Sound City movie analogue VS digital technology

thesleeper

New Member
Yesterday I played this really good movie directed by Dave Grohl from Foo fighters.
It's all about analogue sound and digital technologies ,problem and controversy around these two worlds.
I have to say that it's really a great movie and I suggest you all to see it.
What do you think about it?
are these two technologies still so far considering the axe fx?
it's worth to skip entirely to digital technology?
I think that the gap between these two it's not so far but still present in terms of quality of sound(I'm an happy customer of an axe fx II).
I suggest all the people at Fractal to see it because it can be such an ispiration to grow in terms of quality and approach.
:)

Thank you all for being already so great!:)
 
I believe scottburrow started a thread about this film a while back, but anyway, yes I agree that it's a fantastic movie

I love all that old stuff too, but can move on quite happily as well

The biggest problem is that people often see such things as opposing situations - mac v pc, axe v tubes etc - when all along there is no definitive right or wrong per se, it's down to choice, what one is used to and some cases, nostalgia

For me at least, just like '80s football, things aren't necessarily better or worse today, they're just 'different' :encouragement:
 
I think it was cool to see all the history that board had, and all the incredible music that flowed through it. It's just almost not practical to record like that nowadays, with all the tight budgets and whatnot. Good movie, loved the part where Rupert Neve was talking all technical and Grohl was not understanding anything.
 
I think most people don't understand the message of the movie.

IMHO, the most important messages are:
1) You should know how to play your instrument and you should get your track done without 50 Takes...
2) Before you sit on the chouch and do the wii or the playstation, get your ass up and learn how to play an instrument
3) A good song is a good song is a good song
4) Learn Mic Placement and engineering from the scratch and forget about the 10000 plugins available, so you will be able to get good achievements...

I don't see this movie as a statement against digital technology, because the cheaper the audio technology became in the last years, the less budget has become available for producing music. And don't forget, when this Mixing board came out, it was the absolute power in the audio universe. Modern as a space ship, and still a masterpiece today. IMHO, it's the story about people, who were excellent musicians, excellent engineers, but really bad businessmen....and they were overruled by upcoming new technologies....
And it were the musicians that made great music, not the board or the room....

But, yeah, a fu**in' great movie.
 
I think part of the issue is to treat digital like analog - mentally. You don't go into the session figuring everything can be sliced/diced/tuned/replaced when you are through playing your instrument, with the balance being something like 20% live, 80% ProTools after the fact.

The analog mentality approach is "this is it, the tape is rolling and we are going to make some righteous noise." The actual recording medium doesn't matter nearly as much as the attitude, IMHO. If the music/vibe is good, then who cares if there are little imperfections here and there.

TT
 
I just saw Sound City last night. It is a great show. After I saw it, I bought the album (yeah, in digital format) and it has some great stuff on it, too. In the end, I looked at the analog / digital stuff as just facts about what happened and I didn't really feel one way or the other about either. However, what I did feel like doing after the watching it was getting in a room with some other musicians and recording some music.
 
I just saw Sound City last night. It is a great show. After I saw it, I bought the album (yeah, in digital format) and it has some great stuff on it, too. In the end, I looked at the analog / digital stuff as just facts about what happened and I didn't really feel one way or the other about either. However, what I did feel like doing after the watching it was getting in a room with some other musicians and recording some music.

Loved that documentary!!

The little bits and what not of Grohl and the Foo's drummer sounded sick!... speaking about the drum sound in Grohl's new studio using the Neve desk from Sound City.
 
The sad part is all the Full Sail grads that cannot engineer a can of soup. They are paper engineers. so for 100 k you get a laptop and debt. That Neve console is magic. When Tom Petty played that song 140 times to one take it.. That's working for it. Pro Tools and Logic have there place. Radar is cool. Loved the flick.
 
Resurrecting this old thread.. I only recently saw the film and listened to the 'Reel to Reel' album. Both are fantastic and well worth checking out, so..

BUMP!

Check it out, seriously. Thank me later.

Sound City

BTW.. the album really does sound amazing. Good tunes too. Everyone loves Dave Grohl, but should I be embarrassed by how much I'm digging Rick Springfield's song on here? Killer! It almost makes up for all those times I had to play Jessie's Girl over the years :)
 
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