MFF0RD6

i have been mourning this loss and remembering the three times i saw him perform: 7.18.94 Pink Floyd at Giants Stadium, 4.19.06 David Gilmour @ Kodak Theatre Hollywood, 4.20.06 David Gilmour @ Universal City. all three were magic. I just listened to richard's 1976 album "wet dream" and it is unexpectedly awesome. definitely bumming.

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aevasquez

Did anybody here go meet maynard yesterday at his wine bottle signing???

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basie

From www.toolband.com: "When not discussing the primordial DNA of wine-grapes, mapped genes, or the complexity of that stuff in a swirled glass, the singer begins to talk about the band, both Puscifer and Tool, using Danny as a sounding board for some ideas that he has, including a rather unique approach to touring in the future. Of course any privileged information relating to this can't be divulged - one could say that it is protected by a fiery-eyed chupacabra (in this case, one that affects one's memory). "

Again some vague information on future touring/album... However a positive note, they ARE talking about it!

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blp

"A unique approach to touring in the future"... this is interesting. Junior!!! HELP!!!

They are usually on the cutting edge, so I'm sure they have some great ideas as they always do that are outside of the realm of linear thinking. This is the reason we love them so much (one of them at least.)

jwb

I wouldn't get too worked up. It's probably similar to last tour's itinerary based on Arizona's grape harvest season. Or maybe that of other popular wine producing regions around the world.

Not to mention they were probably talking about sometime in 2010, if their past history is any indication of the future.

junior

I'm guessing that comment mainly pertained to Puscifer, not Tool, although Tool would be likely to tour before a Puscifer tour happens. I think M's goals for any kind of Puscifer tour are quite a bit further down the road, but that's mostly a guess on my part and is not to be taken as any kind of stated fact.
I know that he wants to hold off on touring Puscifer until he can figure out a way to do it right and he didn't see that being soon (as of last winter). That's the most recent discussion we have had relating to Puscifer, which is also not to say I would have any involvement in such a project.

junior

Those are all valid points, and in some ways my reality.

liecheatnsteal

I hate Blair. Crowley wanna be mo' fo'!

aevasquez

Apparently, last night 9-18-08 in Anaheim, CA, the acoustic rock duo, Rodrigo y Gabriela, covered 46 & 2. Can anybody out there confirm?

I created a thread under the "opinion/interact/socialize" section.

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MFF0RD6

just found out about the pygmy love circus show at house of blues hollywood on 10/9. unfortunately i will be out of town but good to see they're gigging again.

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dbuck86

Had a chance to check out Opeth on Friday night. Man, they fuckin rock hard- they're new drummer is nothing short of amazing, and Mike Akerfeldt is one of the most dynamic guitarists I've ever heard..Has anyone else checked these guys out?

musicmansf

Oh yeah. Opeth rapes seriously hard with a lot of classical influence. Complex music and beautiful harmonies, always a good combo. They're kinda like Dream Theater if they weren't so "gay" sometimes haha Akerfeldt would do fine as a stand up comedian too! Seeing them Aug. 6 for the 2nd time this year. Please tell me they played Ghosts of Perdition!!!

Saw Children of Bodom last night, and they are the tightest metal band I've ever seen live. Not a beat skipped. They're a blast.

Carny_Handles

Anyone going to the green jello (jelly) show? It is going to be in los angels.

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jwb

Agreed. Going to see them with High on Fire and the Baroness next month. Great line up!

dbuck86

Unfortunately, no Ghosts of Perdition, but seeing "the lotus eater" and "drapery falls" live was more than worth the price of admission. And yeah, I kind of see Dream Theater as "musical masturbation", and we all know theres only so much of that we can take lol. High on Fire was pretty cool, but I couldn't get past the fact that their lead singer looked JUST like the caveman dude from the geico commercials.

SpiralingDown

I was there. Maynard seemed to be in pretty decent spirits as well.

aevasquez

did he allow pictures with fans or signed stuff other than the wine bottles???

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banned

Interesting article in WSJ (amongst many these days) about how Rock albums are recorded now versus pre-80's.
I've definitely noticed a difference between my Aerosmith Rocks CD or a VH CD versus a 2006-8 production like....Consolers of the Lonely or 10,000 Days..


* SEPTEMBER 25, 2008

Even Heavy-Metal Fans Complain
That Today's Music Is Too Loud!!!
They Can't Hear the Details, Say Devotees of Metallica; Laying Blame on iPods
By ETHAN SMITH

Can a Metallica album be too loud?

The very thought might seem heretical to fans of the legendary metal band, which has been splitting eardrums with unrivaled power since the early 1980s.

But even though Metallica's ninth studio release, "Death Magnetic," is No. 1 on the album chart, with 827,000 copies sold in two weeks, some fans are bitterly disappointed: not by the songs or the performance, but the volume. It's so loud, they say, you can't hear the details of the music.

