Said the man who has obviously never been in a recording studio.
Err... confirmed by this man who has.
Yes, I've spent many many long hours placing mics, tweaking EQ and compression, placing sound barriers and absorptive panels, running rest tracks, setting headphone levels, etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum.
I've also put a mic in the middle of a circle of musicians and just let them play, capturing the sound of the environment as well as the instruments. Little more to it than just pressing the big red button.
So, if someone bangs out an album in 8 hours, it has no artistic value whatsoever. Only albums that spring from years and years of "artistic" handwringing are worth tilting your ear towards like, say, "Chinese Democracy"?
Bang on!
Some of the best-loved songs ever written were spur-of-the-moment, dashed-off-on-a-napkin, nothing-but-the-emotion classics.
I'll see your "Chinese Democracy" and raise you "Paranoid".
Maybe more artists need to recognize Al's work for what it really is - recognition and flattery. Kurt Cobain is claimed to have once stated, that despite the record sales and fame and money and acclaim, the thing that really told Nirvana they'd "made the big time" was when Weird Al asked to do "Smells Like Teen Spirit".
How accurate that attribution is, I can't say, but I think it makes the point pretty well.
I used to play a great game on Facebook, called Wordscraper... a take on the Scrabble idea, with the added ability to create your own custom boards.
Then Hasbro stepped in and bullied and shut down Wordscraper, and its "cousin", Lexulous. Oddly enough, they also released their own online version of Scrabble about the same time... and it was DREADFUL.
Wordscraper and Lexulous eventually returned... with a changed layout and several "tweaked" rules... but to a Scrabble player, scores are like trophies, and with fixed values (tile values, double/triple score squares, etc.) it's easy to compare crowns with other Scrabble aficionados.
But now there are 8 tiles to a rack instead of 7; most of the tile values have changed (Q and Z are 12 points instead of 10, etc.), there are 4x and 5x multipliers, and the new default layouts make it too easy to cross two word-multipliers at once, something that is (by design) very rare and difficult to do in Scrabble. In short, it really takes a lot of the challenge out of the game, as well as most of the meaning of the scores. And the ultimate insult: creating your own custom Scrabble-layout board is blocked.
In essence, Hasbro has used legal wrangling to strike down the competition. Nice.
Chill dude...
Said the man who has obviously never been in a recording studio.
Err... confirmed by this man who has.
Yes, I've spent many many long hours placing mics, tweaking EQ and compression, placing sound barriers and absorptive panels, running rest tracks, setting headphone levels, etc. etc. etc. ad nauseum.
I've also put a mic in the middle of a circle of musicians and just let them play, capturing the sound of the environment as well as the instruments. Little more to it than just pressing the big red button.
Why does it HAVE to be so complicated?
@Lion Tamer
So, if someone bangs out an album in 8 hours, it has no artistic value whatsoever. Only albums that spring from years and years of "artistic" handwringing are worth tilting your ear towards like, say, "Chinese Democracy"?
Bang on!
Some of the best-loved songs ever written were spur-of-the-moment, dashed-off-on-a-napkin, nothing-but-the-emotion classics.
I'll see your "Chinese Democracy" and raise you "Paranoid".
Re: "it's like sticking your head into a boiling chip vat."
Okay, I got a good solid chuckle out of that. To coin a phrase: "Iz funny, because iz true!"
If novelty music and jam bands offend this guy...
...he must really hate the likes of Phish and The Grateful Dead.
The sincerest form of flattery?
Maybe more artists need to recognize Al's work for what it really is - recognition and flattery. Kurt Cobain is claimed to have once stated, that despite the record sales and fame and money and acclaim, the thing that really told Nirvana they'd "made the big time" was when Weird Al asked to do "Smells Like Teen Spirit".
How accurate that attribution is, I can't say, but I think it makes the point pretty well.
All this fuss...
over a JAM SESSION.
Yes, Jeremy, that's all it is: A JAM SESSION.
On to bigger and more important news, I just extracted a monster booger from my nose... how's that for creativity?
Re: Re:
"Just checked and they still appear to be with RCA (subsidiary of Sony Music). I think I'd be more likely to burn the money in their honour."
Better yet: download a torrent of it and mail your cash directly to Dave Grohl, along with a note explaining why. Bet he gets a kick out of it :)
Re: Future TechDirt story
Sadly, this is far too likely to happen in the near future...
(untitled comment)
*facepalm*
Re: Canuck weighing in here...
Poutine is the most amazing cholesterol-delivery method ever invented. God eats poutine when he wants to put on weight.
(untitled comment)
Interesting piece, especially in light of this recent little "skirmish" in our Provincial politics: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/03/07/bc-nicholas-simons-passwords-agreeme nt.html
Good points, hobo...
...but hey, it's a BIG step in the right direction!
Sounds all too familiar...
I used to play a great game on Facebook, called Wordscraper... a take on the Scrabble idea, with the added ability to create your own custom boards.
Then Hasbro stepped in and bullied and shut down Wordscraper, and its "cousin", Lexulous. Oddly enough, they also released their own online version of Scrabble about the same time... and it was DREADFUL.
Wordscraper and Lexulous eventually returned... with a changed layout and several "tweaked" rules... but to a Scrabble player, scores are like trophies, and with fixed values (tile values, double/triple score squares, etc.) it's easy to compare crowns with other Scrabble aficionados.
But now there are 8 tiles to a rack instead of 7; most of the tile values have changed (Q and Z are 12 points instead of 10, etc.), there are 4x and 5x multipliers, and the new default layouts make it too easy to cross two word-multipliers at once, something that is (by design) very rare and difficult to do in Scrabble. In short, it really takes a lot of the challenge out of the game, as well as most of the meaning of the scores. And the ultimate insult: creating your own custom Scrabble-layout board is blocked.
In essence, Hasbro has used legal wrangling to strike down the competition. Nice.