Just got back from the live room, where Graham Nash made a nice presentation about the ways you can approach creating music. Turns out that Intel put him together with Billy Bob, drove him out to the house, and Graham said, Let’s just start! Billy Bob played him a lullaby, that he wrote for his daughter, then a song called purple passion. Graham and Billy Bob then just went in and worked, jamming, not changing the original demo. Right now, about 100 people are packed into two control rooms, listening to the 5.1 playback mixed by Jim Mitchell and Nathaniel Kunkel. I’ll have to get a separate listen later. It’s packed here.

Hell, in da house we have Billy Gibbons, Allen Sides, George Massenburg, Leslie Ann Jones, Frank Filipetti, EveAnna Manley, the good folks at Shure, Phil Wagner, Hank Neuberger, Steve Smith, Skunk Baxter…all right, I’m tired of name dropping. More to come…

Walter Schofield just dropped in. He’s here at CES with the Mark Levinson divisioin of the Harman Group. Walter, what ya been up to?

I’m taking in this incredible studio here at the Palms and enjoying incredible food, drink and the most intersting conversation from these industry luminaries here at the studio. Because Mark Levinson manufactures the finest consumer home audio and video components, it is extremely important that we pay attention to the quality at the beginning of the recording chain. Based on what I have taken in here at the studio, I can feel the quality and care that goes into the recording process here.

I’m here with Bob Ludwig, mastering engineer par excellence and owner of Gateway Mastering in Portland, Maine. Earlier tonight, Bob hosted an animated panel hosted by the P&E Wing on what it will take to get consumers to appreciate…and purchase…hi-def, 5.1 sound. Bob? What did you learn?

Thanks, Tom!
Right now I’m at the Palm Studios managed by Zoe Thrall who is a dear friend of mine. I used to work with Zoe when she was working with Little Steven and Bruce Springsteen. Then Zoe took over managing the Hit Factory and did a brilliant job.

So our Recording Academy Panel today was an investigation of the question: Music has the power to heal, to raise goosebumps on your arm, and even to make you cry. While of course one can get a great experience listening on the poorest gear, we feel that listeners would get more thrills and get a more accurate picture of what the artist and producers REALLY want you to hear if you listen on higher-end equipment. Then there is the issue of education. Most kids today don’t hear non-amplified instruments very often. Most of what they hear are mp3 files on mediocre earbuds. How do we sonically educate people to know what really good sound IS? Do we take some trucks around the country and do a road-show?
We had a lot of very cool panelists who raised lots of good questions. We probably raised more questions than we answered but it really gave everyone food for thought.