Prince was a musician, performer, showman, producer, ect. What he wasn't was a recording engineer. That's why he had Peggy McCreary and later Susan Rogers as engineers. It's not disrespectful to call someone a "pain in the ass" when that person is basically out of their element dealing with the complexities of recording consoles and their workings.
@@SwingingCreeper he also called him a dick... i mean, he could have made the same point, without any need to be rude, especially to a deceased person that is so much loved for his extraordinary artistic achievements.
@@musamusashi no one cares. Stop with the fake victim-hood and feeling offended. Maybe if Prince wasn't a drug addict who overdosed he would be here to defend himself, but he's worm food now. Does that offend you too.
Prince frustrated many people in the business. A friend of mine was the lead production coordinator on the Grammy Awards broadcast for many years and Prince caused a lot of problems for a lot of people by being late and not respecting other people’s time. It is what it is…doesn’t make him any less of a great artist. But he could be extremely inconsiderate.
Susan Rogers would disagree that Prince was a perfectionist. She said (and it makes perfect sense) that he couldn't have gotten so much done if he were.
I neglected to say that the console was located in Revere, MA at Fleetwood studios, where the great (late) Bill Ferruzzi was the CE, and Joe Chiccarelli used to work.
It was his music and what he did worked but the engineer thinks he knows best. Sometimes you need to shut up and stay in your lane. Maybe that is the reason Prince learned to engineer himself
@@lauraveney1412 he always had engineers though, even if he could do it himself. I don't see the issue in this interview from the engineer. I see the issue being the other guy retelling a story 2nd hand. No credibility in that's how the story might actually have been told to him.
@@thesolitaryadventurer Nonsense. Prince was no techie . He probably drove true sound engineers crazy when it got down to nuts and bolts hardware and physics.
I do enjoy hearing stories about Prince. Even though I'm not a big fan I do respect and acknowledge he was one of the all-time great American artists. He was also a colossal [insert pejorative here]. I find him fascinating. I saw a Sammy Hagar interview where he told a story about Prince. Sammy had met Prince's guitar tech and was trying to see if the tech could someone arrange things so Sammy could meet Prince. The tech say he couldn't because he wasn't allowed to talk to Prince. Sammy asked how he can be a guitar tech and not talk the guy he works for? The tech said if he ever had something to say to Prince he had to write it down and show the note to Prince without speaking. Unbelievable.
Opinions are like assholes everybody had one. Means nothing because plenty of people said he would give you the shirt off his back. He gave away millions
@@lauraveney1412 if he treated the people he hired to work for him like shit, kinda nullifies the shirt off his back stuff. I like Prince.... incredible musician and songwriter. But I believe this guy's story. I never read anything about his charity...only stories about him being a self centered pain in the ass.
@@lauraveney1412 Prince was a perfectionist and musical genius to the point of eccentric. Maybe he didn't like this guitar tech but issue was probably just his pride. Prince was proud and arrogant; you can even see it in how he boasts of him being a jehovah witness. Even in concert he would say cryptic things that expressed his JW beliefs that insulted the audience but they didn't know what he was talking about.
Do you really think he would have lasted as long as he did if he treated his staff like shit for 40 years? You can Goggle about his charity it is well known abs at least one person said he asked him about the know speaking abs he said he had to save his voice. I am also not sure when not speaking to someone made anyone a dick. Seems being quiet is best if people have their minds made up. I will take action ( charity ) over words any day.
@@orion681 Oh please! Almost every one that worked with Prince, LOVED to work for him and to please him, but if you only read stories about him being a self centered pain in the ass, well you really are one of those who love to hate him. EVERY important artist had bad moods, bad behaviour and big ego, you want proof? tell me what's your favorite musician and I come back to you with some crazy story.
What recording in the World would you need 32 tracks for. Sgt Pepper was done on 4 tracks. Many of the early Beatle songs were recorded live in 1 take!
Sgt Pepper used TWO 4 track machines running in sync. EMI engineers demagnetised and re-aligned the heads after every session, unlike most studios that do it ' every now and then ...' In 1966 8 track. recording was only just becoming a thing . Interestingly , when EMI obtained their first 8 track machine , the lads weren't allowed to use it . First the engineering dept took it to pieces , made notes and drawings, and only then reluctantly allowed artists to actually use it .Incidentally , Paul McCartney is as happy as can be with modern technology and has been using more than 4 tracks for quite some time ...
And so many of the new songs with 32 tracks sound so much better than the Beatles records, with drum sounds that sound like they were recorded on a cell phone.
