Rick Beato... yeah or nay?

[Hal...]

I confuse him with Jared Goff.

[moecurlythanu]

Thanks. I knew that and spelled it wrong anyway.

It was his black eyeliner and black clothing that threw you off.

[happytheman]

I definitely heard some new ones. Most of the chat is about his days as a studio player before he joined Yes. The most amusing is him meeting Thomas Goth, the harpsicord builder, and getting to know him. He winds up going to his place and the Queen Mother just happens to be there that day. Then, they get to Yes and he plays and breaks down solos to Roundabout and a bit of Close To The Edge.

I especially enjoyed the question of where he thought music was today.. then he walked you down the history of the music business.. he may as well have been sitting on my shoulder when he described going into record shops looking for whatever and ending up buying stuff you never intended. That's how a lot of my early buying was.. run thru the cut-outs finding bands you never heard of.. seeing who played on the album making a connection to other albums they played on and at least in my case buying something simply because the artwork was cool.. figuring that if they took the time to make the cover enticing who knows what the music sounds like.. after all you were spending $2.99 tops..

[Man In The Mountain]

he described going into record shops looking for whatever and ending up buying stuff you never intended. That's how a lot of my early buying was.. run thru the cut-outs finding bands you never heard of.. seeing who played on the album making a connection to other albums they played on and at least in my case buying something simply because the artwork was cool.

I think the genie is already way to far out of the bottle. Current Vinyl shops to some extent are like what Rick describes, a blend of new and old vinyl, and CDs. I know its a contentious topic, that the vinyl resurgence has extended past what is considered a "fad", but my gut still tells me this trend will fall, and fall hard. Vinyl sales are already slowing down. Vinyl is very expensive, and young people will find they don't really play them all that much to justify buying more. On the flip to that, my wife who is about as computer savvy as a 3 year old, had our daughter put Spotify on her phone and my wife loves it! She can actually navigate it, and is listening to deluxe versions of albums for practically free, while I struggle to want to spend money buying the physical copies of these releases. And she can listen to practically any album from anyone's catalog. It's not fair, and she's winning.

These stories from Rick are from a time long gone by. It's history, and it's in the books. Chapel Roan will have no such stories when she's 78.

[Hal...]

I know its a contentious topic, that the vinyl resurgence has extended past what is considered a "fad", but my gut still tells me this trend will fall, and fall hard.

I agree, altho I couldn't care less, to be frank. I never understood it. Yes, like most of those of a certain age, I missed looking at the artwork of the jacket and reading the lyrics, if they came with them. But I was happy to trade that for the lack of snaps, crackles, and pops of vinyl.

What I will never be able to fathom is the recent fad of people getting back into cassette tapes. That, to me, makes absolutely no sense when you consider tapes have a much lower S/N ratio compared to CDs.

[Mascodagama]

I think my favourite bit from the Wakeman one was the heartfelt moaning about all those lovely vintage keyboards that are so fetishised now, and how one day he took his Mellotrons into the garden, set them on fire and drank champagne as he watched them burn. You gotta feel for him. The wires break on your Hammond draw bars leaving you with just the f*cking percussion, the Mellotron never works properly and sounds like a queasy duck, the Minimoog is always out of tune and requires a PhD and a 400-page manual to fix. Then a roadie plugs all your UK kit into US voltage and blows up the lot, leaving you to try and get by with a piano and a tambourine.

It's no wonder that while the rest of Yes survived on a diet of brown rice and meditation, Rick needed a good curry and eight pints of lager.

[Man In The Mountain]

IYes, like most of those of a certain age, I missed looking at the artwork of the jacket and reading the lyrics, if they came with them. But I was happy to trade that for the lack of snaps, crackles, and pops of vinyl.

We were all happy to chuck our vinyl for shiny silver discs. Honestly, I have once again fallen in love with vinyl. The cracks & pops are exaggerated, buy quality vinyl and the rewards are super addictive. Rick is correct, it is meant to be a tactile & audio experience combined. And that's is what is missing today. I still however think the vinyl fad will fade. It just doesn't conform to modern sensibilities. It's now more a hobby or fetish.

