The field of electronics is one of my intellectual blind spots. I have no clue at all what anything in a recording studio is or does, or how to work it. I don't know what a motherboard is; I don't know a gigahertz from a megabyte; I have no earthly notion what "compression" really is, or a rheostat, or a crossover, or what the difference is between resistance and impedance. As a child I firmly believed that if you cut a vinyl LP of Magical Mystery Tour in half, you would find a miniaturized John, Paul, George and Ringo inside, strictly following the needle's instructions wherever it fell, including skips.
I try to cultivate friendships with the people I encounter who possess that facility, but it can sometimes be a bit difficult. The workings of their minds are so fundamentally different from my own that I sometimes think they represent - well, not a different species, but perhaps something analogous to a different gender. Their thinking is linear; mine is katabatic. I have to be careful not to obey my instinct to ask them to explain concepts I don't understand; the result is infallibly a correct, and often quite lengthy answer, composed of words which, in themselves, I understand perfectly, but which form a whole that bewilders me. As Admiral Benson said in Hot Shots! (if you'll forgive a bit of crude language), "I don't have a clue what you're talking about, Jim; not a fucking clue." I know what comes out of the speakers, I know what appears on the computer monitor - how it got there, I'm blind to.
So about fifteen years ago I was in the market for a new preamplifier. My incomprehension of their workings notwithstanding, I'm rather fussy about sound, and will happily spend a great deal of time, and travel considerable distances in hunting for satisfactory stereo components [N.B.: let me quickly add that the widespread preference, among audiophiles, for vacuum tube over solid state amplifiers is questionable; there are good and bad solid state amps, and the best ones {narrowly} beat tubes]. My quest eventually brought me to a very high-end, boutique-y concern in LA, where I listened to a preamp that I found especially gratifying. Among its attenuators and switches and God knows what all, however, I noticed one I'd never seen on any other: a big, heavy knob with only two positions, identified as "PHASE INVERTER 180˚." Foolishly, I asked what it did, and sat through five minutes of incomprehensible factuality, trying to look like I found it helpful. It ended satisfyingly, however: "Turn it," the guy said.
Whatever 180˚ phase inversion is, it's cool. The effect is difficult to explain; without the actual music changing in any definite way, it somehow creates a sort of - how can I describe it? - a kind of bump in the sound, that fills your ears almost the way pressure equalization does when you get off an airplane. It almost seems to push you, physically; the whole room seems to tilt a few degrees for an instant. If you have an opportunity, try to experience the effect some time, with a pair of good speakers. Jarring, but in a quite fascinating way.
Anyway, I left the place thinking how amazing it was that this effect had, as far as I was aware, never been used in a rock song. I meant to employ it in a VWC endeavor at one point or another, but it was like what happens to that mental list of records you've been meaning to buy when you walk into an actual record store: poof.
Well, someone finally did it. Terrific song, too. If possible, I urge you to listen to this on headphones to get the effect, and even then it's still not as powerful in recording as it is when you apply it firsthand with good equipment. But this recording is dripping with phase inversion. Phase inversion is our friend.
By the way; anyone who can hip me to an earlier example (or examples - this song is from 2006) will be rewarded with five sleek, aerodynamic zarpex-Points™.
My Trusted MOGs
Z, I find it hard to believe your outta touch with what goes on at the mixing board when cutting a record. Well, not that hard. That's why you pay recording staff, they have this stuff figured out already.
If I were to name an examples of 'phase shift' I would think pioneers such as Zappa 'Help I'm a Rock' through Floyd ' Astronomy Domine', Captain Beefheart, and up to the work of XTC's alter ego Dukes of Stratosphere. Jeez, don't forget about MC5, and a host of others who wanted a deeper sound that almost throws off your equilibrium.
Today this effect can be simulated (quite convincingly) by digital manipulation. Back in the day (and still is) this effect was built into mixing boards of varying quality. My semi vintage Soundtrac 4x16 has phase inversion. To rig the board it requires a knowledge about cable placement and pan.
If VWC ever gets back to the studio I recommend you find an engineer who can help you out.
Another place you can hear this shift is in your guitar effects. I have a Korg that gives me the presets 'Black' and 'Orange' Phaser. This takes the mono signal and switches it in and out of phase with the original signal. I would liken the effect to spinning in a concrete tunnel with a blindfold on. The sound hits your ears differently as you revolve.
I hope I answered any question, if not I hope I confounded you completely. I don't like traveling in the middle of the road.