@@zachary963 Many of today's songs ARE recorded on cellphones and sound like it . Hardly anyone uses real drums on modern dreck , just samples ... and guess where the majority of those samples come from ? Songs recorded in the 60s on four and eight track machines . Have you ever looked at ' songwriter ' credits on ' new ' songs ?
@@zachary963 I don't know what you're talking about. Sgt Pepper sounds great. Digital recording is not as warm as analogue. Plus,much of the new music I hear isn't really good music to my ear. Both the composition and technique is substandard.
With all due respect, if there were no need or at least some case usage for a 32 track console, it wouldn't exist. And just as we shouldn't let our technology limit our creativity, we shouldn't let our creativity limit our technology.
@@BarronVonSchnoot Actually I have several: Matt Larson & I used to repair his music electrical equipment. I went on to play a lot of the same stages and Matt went on to be Princes lightman.
Susan Rogers knew why he was the way he was, either you understand or you don't and consider him a not nice guy. If you try to stop a river from flowing, you know what will happen! I am pretty surprised about some very superficial views
@@najinelson6742 Naji, I knew him, Dez Dickersons dad was an umpire for our ball games and my best friend played with him in Romeo before Prince, I went to school with his sister LaDonna (a very nice person). I fixed Princes keyboards (in this case - a Sequential Circuits Prophet) when he poured cologne on them to hide the glue smell of the purple fur, and he freaked about that too because he corroded the memory chips and lost his patches - you've not seen him have a meltdown, I have. I have friends that helped him move furniture for free and spent 3 hours positioning a couch in his house and he did nothing but complain, others that actually had to leave his band because he treated them all like subhuman crap - and most of the time would not even talk directly to people, you have no clue what you are talking about - he could put on an act, but when no media was around he WAS very mean person at times and in fact I would say MOST times I saw him in that little world he created he treated people as lower than him.
@@lastdaysguitar you seem to live in your own little world with a limited and one-sided view LOL Prince made Minneapolis famous all over the world, without him I would not even know where it is and people like Morris Day, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis and many more would probably be unknown without Prince., he was the driving power. How many people had their daily bread thanks to Prince?! . C'mon things are way deeper, keep on having a superficial view if it makes you feel good. You are the twentiest guy trying to tell me he knew Prince lol After his death manY a man wants to tell that he knew him and some even lie that they derserve song writing credits. I believe in people like Susan Rogers, Terry or Lewis, never heard them say a bad word about Prince. Morris day is now blaming Prince for not having giving him enough money for the movie Purple Rain. What a douche ! First, no movie without Prince! and he is too stupid to see that Prince protected him "what you're putting in your nose, is that were all your money goes?! Morris would have spent it all for hard drugs and be probably dead in the 80s. Instead Prince built Paisley Park, Prince was smarter than most people around him, he had to let his creativity flow, so no time for too much small talk, nice gestures and so on. Prince even had the balls to fire Terry and Lewis, what a great sign of pure love! How successful they became after learning from Prince. If you really knew Prince, you could let us all know what Prince always put or had in the left pocket of his trousers! Always!
Prince liked things his way, but this is the first time I’ve ever actually heard him referred to as a perfectionist. Even in this channel alone, we’ve watched enough stories from Peggy showing he certainly wasn’t.
@@paulwolff8305 I've been reading that a lot of people with vintage gear, mainly tubes, have been searching out old Western Electric tin-plated copper for their systems. Deuland is making a modern version of the old WE wire too.
I can’t begin to articulate how much it bothers me when artists put their feet on the console. It’d be like going to church and kicking your feet up on the altar. No respect.
As a Prince and Van Halen fan it's kind of disappointing when you realize after listening to all these interviews through the months from you guys that Prince wasn't a very good person. Stupid talented!!! But socially awkward.
@@SwingingCreeper No more than it means "good person". #ToBeFair Prince was known to be eccentric. And those types of personalities often come across as "a pain in the ass". An eccentric perfectionist control freak can NOT be fun to work with, especially in the studio.
@@SwingingCreeper yeah I guess when you don't speak to the engineer with more than one word and you'd ride your musicians and you cold shoulder everybody, that's being a good guy. Listen to all the interviews bro then let's have a conversation.
So what? Should everybody stop listening to any artist who isn't gracious and polite every minute of their lives? Unless that's the point you're making, you don't seem to have a point.
Maybe he was an ass, maybe not but please, Prince was a prolific musician and song writer, let's not take that away because he may not have been easy to work with!
Who else released and wrote as many songs as Prince, played so many instruments, was into so many different genres, could mix and track on analog gear, was a great performer, business man and band leader and cared for so many people to have their daily bread on the table?! And all without the help of some famous musician, producer or engineer!!!
