SamuelBLupowitz

Maybe not, but Entwistle was! :grin:

I'll watch this thread with interest myself, Stephen. Very scary about the electrical fire and so glad to hear you made it out safely.

An interesting idea. I feel like the gradual layering of the synths, and the intermittent distortion effects and reverb swells on the vocals already push it as far away from the more organic Zeppelin/Faces vibe I was after; I don't think I'd want any more sweeping arrangement changes from a mix standpoint or it would start to lose that "band grooving in a room together" feel. If I were to change anything at this point, I'd emphasize the dynamics between the sections a little more aggressively so that the quieter chorale section felt softer, and then the thrashy tag would feel a little more explosive when it lands. It still works for me, but the master did bring the volume levels closer together (as compressing a mix will do, I suppose). But it's done when it's done, or we go insane and never finish anything. That's why I shared the finished track instead of an in-progress mix. :wink:

Sweet setup, Josh.

You know, I watched this film for the very first time this month. Always fun to see something of Burton"s from when he was fresh and original as opposed to the mild self-parody of the more recent movies, and an absolutely stacked cast (Catherine O"Hara is no slouch in a role that foreshadows her Schitt"s Creek excellence)... but I"ll agree that Keaton"s unhinged performance was the highlight of the film. I also loved him in Birdman when that made the Oscar rounds a few years ago.

That movie"s a treat. What a collection of 'Russian Naval officers' â Connery, Tim Curry, and Sam Neill. I seem to recall he officially retired following the early-aughts abomination 'League of Extraordinary Gentlemen,' which I saw in the discount theater with my father. I believe the story goes that he had been offered the role of Gandalf in Peter Jackson"s Lord of the Rings films, but turned it out down because he 'didn"t understand it.' When Fellowship was a smash, and the LXG script came to him, he accepted because he didn"t understand that either. Oops. A shame, but he has too much of a cinematic legacy to tarnish. RIP.

My band Noon Fifteen is putting out three new songs as part of our "Finish What You Started" series of thematically-related releases about confronting fear. They'll be coming out between now and Thanksgiving, and the first (video below) is my own composition, "Dinosaurs." This is my first time releasing a track I've fully mixed myself without anyone checking my work and fixing it afterward (other than EQ adjustments to the stereo mix by the mastering engineer), so it's an exciting milestone for me. Disclaimer: this song is political in nature, as I was going for a CSNY "Ohio" sort of anthemic current events song. Hopefully it transcends this specific moment, but if you're not into that sort of thing, I won't be offended if you don't engage. That's how we keep this forum civil. All three of the songs will also be explored in our behind-the-scenes podcast, in a sort of "aural liner notes" diving into their composition, arranging, and recording. Plus we joke around a lot. [video:youtube]

That clav solo, DAMN. HAH I think you're right! I think I see it jerk back to the beginning ever-so-slightly at the end of the phrase. And then it freeze-frames at the end, too. Hey, if it works, it works! Hell yeah, as much as I love to hear Winwood sing anything, I think the Chicago version might be my favorite. The way the three of them pass the vocals around, going from Kath's gritty blues delivery, to Robert Lamm's slightly warmer tone, and then the slap in the face of Peter Cetera's high wail... perfection. RIP Spencer Davis!

Yes, there's the ideal use case. As much as I'd love to use one on a gig, it would be tricky to get to work in any amplified setting, even a Ben Folds Five-esque trio without a guitarist to compete with.

Hmm, and appropriately showing up after I've been rehearsing in a piano/bass/drums format again... when gigs come back, this will be frighteningly tempting!

I had to figure out the name of the song that's permanently embedded in my skull from childhood -- turns out it's just called "The Mr. Softee Jingle."

Didn't expect RZA to show up in that article. Very interesting!

lots of guys/ gals would kill for that rig, Ed. Yeah that is a SOLID setup. Digital convenience and portability, with the impressive size and scope of an old-school "different toy for everything" rig. Great way to split the difference onstage.

