Yay! We made it! It's show #10 and we're feeling stronger than ever. We review some of what has gone into our first ten shows and how we're just not going to stop! We're already planning what we're going to do to make our 100th show special. Today's show is a tasty grab bag of tidbits that were planned for earlier shows but never made it for one reason or another.
CONGRATULATIONS TO JOHN DAVIDSON! John and his lovely wife just welcomed a new addition to the family with a healthy baby boy! He was born at 12:11 AM on Saturday March 11, 2006. He's 6 pounds, 9 ounces, and 20 1/2" long. Al points out that he believes John brought in a surround sound crew to record the birth and that he managed to get a small sample from the scratch track already in 5.1. Al plays the clip and everyone is amazed by the "you are there" realism!
A Minor Correction: Just a minor correction from last week's trivia question. We spoke with
Charles Dye, and while the
Ricky Martin song,
Livin' La Vida Loca was recorded and mixed entirely inside the box with Pro Tools, it wasn't mastered that way. It was mastered by
Ted Jensen at
Sterling Sound in New York, New York. Here's the link to the awesome
Sterling Sound web site:
http://www.Sterling-Sound.com
Ted and
Sterling Sound has done some great work with artists like:
John Mayer, Destiny's Child, Nickelback, Ozzy Osbourne, Green Day, Santana, Bare Naked Ladies, Billy Joel, Chris Botti and a host of others. DIGI 001Al brings up a couple of suggestions for upgrading if you're still using a
Digidesign DIGI 001. You might consider the
Mbox2, but it turns out that Digidesign is still offering their upgrade trade-in special towards any of the
DIGI 002 systems. Al recommends contacting
Andy Diekroger at Sweetwater Sound for details.
Sweetwater Sound Andy Diekroger (800) 222-4700 Extension: 1273
Steely Dan
Aja Mike highly recommends a DVD titled,
Steely Dan - Aja. This is a vivid portrait of the making of the canonical 1970s record
AJA by
Steely Dan. Band members
Walter Becker and
Donald Fagen recall the history of an album that was a year in the making, but rewarded with a Grammy Award and three hit singles. British songwriter Ian Dury, the
Doobie Brothers'
Michael McDonald, and music producer Gary Katz all add their fascinating anecdotes to this highly involving rockumentary. Many of the mixes are dissected and studio sessions are detailed.
Find the DVD for less than ten bucks!
Eric Johnson
Total Guitar Al recommends a DVD by
Eric Johnson titled
Total Guitar. This is an opportunity to study with one of the electric guitar's true virtuosos. This lesson encompasses all styles and includes advanced picking for speed and accuracy, left and right hand muting, various blues bends, country "pedal steel" bends, using different positions for sound and more!
Find the DVD for less than twenty bucks!
Mike shares web site that details the acoustic guitar setups of many famous players like:
James Taylor, Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Alex de Grassi, Michael Hedges, Leo Kottke, Adrian Legg, Paul Simon and more.
Click here to visit the acoustic guitar setups site
Next, Al says that if you're a Comcast Cable subscriber with On Demand service, dig into the menus. There's all kinds of free video music tutorials and gear reviews that are a lot of fun to watch. Mike encourages trying to play as many parts live in your project as possible.
Break out of the sequencer and samples and discover something new! Al details solving a sampled bass challenge by running it through Amplitube (a digital guitar amp simulator). How do you pronounce the word spelled
P - I - E - Z - O? The
Online American Heritage Dictionary sets us all straight. Here's the audio pronunciation from their site. Click here to hear it!
"The Womanizer"Al mentions a recent gear find that looks very promising. It's dual-tube guitar pre-amps from a relatively new company founded by some ex-Line6 (Pod XT) folks. Here's a link to their site:
http://DamageControlUSA.com
Viewer Mail: "Big Al, I picked up the BBE acoustic pre-amp you recommended on ebay for $72. Just got it yesterday, tried it out, and you were right. It works great. Nice sweetening effect, even on my Neve-equipped Taylor. Begs a question, however. What's your opinion on piggy-backing pre's?" I'm not a big fan of stacking up pre's. That said, it can work with careful monitoring. The problems that often crop up are distortion and phase-like anomalies. If you're using a unit with an effects loop that you can use it to insert the BBE. If you're using a mixing console, you could also insert the BBE in the channel there. If the only choice is to stack the pre's, I think I'd go through the BBE last. It's usually not a good effect to equalize the BBE process. It lives best at the end of the chain. The TroubadourHollywood, California
Answer To Last Week's Trivia Question: Q: Starting on August 25, 1970, who became an overnight sensation after playing only seven consecutive nights at the
Troubadour in Hollywood, California? The club only held 600 people, but by the end of that week everyone in Los Angeles was talking about this person, who went on to become a multi-platinum, multi-Grammy winning recording artist.
A: Sir Elton John! Double Bonus Points Question: Elton John
Q: Who introduced this artist on their opening night?
A: Neil Diamond! The
Los Angeles Times raved: "
Rejoice. Rock music ... has a new star. he's Elton John ... whose debut ... was, in almost every way, magnificent. His music is so staggeringly original ... [his] songs so varied in texture that his work defies classification ... He's going to be one of rock's biggest and most important stars." In that same year,
John Lennon and his friend,
Harry Nilsson, were ejected from the club for heckling the
Smothers Brothers.
Randy Newman started out at the club and comics
Cheech & Chong were discovered there. In 1975,
Elton John returned to do a series of special anniversary concerts. Mike was there for one night of this legendary performance and shares his memories of the experience.
This Week's Trivia Question: In honor of our tenth show, we're taking a trivia break this week!
Al mentions our new Listener Feedback Line: (928) 395-1343 Give us a call and be sure to leave your name and e-mail address! Joe SatrianiWe forgot to mention it again, but don't miss the
Joe Satriani podcast leading up to the release of his new album
Super Colossal.
Joe Satriani's Podcast Subscription Page
See you next week! Tags: music recording studio surround sound cabo charles dye mixing ricky martin livin la vida loca charles dye john mayer destinys child nickelback ozzie osbourne green day santana bare naked ladies billy joel chris botti steeley dan walter becker doobie brothers michael mcdonald eric johnson elton john neil diamond john lennon randy newman cheech chong joe satriani james taylor mary chapin carpenter alex de grassi michael hedges leo kottke adrian legg paul simon ozzy osbourne hollywood troubadour sweetwater sound