Among musicians he IS legendary. The only black person to have the number one album, song and movie the same week. One of only 6 acts to have 20 top 10 albums on Billboard's Top 100 albums chart. Then there are the songs he wrote for others or that he originally recorded Pain in the ass? We can agree on that. So many people either left him or he fired them because they wouldn't let him control them. If you don't like him, just say that
Yea, I am audio recording nerd too. But this guy ask as if 90% of the world gives a crap about what he saying. Where as say Van Halen or Prince or Toto to name three. Most folks do not care how, what or where it was recorded. They loved the music, the music and artistry is first. Wax all you want about copper windings. Super interesting to me, nobody cares if he thinks Prince was a pain in the ass!
Prince was an inconsiderate pain in the ass very often to a lot of people. It is this guy’s right to relay his factual account of some instances of Prince being a jerk, which anyone that knew him could definitely tell you he could be.
@@AllenGarberGuitarFun says someone who never met or worked with Prince. You need the intelligence of Susan Rogers to be able to understand Prince. Not many people were so close to Prince for such a long period like Susan Rogers!
@@najinelson6742 I know several people who worked with Prince, both well known and not-so well known. I haven’t spoken on anything that isn’t a well known fact.
Prince was an awesome live performer.. his after-shows were he went away from the commercial stuff and just jammed, he was Funk. If you get a chance look for Undertaker it's a jam session w P, Sonny Thompson and Michael Bland
I find the old man's comment very disrespectful of Prince, especially since a dead person cannot respond.
Prince was a musician, performer, showman, producer, ect. What he wasn't was a recording engineer. That's why he had Peggy McCreary and later Susan Rogers as engineers. It's not disrespectful to call someone a "pain in the ass" when that person is basically out of their element dealing with the complexities of recording consoles and their workings.
@@SwingingCreeper he also called him a dick... i mean, he could have made the same point, without any need to be rude, especially to a deceased person that is so much loved for his extraordinary artistic achievements.
@@musamusashi no one cares. Stop with the fake victim-hood and feeling offended. Maybe if Prince wasn't a drug addict who overdosed he would be here to defend himself, but he's worm food now. Does that offend you too.
Prince frustrated many people in the business. A friend of mine was the lead production coordinator on the Grammy Awards broadcast for many years and Prince caused a lot of problems for a lot of people by being late and not respecting other people’s time. It is what it is…doesn’t make him any less of a great artist. But he could be extremely inconsiderate.
Oh shut up
Susan Rogers would disagree that Prince was a perfectionist. She said (and it makes perfect sense) that he couldn't have gotten so much done if he were.
The back stories you upload here are legendary!!
I did the bulk of my work in the 80s and 90s on a 32 channel API console. One of the greatest sounding desks ever.
I neglected to say that the console was located in Revere, MA at Fleetwood studios, where the great (late) Bill Ferruzzi was the CE, and Joe Chiccarelli used to work.
Love this channel!! So much insight and a peek behind the curtain 🎶😎
love it! When the internet is so full of BS, its great to hear from the source! Cheers team!
Let's get Frank himself on record.
I'd personally love to hear his side of the Prince story. In his own words.
It was his music and what he did worked but the engineer thinks he knows best. Sometimes you need to shut up and stay in your lane. Maybe that is the reason Prince learned to engineer himself
@@lauraveney1412 he always had engineers though, even if he could do it himself.
I don't see the issue in this interview from the engineer. I see the issue being the other guy retelling a story 2nd hand. No credibility in that's how the story might actually have been told to him.
@@thesolitaryadventurer Nonsense. Prince was no techie . He probably drove true sound engineers crazy when it got down to nuts and bolts hardware and physics.
@@lauraveney1412 So you are claiming that Prince should "shut up and stay in your lane".
What a fabulous concept, great show, such great stories! Thanks Paul Camarata for making this happen!
Very cool and interesting. Thanks much, and peace from Florida!
Is the Bushnell company that made consoles the same Bushnell that also made high end telescopes,sniper scopes, and binoculars?
Bob Bushnell
I do enjoy hearing stories about Prince. Even though I'm not a big fan I do respect and acknowledge he was one of the all-time great American artists.
He was also a colossal [insert pejorative here]. I find him fascinating.
I saw a Sammy Hagar interview where he told a story about Prince. Sammy had met Prince's guitar tech and was trying to see if the tech could someone arrange things so Sammy could meet Prince. The tech say he couldn't because he wasn't allowed to talk to Prince. Sammy asked how he can be a guitar tech and not talk the guy he works for? The tech said if he ever had something to say to Prince he had to write it down and show the note to Prince without speaking. Unbelievable.
