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Volume #0413 April 30, 2000
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"Wide Dynamic Range"
Subject: compression and such
Received: 04/29/00 2:55 am
From: Glenn Sadin
To: Spectropop!
>Compression effects are nice little stomp boxes nowadays...
>but what did compression units look like in the early
>sixties? I imagine four engineers (headed by Professor
>Frink, of course) in white lab coats, trying to handle a
>huuuuuge black compression monster...also, what did reverb
>and delay/echo units look like, before they became stomp
>boxes? Can somebody also explain the tech stuff about echo
>chambers?
Carol Kaye probably knows better than any of us, but I
would imagine that the compressors used in most studios
in the early-mid '60s were tube units with big black
knobs, and rack mounted. Reverb was probably done with a
spring unit similar to the kind found in guitar amps.
Delay was probably created using either an echo chamber
(a speaker placed in an empty, cavernous room with a mic
positioned to pick up the slapback in the room and then
fed back into the studio board). Lee Hazlewood used unused
underground storage tanks for his echo chamber! The other
method is using tape delay. A continuous loop tape is run
on a machine with the record heads and playback heads
both simultaneously in use, and the distance between the
record head and playback would determine the length of
the delay. Usually these devices would have a control
that would allow you to adjust the distance of the heads
(i.e.: the length of the delay). This is the theory
behind the Echoplex machine (which used tape cartridges
instead of open reel tape), popular with guitarists in
the pre-digital days.
Glenn Sadin
Read about JAPANESE POP MUSIC from the 1950s thru the 1990s:
http://home.earthlink.net/~glenn_mariko/nihon.htm
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Subject: Gold Star
Received: 04/29/00 2:55 am
From: Phil Chapman
To: Spectropop!
Viceroy wrote:
> Compression effects are nice little stomp boxes nowadays...
> but what did compression units look like in the early
> sixties?
Cutting lathe compression is special in that that there
is an advance head that tells the compressor what's
coming, so transients don't create the 'grabbing'
problems they do with realtime compression. That's also
the advantage of post-processing sound files.
>Can somebody also explain the tech stuff about
>echo chambers?
Well it's basically a stone, tiled, or similar
hard-surfaced room with no parallel faces. Put a speaker
at one end and a mic at the other. Attempts were made
during the 70s to build exact replicas of Gold Star's
chamber, but they didn't sound the same. I was
disappointed that Gold Star couldn't be preserved.
Although Phil worked at other studios, the Gold Star echo
was something special. Same goes for the recording
console - Recordings at MiraSound (eg. The Raindrops, The
Shangri-Las) had an uncontrollable top end that often
made the final mix sound harsh. It's noticeable that the
Crystals cuts at Gold Star are much more full than those
at MiraSound. I can only imagine how even more powerful
The Crystals' "I Wonder" (one of my favourite Spector
girl cuts) would have been if recorded and mixed at Gold
Star.
Phil
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Subject: Darlene, etc.
Received: 04/29/00 2:55 am
From: Carol Kaye
To: Spectropop!
>>>>>>>>I don't know who "we all" is supposed to mean, but it's
>interesting that Darlene, who rattles off Billboard chart
>numbers as if telling the writer the age of her children,
>takes it upon herself to speak for "everyone". This just
>does not sound like Darlene Wright talking.
Maybe Landy wrote her book too? :-)<<<<<<<<<<<
I've researched 19 books written by various authors about
various artists, edited by various people, published by
various book companies, and noticed that those so-called
"hot" books were not that popular either (checked out of
that popular library maybe once in 2 years), and they ALL
could have been written by the same author.....it was
always the same trashy crap, with lots of "drug-use, sex,
cheating they-done-me-wrong, or I-done-myself-wrong"
titillation in them.
Since I knew many of the artists very well (Glen Campbell,
Sonny & Cher, Brian Wilson etc.) especially spending
years in the studios with them, these books not only
disgusted me but did teach me one thing: THEY ALL LIE.
I've been approached by so many to have a movie made on
my life, people to publish my book (in the works), etc.
and found out that you can go ahead and write the "truth"
but ALWAYS, the publisher will ALWAYS have an editor
rewrite many of your own writings, totally (and maybe
secretively too) against your wishes most of the time.