You didn't get a B&O did you?
My Trusted MOGs
Five zarpex-Points™ to I am! "Mole from the Ministry" does indeed use phase inversion, and I couldn't thoroughly check the others you mentioned (I have a fair number of Beefheart tracks on my iTunes, but couldn't find the effect; I might have the wrong ones; likewise MC5 and "Astronomy Domine" - the fascination with which I could never understand), but you were quite right about The Dukes of Stratosphear.
Believe it or not, amigo, nothing to do with circuitry of any sort, for some reason, can be made to penetrate my skull. I can still participate usefully in matters of production, but my understanding of what I'm doing is on a purely aesthetic level; I cannot touch a dial, a slider, or anything without strings; 100% backseat driver.
For the historical record, the VWC will be back in the studio some time this summer, to record "Classic Rock" properly (at long last). We do, you'll be relieved to know, have an engineer to work with ("The night purge is in the hands of the technicians." -Samuel Beckett, Molloy).
Phase inversion may have me stumped, but for the record, phase shifting actually makes sense to me - possibly because I can picture waves more easily than electrons.
Good Lord, No. B&O? Baltimore & Ohio? Surely you can't have meant Bang & Olufsen? Easier on the eyes than the ears. Although in fairness, they did make pretty respectable turntables back in the day. Did they do a preamp with phase inversion?
Perhaps I should have appended this to my post about the Jaws score, but since we're all here, let me add that it should be a given that my opinions are subjective; that's exactly why I so seldom use phrases like "in my view," "if you ask me," "I think," etc. This is no place for half-sentiments. I do hold Francis Ford Coppola in great esteem as a filmmaker, but 75% of it is for The Conversation (one of the ten greatest movies ever made) - 15% is for The Godfather, and 10% - believe it or not - is for his last movie, which no one saw, Youth without Youth. "Majestic," I uttered to my wife as we left the theater. I always thought Apocalypse Now was a mess, and recall nothing at all about its score other than Wagner's "Flight of the Valkyries" during the helicopter attack scene. A suitable pick enough, but nothing inspired.
By the way; has a final decision been made regarding your wife's nom de roller derby?
My Trusted MOGs
I'm not sure I understood all that's been said above. I'm even more lost when it comes to pinpointing any particular track which uses the effect heard above. I thought Joy Division's "Atrocity Exhibition" could be one but I've checked it's not it. Talking Heads' "Sax & Violin" is close but not quite.
Anyway, all these techno-babbles really make want to learn more about that "PHASE INVERTER 180 ˚" button.
My Trusted MOGs
One thing I've never really understood is how come the Furnaces' aren't 100x more popular than they are currently. Their music if great and has all the elements which garner pop success, perhaps they're reluctant?
Meh, just rambling. Sorry for hijacking your post.
My Trusted MOGs
Bart: I suppose I myself sometimes don't understand everything I've written when I look back at it, and phase inversion, if you haven't really had a proper introduction to it, can be misidentified more easily than my enthusiasm suggests, so no sweat. Funny you should mention Joy Division as a place you might find it; I might have thought to look there too - not because the wildly overrated Martin Hannett was likely to have employed it, but because (from what I understand) most of its appearances in recordings are accidental, and the work of a lazy, pretentious producer would be a good place to check. For having taken the time to investigate it, however - and for having generally been a force for coolness on MOG - I bestow on you three forceful, dynamic zarpex-Points™.
Sturgell: I must say, your "rambling" displays dazzling economy. And of course, you've pointed out the elephant in the room: The Fiery Furnaces should, by all rights, be a lot better known than they are. 100x might not actually be much of an exaggeration. If making interesting and helpful observations is "hijacking" my posts, please hijack them whenever you see fit.
My Trusted MOGs
So what do I get to do with the points? Can I donate them to charity?
B&O is some of the most gorgeous pieces of equipment out there. Unfortunately they are over priced and 'ehhh' on the listening scale. Gimme Technics anyday.
The name hasn't been cleared by Nationals yet. But we don't see a problem. I will let you know as soon as it does. If it clears I will get you a "I Am's Phone From Jail Voucher", they are good if you get locked up and have no one else you would care to speak to.
Coppola didn't add it to the movie soundtrack (I should have made my self clearer). The story goes Hart and Krueztmann were shown the film and they made an alternate score for the movie. Honestly, it's music fit for a haunted house.
My Trusted MOGs
Oh yeah, good news on getting back to the studio.
