When did your love for music and recording meet?

[aliengroover]

There is a lot of great conversation going on about getting back to great music and making great recordings. I'd like to know at what point did these two worlds first truly collide in your life? At what point was the artist/songwriter/producer/engineer born?

 

For me, I never stepped foot in a studio, but I was surrounded by a musical family. One day while jamming with my cousins, I looked over at the old record player/radio/cassette combo, and the two microphone inputs. Then over to the PA and speakers. I plugged in my TR707 and Yamaha SK20, grabbed two of those old little mics that came with the stereo and set them up in front of the speakers, and thus took my first stab at recording. Then it was repeating that process to add vocals. I was about 14. It was very crude, yet very fun.

 

I spent every day trying to perfect that process. I wanted to get the best sound out of what was almost no tools, and have a solid way of recording our songs and jams. I still have those tapes, and we laugh at them from time to time.

 

I never imagined I'd have the tools I have now. Yet, I still pride myself on making the best out of very little. That stereo is still in the basement reminding me of that.

Peace

[Tedster]

For me, it was when I read the old Hunter Davies book about the Beatles, and he referred to something I'd never heard of, a "layer cake" approach to recording (multitracking in layman's terms). I was about 15 or so, had no idea what that was. A couple years later, a buddy of mine brought over two old stereo Grundig tape machines and showed me how to ping-pong tracks between 'em. Sounded like crap, but boy was it fun!!! I could (uhhh...) hmmm...er...play with myself (and not go blind). But the 4 channel tape decks of the day still didn't allow multitrack without that head-delay issue. Finally, TEAC announced a brand new recorder, the 3340, with simul-sync Wow! Was that ever cool! It meant home grown schmucks like me could have fun recording, too!

 

My first home recording setup was a Tascam 40-4 with the noise reduction and a (I think) Model 2 board.

[Bruce Swedien]

aliengroover.......

 

When I was ten years old, my parents gave a disc recording machine. Five minutes later I knew what I was gong to be doing for the rest of my life!!!

 

Nice thread groovemeister!!!

 

Bruce Swedien

[miroslav]

When I was about 10-12 years old...my folks bought this small, portable reel-to-reel deck...mono...with attached microphone. It was like a small little suitcase.

 

Anyway...my folks owned a luncheonette next to the local high school...and all the kids use to hit it in the morning and the afternoon.

We had a jukebox loaded with all the latest hits...lots of Motown, and AM radio singles.

 

I use to sit in the back-booth by the jukebox...recording the music that was playing and the ambient noise made by the high school kidsit was a blast to play it back and hear what I managed to capture. Had a lot of fun doing that!

I didn't consciously think at that moment I was going to get into music/recording...

...but Im pretty sure the seed was subliminally planted.

 

Fast forward to my late teens and early twenties...

After messing with the "band" thing for a while...I bought a nice 4-Track and started recording things...anything.

Then...as I started writing music...it all came together.

Write...play...record!!!

[alfonso]

I was in my early 20's (1982?..) and since there playing guitar as a hobby in city bands, mostly in political happenings, occupied schools, all nite long jams....

 

then I met a friend who had a Tascam 144, 4 track cassette recorder, a Siel Cruise synth, a Korg Minipops and a tape delay made with a Stereo 8 cassette (those large tape cassettes that were mostly used in car stereos with several parallel tracks for a sliding head..).

 

Whe spent 2 months experimenting and making music that was ahead many years I think, running the Minipops button drum machine mixing tempos (more buttons at once) at super fast speeds in a "jungle" way or incredibly slow filling the spaces with delays, and entering in that new dimention for me of the non-musician music, as my friend barely used three fingers on the keyboard but had in incredible amount of dreaming power and poetry in his sound voyages. We had no computer. I purchased one year later my first computer, an AppleII-E, with an italian MIDI sequencer program based on Step List entering.

 

That experience showed me that recording techniques could an incredible part of a creative process, and I felt in love.

I've been recording things for others only as a favour, never professionally, but for me it has become a part of my creative process.

[Super 8]

Well, it all started in the 80's with the purchase of a Yamaha MT2X 4trk. I had a lot of fun with that thing.

 

Then later I worked at the music building at college....which was as close as I ever got to getting in the music program. I got to use some cool gear and much nicer mics than I was able to appreciate at the time. I recorded recitals and some jazz gigs, and a few big names that played. Some of it was lame. Some was cool. A few things were awesome, and you better believe I kept copies of those on dat!(now if I only had a dat player...

I had a lot of fun working there. It was the best part of college.

 

So the 4 track started an interest, and the college studio gave me an appreciation for making a good recording.

 

I like doing recordings and running sound, but I'm not a huge buff like Phil, all them people.

[Mats Olsson.]