Earl Palmer for example, tried to have some of that bad
language deleted from his book was told many times (after
Russ Wapensky, and Bill Hues worked hard to edit it out
and send in the deletions) that it was "deleted" or fixed,
only to have it printed in full-force in his book which
came out last year -- without him even knowing it, or
when it was due out.
The bad language imo hurt it somewhat....he is NOT like
that most of the time -- he sometimes used bad language
as a matter of talking like most musicians did back then,
but Earl is a self-made man, a very gracious man and they
denied him this by leaving that foul language in while
saying "yes, the deletions sent in will be used" - they
weren't.
I know another one who had an editor who followed
*exactly* what the publisher wanted, not what the author
wanted who later on found out about some things that got
in, only to kind of "go along with it", just happy that
his book was published.
So for those of you out there who like to believe those
books verbatim, think again, you have to read them ALL
with a grain of salt -- do not totally believe everything
you read in them, they love to lie for the sake of
selling the book (they think they have to lie as that's
what the public wants). That is truth you CAN believe.
BTW, Spector's River Deep Mountain High was widely played
on the radio in the USA when it came out in the 60s, you
heard it all the time then in the LA too -- once in
awhile I tune to an oldies station even now and they're
still playing it and I still think it sounds good. A
very exciting record.
Carol Kaye http://www.carolkaye.com/
PS. Had a big thrill lately, Sting had called me on the
phone, wonderful man, truly sincere in his environmental
efforts. He had learned to play bass from my tutor books
he said. He's really on a roll, a long large tour this
year. And.....our "Thumbs Up" CD is on all the jazz
stations in the USA, doing well.
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Subject: girl pop
Received: 04/29/00 2:55 am
From: john rausch
To: Spectropop!
Hi Billy
Here`s some info on the Castanets 45 from the booklet of
the Touch The Wall Of Sound Vol 1.
Released on the TCF (20th Century Fox) label.
Written by J Simmons.
Arranged & conducted by Morty Craft.
Hope any of that helps.
Also, I have the stereo mix of Kiss Me Sailor from an
import cd Best of Diane Renay on Marginal. I also have an
import cd of Tracey Dey with I Won`t Tell, along with 12
other selections:
Whos That
Hangin On To My Baby
Go Away
Gonna Get Along Without You Now
Teenage Cleopatra
Blue Turns To Gray
Didn` Ya
Any Kind Of Love
Ska Doo De Yah
Jerry I`m Your Sherry
Jealous Eyes
Once In A Blue Blue Moon
John Rausch
Presenting The Fabulous Ronettes@
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Studio/2469/
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Subject: stereo version of "Kiss Me Sailor"
Received: 04/29/00 2:55 am
From: WASE RADIO
To: Spectropop!
To Billy G. Spradlin:
The stereo version of "Kiss Me Sailor" was on the
original 20th Century Fox album. I had a cassette tape
that a friend of mine made for me years ago. However
"Navy Blue" appears in mono on the same album.
Michael G. Marvin
WASE radio
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Subject: The Bonnets
Received: 04/29/00 2:55 am
From: Kingsley
To: Spectropop!
The Bonnets "Ya Gotta take A Chance" was actually issued
in England in 1992 on a compilation called "Ultimate Girl
Groups" Goldmine GSLP6. This was the only real Spector
sounding track on it, the majority being more souly based.
Included were The Sherrys, The Gems, The Delicates, The
Du-ettes, The Dolls, Lorraine & The Delights, Diane Renay
and some other soloists. It was initially a 16 track vinyl
album, but then re-appeared as a CD with, I believe, some
extra tracks. As far as I know It's long deleted, but
there may be some copies around. Next time I speak to
Goldmine (English Record Company not the mag) people I'll
enquire. It is indeed a fine track!
Kingsley Abbott
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Subject: Quotes from LA Times, Earl Palmer article
Received: 04/30/00 6:21 pm
From: Carol Kaye
To: Spectropop!
Latest LA Times article on Earl Palmer, he tells it like
it is -- I'll just quote some of the things he says here -
it starts off with Earl describing his youth as a
tap-dancer on the stage with his mother and how the dance
rhythms and fine jazz (he was a jazz drummer first before
ever recording) influenced his drumming:
LA Times: "The melting pot that is New Orleans contributed
to the flexibility that over the years has enabled Palmer
to shift from sessions with Pat Boone and Professor
Longhair in the '50s to Sam Cooke, Phil Spector and the
Monkees in the '60s to Tom Waits in the '70s and Elvis
Costello in the '80s.
