This month over at Scientist, we’re debuting our first ever VIDEO feature: An in-depth look at overhead drum mic techniques with yours truly. This series is going to be killer, whether you’re just getting started out or you’re an old hand in the studio. Hope you enjoy.
In other big news, the 135th AES Convention begins October 17th, and you’ll be able to catch us live in person on the 18th, with our special guests: Chris Coady[Blonde Redhead, Beach House, TV on the Radio], Patrick Dillett[David Byrne, St. Vincent, Notorious B.I.G.], Tom Elmhirst[Adele, Amy Winehouse, Lily Allen], and Manny Maroquin[Bruno Mars, Kanye West, John Legend]
Hello, fellow Scientists of Sound! We hope you enjoyed your summer. It was fun while it lasted, but now it’s time to start getting back to bigger things.
Soften your landing with the September “Back to School” issue of Trust Me, I’m A Scientist — the music magazine for people who make music.
This time we’re focusing on scientifically supported methods for getting better at the things you care the most about doing. We’ll be focusing on examples in audio, music, writing, and business, but these evidence-based principles can be applied to any field.
An interview and profile on influential post-rock producer John McEntire, who’s made countless records with bands like Tortoise, Stereolab, The Sea and Cake, Trans Am and Broken Social Scene.
Yesterday was the first Monday of the month, which means we launched the January issue of Trust Me, I’m A Scientist.
You may notice that this is our first-ever issue with advertising sponsors. You may also notice that there are no spam ads or preference trackers or any of that big brother nonsense.
We’re strictly keeping ad spots open only to personally-selected companies that we actually like and respect. So, if you dig what we’re about, you might dig what they have to offer. Please check ’em out!
The new American Masters documentary on music mogul David Geffen is very much worth watching. I suggest you drop everything now and stream it at the bottom of this page if you haven’t already.
When I was a teenager, it seemed that just about every cool record that came out on a major label did so on an imprint that had something to do with David Geffen.
On Geffen Records alone there was Nirvana, Sonic Youth, Beck, Neil Young, John Lennon, Slayer; And that’s not to mention all the amazing and sometimes life-altering albums that came out on Asylum, Elektra, Def Jam and Interscope under his guidance.
This was back when strong copyright enforcement protected artists from mega-corporations, and companies like these had to invest in musicians for the privilege of making money off of their work. A very different world, to be sure.
It could be a corrupt and ugly industry as well, that is certain, but it was also an industry that shared profits, or even paid out handsomely to artists when it took heavy losses on their work. In many cases, that was just the cost of doing business.
This was especially the case with David Geffen. He began his career as an agent, negotiating on the behalf of artists, trying and succeeding at getting them better deals than anyone else could, or otherwise would.
When he wound up on the other side of the table, Geffen still believed in paying out large sums to musicians and spending years on artist development. This is mostly because he wanted the best artists he could get — not the cheapest. He spent a lot of money. But he made more.
It was this deep-seated devotion to investment that made Geffen’s career, perhaps more so than anything else.
When he moved on to help launch Dreamworks with Steven Spielberg and Jeffrey Katzenberg, Geffen recognized that every other startup movie studio in recent memory had failed because it was underfunded.
Geffen would reverse both those trends. He helped secure $2.3 Billion dollars for the new company. It took heavy losses for years, but just when they had tapped out nearly 75% of their resources, the company turned around and started making much more than it spent.
It had long been this way with art and film and publishing and music. Historically, they’ve been high-risk, high-payoff fields that have employed a lot of people. On the average, it paid them well. But now that the payoffs have gone away, so has that willingness to takes risks, that willingness to invest and to nurture.
Granted, some of the corruption has disappeared along with the payouts, but only from one side of the industry. It pops up again now all over the internet instead. Now pirate websites make deals with advertisers, selling the eyeballs and the data of those who come for stolen work.
In the past, the artists had to get some kind of a cut, even if they lost the companies money. But today, the artists are the only ones being cut out of the profits completely.
So few have stepped up to protect musicians. Perhaps that’s because those who might be able to help feel they have so little to gain. But for so many of us, this is also thanks in part to the fact that we have bought such a line.
The promise of the 21st century was that we’d have more middle class musicians today than ever before, all thanks to the internet. The harsh reality is that we have fewer. It’s a simple and well-established fact that is not up for debate.
What is open to question and discussion however, is just how many working musicians we’ve lost, whether we should do anything about it… and if so, what?
You can never predict the future until you’ve seen the past. And even then, it’s no easy feat. People like David Geffen got paid a lot to do just that once. He had a pretty good run, and for all the flaws, we heard a lot of great music:
Yesterday was the first Monday of the month, which means we launched the October issue of Trust Me, I’m A Scientist, the “music magazine for people who make music.”
In This Issue:
Unpaid internships at for-profit companies have risen exponentially over the past 10 years. New lawsuits challenge the legality and ethics of the practice, and a new analysis suggests that music and publishing companies’ over-reliance on unpaid interns may have done them huge damage in the long run. Read: “Has The Internship Turned Evil?“
Just in time for Halloween, Steve Macfarlane offers a history of the Theremin along with classic music clips that are not to be missed. Read: “Theremin, A Mania“
Watch our first-ever video as TMimaS editor Justin Colletti teams up with SonicScoop’s Janice Brown and a panel of producers and engineers famous for their work with Bjork, Bob Dylan, The Flaming Lips, Weezer, The National, Public Enemy, Interpol, Arcade Fire, and more. Watch: “The Studio as an Instrument“
Listen to a new episode of Input|Output Podcast in which Geoff and Eli put the new Universal Audio Apollo recording system up against a world-class studio equipped with a vintage Neve console and Studer tape deck. Can the two possibly compare? Hear for yourself and decide.