Brooks

QUOTE (driventotheedge @ Jan 15 2012, 02:17 PM)

I say they're the best of the older bands still working, at least to my taste and ears. I think both their new records and their live shows are better.

QUOTE (Tick @ Aug 18 2009, 12:21 PM)

I have seen two of them. Neither one of them was very good, but It was still fun getting drunk at the bar while watching them.

on a trip to NYC last week i met carl roa and watched him at a blues jam that he hosts.

later while checking out his excellent album "eternity", i recognised a familiar riff

(starts around 0:45 on the title song "eternity"), enjoy.

 

http://www.myspace.com/carlroa/music/songs/eternity-22339693

 

 

http://www.bigshoemusic.com/images/cd-cover_eternity.jpg

my fave lizzy disc is "the peel sessions"; raw versions of their best tunes recorded for BBC by john peel;

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyEoWsrvNsw

 

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_2IjE77e29wQ/SpRxy3zM3DI/AAAAAAAAAtE/njydD_xeNtI/s400/Thin+lizzy+peel.jpg

 

 

i like the hunter quite a bit, but crack the sky is still my fave.

will probably see them in ashville is a few weeks.

BIG MASTODON FAN HERE.

excited for the new album, enjoying the live dvd now.

they kicked ass live in charlotte w/ dethklok awhile back.

awesome show!! haven't seen the boys since GUP tour at the texxas jam 1984. i agree that the 1st set wasn't as great sounding as the 2nd, song-wise and FOH mix. went w/ the guys from my rush tribute, and 2 of grants blind friends (our bassist grant is blind). we sat row A section 108, about 30' from alex. loved the intro movie w/ "RASH", haha.

 

cool that some of y'all went to greys; i used to do an acoustic gig there every fri for a few years (stopped last summer when my pal dave moved away).

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v63/brooks/fridays-1.jpg

i'll be there. i've seen metallica, kiss, aerosmith, crue, & VH here in g'boro. it's a big arena, so the sound varies from band to band and seat location.

QUOTE

To me, every album from RUSH to MP sounded like Rush, but from Signals forward they sounded like a different band. I'm with those who dislike Alex's tone on the record and was disheartened by his full immersion into Andy Summers and Edge minimalist territory. I like mighty riffs, and this album doesn't really feature any.

we use the roland pk-5's midi'd to yamaha synths in out fledgling rush tribute. i was using a roland vintage synth module before we got the 2nd yamaha. here's a pic of my humble yet effective rig;

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v63/brooks/gear/rushrig.jpg

i grew up on 70's & 80's metal, then studied jazz in college (U of North Texas). John Scofield is my favorite guitarist (I named my dog Sco).

 

Here's my short list of newer jazz that's "accessible" to non jazz fans;

John Scofield - A Go Go

Will Bernard - Blue Plate Special

Charlie Hunter - Charlie Hunter

MMW - Combustication

Bad Plus - These Are The Vistas

 

Some classic "trad jazz" stuff thats easy to listen to;

Miles Davis - Kind Of Blue

Dave Brubeck - Take Five

Wes Montgomery - Smokin' At The Half Note

Jimmy Smith - Chicken Shack

 

Someone mentioned Beck, DiMeola, & McLaughlin's fusion records;

all very cool, and very accessible to rawk fans, but IMHO these guys are rawk styled players in both tone (fairly distorted) & phrasing/note choices. Nothing wrong w/ that, but it's not that jazz influenced, more like instrumental rock w/ more adventerous backing tracks than the typical instrumental rockers like Vai/Satch, etc.

 

If you're really bored, check out my jazz/funk/ska band;

myspace.com/generichustle

chord/scale relationships were one of the few things i learned in college that i actually still use.

ok, for some reason unknown to me,

i worked up wayne krantz' "whippersnapper" this weekend

(strange, as i almost never work up stuff that i'm not gonna play live or record; i'm lazy).

QUOTE

Enter Bruce Dickinson from Saxon.

Maiden Japan was my first Maiden album, too (my high school garage band did all of side 1; Wrathchild/Killers/Innocent Exile). I actually prefer Paul's gritty baritone to Bruce's wide vibrato tenor, so the first 2 are my favorite Maiden albums, even Sanctuary & the "terribly overrated" Running Free (I hear ya, it's not a typical Maiden tune; but, it reminds me of being "just 16 in a pickup truck, outta money, outta luck", so I dig it). Wrathchild always gets me pumped up, even today.

