You are right... I know you have had this argument a zillion times before, and will go through prosoundweb and recordist sites to see what you have written before. I just wondered if there was any new perspective from what I have seen you write in the past few years.

I refuse to tread in rec.audio.pro anymore because of the jawdropping arrogance (gawddamn, I hate fletcher), or the electrical forums (because of the nine million irrelevant posts by TooManyHelicopters and his ilk or the bizarre tangents about Karl Rove).

Have a nice evening, and thanks for humoring me. Baseball is still boring.

Oh, Stevie-baby. I still love you no matter what.
So, did you buy the This Heat boxed set or did you already own everything in it?
And here's another joke:
Q: How many Steve Albini's does it take to change a light bulb?
A: "The light bulb wanted me to change it but I just left it like it was originally."

steve,
what do you think of the mellotron?

yes thats a serious question

as an aside this thread has motivated me to check out a lot of good music i wouldnt otherwise... i really enjoy rocking the jesus lizard albums while playing HU sngs...

The mellotron, for those unfamiliar, was a keyboard instrument that played magnetic tape recordings of notes played by real instruments or voices. It made its most famous appearances on the Beatles' "Strawberry Fields," where it played the staccato recorder part, and several Led Zeppelin songs, where it generally played as a string section.

They're kind of a pain to keep working properly (they never really work 100 percent), and the keyboardist has to be able to adjust to the unusual feel of the keyboard, but they have a charming sound and are a neat little character element when they're used appropriately. Ours has two sets of tapes, for a total of 6 voices, and gets used pretty often.

Whats your stars sn?

Favourite pornstar?

Don't have an active account. Used to play on a shared account, so I shouldn't give the SN.

No real favorites. I kinda admire truly hideous people who have made a career out of being naked and getting laid on camera, the clear champion being Ron Jeremy. I guess "admire" is too strong a word.

First to the 2+2 folks upon whose turf I reluctantly tread: thanks for tolerating us slobbering fanboys/girls as we clamber to pick Mr. Albini's cortex. You've been most gracious.

A quick question or two for you, Steve: during your many years in the music business, I'm sure you've been made countless offers that would require you to compromise your values in order to accept. Have there been any you were particularly tempted by? Were there any you seriously considered accepting? (Or did accept?) Share as many details as you like.

And thanks for your well-crafted and clearly expressed sentiments about the music industry, both within this thread and outside of it. You're an inspiration, and it's great to not have to learn a lot of what you talk about the hard way. Not to mention, as a musician you've helped me to remain focused on what's important rather than the nonsense I "should" be trying to "accomplish".

Also, any tips for recording violin? Any special considerations to take into account when recording electric violin vs. acoustic?

I tend to equate violin to a vocal performance, somewhat. Am I way off base? When I started to think this way, my results improved, but they're still nowhere near what I'd consider good.

6 voices? i only know of the recorder/flute, string section, and choir voices. what others are there?

yeah "when used appropriately" i guess that is the key with mellotron. i have some pretty good tron samples and i put them on pretty much every song i record lol (also vibraphone samples)
and yes i use digital because it is essentially free.
i just think the mellotron flute is about the greatest sounding thing ever, up there with a real violin. also when i think of famous records/bands who used mellotron i usually think of the first king crimson album because it is very prominent on multiple songs... but yeah strawberry fields, everyone knows the intro.

anyway jesus lizard.. other than liar and goat which have been mentioned in this thread, what other albums of theirs should i check out?
ty steve

Hello again and thanks for you previous reply,

But you must use compressors for some things, though surely. As I've read a many articles which claim that you don't and wouldn't touch them 10ft pole, which doesn't seem like your approach to things, from what I've gathered from your forum responses.My presumption is that you do use them and writers of these 'articles' colour your opinions by means of their understanding of language rather than a neutral position and as result try and caracature you.Which is extremely frustrating from my stand point, when you're trying to teach yourself.So just to set the 'record' ( no pun intended) straight perhaps.If you do use them on a typical Steve Albini recording ( if there is such a thing) what do you find yourself using them on and for what gain.(again no pun intended)

And yet another side question that you've probably been asked loads of times, but who pushes the record button and mans the desk when you've been recording shellac material?

Thanks again.

you've stuck to your game throughout your career, that's so inspirational to so many people. do you think it's possible for a solo artist to be picked up by an independent label without having played live shows? Or if that's like not having sex and expecting babies

Have you heard any New Orleans brass band music? It's some loud, raw, live music that I've always thought would benefit from your recording style.