I've found this to be especially true when you're chasing a particular reference point or vibe -- "let's make it more Beatley," "let's get a Bonham thing happening with the drums," that sort of thing. You can have the track sounding Pretty Good, but stepping back and thinking about what makes your reference tracks feel the way they feel, even if those elements aren't directly related to the instrument that doesn't seem to sound the way you want, can be a big piece of the puzzle. I had a mix recently that locked in when I balanced the bass much larger against the drums than my ear would normally want -- it took it to Sgt. Pepper Land, and suddenly it just felt done. Sometimes changing the reverb the drums are sent to just makes the vibe happen, even if it sounded good before. These things can seem obvious after the fact, but they never fail to fascinate me.

Damn, you're right! At least we still get "The Wild, The Innocent" in there if we drop '75...

Well, Doug Ingle and Ron Bushy are still alive. They can't call you, though, because they're still in the middle of playing "In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida." #tooeasy

It's been that kind of day and general time we're living through, for sure... but this brought tears to my eyes.

Well, fixed the problem! I had moved this discussion over the the Hammond groups on Reddit and Facebook (you know it was bad if it made me open up Facebook again this close the the US Presidential election -- the noise had escalated to the point of making the organ unusable, which is also the problem I have with Facebook :wink:) but I wanted to bring the solution back here in case anyone was interested. After swapping out tubes, talking to techs on the phone, and trying different outlets/power cables/surge protectors, someone on Facebook suggested something so easy that I figured I might as well -- floor the volume pedal and play with the drawbars full-out for a second and see if it changes anything. It did. Son of a... Had a little bit of volume vacillation on the lower manual, but the moaning, groaning, and clipping were reduced significantly. A little aggressive manipulation of the C/V and percussion switches made it disappear completely. I followed it up with some DeOxit on the control surfaces, getting the switches and the drawbars, and the organ has been functioning normally ever since. Honestly, I think that thing was so full of dust and dirt and grime that regular playing has been moving it around, and it must have been shorting out some connections. I'm relieved to know that, rather than an expensive rebuild or part replacement, it just needed a little cleaning. Something to keep in mind for the future.

There is Physical Graffiti to consider as well... but I'm definitely in the "mid-to-late-60s to early-to-mid-70s camp" myself. Too much of my favorite music is split over that period, and while probably more of my favorite records are technically from the 70s, a lot of my big, top-of-the-list favorites would be missing if it were just that decade, including the first two records of both Zeppelin and the Band. Plus a certain reasonably well-known English four-piece... So I too must agree, starting my favorite decade with Rubber Soul is a necessity, even if it means '75 gets edged out.

I wonder if there are any other threads on the forum that discuss the pros and cons of running keyboards in mono or stereo. I jest, I jest.

This thread is reminding me of the time my friend and his dad took me to go see Judas Priest while I was home on break from college. It was a big arena show with Priest headlining, and the opening acts were Black Label Society (the loudest band I've ever heard in person) and... Thin Lizzy. My buddy and I were joking about Thin Lizzy all the way to the show and into their set -- "isn't Thin Lizzy just Phil Lynott and whoever he brings with him? He's been dead since the 80s! It's like if Motorhead went out without Lemmy!" -- and the band was, indeed, one or two guys who were in Thin Lizzy at one point and then... some other guys. We thought it was hilarious. But there was a certain point during their set (I think after they gave a shout-out to Phil Lynott) where I got past my cynicism and realized, hey, these are guys whose age and chosen style of music put them on the outs with the big-money cool-factory of the music industry, and they get to make their living going out on the road and playing great music that moves people. Sure, is it a little weird that they have to take on a Popular Brand with which they have little or no history to make that happen? Yeah, but that's life as an artist under capitalism. This way, instead of working in a cubicle somewhere, they get to play The Boys Are Back in Town in a packed arena and hang out with Rob Halford. I think that's pretty cool.