"Death Magnetic" is a flashpoint in a long-running music-industry fight. Over the years, rock and pop artists have increasingly sought to make their recordings sound louder to stand out on the radio, jukeboxes and, especially, iPods.

But audiophiles, recording professionals and some ordinary fans say the extra sonic wallop comes at a steep price. To make recorded music seem louder, engineers must reduce the "dynamic range," minimizing the difference between the soft and loud parts and creating a tidal wave of aural blandness.

"When there's no quiet, there can be no loud," said Matt Mayfield, a Minnesota electronic-music teacher, in a YouTube video that sketched out the battle lines of the loudness war. A recording's dynamic range can be measured by calculating the variation between its average sound level and its maximum, and can be visually expressed through wave forms. Louder recordings, with higher average sound levels, leave less room for such variation than quieter ones.

Some fans are complaining that "Death Magnetic" has a thin, brittle sound that's the result of the band's attempts in the studio to make it as loud as possible. "Sonically it is barely listenable," reads one fan's online critique. Thousands have signed an online petition urging the band to re-mix the album and release it again.

Metallica and the album's producer, Rick Rubin, declined to comment. Cliff Burnstein, Metallica's co-manager, says the complainers are a tiny minority. He says 98% of listeners are "overwhelmingly positive," adding: "There's something exciting about the sound of this record that people are responding to."

But the critics have inadvertently recruited a key witness: Ted Jensen, the album's "mastering engineer," the person responsible for the sonic tweaks that translate music made in a studio into a product for mass duplication and playback by consumers. Responding to a Metallica fan's email about loudness, Mr. Jensen sent a sympathetic reply that concluded: "Believe me, I'm not proud to be associated with this one." The fan posted the message on a Metallica bulletin board and it quickly drew attention.

Mr. Jensen regrets his choice of words but not the sentiment. "I'm not sure I would have said quite the same thing if I was posting it to the bulletin board," he says. But "it's certainly the way I feel about it."

The battle has roots in the era before compact discs. With vinyl records, "it was impossible to make loud past a certain point," says Bob Ludwig, a veteran mastering engineer. But digital technology made it possible to squeeze all of the sound into a narrow, high-volume range. In addition, music now is often optimized for play on the relatively low-fidelity earbuds for iPods, reducing incentives to offer a broad dynamic range.

The loudness war began heating up around the time CDs gained popularity, in the early 1980s. Guns N' Roses' "Appetite for Destruction" upped the ante in 1987, as did Metallica's 1991 "Black Album" and then the Red Hot Chili Peppers' "Californication" in 1999.

Music released today typically has a dynamic range only a fourth to an eighth as wide as that of the 1990s. That means if you play a newly released CD right after one that's 15 years old, leaving the volume knob untouched, the new one is likely to sound four to eight times as loud. Many who've followed the controversy say "Death Magnetic" has one of the narrowest dynamic ranges ever on an album.

Sound engineers say artists who insist on loudness paradoxically give people less to hear, because they end up wiping away nuances and details. Everything from a gently strummed guitar to a pounding snare drum is equally loud, leading to what some call "ear fatigue." If the listener turns down the volume knob, the music loses even more of its punch.
[James Hetfield of Metallica performs with the band as they present their latest album Death Magnetic in Berlin, Friday Sept. 12, 2008.] Associated Press

James Hetfield of Metallica performs with the band as they present their latest album, 'Death Magnetic,' in Berlin earlier this month.

But many musicians, producers and record-company executives "think that having a louder record is going to translate into greater sales," says Chris Athens, Mr. Jensen's business partner and a fellow engineer. "Nobody really wants to have a record that's not as loud as everybody else's" in an iTunes playlist, he adds.

Mastering engineers are caught in the crossfire. "I've had lots of people -- I mean lots and lots of people -- try and push a record to a place I thought it didn't belong," Mr. Athens says. "We try to deliver something that mitigates the damage the client wants. I drag my feet and give them something a little louder and a little louder."

Albums by some of the biggest names in rock, including the most recent by U2, Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney, have drawn flak. Bloggers last year singled out Mr. Ludwig, the veteran engineer, for the sound on Mr. Springsteen's "Magic," which some thought was tinny and loud.

Mr. Ludwig wouldn't discuss the instructions he was given, but said, "Bruce doesn't let anything out unless it's exactly the way he wants it to be." Mr. Springsteen and his manager, Jon Landau, declined through a spokeswoman to comment.

As for the deafening "Death Magnetic," it struck one fan as fitting for these tumultuous times, thanks to songs like "Broken, Beat and Scarred" and "All Nightmare Long," says Metallica's co-manager, Mr. Burnstein. He says an investment banker emailed to say that "the album and its song titles have just become the soundtrack of Wall Street for fall 2008."