Will you guys ever do a live show? Or are you going to go the Steely Dan route and wait 20 years when it is more profitable?
My Trusted MOGs
I find myself mystified by what the phase inversion is that I'm meant to be hearing. My understanding of phase inversion is when you wire up a pair of speakers - if the speakers are out of phase, there's no bottom end. Phase shifitng now...I could bore for Britain on the subject. What I do know in that song up above is that there's a tape delay on the snare, which pans to the opposite side, and later in the song they put phase on the delay, and then at a later point heavily gate the echo so that the sound doesn't delay naturally but cuts off. Knowing these things is why the ladies love me so; on a date I'm a conversationalist non pariel.
My Trusted MOGs
I am: zarpex-Points™ are nontransferable, and can be granted or revoked only at the whim of zarpex Consolidated Opinions, Inc. Their numbers are tabulated and certified by the independent legal and accounting offices of Conley & Llewellyn. Any apparent bias they might show towards zarpex Consolidated Opinions, Inc. is purely coincidental, and any suggestion to the contrary, public or private, establishes its maker legally non compos mentis.
I agree regarding B&O, which makes me wonder what prompted you to think I'd have spent months and traveled hundreds of miles to bring home... That?
"I am's Phone from Jail Voucher," nothing! I was promised a T-shirt, and a T-shirt I shall have!
I am skeptical of virtually all music written by drummers, and gravely so of Grateful Dead drummers. Your conviction has nonetheless piqued my curiosity; I'll see if I can find the phantom Apocalypse Now score. Fear is one of the emotions music (if done well) can be especially good at provoking, and if it's a fiftieth as scary as the Jaws theme, I'll consider my efforts abundantly rewarded.
The VWC, if I recall correctly, did four shows about ten years ago, very much against my wishes and better judgment. Live musical performances are a medievalism, and future generations will marvel at our barbarity. If, by some perversity of fate, we were suddenly to have a series of hits comparable to Steely Dan's, I might reconsider. I strongly advise against holding your breath.
Jonh: Dazzling. A "tape delay on the snare, which pans to the opposite side, and later in the song they put phase on the delay, and then at a later point heavily gate the echo"? Why the hell can't I say stuff like that? You should have seen me during mixing sessions. "Add something that makes my voice sound good." "Flip some switch that makes my guitar playing suddenly seem competent. How should I?? know what switch? ??Just do it!" If I had the remotest clue how, I'd try to show defiance, but I'm an unarmed man. Still, with deep respect, and trembling visibly, I must insist that there's phase inversion in there. Phase inversion is different from phase shifting. Don't ask me how. I've heard both, and they're very different. And they're both different from the sound of a pair of speakers that are out of phase. Please don't use the word "gate" as a verb again here with such self-assured aplomb; I can only afford to look so stupid.
My Trusted MOGs
Zarpex, rather than thinking of it as ignorance, use it as a metaphorical weapon. It being late on sunday night my brain is asleep, so I forget whether I heard this from an engineer or a producer, but it regarded a musician who would say, in all seriousness, 'I want it to sound like the sun setting behind dark thunder clouds' (I'm paraphrasing). Said studio boffin's comment was, 'It really makes you think what that sounds like.' In his case, it was an adventure because he was forced into doing things he normally wouldn't have. I worked with a Japanese guitarist once who told the producer he wanted the track to sound "pastoral". That was an interesting session.
My Trusted MOGs
If for one moment I doubted you were already far better informed of it than I am, Jonh, I would mention the (literal, not figurative) insanity David Gilmour had to translate into music during the recording of Barrett...
My Trusted MOGs
Apparently one of my comments got completely munched off this post -> AHHH
well, as I said like 2 days ago -> I agree, I can play around with all kinds of levers, knobs, pedals, dials, switches, and have a great time and make some wicked cool sounds...but when I helped set up for a rather large indoor venue in Virginia, I saw and handled a UFO's motherboard and wires and gizmos and whatnot's that only brought me to one conclusion...I am a musician, not a techie, so until I can sit in the studio and watch over someone's shoulder for like a year, I'm just gonna stick with strumming, plucking, banging, screaming and playing with my pedals and amps, and if the need ever arises, let the hired help record for me...
Just as I know I can hear, I cannot explain how the sound wave gets converted into a brain wave in my head that I understand...I know that I plug in and play, and music comes out the other end all kinds of distorted and funky when I hit a button on a pedal or turn a dial...