Recent

Excelcia Music Publishing and Wingert-Jones Publications Announce ‘Ready Sets’ for Concert Band

August 5, 2025

Get Ready to Rock The 2026 NAMM Show: NAMM Celebrates 125 Years with Five-Days of Music, Innovation and Industry Legacy

August 4, 2025

Jessica Tropea Joins Neutrik Americas as Customer Solutions Engineer

August 4, 2025

It’s Back to School Season: Is Your Store Ready?

August 5, 2025

Neil Potter Promoted to Director of National Sales at Allen & Heath USA

August 1, 2025

Sonique Drums Unveils Poly Pro Slim Snare Wire Straps

August 1, 2025

NAMM Announces New Leadership Teams For Women of NAMM and NAMM Young Professionals

July 30, 2025

Jeff Mulvihill Appointed Combo Drum and Concert Percussion Brand Manager for KHS America

July 29, 2025
Thursday, August 7, 2025
  • Contact
MMR Magazine
  • Subscribe Now!
    • Subscribe Now!
  • Advertise
  • Email Press Releases!
  • Current Issue
    • Past Issues
  • Newsroom
    • News
    • MMR Global
    • Supplier Scene
    • Upfront
    • People
  • Awards
    • Dealers’ Choice Awards Ballot 2024
    • Don Johnson Award Winners Archive
  • Directory
  • Get Support!
No Result
View All Result
  • Subscribe Now!
    • Subscribe Now!
  • Advertise
  • Email Press Releases!
  • Current Issue
    • Past Issues
  • Newsroom
    • News
    • MMR Global
    • Supplier Scene
    • Upfront
    • People
  • Awards
    • Dealers’ Choice Awards Ballot 2024
    • Don Johnson Award Winners Archive
  • Directory
  • Get Support!
No Result
View All Result
MMR Magazine
No Result
View All Result

Life Moves Pretty Fast…

Christian Wissmuller by Christian Wissmuller
March 17, 2022
in Editorial, Magazine Archive
0
938
SHARES
2.3k
VIEWS
Share on Facebook
ADVERTISEMENT

There’s a recording studio in Boston – well, these days it’s in Waltham, which is maybe a half-hour outside of the city – called Wooly Mammoth Sound. I first recorded at Woolly in May of 2002. While I had gone to school for Music Production & Engineering and had interned at a few of the larger studios in the area, that session was one of my first where I, personally, was tracking in a “real” studio and it was everything you’d expect: exciting, intimidating, overwhelming, daunting – and expensive.

The studio owner is one David Minehan, whose own band, The Neighborhoods, were (still are, to many) a big deal around these parts when I was quite young. They were regulars at The Rathskellar (“The Rat” – Boston’s version of CBGBs; site of early-career appearances by the likes of The Police, The Cars, U2, Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, Metallica, Dropkick Murphy’s, Bullet LaVolta, and many more) got signed to Atlantic, and toured with the likes of David Bowie, Cheap Trick, and The Ramones. A high-school girlfriend had included a ‘Hoods song on a mix-tape given to me. Point being: to be working with this dude in his fully stacked, pro recording environment back then was pretty heady stuff.

ADVERTISEMENT

Cue to this past week, 2021.

I’m no longer the fresh-faced (well, less worn-faced, certainly) 20-something I was in ’02 and Woolly Mammoth isn’t located in the Fenway neighborhood of Boston any more, but I was once again setting up gear with Minehan and getting ready to record another few songs.

What struck me was both how much had stayed the same in the past two decades, and how much had changed. While much of the gear – the envy-worthy array of vintage tube amps, 34-track NEOTEK console, microphones from the ‘40s that are worth more than my life – was as if it had been suspended in amber, there’s also a whole lot of new “stuff.” During that first session, billions of years ago (ah, youth…), we mostly recorded to 2” tape, while Minehan minimally employed the then-new-to-him Pro Tools DAW for some elements of mixing. These days, other than printing mixes to analog 1/2” tape, it’s a whole other, digital world. The HDX system with its three AVID (remember Digidesign?) converters did all the heavy lifting, along with a robust Mac Pro Sic Core.

Two decades is, objectively, a pretty sizable stretch of time. In terms of technological advancement, it may as well be millennia. We’ve all experienced buying a flashy new laptop, or flat-screen, or cell phone, only for the purchase to be considered obsolete within weeks of opening the box. As much as certain musicians and some aspects of the MI trade are critiqued – not always unfairly! – for being “stuck in their ways,” musical instruments and gear are also ever-evolving and it behooves anyone active in any aspect of the creation of music to stay at least kind of up to speed.