3 Defining moments:

 

When I was around 4 years old and my 15 year older brother played a single for me: The Beatles/She Loves You. This caught my attention like nothing else.

 

When I was 10, I got a portable Telefunken cassette recorder for christmas. I was hooked.

 

By the time I was 14, I had saved enough money to buy a used reel to reel recorder and a pair of microphones. I started to make stereo recordings.

[D. Gauss]

when i heard nancy sinatra sing..."these boots are made for walking"

 

-d. gauss

[where02190]

When I finally admitted to myself that I stunk as a musician.

[Mark LaCoste]

When I wanted to record "When I'm 64" for my grandparents. I had two crappy cassette recorders.

recorded myself on one of them, then played it back and played the next part (in this case, probably comb/tissue paper) while the other recorded... I was in Junior High. Those worse-case recording were the most educational I ever did.

[Ren.]

When I realized I couldn't make a living by 'playing' music... So what's the next best thing? Recording it.

[Dan Worley]

I'm not so sure I love the recording process all the time. It's kind of a love/hate thing for me. Writing songs is a love/hate thing too, and I've been doing that for thirty-seven years (I'm 49). But I love it...and hate it.

 

But I do love good music. "Good" being defined as what I love.

 

c-ya,

 

Dan Worley

[aeon]

It started when I was 5 or 6 and my dad would bring me to work (at the TV/radio station) to do voice work for radio commercials and stuff.

 

I would sit in the vocal booth/room and between takes I would look through the glass window and marvel at the mixing board and wires and tape machines...

 

Eventually, I got to go on that side, and the engineer showed me what the mixer could do, and how he could make 2 copies of my voice play back at the same time (magic!).

 

I remember the tape machine said "Ampex."

 

I got to play with my first-ever synthesizer in that room too, a Moog modular! (wow, just like the one on the Clockwork Orange album, one of my fave records as a child.)

 

This would have been 1974-1975.

 

I guess it was both the start of something, and a harbinger of things to come, LOL!

 

cheers,

aeon

[Bunny Knutson]

Topic: When did your love for music and recording meet?

 

It was a dark and stormy night. I was making sweet romance with my love for music when suddenly my love for recording burst into the bedroom! At first, the look on her face was one of abject horror, but then I noticed a glimmer in her eye, and a smirk began to creep across her face.

 

Without warning, my love of recording stripped down to her bare reels, and jumped into the bed of music with me and my other love. It was a ménage à pure ecstacy! My love of music, my love of recording, and I were together at last!

 

And, of course, the memory of our union was saved for posterity, on eight tracks! (No, you can't hear an MP3)

[Dan Worley]

Originally posted by Bunny.:

Topic: When did your love for music and recording meet?

 

It was a dark and stormy night. I was making sweet romance with my love for music when suddenly my love for recording burst into the bedroom! At first, the look on her face was one of abject horror, but then I noticed a glimmer in her eye, and a smirk began to creep across her face.

 

Without warning, my love of recording stripped down to her bare reels, and jumped into the bed of music with me and my other love. It was a ménage à pure ecstacy! My love of music, my love of recording, and I were together at last!

 

And, of course, the memory of our union was saved for posterity, on eight tracks! (No, you can't hear an MP3)

LOL!

 

It's probably time to stop reading Penthouse forum for awhile. Give yourself a rest.

 

 

Dan Worley

[russrags]

I've been wanting to post this for the last couple years. Seems this thread might be a good fit.

 

BEST MUSICAL MOMENTS

 

Getting off the school bus and RUNNING home as fast as I could because I knew the DJ played "Great Balls Of Fire" at the same time every day.

 

1st tape recorder gosh it used to be fun recording farts and toilet flushes.

 

Buying the Beatles First Album. and later buying the whole catalog at one time on CD.

 

The first time I ever blew out a window with an electric GTR

 

Learning how to play House of the Rising Sun on GTR 1st Rock song after Mel Bay

 

Buying a Gibson 335 .. just because Chuck Berry played one

 

Listening to WLS (Chicago) while delivering my newspapers in Texas

 

1st concert 1970 Faces and Three Dog Night with 70 thousand people in the crowd .. Magie Mae was #1 on the charts.

 

1st BJ to Dont Let The Sun Go Down On Me

 

Playing LIVE in front of 3000 people with my parents in the audience

 

My 1st new car I ever bought came with an 8-trk tape of Tina Turner

 

Buying a Fostex X-15 4-trk cass and recording my 1st 100 songs

 

Listening to 867-5309 all Summer

 

Discovering Genesis records starting with Duke and buying everyone on either side of that one release, until they started sucking pretty bad.