Opinions are like assholes everybody had one. Means nothing because plenty of people said he would give you the shirt off his back. He gave away millions
@@lauraveney1412 if he treated the people he hired to work for him like shit, kinda nullifies the shirt off his back stuff. I like Prince.... incredible musician and songwriter. But I believe this guy's story. I never read anything about his charity...only stories about him being a self centered pain in the ass.
@@lauraveney1412 Prince was a perfectionist and musical genius to the point of eccentric. Maybe he didn't like this guitar tech but issue was probably just his pride. Prince was proud and arrogant; you can even see it in how he boasts of him being a jehovah witness. Even in concert he would say cryptic things that expressed his JW beliefs that insulted the audience but they didn't know what he was talking about.
Do you really think he would have lasted as long as he did if he treated his staff like shit for 40 years? You can Goggle about his charity it is well known abs at least one person said he asked him about the know speaking abs he said he had to save his voice. I am also not sure when not speaking to someone made anyone a dick. Seems being quiet is best if people have their minds made up. I will take action ( charity ) over words any day.
@@orion681 Oh please! Almost every one that worked with Prince, LOVED to work for him and to please him, but if you only read stories about him being a self centered pain in the ass, well you really are one of those who love to hate him. EVERY important artist had bad moods, bad behaviour and big ego, you want proof? tell me what's your favorite musician and I come back to you with some crazy story.
I wish Donn Landee would show up . Ed gave him NOT Ted credit for all the Dave era albums .
That would be something
I've read Eddie bought one of the consoles from Studio Sound for his 5150 studio and then later replaced it and sold it. Which one did he buy?
It’s amazing how you design and arrange the electronics in a custom sound board to make it do what you want!
Thanks for making such great gear paul, am STILL buying 200 series modules!
You don't record on a desk.
You record through it.
You don't tell me what to do.
True Litz wire is silk wrapped as an insulator, cool stuff, I have a hundred feet on a spool someplace.
What recording in the World would you need 32 tracks for. Sgt Pepper was done on 4 tracks. Many of the early Beatle songs were recorded live in 1 take!
Sgt Pepper used TWO 4 track machines running in sync. EMI engineers demagnetised and re-aligned the heads after every session, unlike most studios that do it ' every now and then ...' In 1966 8 track. recording was only just becoming a thing . Interestingly , when EMI obtained their first 8 track machine , the lads weren't allowed to use it . First the engineering dept took it to pieces , made notes and drawings, and only then reluctantly allowed artists to actually use it .Incidentally , Paul McCartney is as happy as can be with modern technology and has been using more than 4 tracks for quite some time ...
And so many of the new songs with 32 tracks sound so much better than the Beatles records, with drum sounds that sound like they were recorded on a cell phone.
@@zachary963 Many of today's songs ARE recorded on cellphones and sound like it . Hardly anyone uses real drums on modern dreck , just samples ... and guess where the majority of those samples come from ? Songs recorded in the 60s on four and eight track machines . Have you ever looked at ' songwriter ' credits on ' new ' songs ?
@@zachary963 I don't know what you're talking about. Sgt Pepper sounds great. Digital recording is not as warm as analogue. Plus,much of the new music I hear isn't really good music to my ear. Both the composition and technique is substandard.
With all due respect, if there were no need or at least some case usage for a 32 track console, it wouldn't exist.
And just as we shouldn't let our technology limit our creativity, we shouldn't let our creativity limit our technology.
Good job as always guys👍
… but, PLEASE, Donn Landee🙏😉
Good stuff!
Prince had issues, not the nicest guy - any of us working in Twin Cities music scene in the 80's have got stories.
It sounds like you don’t have any, though 🤷♂️
@@BarronVonSchnoot Actually I have several: Matt Larson & I used to repair his music electrical equipment. I went on to play a lot of the same stages and Matt went on to be Princes lightman.
Susan Rogers knew why he was the way he was, either you understand or you don't and consider him a not nice guy.
If you try to stop a river from flowing, you know what will happen! I am pretty surprised about some very superficial views
@@najinelson6742 Naji, I knew him, Dez Dickersons dad was an umpire for our ball games and my best friend played with him in Romeo before Prince, I went to school with his sister LaDonna (a very nice person). I fixed Princes keyboards (in this case - a Sequential Circuits Prophet) when he poured cologne on them to hide the glue smell of the purple fur, and he freaked about that too because he corroded the memory chips and lost his patches - you've not seen him have a meltdown, I have. I have friends that helped him move furniture for free and spent 3 hours positioning a couch in his house and he did nothing but complain, others that actually had to leave his band because he treated them all like subhuman crap - and most of the time would not even talk directly to people, you have no clue what you are talking about - he could put on an act, but when no media was around he WAS very mean person at times and in fact I would say MOST times I saw him in that little world he created he treated people as lower than him.
