<<It's good to know that there's hope for us all. But who are these "secret
holders" witholding secrets from? From potential competitors, or are they
generating an aura of mystery about their work in order to make it seem more
valuable to the public?>>
LIkely both. It's something I see mostly in 20-somethings who have been
fortunate enough to have been associated with a hit record. However the worst,
& most high profile, offender is Rudy Van Gelder, one of the most celebrated
jazz recording engineers ever. He flat out refuses to talk about the making of
any of the scores of milestone jazz recordings he engineered.
<<There are often complaints here that we live in a visual world where sound is
undervalued. Perhaps these people are actually helping to combat this. Just an
idea, perhaps they are just fools, I wouldn't know. Perhaps they're actually
making sound less accessible to the public.>>
I don't think the public is the target of the withholding of information. I
think the idea of combatting visual dominance gives vastly too much credit to
the withholders for having a coherent thought process.
<<And about the idea that the information is out there to be had, this might be
true now that a Google search will usually get you started, but not so long ago
it wasn't so easy. If one couldn't find someone who knew the answers, one could
only visit the public library to find books on the subject, usually way out of
date, or buy them. I'm not surprised an industry sprang up from that.>>
I'm of the opinion that something which is overly easy probably isn't worth
pursuing. When I started out in professional recording in the 1970s I had no
Internet, but I learned it somehow because I was passionate about doing it. I
got all the magazines (there were just a few back then, & unlike today, they
were not riddled with misinformation,) read all the books, but mainly I hung
out with other people who were doing it, & observed the masters.
Scott Fraser
|