Good on Sput for making bank playing Rosanna! Any artist, no matter how famous, is lucky to have that guy behind the kit. And yeah, it's pretty clear to me even from what Lukather is saying in this article that they're only maintaining the Toto name for the project because it will sell more tickets. Seems like a higher-publicity way to get out and play their new solo material along with some hits, instead of settling for smaller venues. More like when that band with Chris Squire and Trevor Rabin were convinced to keep calling their new project Yes, or whatever that later version of Black Sabbath was that had Tony Iommi and three or four other schmoes. The Macca-calls-it-the-Beatles comparison is how I often feel about bands (including solo artists like Elton John and Billy Joel who had Classic Support Bands that get chiseled away over the years, robbing the artist of a signature sound), but the Fabs are the exception to the rule, where the four members were equal icons and celebrities in the eyes of the public, and that lineup was maintained for the entire recording career. It's not like George left after Rubber Soul and they made albums with Pete Best, Ringo, and Alan White as the drummers. Same four-person lineup for the band's entire recording career. It's more like if Macca went out solo and called it Wings... which is sort of what that band was, no disrespect intended to Denny Laine.

I hear this! There's Soulive, which isn't strictly "jazz," I suppose, and of course, there's Medeski Martin and Wood (which isn't really a traditional organ trio instrumentation, since there's a bass player rather than a horn or second chordal instrument that leaves the organist to cover the bassline), but I'd also be interested to hear about some other more "progressive" organ trios as well. I did just remember seeing a fun organ trio on tour, a band called -- wait for it -- Organ Freeman. Definitely more of a funk/jam band situation stylistically, more rock than Soulive and not as avant-jazz as MMW. Very fun to see as an unexpected opening act. [video:youtube] Now I'm done derailing the thread!

I'm wondering if it may have something to do with the C/V on the Hammond. The tone of the rumble changes noticeably when I turn the C/V knob -- even though the C/V isn't engaged! -- and if I do engage it, all the chorus settings, 1 through 3, trigger the clipping distortion immediately, but the vibrato settings only trigger it at certain volume pedal points (again, it's not like having the volume louder triggers the distortion sooner -- it's just certain points along the travel distance of the pedal). When I started, the behavior was totally normal when the Hammond was on Soft, and I only got into trouble when the volume was set to Normal. Now it's an issue no matter what, and setting the volume to Normal, or switching on the C/V on either manual, triggers the clipping immediately. What fun! And again, the Leslie sounds fine when I'm running other keyboards into it with the preamp, so it seems more likely that it's something in the Hammond... but I'm new to all of this, of course. Anyway, I have some replacement tubes and other backup parts, and I'll test a few things out in case it fixes it before just getting the tech out here. I have a bunch of recording projects lined up for the winter, so I'll want to make sure it's in tip-top shape before then (getting the Wurli tuned up this weekend too). But first, my wife and I are going on a little trip for our anniversary today through Sunday. So I can worry about it when I get back!

Agree, Ed. My E7(with VV pre amp installed) lives on top of my Hammond A 100. They live at home with me, as does my Kawai acoustic piano. Very few bands gig with these types of keyboards anymore. *Meekly raises hand* I've gigged with one. Not out on The Road or anything, but a solid handful of times a year, at venues that you'd laugh at, and without nearly as many issues as you might imagine. I have a D6, and it's definitely a pain in the ass to move -- it's a heavy, fragile SOB -- but man, is it a treat to play. Ain't nothing like the real thing. You do have to tune it, but mine at least stays in pretty well, and while the number of strings makes tuning a little tedious, leaving the frontplate off makes it easy to adjust on the fly with a flathead screwdriver. I've never had to retune during a gig or anything, though the stabby nature of the parts I play on it probably obscure potential tuning issues. I will say that I've broken two strings in the upper register in the six years I've had the thing and have been taking it out, and after a valiant attempt to restring it, I just said "screw it, I don't play up there very often anyway". Of course, the end of this story is predictable: post-Covid, I won't be taking it out nearly as often. I never say never, but I have a home studio now where my D6 also sits nicely on top of a Hammond, and it took me the first month of quarantine just to feel like I was recharged from gig burnout... so I'll generally be traveling a little lighter if things ever go back to normal.