Dr. Frank's What's-it

Board Games

Most recording studios I've worked at have some kind of "vintage" board that was acquired from somewhere else, some other studio that either replaced it or went out of business. (And of course, older is better in perception and reality: when we have a choice, we'll usually opt for 70s-era recording gear and 50s-60s instruments.) Often the studio will be built around the board. Sometimes there's an interesting story about how the board was acquired. Always, there is some kind of board pedigree, a folklorish tale of origin and history encompassing a list of records that are known or alleged to have been recorded on the board back when it was in the other studio.

The way it usually goes is, you ask some question about the board, and the engineer will tell you where it came from and say something like "you know, this was the board they used for 'Layla'." And you say, "no way." And then he explains how Eric Clapton always used to record overdubs at such and such a place, and this is the board that used to be there before the studio went out of business and they turned the building into an Olive Garden. (Of course, that means you eventually have to go to that Olive Garden, order the spicy sausage, and tell your date, "you know, this is the room where they did 'Layla'." And your date says, suspiciously, "who's Layla?") Maybe it was only the handclaps, and Lord knows it probably means all sorts of nasty stuff was spilled into it in those golden years of pushing the limits of middle class morality, but still-- it's pretty cool. For some reason. (That "Layla" example is totally made up-- but it's the kind of thing I'm talking about.)

When I first started hearing this, I assumed that they meant "this model" or this type of board. But no, they mean the actual specific physical piece of equipment. Is it always true? There's no way of knowing, and I've had my doubts before. The Rolling Stones' Black and Blue is one of those that pops up often enough that you start to wonder how it would have been possible for the band to have used quite so many boards in the relatively brief period between It's Only Rock and Roll and Some Girls. (Maybe they were on the board-a-day plan.) Well, you'd start to wonder about it if you were a cynical, soul-less cretin with little imagination and not much of a feeling heart in ya. Because it is cool, the technological-electronic version of meeting a celebrity. There's some fancy studio down in LA that has the board on which "Yummy, Yummy, Yummy" was recorded. Now come on: how awesome is that?

At Sharkbite Studios, where we're recording, the board is a very nice-sounding 1978 Trident TSM:

Pedigree: Steely Dan's Aja (extremely cool); and overdubs for Pink Floyd's The Wall (not all that cool, maybe not even remotely cool, but kind of funny. All right, all right, I admit, some little part of me thinks even that is kind of cool.)

Posted by Dr. Frank at July 23, 2003 04:41 PM | TrackBack