[Vic2012]

I'd say yay. That was a good interview with Wakey. He sounds like a rambling old man, and I could listen to 3 hours of Wakey yacking. Joe Rogan should interview him....

[Mr.Krautman]

I think my favourite bit from the Wakeman one was the heartfelt moaning about all those lovely vintage keyboards that are so fetishised now, and how one day he took his Mellotrons into the garden, set them on fire and drank champagne as he watched them burn. You gotta feel for him. The wires break on your Hammond draw bars leaving you with just the f*cking percussion, the Mellotron never works properly and sounds like a queasy duck, the Minimoog is always out of tune and requires a PhD and a 400-page manual to fix. Then a roadie plugs all your UK kit into US voltage and blows up the lot, leaving you to try and get by with a piano and a tambourine.

It's no wonder that while the rest of Yes survived on a diet of brown rice and meditation, Rick needed a good curry and eight pints of lager.

Wakeman is absolutely right about this. Only young musicians are fetishizing these vintage (now ultra expensive) relics from the past. Musicians who actually used them back then and suffered from all the technical and reliability issues really hate them and don't want to use these anymore. Burning a vintage Mellotron in your garden may seem sacrilegious but I perfectly understand (but don't necessarily aprove).
For a decade I painfully restored and fixed professionaly these highly valuable collectibles and when finished I allways advised the owner's NOT to use them in a live context: store them safely in your museum and buy a modern emulation. Cheaper, lighter, reliable and as far as the "sound" is concerned with current modern technology nobody can tell the difference (except that it won't randomly go out of tune in the middle of your solo).
Just for the story: in the mid-70ies Wakemen invested lots of (his personal) money in the development and production of a reliable and more convenient version of the Mellotron (using tape cartridges), called the Birotron B90.
For various reasons the project failed and only a few pieces were sold leading to a financial disaster for Rick. No wonder he doesn't like this instrument very much... I wonder if he also burned the B90 prototype in his garden ?

[SteveSly]

I'd say yay. That was a good interview with Wakey. He sounds like a rambling old man, and I could listen to 3 hours of Wakey yacking. Joe Rogan should interview him....

Not sure if Rogan would even know who he is, but yea that could be a great interview.

[Trane]

I'd say yay. That was a good interview with Wakey. He sounds like a rambling old man, and I could listen to 3 hours of Wakey yacking. Joe Rogan should interview him....

Mmmhh!!!...

I must say that the ramblin part did put me off...
I ffwd until he played the Hammond then, liostened to couple more minutes here & there after that, but ended earlier than Rick did.

[Rarebird]

Wakeman is absolutely right about this. Only young musicians are fetishizing these vintage (now ultra expensive) relics from the past. Musicians who actually used them back then and suffered from all the technical and reliability issues really hate them and don't want to use these anymore. Burning a vintage Mellotron in your garden may seem sacrilegious but I perfectly understand (but don't necessarily aprove).
For a decade I painfully restored and fixed professionaly these highly valuable collectibles and when finished I allways advised the owner's NOT to use them in a live context: store them safely in your museum and buy a modern emulation. Cheaper, lighter, reliable and as far as the "sound" is concerned with current modern technology nobody can tell the difference (except that it won't randomly go out of tune in the middle of your solo).
Just for the story: in the mid-70ies Wakemen invested lots of (his personal) money in the development and production of a reliable and more convenient version of the Mellotron (using tape cartridges), called the Birotron B90.
For various reasons the project failed and only a few pieces were sold leading to a financial disaster for Rick. No wonder he doesn't like this instrument very much... I wonder if he also burned the B90 prototype in his garden ?

