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Author Topic: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?  (Read 39537 times)

Kassonica

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #15 on: August 23, 2010, 09:29:10 PM »

Fantastic song, made my morning.

Lush sounds and I LOVE the vocal sound....

Excellent work.

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Mark Ludwig

Should have been a Drummer


bob ebeling

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #16 on: August 23, 2010, 09:30:44 PM »

To answer Terry's question about the difficulties of house recording versus studios:

I was a very lucky guy and had many resourses both in and out of my bedroom studio.  I could go cut drums at a Neve 80xx type room, go mix at Chung King, get things tweaked up over at Paul Logus's Logus Sound, fly to London and have Flood help me tweak in a bridge using a modular Roland synth (the same one used on Gary Newman and Depeche Mode LP's).  And if none of that was momentarily available, I had the spoiled rotten gear collection sitting right at home.  

The power of Protools to combine everything from the 2" machines.  Figuring out those damn sync boxes they used to have.  SBX-80's.  Moto Midi Time Clocks.  (should we turn up the gain going in to that thing?)  

At this time I was also funded as an artist (does this even happen anymore?) and I could spend 2 weeks just messing around with a synth or guitar part.  At least for me, those days are over.  Getting anything you wanted delivered to your door at anytime of the night.  Very inspiring things could be delivered by guys on bikes in about 5 minutes.  It was amazing!  haha.  

For any actual kiddies who would attempt the same today and may hear this rare record or read this thread and try to justify the power of doing it in your bedroom... just remember, my 'bedroom' was 4 20 by 20 rooms with 12 foot ceilings built in the 1940's.  My gear was about 8 giant 16 rackspace racks full of 12 years of collecting the rarest and the best gear.  My objective ears were 4 or 8 of the industry's greatest ever....

you can do it, yes, it is possible, but you probably won't fool your Sterling Sound mastering engineer into thinking you spent a half a million dollars doing so.

And you might not get to cut your drums in the most expensive heated converted barn in Aspen Colorado using a private collection of C12's, C24's, EQP1a's and 670's.

Geoff Daking might not fly you out bags full of preamps and compressors to where ever the hell you might be...

But do it!  Especially if you have something to say and a dark scary unique way of saying it.  Please, do it!  I'm missing it in music.

Just know that no school will teach you really any of the reality of doing it.  It will take you ten times more money and time than you will estimate, and at the end, when you hold in your hand the masterpiece of your blood sweat and tears...it will be distributed for free to all and the only thing you might get out of it is fame.  The fame will drag you right out of the studio and surround you with questions and clingers, all of which you probably never wanted to answer or hang out with....

man, am I actually helping here?  

Do it anyway man.  If you are that kid, you have to do it, you have no choice.  Just please, be that kid.  None of us wants to hear about how cool and rich you are.  We want to hear about how alienated you feel and how your emotions feel like they are going to strangle you alive.

"I'm sick and tired of...
..just gimme some truth"  John Lennon  






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Bob Ebeling
bobebeling.bandcamp.com
Virginia

compasspnt

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #17 on: August 23, 2010, 10:26:43 PM »

bob ebeling wrote on Mon, 23 August 2010 21:30

 None of us wants to hear about how cool and rich you are.  We want to hear about how alienated you feel and how your emotions feel like they are going to strangle you alive.



The Big Star ethos stated succinctly.
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marcel

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #18 on: August 23, 2010, 11:12:13 PM »

Wow.  This is inspiring on so many levels.  Thanks Bob, and thanks Terry for bringing it to light!
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Best, Marcel

tunetown

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #19 on: August 24, 2010, 12:19:43 AM »

bob ebeling wrote on Tue, 24 August 2010 11:30

Just know that no school will teach you really any of the reality of doing it.  It will take you ten times more money and time than you will estimate, and at the end, when you hold in your hand the masterpiece of your blood sweat and tears...it will be distributed for free to all and the only thing you might get out of it is fame.  The fame will drag you right out of the studio and surround you with questions and clingers, all of which you probably never wanted to answer or hang out with....


Beautifully said...!!!!
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Peter Houghton
Tune Town

bob ebeling

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #20 on: August 24, 2010, 08:30:17 AM »

Continuing on my soapbox--

   http://product.half.ebay.com/Transfigured-Night_W0QQtgZinfoQ QprZ3287137

Here is my second (of 3) record you can buy for $1.00!

Recorded in 1996/7 on an Ampex MM1200 2" 16 track.  A Pair of Schoeps 221b's, a pair of Neumann UM-57's.  A Urei 1178.  A pair of Neve 32264 comps.  A pair of Calrec PQ-14 and a pair of Calrec PQ-15.

Recorded in the equivelent of a bedroom.  A 20' by 15' office space with a dropped ceiling.

I think we captured the ambience of Dark Side of The Moon with less than $10,000!

So in 1996/7, you could do it in your bedroom and get signed, toured and promoted!  

It was possible--but more importantly, the results were very possible.