For my first decade or so at MMR – a trek which also dates back to 2002 – two of the go-to questions when profiling retailers was, “Do you have a website? Do you have an email address?” As recently as 2010, I’d estimate that well over one-third of folks replied in the negative.

As I creak into old-age, I am finding myself – with frightening regularity – having to put effort into remaining on top of technological developments. I may have stifled a laugh or shaken my head in disbelief at those MI dealers who’d reply, “Email? Is that on the World Wide Web?” 15 years ago, but now… I kind of get it.

It’s hard work to adapt and evolve. It’s very tempting to stay in set patterns and believe that what worked five or 10 or 20 years ago could – damnit, will! – work today. But digging in one’s heels won’t impede progress and, time and again, successful MI dealers and suppliers have proven to be pliant and nimble.

In other words: hold on to that Otari analog 2” recorder, for sure – but make sure you’re a whiz at Pro Tools, too.

Previous Post

EarthQuaker Devices Announces New Fuzz Pedal Hizumitas In Collaboration With Wata From Boris

Next Post

‘We’ve Not Slowed Down for a Minute’ – Snare Drum Sales in 2021

Related Posts

August 2025

It’s Back to School Season: Is Your Store Ready?

August 5, 2025
July 2025

Celebrating 25 Years of Gator Cases: Built for Retailers, Trusted by Musicians By Mike Lawson

July 31, 2025
New Products

Gibson Les Paul Music City Special

July 11, 2025
Current Issue

Bridging the Sound – Audio Interfaces and the Modern Musician’s Toolkit

April 25, 2025
Current Issue

Twang, Nostalgia, the Americana Boom – and Why Now is the Time to Take Advantage

March 25, 2025
Editorial

Enough with ‘It’s Back!’

March 25, 2025
Next Post

‘We’ve Not Slowed Down for a Minute’ - Snare Drum Sales in 2021

Please login to join discussion
  • Trending
  • Comments
  • Latest

It’s Back to School Season: Is Your Store Ready?

August 5, 2025

New Spring King Junior Reverb Pedal from Danelectro

May 11, 2025
A picture tells a thousand words - a historic Gresch gathering at Carnegie Hall.

Gretsch at Carnegie Hall: Capturing a Moment in Time

August 2, 2013

Get Ready to Rock The 2026 NAMM Show: NAMM Celebrates 125 Years with Five-Days of Music, Innovation and Industry Legacy

August 4, 2025

Excelcia Music Publishing and Wingert-Jones Publications Announce ‘Ready Sets’ for Concert Band

Get Ready to Rock The 2026 NAMM Show: NAMM Celebrates 125 Years with Five-Days of Music, Innovation and Industry Legacy

Jessica Tropea Joins Neutrik Americas as Customer Solutions Engineer

It’s Back to School Season: Is Your Store Ready?

Excelcia Music Publishing and Wingert-Jones Publications Announce ‘Ready Sets’ for Concert Band

August 5, 2025

Get Ready to Rock The 2026 NAMM Show: NAMM Celebrates 125 Years with Five-Days of Music, Innovation and Industry Legacy

August 4, 2025

Jessica Tropea Joins Neutrik Americas as Customer Solutions Engineer

August 4, 2025

It’s Back to School Season: Is Your Store Ready?

August 5, 2025
ADVERTISEMENT
The Latest News and Gear in Your Inbox - Sign Up Today!
  • August 2025

    Articles | Digital Issue
  • July 2025

    Articles | Digital Issue
  • June 2025

    Articles | Digital Issue
  • May 2025

    Articles | Digital Issue
  • April 2025

    Articles | Digital Issue
© 2005 - 2025 artistpro, LLC
7012 City Center Way, Suite 207
Fairview, Tennessee 37062
(800) 682-8114

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password?

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • Subscribe Now!
    • Subscribe Now!
  • Advertise
  • Email Press Releases!
  • Current Issue
    • Past Issues
  • Newsroom
    • News
    • MMR Global
    • Supplier Scene
    • Upfront
    • People
  • Awards
    • Dealers’ Choice Awards Ballot 2024
    • Don Johnson Award Winners Archive
  • Directory
  • Get Support!

© 2005 – 2024 artistpro, LLC 7012 City Center Way, Suite 207 Fairview, Tennessee 37062 (800) 682-8114

This is Modal Title

Click Me
Are you sure want to unlock this post?
Unlock left : 0
Are you sure want to cancel subscription?