3 ms·

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was recorded despite the limitation of 4-track recorders, most certainly not because of it! They used as many as three in

by driggs 3y ago

Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band was recorded despite the limitation of 4-track recorders, most certainly not because of it! They used as many as three individual Studer J37 4-track recorders with 1" tape, bouncing tracks across machines, and preserving the original generation tapes so they could bounce down again without cumulative noise. And, for "A Day in the Life", they synchronized two 4-track machines together with a 50Hz control signal so they could record all of the orchestral parts. But sure, for bedroom musicians who aren't The Beatles, forced limitations can be freeing!

iainctduncan 3y ago
Right, I know that from the fantastic book, "Good Vibrations." But note that none of it provided an "undo", which was my point. Great read btw, if you're into that sort of thing!
- timc3 3y ago
  Except it did provide it in a pro studio session. They could drop in and out, overdub and cut and splice tape if they wanted. But your original point of not having an undo being liberating is IMHO correct.
  - whstl 3y ago
    Well, if you punch in over a track that already has content you are deleting previous content via the eraser head, so there's no undo for that. Unless you have "backup", which is obviously a second generation recording. If you "fix it in an overdub", then maybe but it makes mixing more difficult. Or you gotta do a bounce which is, once again, second generation. Of course something being second generation is not the worst thing in the world, but if you bounce a lot, noise and distortion will creep in.
  - iainctduncan 3y ago
    Not the same at all as undo. Fwiw I've done sessions both ways, totally different mental effect. Like, completely different.
iainctduncan 3y ago
And the people I'm referring to were not bedroom musicians. I mean folks like Jamie Lidell.
chiefalchemist 3y ago
It doesn't have to be so binary. It can he both, or a spectrum. They had an aural vision. They also had limitations (i.e., only four tracks). But that's what artists [1] do...They challenge limitations. They challenge expectations. They bread down barriers. They see scarcity as a feature, not a bug. Where others cowered at the confinements of the medium, The Beatles, George Martin, Geoff Emerick (engineer), and Ken Townsend (technical engineer) rolled up their sleeves and when to work. Overcoming the medium was part of the challenge. That albatross contributed to the creativity, ingenuity and innovation. It's was part of the problem *and* the resulting solution. [1] I'm using the text book definition of artist. Today mear pop stars are given credit for being artists. Nah. They don't technically qualify but their publicist, manager and label probably believe it's good for PR, as well as the overly fragile pop star ego.
jacquesm 3y ago
Have a look at how Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart produced the very first version of 'Sweet Dreams'. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Dreams_(Are_Made_of_This) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Dreams_(Are_Made_of_This... It's amazing they got out of that gear what they did and I'm pretty sure that in their case it's exactly like the last line in your comment. And it still rocks.

by driggs 3y ago

iainctduncan 3y ago

Right, I know that from the fantastic book, "Good Vibrations." But note that none of it provided an "undo", which was my point. Great read btw, if you're into that sort of thing!

timc3 3y ago
Except it did provide it in a pro studio session. They could drop in and out, overdub and cut and splice tape if they wanted. But your original point of not having an undo being liberating is IMHO correct.
- whstl 3y ago
  Well, if you punch in over a track that already has content you are deleting previous content via the eraser head, so there's no undo for that. Unless you have "backup", which is obviously a second generation recording. If you "fix it in an overdub", then maybe but it makes mixing more difficult. Or you gotta do a bounce which is, once again, second generation. Of course something being second generation is not the worst thing in the world, but if you bounce a lot, noise and distortion will creep in.
- iainctduncan 3y ago
  Not the same at all as undo. Fwiw I've done sessions both ways, totally different mental effect. Like, completely different.

iainctduncan 3y ago

And the people I'm referring to were not bedroom musicians. I mean folks like Jamie Lidell.

chiefalchemist 3y ago

It doesn't have to be so binary. It can he both, or a spectrum. They had an aural vision. They also had limitations (i.e., only four tracks). But that's what artists [1] do...They challenge limitations. They challenge expectations. They bread down barriers. They see scarcity as a feature, not a bug. Where others cowered at the confinements of the medium, The Beatles, George Martin, Geoff Emerick (engineer), and Ken Townsend (technical engineer) rolled up their sleeves and when to work. Overcoming the medium was part of the challenge. That albatross contributed to the creativity, ingenuity and innovation. It's was part of the problem *and* the resulting solution. [1] I'm using the text book definition of artist. Today mear pop stars are given credit for being artists. Nah. They don't technically qualify but their publicist, manager and label probably believe it's good for PR, as well as the overly fragile pop star ego.

jacquesm 3y ago

Have a look at how Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart produced the very first version of 'Sweet Dreams'. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Dreams_(Are_Made_of_This) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sweet_Dreams_(Are_Made_of_This... It's amazing they got out of that gear what they did and I'm pretty sure that in their case it's exactly like the last line in your comment. And it still rocks.