MetaFilter posts tagged with Recording

LiveR Than You'll Ever Be

Joe Beese — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 06:59:33 -0800

40 years ago today, The Rolling Stones played two concerts at the Oakland-Alameda County Coliseum. In the darkness of the audience was a man known to history only as "Dub"... [audio auto-plays] His recording of the later show was in stores by Christmas as LiveR Than You'll Ever Be. Reviewing it in Rolling Stone, Greil Marcus wrote: It is the most exciting record I have heard all year, fully the equal, in its own way, of Let It Bleed, and in some ways better. All qualifications aside, it is the ultimate Rolling Stones album. In addition to its unprecedented audio fidelity, LiveR made history by its influence on the Rolling Stones discography. Demand for the title pressured Decca into releasing an official live album from the tour - though some considered the eventual Get Yer Ya-Yas Out! spoiled by excessive overdubbing. Both the early and late shows can be heard in best-available sound here . And an extensive history of rock bootlegging can be found in Clinton Heylin's Bootleg: The Secret History of the Other Recording Industry. ( previously)

The Present Sound of London

nthdegx — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 04:13:40 -0800

The Present Sound of London -- "I’ve been lured to London by money at the hottest, stickiest time of year. Every time I visit, I’m struck by the noises—not necessarily their volume, but their strangeness and variety in comparison to the quiet humdrum of the provincial town where I live. So this time I’m equipped with an audio recorder." By Giles Turnbull.

Dinosaur Jr. apparently too old (not really)

auralcoral — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 13:41:22 -0800

[musicnewsfilter]: European copies of Dinosaur Jr.'s new album Farm have been recalled after duplication software "doubled the sound layers, resulting in a 3 dB increase in the overall sound volume." Thankfully, if you have a defective copy you can exchange it for a working copy free of charge. Also, listen to J Mascis' other band Witch to understand further why this happened.

Oldest recorded voice

stbalbach — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 16:34:55 -0800

Last year we discussed a recently discovered 10-second audio recording from 1860 that was thought to be the oldest known recorded human voice, a girl or woman singing the 18th century French folk song “Au Clair de la Lune”. Turns out, it was being played too fast - slow it down and it's the voice of the inventor himself. As well, a number of other recordings have been found, pushing back the oldest recording to 1857. Hear it all on NPR (5-min). “Au Clair de la Lune” various renditions. *France Gall - Au clair de la lune (1964) *Café Crème 2 *au claire de la lune *Au Clair de la Lune

Big boys don't cry

klangklangston — Tue, 12 May 2009 21:03:15 -0800

10cc's I'm Not In Love and the story behind it.

So Right and So Wrong

chuckdarwin — Mon, 27 Apr 2009 02:16:28 -0800

Tape Op Magazine exposes Sufjan Stevens' ghetto recording techniques. Via The Buddy Project

Recording the Dukes of the Stratosphear's 25 o'clock

johnny novak — Fri, 24 Apr 2009 05:56:36 -0800

Andy Partridge (ex-XTC frontman) and producer John Leckie (Stone Roses/Radiohead) discuss the making of The Dukes of the Stratosphear 25 o'clock EP, getting sacked by Mary Margaret O'Hara, Roy Harper kissing a sheep and recording Syd Barrett in Abbey Road in 1975 (parts I and II). XTC's only live performance of Yacht Dance as a bonus extra.

The Year of Led Zeppelin

Joe Beese — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 11:56:45 -0800

The Year of Led Zeppelin: A (completed) quest to listen to every Led Zeppelin concert in a year

The Man Who Invented Stereo

rongorongo — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 09:10:27 -0800

In a single 1931 document, electrical engineer Alan Blumlein patented stereo records, stereo movie sountracks and surround sound. His equipment was used to make some of the first stereo recordings at EMI's Abbey Road studios - several decades before the technology came into popular use. Blumlein went on to pioneer 405 line TV (the first wholly electronic format which won out over John Logie Baird's rival system) and to produce the equipment that made the first outside TV broadcast possible. At the outbreak of World War 2 he was a key architect of the secret H2S radar project. Unfortunately he was killed in a plane crash while testing the technology and the whole incident was kept secret. Hence he remains an obscure figure despite his achievements. A recent BBC Radio 4 program contains a lot of the archive stereo footage and tells his story.

Click click victorious, buzz buzz glorious, Long to reign over us, buzz buzz click click.

