano; the creation of the Symphony orchestra and the invention of the multi-track studio

Les Paul invented the third, a curse that cost him his mojo. Recorded music more or less stopped being being about performances in real-time and became constructions over time. Every snap, crackle and pop of imperfection could be tweaked and smoothed. You could, finally, the dream of A&R men everywhere, polish a turd. Steely Dan and Coldplay became possible. Sometimes, you wish you could just roll back the clock.

4 comments:

  1. I do see your point about the sterility of recording facilities, but didn’t multi-track studios make the joys of dub possible as well?

    Hard to imagine characters like Augustus Pablo and Lee Perry without that technology

    Jim

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  2. I agree. Multi-track studio recording is a fine thing; but it's often used is in making a bet on the process revealing an idea rather than the old school notion that you have an idea and then dig up a process that makes it happen. The trick is to keep the adrenaline pumping while using every new new thing around. Augustus played delay line as an instrument. it didn't play him.

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  3. I completely agree. This topic also reminds of Eno talking about how too many options (synthesizers, studio technology) can actually debilitate artists. His point being that it is often preferable to have 3 or 4 decent choices rather than an infinite array of possibilities.

    Jim

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  4. "The medium is the message" seems applicable to studios work-bands I remember from the time like Delta 5 lost their impact through the "need" to add all sorts of ephemeral stuff on record just to "prove" the technology. The new Twitter seems the same principle-tell people you went to the shops, because you can.(PS I really like Steely Dan too-does that make me weird ?)

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