Hello, Doug,
I would like to suggest that the intimacy/immediacy/tension of having to
"get it right" on each and every pass had something to do with the final
product. Perhaps this is one reason why good live performances are
sometimes (often?) more interesting than over-worked multi-tracked
studio creations. While both pathways can create excellent work, there
is a difference.
My understanding was that Les never had a mega hit after he obtained the
8-track machine, which is too bad.
I also understand that Les is still around and living in New Jersey. You
might be able to go and ask him. Please bring a recorder and do an oral
history <smile>.
Cheers,
Richard
At 04:43 PM 2008-09-19, Doug Pomeroy wrote:
After making ten successful sound on sound passes, a mistake during the
eleventh pass would effectively erase all ten previous passes, and it
must have occurred to Les that a way to avoid this disaster would be
to make a
safety dub of the tenth pass.
But how could he make a dub if he had only one tape recorder? He
could have made a disc dub, since he had a lathe. Or, he could have
taken his
tapes to Capitol to have dubs made. But presumably he did neither. I
sure would
like to ask him about this.
It is interesting to me that after he got the eight-track (octopus)
from Ampex, he never again (in my opinion) made the kind of brilliant
recordings
which he'd made with his modified mono deck. (Like the centipede
which, asked
how it could coordinate the motion of all those legs, could never walk
thereafter?)
As for tape delay, check out his brilliant "I'm Forever Blowing
Bubbles", where the repetition rate of the delay fits perfectly the
tempo of that song.
Doug Pomeroy
POMEROY AUDIO
Audio Restoration & Mastering Services
193 Baltic St
Brooklyn, NY 11201-6173
(718) 855-2650
pomeroyaudio@xxxxxxx
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Aurora, Ontario, Canada (905) 713 6733 1-877-TAPE-FIX
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Quality tape transfers -- even from hard-to-play tapes.