NewYorkDave
Well-known member
I don't get the magazine anymore. Anyone wanna hook a brother up? :wink:
electronic_dave
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hotmail
electronic_dave
(at)
hotmail
Van Gelder interview in TapeOp
- Thread starter NewYorkDave
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Rob Flinn
Well-known member
I`d be into reading this also.
thermionic
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2004
- Messages
- 1,671
[quote author="Rob Flinn"]I`d be into reading this also.[/quote]
Ditto.
There's a 3-page discussion on RVG at Massenburg's forum at the moment: http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/t/2041/0 Check GM's Hancock story :grin:
J
Ditto.
There's a 3-page discussion on RVG at Massenburg's forum at the moment: http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/t/2041/0 Check GM's Hancock story :grin:
J
Mbira
Well-known member
I've got that one at home-I think (I've moved). Let me try and find it...
Joel
Joel
SonsOfThunder
Well-known member
Dave,
Its 7.5 pages. PM me with an email and I'll scan it as a pdf and send.
I'll tell you now that its all historic. The author comments in the beginning that there was no technical how-to. If you want me to really spoil the interview for you, I can do it in pretty short order.
Basically, he says that people liked coming to his studio (back in the day) because it wasn't a studio. Before he built his studio that he is still in (Englewood Cliffs), his parents had built a house in Hackensack that was pretty much purpose-built as a studio...with a control room and all. Hope that doesn't give too much away.
It was interesting but I've read much more interesting articles in TapeOp.
HTH!
Charlie
Its 7.5 pages. PM me with an email and I'll scan it as a pdf and send.
I'll tell you now that its all historic. The author comments in the beginning that there was no technical how-to. If you want me to really spoil the interview for you, I can do it in pretty short order.
Basically, he says that people liked coming to his studio (back in the day) because it wasn't a studio. Before he built his studio that he is still in (Englewood Cliffs), his parents had built a house in Hackensack that was pretty much purpose-built as a studio...with a control room and all. Hope that doesn't give too much away.
It was interesting but I've read much more interesting articles in TapeOp.
HTH!
Charlie
b3groover
Well-known member
I might be typing it up for my own sake and somehow it might make it's way to my forums.
SonsOfThunder
Well-known member
Finally got this scanned and sent to Rob. Its 4.5MB and I don't know if thats going to clog up a hotmail acct. NYDave and Thermionic, please PM me if you are still interested. Thanks!
bradzatitagain
Well-known member
- Joined
- Oct 7, 2004
- Messages
- 295
[quote author="SonsOfThunder"]Dave,
Its 7.5 pages. PM me with an email and I'll scan it as a pdf and send.
I'll tell you now that its all historic. The author comments in the beginning that there was no technical how-to. If you want me to really spoil the interview for you, I can do it in pretty short order.
Basically, he says that people liked coming to his studio (back in the day) because it wasn't a studio. Before he built his studio that he is still in (Englewood Cliffs), his parents had built a house in Hackensack that was pretty much purpose-built as a studio...with a control room and all. Hope that doesn't give too much away.
It was interesting but I've read much more interesting articles in TapeOp.
HTH!
Charlie[/quote]
Van Gelder is, and pretty much always has been, notoriously hush-hush about his methodology. I can't recall, did the Miles/Monk thing happen in the Englewood studio or in his Mom's living room. Imagine, recording Monk in your Mom's living room... BTW from all the first gen rock tape-ops and engineers stories I've heard, like George S. over at the Ampex list, it was all pretty much flying fingers coffee and tobacco, and lot's of praying you got it all on the first take (in mono!)
Its 7.5 pages. PM me with an email and I'll scan it as a pdf and send.
I'll tell you now that its all historic. The author comments in the beginning that there was no technical how-to. If you want me to really spoil the interview for you, I can do it in pretty short order.
Basically, he says that people liked coming to his studio (back in the day) because it wasn't a studio. Before he built his studio that he is still in (Englewood Cliffs), his parents had built a house in Hackensack that was pretty much purpose-built as a studio...with a control room and all. Hope that doesn't give too much away.
It was interesting but I've read much more interesting articles in TapeOp.
HTH!
Charlie[/quote]
Van Gelder is, and pretty much always has been, notoriously hush-hush about his methodology. I can't recall, did the Miles/Monk thing happen in the Englewood studio or in his Mom's living room. Imagine, recording Monk in your Mom's living room... BTW from all the first gen rock tape-ops and engineers stories I've heard, like George S. over at the Ampex list, it was all pretty much flying fingers coffee and tobacco, and lot's of praying you got it all on the first take (in mono!)
Flatpicker
Well-known member
I sent him .jpg files on the 6th.
b3groover
Well-known member
This is also typed up on my forums by yours truly (maybe a little easier to read than a scan, I don't know.)