Artw — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 10:49:44 -0800

The first known recording of a digital computer playing music, recorded by the BBC in 1951. The music played on a Ferantti Mark 1, one of the first commercial general-use computers, and was entered via punchtape and played on a speaker usually used for making clicks and tones to indicate program progress.

The New Yorker: The Gerbil's Revenge

goodnewsfortheinsane — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 19:09:30 -0800

Tourists black out reflective retinas in snapshots before printing them, and millions of people refer to strangers they’ve never spoken to as friends, because they’ve connected through a social-networking platform. [...] It should come as no surprise, then, that singers sometimes choose to correct recorded flaws in pitch with modern software, like Antares’s Auto-Tune.

Sasha Frere-Jones on auto-tuning, in The New Yorker. Non-print version

Via Antares's own site, interestingly enough.

Previously: 1, 2

Sasha Frere Jones's personal site, New Yorker blog.

Illustrated Histories of Various Recording Technologies

carter — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:25:29 -0800

Illustrated Histories of Various Recording Technologies

Underwater recording of melting Icelandic Glacier

alicesshoe — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 17:53:49 -0800

An Artist's view from her tent. Listen to the view. Yes, listen. Katie Paterson via mobile phone and underwater mike at a glacier lake in Iceland, captures underwater sounds of melting and cracking Jökulsárlón Glacier. Hear it piddling away. Call to listen what the seals are talking about, if they're nearby. Katie Paterson's "A Live Phone Line at Jökulsárlón Glacier". from her site web site, the photo's/landscape are some awesome. Call for the true experience, + 4 4 ( 0 ) 7 7 5 7 0 0 1 1 2 2, you'll be billed international phone rates. [In Canada, LooneyCall 10-15-565-011-354- 4 4 ( 0 ) 7 7 5 7 0 0 1 1 2 2. It'll give you 3 minutes [mobile] for $1.00 — don't hog the line.] or listen online, a 3 minute snippet. Visit the site, you can d/l also. We think of water in a dead heatwave of summer, usually. This artist's subtlety makes one think. What of our natural resources¿ How long will they last¿ Humans need water to survive. Are you buying bottled water¿ Companies extract it for free and charge you for a natural, limited [really] resource. What's wrong with drinking your tap water. Should lawns be forbidden to own anymore. Try growing a wild lawn [maybe with corn] and you're neighbours will revile you. I was just asking myself these questions, after listening to Katie's project. Artist's do make one think, at least, their work should. Has an artist made you think about something so vital to survival lately¿ So important. Have you let your politician know what you're concerned about lately¿ Bravo Katie Paterson for presenting the earth's water issue so magnificantly. So delicately.

Researchers Play Tune Recorded Before Edison See also Phonoautograph

y2karl — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 07:49:18 -0800

Researchers Play Tune Recorded Before Edison
The Phonoautograph
The history of the Phonoautograph. A technology in which you can still buy stock.

The Sound Of Clothes

jack_mo — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 09:58:05 -0800

The Sound Of Clothes features the precise sound of fashion materials such as feathers, sequins, glass crystals and beads, nylon, taffeta, leather, velvet, jacquard, zips and metallic chains, recorded in an anechoic chamber. Videos linked from the page might be NSFW.

The Muscle Shoals Sound

flapjax at midnite — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 06:18:31 -0800

The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section was comprised of four session musicians operating out of the tiny northern Alabama town of town Muscle Shoals. Just four unassuming crackers who happened to have provided the funky underpinning for a huge number of hit songs by, among others, Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett, Paul Simon, Joe Cocker, The Staple Singers , Jimmy Cliff and many, many others. Hey, they were the house band to the greats. Big respect to the men from 3614 Jackson Highway! [note: see hoverovers for link descriptions] Recommended reading: Glory Days: Muscle Shoals 1967 - 1972 Glory Days: Muscle Shoals 1972 - 1980 This short article has a few things to say about the unexpected racial dynamic at work in the Muscle Shoals story: "Apart from all the pop, rock and country hits produced at Fame Studios, Muscle Shoals Sound and the others, the scene's contribution to soul music, specifically, is fascinating in the way that it demonstrates interracial exchange in the creation of music that was soulful, funky, and very conscious, even celebratory, of its blackness." --- "...recordings made by this weird and wonderful group of musicians, who damn near created new ways to talk about race and music, and did it at the height of the Civil Rights/Black Power Movements, in the heart of Dixie". Muscle Shoals Sound Studio: YouTube montage of images and snippets of songs recorded there. Warning: contains abrupt, spirit-jarring segue from Staple Singer's "I'll Take You There" to Bob Seger's "Down On Main Street". Ouch. What's missing from today's music. Working with Duane Allman. Muscle Shoals Horns. Curious historical anecdote concerning Lynyrd Skynyrd. The studio's obituary. And another.

