The characteristic noises of death and destruction are contrived by nature to be unpleasant. If their cause is indifferent to their creation, then our ears ensure that we read them as alarming, even terrifying.
Certainly, this was the case with many of the records released in the wake of the introduction of CD. The sound of corporate exploitation, combined with artistic apathy, was as excruciating as it was depressing.
It is the early hours of Saturday morning. I'm somewhere in a cold, dark wood with a film crew. The Marantz has just died on me...
My hands are almost too cold to change the batteries in the recorder. The director, crew and cast are waiting to start the next take. I am beginning to doubt I will ever be warm again. Batteries changed. Camera rolling. Sound rolling. Slate!
I read an iPhone app review on iTunes yesterday: ‘I’ve stopped using the Google Analytics website and just use the app…’ it claimed. It’s a big claim, given the extent of information Analytics provides. So I downloaded the app and gave it a try. And I had to agree…
I have a theory about smartphone apps. I think they are changing our whole approach to mobile devices and shaping future computer operation.
A recent TED presentation saw Sarah Angliss examine the connection between Britain’s Industrial Revolution and Detroit’s motor industry, and the music they have produced. In the reflections of unforgiving industrial environments, she can see an ‘art out of noise’ model at work.
Curiously, I’ve drawn exactly the opposite conclusion over the way modern businesses have turned music back into industrial noise.
For a while, each visit I made to America was preceeded by a delivery of fine Cuban cigars. In a very Bond-like arrangement, I was to take these with me ‘for personal use’ and deliver them to an American whom we shall call Steve.
It was quite legal but it had an enjoyable air of opulence and sedition... and it was intimately tied in with cutting-edge digital audio.
Shark: 'Good morning sir. Can I interest you in advertising your company through our most excellent media broadcast service? It is the leader in its field and attracts more of your target audience than you can shake an industry demographic at... and it's a gift at our present rate.'
Mark: 'Wow, that sounds just perfect for my very specific marketing requirements! Where do I sign?'
The term ‘social networking’ is on a lot of lips at present – from university graduates through IT specialists to pro audio and A/V companies, and most acutely, broadcasters. A subject that, until only recently, was the preserve of anthropologists, sociologists and other academics, has now become mainstream, with direct relevance to our personal and professional lives.
You don’t have to be afraid to have tit.com crop up in your browser history. Against all reasonable expectation, it’s not a pornography site – although judging by the ‘Sorry, there is no adult content here’ disclaimer it carries, it probably has a very high bounce rate…
Regardless of content, a short domain name is worth money. And it’s a sweet introduction to an overlooked aspect of the internet’s creation and operation.
Feelings were running high around the table. Present were some important voices representing contrasting – and sometimes diametrically opposing – views on education in pro audio. What it was, who needed it, where they should get it, what it should cost.
That was in the early 1990s and I’m not convinced we’ve made progress on answering any of those questions.
There’s a man in Dallas who reckons that a collection of records isn’t complete without eight-track cartridge releases to sit alongside vinyl, cassette, CD, DVD, concert programmes and other music memorabilia. In fact, he’s setting up a museum specifically to celebrate the eight-track format…
And he makes a very a valid point – it’s not the best recordings that get the collectors excited, it’s the rare releases...
Some say a wedding isn’t a wedding without a fight. In some communities, it’s the highlight of the day.
I’ve never actually seen a wedding brawl myself, but I had a ringside seat at a wedding reception that saw music producers and musicians quietly alligning themselves against the ‘non musicians’ present. The tension stayed beneath the surface but it was tangible.
London, Paris, New York, Munich; everyone listen to the same pop music.
I remember a television interview with Jeff Beck from a few years ago, when he described a generation of rock guitarists who were ‘trying to play the same guitar solo’. That’s one of the problems that comes with heroes – but heroes set benchmarks and inspire achievement. In contrast, Simon Cowell’s X Factor ‘talent show’ places musical ambition low on its agenda...
I absolutely love radio. The Buggles’ wry dismissal aside, radio was never going to be a casualty of the home video recording ‘star’ of the late 1970s.
We could talk about how highstreet video rental subsequently seemed poised to bring down the curtain on cinema. Or how drum machines rattled the death knell of drummers. Or any colour you like being ‘the new black’. But let’s stay tuned to the radio…
Behind very tightly-closed doors – ones that can only be described as ‘belonging to a major London recording studio’ to allay any suggestion of endorsement – Chris Estes set up his hybrid analogue/digital recording system for its first demonstration in the UK earlier this week. Part of a demonstration tour of Europe, Estes describes the Clasp system as an exercise in ‘manipulating time and space’.
I well remember the early days of digital mixing consoles – it’s hard now to appreciate the technical ambition that lay behind their development or the hostility they frequently encountered.
Or the guts shown by their early adopters. I was thrilled by the prospect of a ‘new’ audio technology and the taunt of the possibilities it was beginning to promise, but I was horrified by the resistance those early desks met.
I’ve been in demand, I’ve had my disciples – I’ve even been prayed to. I’ve accepted surrender and certainly done some some soul searching while alone in the bathroom. I am the engineroom of every classic rock band and the underlying performance requirement of every reggae gig and nightclub sound system...
Yes people, I am the beat, and it’s all about me.