My turntable died about 3+ years ago and I haven't listened to vinyl since (hey, I've been busy). Sure, I have CDs and MP3s etc., but there's almost no redundancy with my LPs. I can't listen to Double Nickles on the Dime 'cause the CD & even my old cassette copy are missing tracks. It just ain't the same. I thought about getting one of those turntables with the USB plug if I chose to make a digi copy of this or that, but the thing looks like a total POS.

Where are the decent turntables these days? I haven't had to buy one in 20 years. Other than getting a direct drive, isn't the cartridge the most important piece? The Technics 1200 is the only quality turntable I can recall. Any suggestions?

BTW, I bought 3 copies of the Marmoset/Hated Chinee 7" when it came out after I was told it would be an exciting collectible and make me rich when I sold it. First, am I a douche and second, what'lya gimme for it?

Sorry about being yet another musically inclined person, registering on the forums, just for a possible question or two. Thanks to Tapeop-ers for posting the thread, you know.

I've got a few short ones - answer if you want, and which ones you want.

1) After reading the reply you posted about working in studios nowadays (which basically was that many people are at home recoring now, and studios are mainly solo or very small manpower operations, of sorts), I didn't know how you'd think on if you weren't in your shoes you are now - if you still think it's a sane idea of opening a recording studio, and if it's just financially feasable, without going under. It seems that's the common trend - large equipment investments, a year of debts, then liquidation. I can't help but see it and hear about it all the time. Would you consider it the engineers fault, or just how things are going now? If you didn't have EA and 'Albini' wasn't a buzz word, would you start from the ground up?

2) Quantegy shut it's doors. Not new news. New production analog tape is going kaput. Do you think that we'll even come to a crisis about it - having tape at feasable prices for studio tracking? Or, will it all be used up, and no one will make it anymore? What's your take on the true future of the recording medium?

3) Along those lines - the 'vintage' gear made and designed in the 50's - 80's is getting older, and parts are getting scarcer, year by year. Personally, I haven't seen many replacements or substitutes that do the job. Granted, of course, there's some newer things that are simply incredible - but do you feel that in, say, 50 years from now, that these things will be unfathomable to maintain and upkeep for the studio? The big thing that comes into mind are the tape machines.

4) How often do you just get sick of hearing music, or audio? Working around it, all the time, do you ever regret that it has, in any way, ruined your musical enjoyment because of your constant analysis of the technical side of things?

I took the big leap of moving from Florida (*shudder*) to the Chicago area. Hopefully I'll be able to record with you in the future, and hopefully, there's promise in this gigantic chaos. I'm glad you found yours!

Best wishes, Steve,

-Marshall

Apologies for encroaching on the 2+2 forums, I understand it's gotta be annoying, but I do have some questions for Steve.

It was cool to read that you considered 'Viva Last Blues' and 'Arise, Therefore' among your favorite recordings as I'm a big fan of those records and Will Oldham in general. I'm assuming you're a fan as well and I'm really curious as to how those sessions went, what your relationship with Will was/is (he's gotta be pretty funny), and what you think of his catalogue from the early Palace stuff to Bonnie 'Prince' Billy. Would you like to do more work with him in the future?

Also, I've been a monstrous fan of your bands for years and I have a lot of love for the majority of the bands you've championed (Scratch Acid, The Jesus Lizard, Killdozer, Six Finger Satellite, Slint, Naked Raygun, Kraftwerk, at least a dozen or two others). Earlier in this thread you expressed interest in making a list of your top 100 Hard Rock bands. Please [censored] do. I know you'd turn me on to a lot of stuff that I haven't heard.

Some of your favorite album art? I know you take great care in that department, Excellent Italian Greyhound felt like a gift. Appreciated.

What was it like working with the reformed Stooges? I should have reserved this question for another post entirely, but I'm being really greedy.

Thanks for doing this by the way. It's a legitimate BIG DEAL for me.

The common stuff, offers of management, major label deals for bands I've been in, that sort of thing, I've never been tempted by. It's obvious to me that I handle my affairs better than anybody else could, I get all the work I need, and my bands have not been limited in any aspirations. Getting more involved with the mainstream showbusiness industry would be a step backwards.

