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Author Topic: EW&F Live Sound '78/'79  (Read 2577 times)

Wyn Davis

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EW&F Live Sound '78/'79
« on: August 26, 2004, 06:02:49 AM »

Greetings George,

Were you doing FOH for EW&F during the late 70s? I was on the floor at the Inglewood Forum in 78 or 79 for a show that I still think is one of the two or three best sounding large venue shows I ever heard. Technology has come a long way since then, but nothing I have heard since has ever recalibrated my recollection of how great that show sounded. I guess it didn't hurt that those fellas were actually good.

Wyn Davis
Total Access Recording Studios
Redondo Beach, Ca.
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Wyn Davis
Total Access Recording Studios
Redondo Beach, California

George Massenburg

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Re: EW&F Live Sound '78/'79
« Reply #1 on: August 26, 2004, 07:42:04 AM »

I designed and built the GML/Nova sound system (consoles, x-overs, processors, amp racks & cabinets), and worked on the shows.  The main guy I remember, Mark Linett, may have mixed the Los Angeles show.  At some point Lon Newman took over, but I forget when.

I remember trying to build a different kind of system, and I was really hoping to do a different kind of sound - much more hi-fi, to pick a term.  The big system then was Electrosound; man, was it ever a piece of shit, but that's what everyone was used to.  After the show in '78 I recall 3 or 4 of the head guys at other companies hanging around telling me everything that was wrong with the GML/Nova system.  Were they ever wrong.  All of 'em.

The inheritor of bragging rights to that kind of system is undoubtedly John Meyer, who builds the best "big hi-fi" system I've heard recently.

George

p.s. I also went on the road with Little Feat and mixed quite a few of their shows.  That those were existence-defining moments.
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innesireinar

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Re: EW&F Live Sound '78/'79
« Reply #2 on: October 31, 2004, 09:33:35 AM »

George, is "sing a song" a your mix?
It's one of my favorite mix that I ever heard, even compared with nowadays mixes.

ranieri senni
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George Massenburg

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Re: EW&F Live Sound '78/'79
« Reply #3 on: November 03, 2004, 08:35:14 AM »

innesireinar wrote on Sun, 31 October 2004 08:33

George, is "sing a song" a your mix?
It's one of my favorite mix that I ever heard, even compared with nowadays mixes.

ranieri senni


Yup.  

Also, the ending, where the horns fall apart then the rhythm picks up again?   Basically, my mistake (an early punch-out).

George
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dave p.

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Re: EW&F Live Sound '78/'79
« Reply #4 on: November 03, 2004, 12:31:21 PM »

oh man...the feat in austin's paramount theatre for 5 shows...dear lord.
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innesireinar

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Re: EW&F Live Sound '78/'79
« Reply #5 on: November 05, 2004, 06:10:34 PM »

George Massenburg wrote on Wed, 03 November 2004 13:35

innesireinar wrote on Sun, 31 October 2004 08:33

George, is "sing a song" a your mix?
It's one of my favorite mix that I ever heard, even compared with nowadays mixes.

ranieri senni


Yup.  

Also, the ending, where the horns fall apart then the rhythm picks up again?   Basically, my mistake (an early punch-out).

George


I don't hear this, maybe the cut of the version I have (from THE BEST OF EWF) is shorter...
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George Massenburg

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Re: EW&F Live Sound '78/'79
« Reply #6 on: November 06, 2004, 02:20:31 PM »

innesireinar wrote on Fri, 05 November 2004 17:10

George Massenburg wrote on Wed, 03 November 2004 13:35

innesireinar wrote on Sun, 31 October 2004 08:33

George, is "sing a song" a your mix?
It's one of my favorite mix that I ever heard, even compared with nowadays mixes.

ranieri senni


Yup.  

Also, the ending, where the horns fall apart then the rhythm picks up again?   Basically, my mistake (an early punch-out).

George


I don't hear this, maybe the cut of the version I have (from THE BEST OF EWF) is shorter...


Dear Ranieri,

Listen again.  Perhaps "fall apart" is too strong. Things pause near the end - the drums, bass and guitar stop.  The vocals continue, "If you sing a song today [or something]..."  a few seconds pass, then the rhythm kicks in again on 1.  That was a lucky punch-out into a prior take that I had been going over (2" analog, remember?)

George
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innesireinar

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Re: EW&F Live Sound '78/'79
« Reply #7 on: November 07, 2004, 05:58:09 PM »

I don't understand what you are referring to, at least in the version I have.
Something that you've described I've listened in another song called MAGIC MIND (ALL'N ALL)
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George Massenburg

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Re: EW&F Live Sound '78/'79
« Reply #8 on: November 07, 2004, 06:04:25 PM »

O.K. I'll play the tune and time it out to the spot to which I'm referring.  Now if I could only find that LP...

George
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paultools

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Re: EW&F Live Sound '78/'79
« Reply #9 on: April 23, 2005, 06:19:52 PM »

George,

I am a new registrant to this forum.
I was combing thru some older posts and came across this thread about your work with EWF. I must say that those records became a benchmark for my ear in terms of the way things should sound.

I have always wanted to know if you used the old modified Dolby card trick to get that vocal sound on songs like "Can't Hide Love" and "Gratitude".

As a young engineer-to-be, I remember reading an interview of you that was in the old REP...probably around 1978 or so. It was one of the BEST things I have ever read!
You were talking about limiters with variable "crest" factors that let through the big CLICK of the claves on "Way of the World"... you were loving the Sony C-37 on toms... and you said that Maurice White had a strong opinion of what a snare should sound like....I allowed someone to borrow the article from me many years ago, and you know how that story ends...

Is there a copy of it somewhere out in cyberspace?

That was a GREAT era for that magazine! Other memorable articles were Val Garay, Richard Perry, Humberto Gatica, and Bruce Swedien... is any of this stuff archived somewhere?

By the way, the Nova sound System was awesome!
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