Keep dreaming you 20 somethings!  Even though our equipment list from then will now cost you in excess of $100k!  

index.php/fa/15287/0/
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Bob Ebeling
bobebeling.bandcamp.com
Virginia

bob ebeling

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #21 on: August 24, 2010, 08:43:46 AM »

And continuing backwards--

index.php/fa/15288/0/

     http://product.half.ebay.com/Little-Bugs-Glow_W0QQtgZinfoQQp rZ3248483

buy my very first record for $2 or less!  

Recorded in 1994 on a Tascam 16 track 1/2" machine with a Neotek series 1 or 2 16 track console.  Strickly Shure sm-57's, until the end when we got educated and started using the gear from the previous post.

This record was literally recorded anywhere possible.  Friends living rooms, empty barns, parents basements, hotel rooms...

So...can 2 23 year old hungry musicians with a vision make it happen?  In 1994...YES!

But I'm sure the same could happen today if you had the vision and worked as hard as we did.  We wanted it.  That is the main difference between the bands you know and love and the 1000's that you've never heard of...DESIRE.  

I lived with Kid Rock for a couple years and you have never seen desire for success like that.  Eminem, same thing.  Rufus Wainwright, same thing.  It's like they are cut from the same cloth these rock stars.  I've worked with 15 of the biggest ones out there, and they could have all almost been the same exact person.  They go out there and demand it and demand it until it happens.  That is what they want.

I just like making crazy gorgeous sounding music.  The fame can suck a rotten egg.  I remember my first interview I realized, 'this is stupid!'.  So I went more into engineering, with occasional relapses into artistry.  If I had been born 10 years earlier I'd be huge.  haha

These days, do kids really have a chance?  The gear is all chips and worthless.  The biz is telling everyone they are stars but only selecting the most generic and decent looking, and then shoving computerized selling melodies down their poor little asses.  I don't know.  I'm glad I'm not 25 now!

"attention all planets of the solar federation...we have assumed control"
Neil Peart

There will always be an underground and a black market.  If kids are going to create something origional and reactive, the voice of a generation will always resonate.  It just won't resonate on FM radio or MTV anymore.
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Bob Ebeling
bobebeling.bandcamp.com
Virginia

C.Cash

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #22 on: August 24, 2010, 09:41:40 AM »

Incredible!

Thanks.
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bob ebeling

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #23 on: August 24, 2010, 10:36:31 AM »

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQYe32rvxJU&feature=relat ed

This was recorded 90% live with a pair of U87's and spot mics and mixed in a small bad sounding bedroom on Mackie 824's and a Digi 001.  I used an adat firwire bridge and so did have two of my big columns of good stuff inserted.

I think it shows there is a way if the engineering is up to snuff and the material is wonderful.

From the Dead Meadow 'Feathers' album I produced for $10g's.  Matador probably spent more than that on this video.    

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Bob Ebeling
bobebeling.bandcamp.com
Virginia

MoreSpaceEcho

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #24 on: August 24, 2010, 11:13:30 AM »

wow! my old band played a few shows with dead meadow circa 2000 and they sure didn't sound anything like THAT. really pretty song. great job.

is he wearing a tapestry?
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bob ebeling

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #25 on: August 24, 2010, 11:29:08 AM »

Is that what that is?  a robe?

Yes, I went to see them live and thought to myself, 'we certainly won't be capturing that amount of noise!'.

They seemed to understand I was onto something magnificent when we were making that record but that didn't keep the moody few from trying to turn my 8 fader wonder into a lo-fi hunk of shite.  I won when I left them zero options and flew out of the city...you'll notice my credits are severely buried on that record.

You must pick your battles!  For all pain and suffering, that is a great record, listenable by any fan of fidelity, and I say their best work to date.
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Bob Ebeling
bobebeling.bandcamp.com
Virginia

MoreSpaceEcho

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #26 on: August 24, 2010, 11:43:45 AM »

i'm pretty sure there's been pain and suffering involved in every great record ever. glad you (and the record) made it through!

when we played with them, they were a 3 piece and sounded like sabbath plus about 40 tons of very strong weed. they were so skinny it looked like they collectively weighed about as much as one average american.
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bob ebeling

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #27 on: August 24, 2010, 12:06:30 PM »

Uh-oh.  Back on the stuff?  or was this a long time ago before rehab?
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Bob Ebeling
bobebeling.bandcamp.com
Virginia

MoreSpaceEcho

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #28 on: August 24, 2010, 02:28:46 PM »

this was around 2000-2001, so before rehab i assume? i haven't kept up with them since then so i didn't know they'd gone. didn't realize they were hitting anything harder than the bong.
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bob ebeling

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Re: Downtown: What Are PSW guys doing?
« Reply #29 on: August 24, 2010, 05:45:22 PM »

Oh, they were cleaning up in 2004.  I have no idea what happened after that.  It's very tough when you set out to be the icon of drug rock.  How are you gonna stop the bongs from coming?  ha
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Bob Ebeling
bobebeling.bandcamp.com
Virginia
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