Do a search for "Interview with RVG".
Do a search for "Interview with RVG".
[quote author="bradzatitagain"]it was all pretty much flying fingers coffee and tobacco, and lot's of praying you got it all on the first take (in mono!)[/quote]
you know, seems like it would be like a lot of praying and stress but I think I disagree. Its just the job, the mindset, thats what it was, make a recording, thats how you did it, and the people that got the jobs were the people that did it well. This is really the main reason so far as Im concerned why records from that period sound as good as they do, the vast majority of people making recordings were intensely competent, not because some school churned them out but because the job demanded it. Ive worked with some older guys that worked in the late 60's at least and the mentality is just sooo different from what I see with guys in my generation. I have a little bit of perspective on this subject, MIXING, when I record production sound for features (which is about half my gig these days, little less) Im mixing to mono I'd say about %90 of the time from as many as 8 channels of people talking, which is about as random as it can be, no drum kit to take your cues from. Its a challenging job, but the demand is there for a usable mono mix, especially so on a low budget feature, so you just learn to do it and adapt around the confines of the situation. There are some guys that split everything out to multitracks and they get very little love in the industry for doing so, I often think this is how the older guys from the 50's must look at all of us today, laughing.
The best drum sound I ever got was with a setup that had sucked the day before with a different drummer. New guy comes in who is one of the best drummers on earth and I havent changed a single thing and Ive made personal history, just like that. The whole thing really suprised me.
Take a situation described above with musicians as competent as monk and davis and pair that with someone as competent as van gelder and quite honestly, Im betting that its not that van gelder is being particularly secretive about a single thing that he did, its just not believeable to hear him go, "I just went in, turned the stuff on, put up some mics, recorded it and that was it". Id bet anything it was just as simple as that and there really isnt much of a story to tell.
For me, thats the relationship I usually have with the stuff Im most proud of, simplicity just flows and always sounds bigger than the stuff I tweak at for days or weeks or months. I have long elaborate stories about how I made a poorly recorded thing sound somewhat passable but the stuff that is done right the first time, there's never a tale. I hate to say it but so much of the time, with good musicians, the gear just doesnt matter at all so long as you are using stuff that is decent.
dave
you know, seems like it would be like a lot of praying and stress but I think I disagree. Its just the job, the mindset, thats what it was, make a recording, thats how you did it, and the people that got the jobs were the people that did it well. This is really the main reason so far as Im concerned why records from that period sound as good as they do, the vast majority of people making recordings were intensely competent, not because some school churned them out but because the job demanded it. Ive worked with some older guys that worked in the late 60's at least and the mentality is just sooo different from what I see with guys in my generation. I have a little bit of perspective on this subject, MIXING, when I record production sound for features (which is about half my gig these days, little less) Im mixing to mono I'd say about %90 of the time from as many as 8 channels of people talking, which is about as random as it can be, no drum kit to take your cues from. Its a challenging job, but the demand is there for a usable mono mix, especially so on a low budget feature, so you just learn to do it and adapt around the confines of the situation. There are some guys that split everything out to multitracks and they get very little love in the industry for doing so, I often think this is how the older guys from the 50's must look at all of us today, laughing.
The best drum sound I ever got was with a setup that had sucked the day before with a different drummer. New guy comes in who is one of the best drummers on earth and I havent changed a single thing and Ive made personal history, just like that. The whole thing really suprised me.
Take a situation described above with musicians as competent as monk and davis and pair that with someone as competent as van gelder and quite honestly, Im betting that its not that van gelder is being particularly secretive about a single thing that he did, its just not believeable to hear him go, "I just went in, turned the stuff on, put up some mics, recorded it and that was it". Id bet anything it was just as simple as that and there really isnt much of a story to tell.
For me, thats the relationship I usually have with the stuff Im most proud of, simplicity just flows and always sounds bigger than the stuff I tweak at for days or weeks or months. I have long elaborate stories about how I made a poorly recorded thing sound somewhat passable but the stuff that is done right the first time, there's never a tale. I hate to say it but so much of the time, with good musicians, the gear just doesnt matter at all so long as you are using stuff that is decent.
dave
FWIW: van Gelder did once do a mediocre recording. My gal has the proof: you can see his signature in the end-grove. It is a Philadelphia String Band recording. It has that sound like the client didn't want to pay enough, didn't want to cooperate with the recordist, or something.
Just to continue the iconoclasm, listen to Bobby Timmons's piano on the title track of Art Blakey's Moanin. Sounds like there's a mic touching the soundboard, kinda nasty. And I think Rudy had a hard time recording Art in general, there's some nasty overload on the drums on a lot of his stuff.