"People living in New Orleans just like music, period,"
Palmer said. "They like something they can shake their
fannies to and pat their feet to. New Orleans people have
their own music that has tinges of this and tinges of that
in it.
"So what we were playing on those early records was funky
in relation to jazz," he said. "What we were playing already
had that natural New Orleans flavor about the music. I
played the bass drum how they played bass drum in funeral
parade bands. I had to do something to make it funky."
and:
"Making it up as they went was one of the defining
concepts of rock 'n' roll. "This kind of music is almost
totally creative," Palmer said. "We had no [written] music
for those things--the music was learned and it was up to
the musicians to add to it. A lot of it came from the
musicians."
Because of the spontaneous, improvisatory nature of rock
music, many onlookers assumed the musicians were untrained.
And while many star performers could neither read nor
write music, the same wasn't necessarily true of the
players working with them.
"I went to music school on the GI bill," Palmer said. "I
minored in drums and that's where I learned how to read
music. I took theory and harmony, and actually was a piano
major, though I never really played it much. I studied
arranging and composition."
and:
"I knew I was never going to be a Buddy Rich--a great
soloist. That's why I went to music school. I wanted to
learn about arranging," he said. "I came to work [in Los
Angeles] for Latin Records to do arranging and producing.
What stood me in good stead was being able to come and
work as a producer and arranger."
With his reputation preceding him as a drummer on those
early rock hits out of New Orleans, he quickly found as
much demand for his instrumental services in L.A. as back
home.
Palmer said he came to appreciate a camaraderie among West
Coast studio players.
"When some of those guys would come out from New York,
they brought that New York animosity with them," he said.
"But we were always helpful to people doing those sessions.
That was some of the most fun: playing with guys who,
if you were a little better than some, you never felt that
you were so much better than anybody. It was always
refreshing to go to work."
That, he said, made it easier to bring freshness to
whatever he was called upon to play--whether a
wall-of-sound pop session with legendary producer Spector
or the theme to a TV show or movie--no matter how many
times he might have to play the same piece.
"They don't want you saying 'I'm tired.' You have to bring
yourself up every time, and lock into a way to do it every
time with something interesting, yet without totally
changing it," said Palmer, who still plays club dates as
often as he can. "You always want it to sound like it's
the first time the musicians have heard the music, that it
has all the fire of playing it the first time."
The great Earl Palmer says it all so well! He was
wonderful to work with and record with. See his pictures
on my website. As for his comment about NYer's, well most
of them were wonderful, but you had a couple maybe who
didn't fit in with the friendliness - it was a strick
regimen but still with a family-type-feeling amongst us
who were all raising our children then, and we were
concerned about each others' kids too.. When you're
exhausted (hence all the coffee we drank to stay awake and
alert w/good concentration-energy for the powerful playing
and the creative lines we'd invent....the ones in the 70s
didn't do their recordings like we did and you started
seeing drugs in the studios then too, different from the
fast-efficient-4 tunes a 3-hour session thing in the clean
60s).
Sometimes the humor got a little "edgey" from tiredness
too but everyone knew you didn't mean anything by it...
next day was totally re-newed. Earl Palmer was the one who
brought that double-time swamp beat drum-feel to LA, he
started that here, then Hal Blaine, Sharkey Hall, even
Shelly Manne copied that new style Earl brought here and
would use on those simple (but boring) pop-rock dates...
got us all to doubling up (I was a guitar player then) on
rhythms, was very innovative. Hal got the multi-tom-tom
surf-rock fills started, another top innovation which then
Earl and others had to copy........
Carol Kaye
http://www.carolkaye.com/
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Subject: Ronnie Spector
Received: 04/30/00 6:21 pm
From: john rausch
To: Spectropop!
There is to be a free concert with Ronnie Spector@
HOBOKEN ARTS FESTIVAL
(Washington St - Hoboken, NJ)
SUNDAY, MAY 7
John Rausch
Presenting The Fabulous Ronettes @
http://www.geocities.com/SunsetStrip/Studio/2469/
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