 

Even though I personally like the 1st 2 best (due to the vocals), the Number Of The Beast & Piece of Mind are probably the best 2 Maiden albums. This is because these feature the biggest chunck of classic Maiden songs. Piece of Mind is my favorite Bruce era record. "To Tame A Land" has a very killer riff, unusual that it grooves instead of gallops.

 

After starting off w/ one of the best tunes in their entire career (Aces High), Powerslave was the beginning of the end for me personally, and the last Maiden record I bought. The catchy-trying-to-get-on-rawk-radio "2 minutes to midnight" was a sign of the almost complete sellout yet to come (Wasted Years). Still, Powerslave had a few great riffs. My band in Jr College did the end section of "Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner".

 

The trombonist in my jazz/funk original band LOVES Maiden, so 4 or 5 years ago I borrowed the rest of their albums from him. Nothing I heard on there changed my mind (although "Matter of Life & Death" was a huge improvement on the post Powerslave output). We went to see Maiden at Ozzfest ~2005, they sounded fantastic live. Bruce's vocals were stronger than they were in their 80's heyday.

 

Maiden was/is a great band, but their sound seems very dated to me; the whole Priest/Maiden/Queensryche operatic-tenor vocal style seems so 80's, yet Rush/Sabs/Zep always sound fresh and timeless.

i'm kinda new around here, so i'll share this lick from several years back. i use a lot of symetrical fingerings, they are easy and help break you out of the same old scales/licks;

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v63/brooks/lick.jpg

last thing i worked up was the solo of freewill.

its pretty close, but i usually improvise the fast meedly meedly parts.

 

today i'm going to work up the last long bass fill in YYZ;

the bassist in my fledgling rush tribute is blind, and can't seem to nail it.

so, i'm going to learn it and help him memorize it. part of his problem is

that he's not playing it in one position, he's trying to play it by switching

positions. i watched some rush video the other day, seems geddy is doing it mostly around the 15th fret.

jimmyjazz wrote on Mon, 07 March 2005 10:54

 

Terry, this may get into the part of the story you can't tell, but I always wondered why Frank Beard seemed curiously absent on ZZ Top records as they started going ga-multi-platinum. It was blindingly obvious, even to the barely-ZZ-Top-fans such as I, that the drums were pretty much electronic. What happened? I never felt the drums on earlier releases were anything but good, so it doesn't seem to me to be an issue of talent. Was "Eliminator" really just a Billy Gibbons vanity record?

 

 

 

 

 

Definitely not a vanity record. It was an attempt to reach ga-multi-platinum status.

 

However, this is indeed part of the story about which I should not speak.

**i hope this is ok w/ the mods, but i'm re-posting this from the "music of the spheres" zz top thread, as it deals w/ music technology and the production of this iconic zz top album......

 

OK, YOU GUYS OWE ME BIGTIME, I JUST SPENT 30 MINUTES LOOKING FOR THIS; IT'S FROM TERRY MANNING (ZZ TOP ENGINEER/PRODUCER), HE SPILLS THE BEANS ON ELIMINATOR. THANK ME LATER...

 

 

http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php...sg/3849/0/16/0/

 

 

The full story of the making of Eliminator (the politics, the chicannery, the technical aberrations, the high social drama, the exodus, the payback) is one that I cannot tell. Even if I could, there certainly wouldn't be room for it here! It probably won't even make it into "the book" (or the movie). Just don't forget that truth is often stranger than fiction!

 

However, I will address certain specific musical or technical issues, and I'll begin with your guitar amp question.

 

THERE WAS ABSOLUTELY NO ROCKMAN USED ON THIS RECORDING!

Not a little bit, not a tiny bit; NOT ANY. I don't know how these stories get started. Billy may indeed have used Rockman at a later date, after I left the situation, but I did not allow it when I was working with him. He did bring one in to try, but I was not satisfied with the sound, compared to an amplifier.

 

The amp used, almost exclusively, on Eliminator was a Legend. This was about a 50 watt hybrid unit, employing a tube/valve preamp, and a transistor power amp. This is the amp which has a finished wood case, and a rattan-type cane grill. It has one 12" Celestion speaker. Legend were later bought by, or at least distributed by, Gibson, but they were independent when we started using them. I still have this amp; it is almost new. A couple of years ago I plugged one of the Eliminator guitars into it, just to see...there was the sound!

