Paul - Chaos & Creation at Abbey Road / PBS Tonite

shamustwin · Post by **shamustwin** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 9:45 am

I thought Ziggy Stardust was the first rock record done on a 16 track machine. Certainly enough clean separation on it to argue the point.
Perhaps Hendrix' was multiple 8's.
This has been gone over in one of George Martin's books, but I've forgotten.

soundmasterg · Post by **soundmasterg** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 5:11 pm

I seem to recall they used multiple 4 track machines and bounced stuff around to get the finished result on Peppers. The White Album had an 8 track machine too from what I've heard. Its not that hard to envision them doing the multiple machine thing, because they used multiple machines throughout the building to do Tomorrow Never Knows on the Revolver album....they probably just took that one step further.

I can tell you all about bouncing tracks on tape...I did this on my first project....and I bounced the drums down to two tracks. The rest of the tracks were recorded live to the tape, and you can tell. I had to get it into the computer to do some tricks to get it to sound ok, and it still isn't as good as it would be if I hadn't made a bounce. Learned my lesson there...no more bouncing tracks from tape to tape!

soundmasterg · Post by **soundmasterg** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 5:12 pm

Forgot to add that I missed the McCartney show after trying to tape it twice and having VCR problems. So I'm hoping its on again...

chingnchime · Post by **chingnchime** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 6:31 pm

Greg-Guess you've realized that once one bounces drums, they're inseparable, which is always tricky if the song has a lot of dynamics. I painted myself into a corner several times long ago. I wore out 2 of the old Fostex x-15 cassette 4 tracks back in the mid 80s. Thought i was a big deal when i went to 8 tr half inch! I now use a Alesis HD24
w/ a Panasonic/Ramsa DA7 digital console. I'm not yet computer based, but am compatible when i decide to. I believe good mics and placement are a key point. A relatively cheap mic I bought several years ago was an AKG 535 EB which is great for vocals and acoustic guitar. Probably on ebay for $150. New they were about $275. I ended up getting a pair for drum overheads. Okay, I'll shut up now...

soundmasterg · Post by **soundmasterg** » Mon Mar 06, 2006 8:59 pm

Steve, yes I did realize to not bounce drums. Thankfully I realized that on my first project. Good mics and placement and the room you're recording in is all important. I could record here at the house for basic drums tracks, but I spend the money to go to a real studio with a good room and get a good drum sound down. In the end it saves me money. I have a tube Oktava mic that is really nice, and I recently got some small Oktava condensor mics and some Oktava ribbon mics for a very good price too. These are great budget mics, but be careful to not get a cheap chinese copy. There are a ton of mics I'd liek to get but need to get more money for them.

simer4001 · Post by **simer4001** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 7:12 am

I watched the episode again, but this time with my 8 year old son. He really dug it. I saw it differently this time and we had a blast watching it. It was cool watching it on TIVO because he rewound the bits he liked to see them again. That was cool!

soundmasterg · Post by **soundmasterg** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 9:46 pm

I wish I had a copy of it. Stupid VCR got messed up and didn't tape it twice...