I like my old synthesizer, but I'm not sure if I would take it on the road. I still remember having to tune it everytime I turned it on and mostly also if it had been on for some time. Not really something I long back for. Will I use it for a song? Defenitly. I suppose a real Hammond has it's sound adventages, but unless you have some roadies, I'm not sure it's a thing to haul along if you have to do it yourself. There are alternatives that at least are better in the weight department.

It's a bit like with classic cars. Yes, they are beautifull to look at, but unless you love working on it, I suppose a modern car has it adventages.

[Vic2012]

Not sure if Rogan would even know who he is, but yea that could be a great interview.

I was kidding. Rogan has these long interviews. Ridiculously long. He has interviewed musicians but he doesn't actually talk about music with them. I was gonna attempt to watch Rogan's 3 and a half hour talk with Ted Nugent. I probably watched about 30 minutes and it was mostly talk about hunting and politics.

[SteveSly]

I was kidding. Rogan has these long interviews. Ridiculously long. He has interviewed musicians but he doesn't actually talk about music with them. I was gonna attempt to watch Rogan's 3 and a half hour talk with Ted Nugent. I probably watched about 30 minutes and it was mostly talk about hunting and politics.

Kind of the whole point of podcasts is that they are long in depth interviews. I don't agree with Rogan on a lot of things, but I do think some of his interviews are really good. He does not interview musicians all that often, but some of them have been really interesting. Billy Corgan, Anthony Kedis, Steven Tyler, James Hetfield were all good ones, but yea you have to put aside 3 hours to watch (or listen) to them. I saw some of the Ted interview and agree I wish they had talked more about music.

[Mister Triscuits]

Vinyl sales are already slowing down.

You weren't at Vinyl Solution this morning. Place was packed. I walked out empty-handed; the fucker with 20 records under his arm had already cherry-picked the New Arrivals bin.

[Vic2012]

the Ted interview and agree I wish they had talked more about music.

Ted is full of piss and vinegar. . I can't take him for 3 hours. He is, indeed, a fucking badass, rock guitarist, and he knows it.

[Themistoclese]

The problem is Youtube expects channels to constantly spam with content and he's gone down that reactionary rabbit hole. His interviews are often good and he does important work but all the rest, hardpass...

[vmartell]

Wakeman is absolutely right about this. Only young musicians are fetishizing these vintage (now ultra expensive) relics from the past. Musicians who actually used them back then and suffered from all the technical and reliability issues really hate them and don't want to use these anymore. Burning a vintage Mellotron in your garden may seem sacrilegious but I perfectly understand (but don't necessarily aprove).
For a decade I painfully restored and fixed professionaly these highly valuable collectibles and when finished I allways advised the owner's NOT to use them in a live context: store them safely in your museum and buy a modern emulation. Cheaper, lighter, reliable and as far as the "sound" is concerned with current modern technology nobody can tell the difference (except that it won't randomly go out of tune in the middle of your solo).
Just for the story: in the mid-70ies Wakemen invested lots of (his personal) money in the development and production of a reliable and more convenient version of the Mellotron (using tape cartridges), called the Birotron B90.
For various reasons the project failed and only a few pieces were sold leading to a financial disaster for Rick. No wonder he doesn't like this instrument very much... I wonder if he also burned the B90 prototype in his garden ?

The mighty Wendy Carlos, I once read, was (assuming still is?) COMPLETELY BAFFLED by the adoration of vintage analog synths. Once she went digital she never went back, Not only to the technology, also never went back to the techniques associated with the older technology - meaning substractive synthesis. She became such a master of additive synthesis that she famously eschewed sampling in favour of imitating orchestral instruments herself using just that. Synergy DKS, more than one of them, I think she used with MOTU software.

Wonder if she is still making music for herself and whether she has the latest and greatest. I do see her loving many of the plugins, sound design software and the most out there software synths available. Heck - she might even love Arturia stuff just for yucks...

[Jerjo]

John Paul Jones said he spent far too much time on Zeppelin tours searched for Mellotron parts and tapes. He said when he switched to a synth that had the patches to duplicate 'tron sounds there was no going back.