 

The guitars were custom built by Dean. Dean were out of Chicago, and were trying to break into the high end (a la Jackson, PRS) market. They were very nice, albeit different, instruments. Subsequently however, they got a contract with Sears to make guitars, so they opted for the big bucks, Korean manufactured, low end market instead. But the ones we used were very nicely made. There were two which we employed. One was somewhat like a cross between a Flying-V and a Moderne shape, very long "ears," and the other was a sort of a warped, pointy Stratocaster-y shape. Both guitars had a single DiMarzio Super Distortion high output pickup, and almost no controls. I don't think there is even a tone control...what would you need one for? They have big, heavy, brass bridge/tail pieces bolted into the body. These guitars were very live, very resonant, and would verge on resonant feedback at all times; they were also very hard to keep in tune because of this. But they were always alive. Billy has the first one mentioned, and he gave me the latter, which I still have.

 

The guitar was recorded with basically only one setup; one amp (Legend), one speaker (12"), one guitar (Deans, the two were almost exactly the same), one mic (AKG 414B-ULS, I still have it) in one position (about 5" from the cone, placed at a slight angle off axis), one mic pre (the SpectraSonics console). 98% of ALL guitar on this album, whether lead or rhythm was done this way. Any variations were from the player himself, who, remember, did not even have a tone control. That's how good Billy was back then. We did use very briefly a small amp by Ross, but we didn't like it much, and I think only a tiny part or two was kept from this, if any.

 

The rhythm guitars were done in a precursor-to-Protools style. Short phrases were played, and then double tracked, onto one set of tracks, and then the chord change/next phrase was played on a second set of tracks. This allowed a seamless transition between changes; since the Deans were so close to feedback at all times (acoustically, through the fairly loud JBL monitors), we couldn't even lift the fingers to change chords! Then I would trim the edges of each section by punching in and out to silence at the beginnings and ends of the phrases (somewhat analogous to "trimming the region" today). This method also "eliminated" to a degree the loud harmonic squeaks between chord changes. The punch in/out points, if done exactly perfectly, made for a primitive cross fade of probably 10-20 ms, and ended up sounding very different as rhythm guitar, sort of like a big train rolling down a track, almost out of control; without knowing how it was done, one wouldn't really realise why it was different.

 

For the leads, as always, there was a lot of punching done.

 

The bass was mostly played either by Billy or by me, and was either a bass instrument, or a Moog Source (the Source was a Mini Moog [rhymes with 'Vouge'] analogue synth with digitally controlled parameters...I still have this, too). Synth chords were played on a Memory Moog (polyphonic Mini).

 

Billy sang great, different vocals, as usual, and the harmonies were done either by Jimmy Jamison or by me.

 

There are a MILLION more things which could be told about this distinctive album, but as mentioned, most of it is probably better left unsaid. But one interesting thing, at least to me, was the recording of "Legs." We had tried it a couple of ways unsuccessfully at Ardent, so I decided to try a new approach. I had a 24 track studio in my attic at home, so I took Billy's lead guitar and vocal home on a 1/2" two track L/R ("samples"). I recut the entire track myself, and then hand flew in Billy's parts onto the track. This meant careful timing of the play button on my MCI 1/2", for each and every phrase, as after a few seconds, they would drift out of sync. I mixed it there through my Soundcraft 1200 console (these were also the mic pre's) onto the MCI 1/2". The multitrack was also the Soundcraft 2" machine, which I really loved. Then I did a totally different version, which became the long "dance mix" later released to clubs, and it is now included in the new box set. Later, I saw a review of this dance version credited, to Jellybean Benitez ...go figure!

 

Well, I guess it can now be told, as long as you promise not to pass it on, but yes, I "played" the drums on "Legs," and in fact, almost the whole album. As mentioned, this song was recorded in my attic, except for Billy's lead guitar and vocal, which came from a previous studio version which was unsatisfactory. (Oh, if I could tell the whole, real story! Maybe someday...)