*************
This article is intended for daily discussion purposes. It carries the full copyright of it's owner. It is used here under fair use for non-profit educational purposes. http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html

njm

Thats really interesting banned.. thanks

Phosphorescent Button

Excellent article. The FM radio "loudness wars" have always been the worst culprits of this horrible trend. I've yet to enjoy 10,000 Days, the album, nearly as much as Lateralus and Aenema because of the way it's produced/mastered. I completely enjoyed 10,000 days, the tour, because loudspeakers can actually handle the original dynamic range of the music and still be loud as hell. I hope the band brings back David Bottrill to produce the next Tool album. He struck the right balance between range and loudness.

LateraL9eight7

I wouldnt exactly hang that blame on Mr. Barresi. Check out a Kyuss or Melvins record that Evil Joe did to hear a great recording with a ton of dynamic range. It's where the business went in this decade. If anything, blame the band for the volume level of that 10K Days. And David Bottrill is certainly just as guilty of these things as well.. Check out that Staind record he did. It's a situation where everyone and no one is at fault.

oceanminded050

I personally love the way 10k days was recorded. Play wings pt 1+2 on a good stereo or with good headphones and you'll pick up on a lot of subtleties. I pick up on something new everytime I hear it. You're right though; somehow it always sounds better live.

musicmansf

Bottrill is drums focused (Lateralus), and Evil Joe is guitar focused (10,000 Days). Simple as that. I do think the drums got washed out a bit on 10,000 Days (just listen to the snare on Vicarious), but you still feel them (and they're probably still better than any other drum tracking in music right now!). Honestly I think Chancellor was tracked perfectly for Lateralus, but thats probably the clarity of the Boogies compared to the absolute brute loudness of the GK's on 10,000 Days. I find bass to be the "bitch slap" in recording because mic'ing a cab is so much "hard work" compared to DI. Hey, I bought this cab for its dynamics and you are going to capture them asshole! I know I love my pre-amp, but it doesn't get the cab!

God I need to be in a band again. Yelling at sound guys that they're wrong is always fun if your a bassist :)

musicmansf

They played Heir Apparent when I saw them on Prog Nation and it was sooooo brutal haha, there's also only so much of James LaBrie's voice I can take! So they have a few openers with them? When did Opeth go on out of curiosity? I have a class I'm getting out at at 7, and it'll take me the full hour to get to the venue downtown at 8 when it starts, so yeah...

dbuck86

There were two opening bands, so Opeth didn't go on until about 10:15ish, so you'll have plenty of time..Your in for an amazing show man, have a great time.

46inme

So loud.
You sure could yell.
You took a stand on every little thing
And so loud.

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oceanminded050

Has anyone here heard Porcupine Tree? If you like Tool, Stone Temple Pilots, Radiohead, and Pink Floyd, this is right up your alley. Grungy riffs combined with soft vocal styling. Several songs are over 10 minutes as well. Very very good prog rock if you're into that kinda thing. Listen to the Deadwing album if you'd like to check them out. A good song to listen to is "Blackest Eyes".

K1DA

porcupine tree is nothing like stp IMO. A lot like king crimson.

junior

Did somebody fart?

EGG-MAN

I farted yesterday at 9:39pm and it smelled a lot like pot stickers....

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sanity napkins...

jwb

When did pot stickers get so popular? Every sports bar in my town serves 'em now.

Junior ~ How's that Extreme Dance Thingy Thing going? Learning some new moves?

junior

Technically it's "Randy Jackson presents America's Best Dance Crew : Live!"
It's going well, I guess. Haven't learned any moves, though. The stuff these dancers are doing every night is WAY beyond my abilities.
I counted today, and I have well over 300 lighting cues in this show.
I'm running lights, video, and the playback of all of the audio for the routines from my lighting console. No pressure. If my console crashes, the entire show stops. Hasn't happened.... Yet.

Next up is some more Duran Duran in November (South America) and December (North America).

jwb

Nice. Hope you don't have a "What's this button do?" moment. :)

KDubbs

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/news/...volvement.html

Not much... but it's something. I browsed around on rollingstone.com but couldn't find anything....

MFF0RD6

http://xboxmovies.teamxbox.com/xbox-...Trailer-in-HD/

i don't play guitar hero but this looks really cool

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musicmansf

Weird to hear Adam speak. haha

musicmansf

Dude, the pot sticker thing started with me realizing they were $9 for like a giant fucking party bag at Costco. College dinners bitches.

musicmansf

In my attempt at adding some cool shit to a stage show, I've brilliantly (if you could call it that) realized I could get my buddy's projector to project the new iTunes visualizer (which, btw, kicks ass, its called magnetosphere) on a blank canvass much like our admired brethren. Would a non, high-end projector like Tool uses be able to keep up with the draw time of a visualizer program Junior? My buddy thinks not, but I think it might turn out pretty cool. Time to go bug the BECA kids...haha

njm

Thats awesome!! My friend and myself do something like that when we jam at our place.. Although we use winamp with milkdrop. But I tell you, jamming with that playing on the wall is one of the most awesome things to do!!

I',m not sure about whats good enough for live venues... But the relatively cheap one we have works a charm!