Episode four, I think, is a new level. If you’ve ever turned it up to 11, its all about dynamics, loudness, or just plain impact. If you turn back to the 20’s just being loud enough to be heard over the sound of dust in the grooves was the challenge. Contemporary music has a bit less of a hurdle, but still because we hear literally twice as much spectrum as can be captured on a recording. How do you cram dynamic sounds into such as small space? I’ve got some good examples in this episode. Bonus points for all who post in comments on what tunes are in the new intro collage, along with your thoughts on what sounds you think really hit the sonic mark.
Your comment about “knobs” made me think of an interview with Phil Manzanera I once heard. Something along the lines of “I was playing all this stuff and it would go through Brian Eno’s live mixing and what came out was totally something different!” Not sure if this was early Roxy or 801.
Ahh, here is something from Wikipedia re: 801—
“801 Live set new standards for live recordings because it was one of the first live LPs in which all outputs from the vocal microphones, guitar amps and others instruments (except the drums) were fed directly to the mobile studio mixing desk, rather than being recorded via microphones and/or signals fed out the front-of-house PA mixer. This so-called “Direct Injection” (DI) method had been used for years in the studio but this was one of the first instances of the method being successfully used to record a live album.”
So far, I’ve got Augustus Pablo, De la Soul and the Beatles. I feel like I am also hearing something from Stevie Wonder but cannot place it. Also feel like I hear Mark Mothersbaugh.
@modern4life Excellent! It’s Stevie from “Talking Book” – “Looking for another true love”. No Mothersbaugh though. That’s 4 down and 9 to go!
@mdain Bully for me for the Stevie Wonder. Funny since I do not own that album. I keep waiting to hear Mr. Wonder chime in, “Mary wants to be a super woman…”. Right before the Augustus Pablo, I keep hearing something out of “The Life Aquatic”. Back to the drawing board.