While Shellac was a new band, we played a few European festivals and were disgusted by the whole scene. The promoters were offering a mixed slate of bands, some of whom they were obligated to have because of backroom deals with agencies and labels, some of which were flavor-of-the-month crap, and the rest were just generic light entertainment, where any old band will do. The bands were using these non-critical (but lucrative) gigs as a kind of subsidy, the fans were not being treated well, and the whole thing was a grotesque abstraction of the legitimate band-fan relationship. After a couple of those, we decided that we would be unavailable for festival gigs.

A few years later, we were asked to play All Tomrrow's Parties, under the pretext that "this festival is different." We declined. The promoter and the curating band who nominated us asked again, with a very generous offer. We explained that we didn't care about the money, we just didn't play festival gigs out of principle. That led to a conversation about the festival, and we were persuaded to play.

As it turns out, this festival was different. It was curated by a band, so all the acts were being vouched-for, the patrons got a weekend ticket including a little apartment (rather than a space in a field for a tent) with a private kitchen and bathroom, and the shows were in proper indoor venues rather than in tents exposed to the weather.

For the first time in history, someone said, "but this one is different," and it actually was different. Not only that, but its success as a festival fostered a whole trend in curated, civilized festivals, and now some of the curated festivals are quite good.

Electric violin I treat like any electric instrument -- make sure the band is happy with the sound coming out of the amplifier and record that sound as clearly as possible.

Acoustic violin is a rough one. Microphone choice is pretty important. There is a ton of energy in the very high frequencies, and any peaking in the mic high frequency response can make the violin sound shrill or thin. The holy grail for violin recording is a mic with a smooth and phase-accurate high frequency response (not necessarily flat, but without irregular peaks and notches). A couple of mics come close, good ribbon mics like the Coles/STC 4038 and the Royer R121, and measurement-caliber omni condensers like the DPA 4000 series, the Earthworks mics and the Josephson 617. The only directional condenser mics I have found to sound good on violin have been Schoeps 221b and a Russian mic, the Lomo 19a18, which has been fitted with a new diaphragm by David Josephson.

Our set is by no means complete, and we have flute, violin, cello, brass, choir, and double-bass.

Bass guitar, 2-3 dB, Bass drum, 3-6dB (usually a peak limiter), vocals 6-8dB (occasionally more in extreme cases), occasionally snare drum 2-3 dB (again a peak limiter). That's about it. Anything more than that and there's some problem that ought to be solved another way.

We've had a bunch of people act as tape-op over the years. they're usually credited on the records.

Sure it's possible in a cocorosie/one-in-a-million way. It's a ridiculous thing to aspire to, and betrays a profound laziness.

Hifi turntables are currently being made by Rega, Sota, Music Hall, VPI and many others. You should be able to get a good belt drive turntable for less than $500, and a good tonearm and cartridge for less than $300. You can sometimes get a whole system for less than $500, and with maintenance and new belts and needles, it will last you the rest of your life. You can also get a nice second-hand Thorens or other old school setup for about the same.

I could use one or two of those, honestly. Make me an offer by PM.

When I started, it was from the ground up. I didn't have Electrical, and 'Albini' wasn't a buzz word. So, yes, that's how I would do it. Exactly the way I did do it.

There is current tape production being run by RMG in the Netherlands, and ATR Magnetics has a whole plant built in Pennsylvania that has yet to come on line, but ought to. While I see tape becoming a boutique item, I don't imagine it will disappear entirely in my lifetime.

The reason those things (old microphones and tape machines) are valuable is that they are reliable, year in/year out, and can be readily repaired by us, the end user, or a modest technical service shop. They are all pretty simple machines, and parts can be made if necessary by almost any competent machinist. The tape machines we use here have been in almost constant use since the 1980s, and they are still in fighting fit. They are hard to kill.

Not really. I mentioned it earlier, but while I'm in the studio, I am listening to music, but not really listening to it as a music fan, so I don't really get tired of it the way I got tired of hearing a hit song permeate the culture or what have you.

Do you know the band 'modest mouse'? What do you think of them?

I don't think I've ever thought of modest mouse.

Hope this question isn't too broad, but I was wondering if you've noticed any attitude/perspective shifts among bands over the years. Something akin to how teachers who've been at it a while will say, "kids these days..."

Any noticeable differences in the way bands today think about their music, their label, the music business, the recording process itself, what success means, their odds of achieving that success, how they view their fans, ect?