 

1st concert after a divorce from my wife Phil Collins Face Value tour 100 miles from home and who has the seat next to me ???? ex wife 3000/1 chance of that happening I guess since it was a real small show.

 

Having David Gilmour hand me a signed Tele (which sounded pretty pink) from the About Face tour

 

Any Floyd tour

 

Stevie Ray Vaughn

 

Westlake Audio/LA Studio D

 

Standing next to Stevie Wonder in the Studio while he laid down some of the most rippinest tracks Ive ever heard and watching Bruce Swedien erase a killer track in hopes of a better one.

 

Listening to Cloud Nine from the ½ analog Master with George Harrison

 

Watching David Lee Roth rehearse for a couple of months in an empty theater in Pasadena

 

Seeing my name on Michael Jacksons BAD album

 

Listening to Barbra Striesand sing from 6 feet away then comping vocals all night with Phil Ramone

 

Sitting on the piano bench with Ray Manzarek while he played songs for me same thing with Paul Carrack

 

Doing the 1st Digital Recording ever to be recorded (in Montana)

 

Being part of a team that recorded a 128 piece orchestra with Henry Mancini and then finding out we lived in the same neighborhood and meeting him regularly at a local bar

 

Standing at Paul Rogers feet while he was swinging a microphone and I was soooooo close I ducked . And he told me I wont hitcha

 

Recording Janes Addiction while they played only ZZ Top / Led Zepplin songs for 3 weeks

They all went into rehab after that

 

Making a record with Chris Hillman from the Byrds

and after the release of that record he was inducted to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

 

Going to see Little Feat / Allman Bros together without tickets and getting in SOMEHOW and once inside the usher asked me if he could help me find my seats (me fumbling around for a ticket stub which I didnt have) let me take you to your seats . Front and Center YES !!!

 

Watching Pee Wee Herman with Billy Idol after all nighters in the Studio

 

Having a client hand me $1.5 and tell me he wanted to buy a Studio

 

Recording LIVE shows on the Westwood One remote truck

 

Hearing my CD blasted through the sound system when I won a W.C. Handy Award May 2000

 

Seeing my friend Rick Lathem play drums with Edgar Winter on the Frankenstien drum solo

 

Recording GTR heros of mine Mark Knopfler / Louie Shelton / Robin Trower

 

Recording Leon Russell on 200 songs in 3 years

 

Going to Chet Atkins funeral

 

Russ

[Kendrix]

Much like Miroslav I got a tiny 2 track reel to reel tape machine when I was about 10 years old. I really dug it.

Thats when i learned about noise floors

I still have the machine and some very very old tapes.

I just cant bring myself to throw it out.

 

My father always had one of the best stereo systems in town. He played his big band music as loud as I played Hendrix. He played with the early surround/quad implementations. I'm sure that was a big influence.

 

When in fifth grade some high school/college guy gave a performance at our school. He was a one man band. He used a two track tape machine creatively to back himself up and present a full arrangement live. He would effectively bounce tracks while adding new live elements. He demonstrated the whole process to us. I was way jealous of this guy - even though he was a total nerd.

 

The next major recording experience involved a friend with an even better reel-to-reel doing stereo recordings of my junior high school jazz band (I played sax).

A few came out really well.

(Two mics two speakers.)

 

When I was in sixth grade I wrote letters to 3-4 of the top record companies asking them how to go about becomming a recording engineer.

...No one answered.

 

I got "sidetracked" for several years after college with a day job unrelated to music.

However, I find my physics background comes in very handy in understanding acoustics and recording.

 

When I hit forty I started my official mid-life crisis home studio.

[Lee Knight]

The Tascam 244. I could never seem to get the money up for the 144. Then they released the 244 and I had the cash... and I had the latest version. All my 144 owning buddies were jealous!

 

Then... trying to learn how to make music on the the thing and not just noise.

 

Then... trying to learn how to make music on the the thing and not just noise.

 

Then... trying to learn how to make music on the the thing and not just noise.

 

Then... trying to learn how to make music on the the thing and not just noise.

 

I'm still trying to work that one out, it's just not a Tascam 244 anymore.

[strat0124]

Listening to all my parents albums on the HiFi and getting a cassette recorder for Christmas.

[Steve Force]

Realistic Reel-to-reel and small cassette deck as a boy/teenager (late 1960's - early 1970's).

 

Fast forward to mid-late 1990's: affordable PC-based DAW and affordable good used gear.

 

I always loved the technical aspects of music (comes from being a son of an electronics engineer and have been a professional IS-type for over 25 years now)so I regularly read various magazines/books on the subject.

 

However, never seriously approached recording until I could afford good gear (a few years back) and had some spare time to do it justice.

 

Yes, I am a hobbyist (and proud of it) but love hanging here and reading all of these informed postings.

 

Thanks.