(NSC) - RIP Ron Murphy, master vinyl cutter.

loquacious — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 02:55:52 -0800

Ron Murphy cut records, but not just any records. Responsible for cutting the actual vinyl master plates of much of the now revered Detroit Techno including Jeff Mills, Carl Craig, Underground Resistance's seminal Knights of the Jaguar, and much more - he demonstrated impeccable craftsmanship and skill in both mastering records for sound and aesthetics at company known as Sound Enterprises source link AKA National Sound Corporation. Schooled in Motown, dubplates and jukeboxes, he is the bespoke-crafted, analog link between the digital future and analog past that is the roots of Techno music and modern techno DJ culture. One hour interview here, in mp3 format. (Coral Cache link. Original link here. Which includes gems such as "Richie Hawtin? Well, here's the Elvis of Techno!". He's a lovely curmudgeon, I promise. It's worth the download just for the tracks they play in the background and breaks in the interview, all NSC-cut tracks.) Are you a DJ? Own any older techno, club or pop-remix club vinyl? Look for the handwritten (NSC) tag on the run-out spiral on the inside of the record, nearest the label. Ron Murphy cut the plates for that record. Ron Murphy also pushed the the boundaries of plate cutting with his NSC-X2 technique, spiraling two separate tracks together in a paired helix on the platter. He also experimented with reverse spirals, locked ending grooves, and hybrid platters where the outside track spiraled in normally, and the inside track spiraled out and they met between mid-record in a locked groove. Thanks, Ron, for making it sound so good, and caring.

Bootleg Woody Guthrie concert restored

dylanjames — Fri, 08 Feb 2008 19:40:53 -0800

... a small, heavy package wrapped in brown paper arrived in the mail at the Woody Guthrie Archives in New York City. Inside was a mess of wires. It wasn't a bomb - it turned out to be the only live recording of Woody Guthrie known to exist. The wire was fragile, bent, stretched and twisted. Jamie Howarth applied some algorithms he had developed to restore old recordings, and the result has been nominated for a Grammy.

Audible Illusions

sambosambo — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 05:34:26 -0800

Holophonic sound is an audio recording technique which operates on a principle similar to Holography. The result has been reported to be realistic and life-like three dimensional sounding audio recordings. You'll need your headphones to get the most out of the three audio demonstrations provided here. Close your eyes, and it's quite an effective illusion.

The Great World of Sound!

The Deej — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 09:13:42 -0800

Want to be a recording star? The Great World of Sound is looking for new talent!

Proof that Led Zeppelin fans are geekier than Rush fans

melorama — Sat, 17 Nov 2007 18:28:52 -0800

Led Zeppelin's The Song Remains The Same motion picture soundtrack, reverse engineered. To commemorate Monday's remixed 5.1 Surround double-disc DVD/HD-DVD/BluRay/CD reissue of Led Zeppelin's 1976 film, The Song Remains the Same, we present you with The Garden Tapes, a Zapruder-esque analysis of every song from the soundtrack and film recordings.

HOMOPHONI

hama7 — Sun, 07 Oct 2007 18:19:19 -0800

HOMOPHONI

Virtual Studio Visitor

flapjax at midnite — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 21:44:45 -0800

Any experienced studio engineer or producer knows that the presence of visitors in the studio can dramatically affect the performance of singers and musicians. Using advanced proprietary computer modelling, the Virtual Studio Visitor plug-in convincingly emulates the effect of various studio visitors on a performance, without the need for the visitors to actually be present. Also from the visionaries at Sonic Finger: the Dead Quietenator provides you with the highest quality pure digital silence, including several highly sought-after vintage silences previously unattainable.

The History of K-Tel

Chinese Jet Pilot — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 09:48:49 -0800

Philip Kives, the "K" in K-Tel records, built his pioneering record label by cramming up to 24 songs on low-fi compilation LP’s (later cassettes, 8-tracks, and CDs) and aggressively marketing them with TV ads. What's your favorite K-Tel album?

The Indie Band Survival Guide

Ira.metafilter — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 18:34:05 -0800

The Indie Band Survival Guide: A fantastic, free, 101 pages collection of useful information for musicians - covers topics such as recording, copyright, major label contracts, commercial radio, promoting your music, band websites, distribution, filesharing and live shows.