 

The "drums" were a combination of things. There was programming, on my Oberheim drum machine, and then a multitude of samples triggered in over the snare as well, using an AMS DMX, and very carefully manually trimming the input volume to catch every beat properly. The hat was a sound from the Oberheim mixed with some sampled things and some white noise, then gated and triggered from an arpeggiated spike. Then I one-at-a-time overdubbed certain other drums, some toms, and definitely cymbals. On some of the tracks of the album, I added to the tom sounds with a Simmons electronic kit, just barely mixed under the real ones, for tom 'fatness.' For the rest of the music track, a lot of it was programmed (step programming!) in my MemoryMoog. There was just barely enough memory in it to get a few things, then I'd have to re-program and punch in. I remember on one arpeg-16th sound, there was enough memory to do the whole song, but not to add any chord changes. So I would use a cassette case to hold down the tonic key (wedged in place using the F# black key as a 'holder') and then make the temperament changes with the detuning wheel. Not very easy, with the high technology available back then, but it forced you to be creative! I had to set the amount of detune for one change, then record the two passages, then re-set it for another change, start from the beginning every time, and punch in on the right spot. It took forever! The bass I played manually on a bass instrument, then doubled it in the manner mentioned above with the Moog. The rhythm guitar I played normally with a guitar, run into a Marshall head, then into my Harbinger speaker-booth-box (Ronny Montrose design out of SF). The pads and angel voices came from a Yamaha DX-9...I didn't want to spring for the whole cost of a '7'! The background vocals were done by me and Jimmy Jamison (who is now lead singer for Survivor, and can be seen on a new ad on TV, I think for Gateway or something like that). Jimmy did a lot of great BV's for me over the years. He can sound like whomever you put him with!

 

I mixed "Legs" from my Soundcraft 2" 24 track, through my Soundcraft 1200 console, onto my MCI 1/2" two track...I still have and use that 2 track today. Works like a hay baler, but actually records well...it's the tranformerless electronics version. The Soundcraft stuff I sold to Sun Studios, who put it into the famous old building. U2 recorded "Angel of Harlem" on it!

 

As for the drum fill, I would hate to take any credit as an inventor of a fill! Billy and I worked out most of the fills together...we were very into what type of fills would work in what places. We were expecially fond of the one you mention, and also were trying to find places where a fill could extend into the first couple of beats of the next bar, after a normal fill would have ended. I don't remember if we actually executed this or not...I'll have to listen to the whole Eliminator album now, just to see!

 

Anyway, that's some of the story. Thanks for your interest!

 

Regards,

 

Terry

this was tricky, i had to use first OR last name,

& i had to open my itunes to find a few letters...

 

AC DC

BLACK SABBATH

CCR

DEEP PURPLE

elvis costello (i have one tune on my ipod)

FRANK ZAPPA

GOVT MULE

humble pie (i have one tune on my ipod)

IRON MAIDEN

JEFF BECK

KINGS X

LED ZEPPELIN

MASTODON

NORAH JONES (yes it's elevator music but i love her)

OHM

PINK FLOYD

QUEEN

JOHN SCOFIELD (i named my dog scofield!!)

THIN LIZZY

UFO

VAN HALEN

WAYNE KRANTZ

x-centric sound system (i have one tune on my ipod)

yngwie malmsteen (i have 2 tunes on my ipod)

ZZ TOP

 

 

PS- RUSH FANS FANS SHOULD CHECK OUT THE BOLD ARTISTS ABOVE, AS THEY ARE MORE ADVENTUROUS MUSICALLY THAN MOST...

 

here's my dog scofield;

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v63/brooks/Sco7-07a.jpg

somewhat chronilogical, including some important hard rawk bands;

 

zep

sabs

lizzy

priest

AC DC

motorhead

VH

maiden

metallica

soundgarden

kings x

pantera

rage against the machine

mastodon

 

throw in some john scofield & tony williams and this looks like my ipod

i recently re-discovered the tune "nantucket sleighride"; what a beautiful and rawkin' tune. i had the "best of" album as a kid, but always skipped this tune and went straight to "never in my life" or "missippi queen".

kind of blue, cookin', milestones.

 

most of the early groundbreaking fusion stuff is hard for me to listen to, but there's some cool grooves on live evil, & live at philharmonic. there's some cool funky 90's stuff too.

 

yep! coltrane's from high point, monks from rocky mount.

tal farlow (amazing jazz guitarist) is from right here in greensboro.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v63/brooks/gear/mutt.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v63/brooks/gear/headstocks.jpg

wow! jack is a legend, congrats. pump him for steve tyler junkie stories!

 

do post some clips, i'm int in hearing jacks production (my original band has horns).