Another great old documentary about the recording of a classic album from YouTube – this time of Peter Gabriel’s fourth album.
I’ve written before about how much I love the sound of this great-sounding album, so finding this video and being able to see the songs actually being written – well, I got a bit over-excited, actually.
There are so many fascinating and enjoyable things here that it’s hard to know where to start, but one thing that jumped out at me straight away was – look at the studio ! If you can call it a studio. In fact, you can’t – it’s just a room with a load of gear in it – a far cry from the facilites at Real World today. And all the vocals were recorded on… a Shure SM57 !
Another is the inspirational use of early sampling technology – in this era of gigabyte-sized multi-sample sound libraries, it’s easy to forget that you (and should) build the sonic signature of an entire song around the sound of nothing more than someone blowing across a metal pipe…
And finally, who knew it was so hard to smash a telly ?
[Edit - The Beatles have been mentioned several times in the comments on my "LCR Mixing Sucks" post, and I was reminded of this post from way back - if you haven't already watched the video, I strongly recommend it !]
I’ve already labelledGeorge Martin as a “god-like-genius” amongst producers – although, after watching Elizabeth Gilbert’s inspiring TED talk on nurturing creativity, perhaps I should use different terminology…
Either way, his work with the Beatles means that over 30 years later he is still regarded by many as the ultimaterecord producer. A musician, engineer and inspirational collaborator, without whom the Beatles’ music would have been unrecognisable, and – in my opinion – nowhere near as fascinating, important or influential.
People loved this when I posted it on Twitter, and I thought it was well worth putting it up here, too.
If you think you put loads of effort into your recording and mixing – watch this, and think again ! Brings new meaning to the phrase “playing the studio”. No extra commentary is needed from me, I don’t want to spoil the fun – enjoy.
Welcome back my friends, to the show that never ends, We’re so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside…
I know, it’s been ages.
And, the way things are looking at the moment, it’s going to stay slow for a while longer yet…
So, stay tuned to the RSS feed for future updates, including a brief summary of all the goings-on of Dynamic Range Day – but in the meantime – enjoy this video about the recording and mixing of Queen’s ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’.
I was going to say “please enjoy this video”, but honestly, if there isn’t something to delight or amuse you in here, you’re reading the wrong blog.
So, do you see what I’ve done here ? This video is:
About a classic piece of music
A little Christmassy (Although “Do They Know It’s Christmas Time” has to be one of the least Christmassy tunes ever)
About recording and production (At least, it includes some footage of people in SARM studios)
Thought-provoking (I think), and
Includes loads of footage of eighties pop stars with ridiculous haircuts !
I’m feeling quite smug
More seriously though, I was really pleased to find this. Band Aid and Live Aid had huge impact on me when I was growing up – I believe the idea of pop music being used selflessly for the good of others is an inspirational one, regardless of how effective they were at achieving their goals with hindsight. There are many people who are cynical about this kind of thing – I’m not one of them.
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