@@lastdaysguitar you seem to live in your own little world with a limited and one-sided view LOL
Prince made Minneapolis famous all over the world, without him I would not even know where it is and people like Morris Day, Jimmy Jam, Terry Lewis and many more would probably be unknown without Prince., he was the driving power. How many people had their daily bread thanks to Prince?! . C'mon things are way deeper, keep on having a superficial view if it makes you feel good. You are the twentiest guy trying to tell me he knew Prince lol After his death manY a man wants to tell that he knew him and some even lie that they derserve song writing credits. I believe in people like Susan Rogers, Terry or Lewis, never heard them say a bad word about Prince. Morris day is now blaming Prince for not having giving him enough money for the movie Purple Rain.
What a douche ! First, no movie without Prince! and he is too stupid to see that Prince protected him "what you're putting in your nose, is that were all your money goes?! Morris would have spent it all for hard drugs and be probably dead in the 80s. Instead Prince built Paisley Park, Prince was smarter than most people around him, he had to let his creativity flow, so no time for too much small talk, nice gestures and so on.
Prince even had the balls to fire Terry and Lewis, what a great sign of pure love! How successful they became after learning from Prince.
If you really knew Prince, you could let us all know what Prince always put or had in the left pocket of his trousers! Always!
4:48 i know thats right! way to go Frank!!!!! treat me like you wanna be treated
Shoutout to Litz wiring! 🗣📢
Prince liked things his way, but this is the first time I’ve ever actually heard him referred to as a perfectionist.
Even in this channel alone, we’ve watched enough stories from Peggy showing he certainly wasn’t.
WHERE IS TED??????????
I bet some of that vintage gear also used tin-plated copper wire.
the horror....
@@paulwolff8305 I've been reading that a lot of people with vintage gear, mainly tubes, have been searching out old Western Electric tin-plated copper for their systems. Deuland is making a modern version of the old WE wire too.
I can’t begin to articulate how much it bothers me when artists put their feet on the console. It’d be like going to church and kicking your feet up on the altar. No respect.
As a Prince and Van Halen fan it's kind of disappointing when you realize after listening to all these interviews through the months from you guys that Prince wasn't a very good person. Stupid talented!!! But socially awkward.
Socially awkward doesn't mean bad person.
@@SwingingCreeper No more than it means "good person". #ToBeFair
Prince was known to be eccentric. And those types of personalities often come across as "a pain in the ass". An eccentric perfectionist control freak can NOT be fun to work with, especially in the studio.
@@SwingingCreeper yeah I guess when you don't speak to the engineer with more than one word and you'd ride your musicians and you cold shoulder everybody, that's being a good guy. Listen to all the interviews bro then let's have a conversation.
@@ch3nz3n exactly I use the words socially awkward but I probably should have used the correct words "he was a dick". Instead.🤷♂️
So what? Should everybody stop listening to any artist who isn't gracious and polite every minute of their lives? Unless that's the point you're making, you don't seem to have a point.
I've always wanted to be dustman
Haaahaaahaaa ahh yes the transformer ring
Prince had a few good songs but overall was just a legend in his own mind…
Maybe he was an ass, maybe not but please, Prince was a prolific musician and song writer, let's not take that away because he may not have been easy to work with!
@@jackfetter his music sucks
clearly not a serious comment.
Who else released and wrote as many songs as Prince, played so many instruments, was into so many different genres, could mix and track on analog gear, was a great performer, business man and band leader and cared for so many people to have their daily bread on the table?! And all without the help of some famous musician, producer or engineer!!!
Among musicians he IS legendary. The only black person to have the number one album, song and movie the same week. One of only 6 acts to have 20 top 10 albums on Billboard's Top 100 albums chart. Then there are the songs he wrote for others or that he originally recorded Pain in the ass? We can agree on that. So many people either left him or he fired them because they wouldn't let him control them. If you don't like him, just say that
C’mon, we all know Princes was full of it
Short guy syndrome on Level Godlike
I was a big fan of princes music but I’ve heard lots of people say in real life he was a racist who loved treating white guys badly.
😂😂
In Prince's defense, your job is to just shut up and turn the knobs.
We were talking about Frank building his console for Paisley.
Yea, I am audio recording nerd too. But this guy ask as if 90% of the world gives a crap about what he saying. Where as say Van Halen or Prince or Toto to name three. Most folks do not care how, what or where it was recorded. They loved the music, the music and artistry is first. Wax all you want about copper windings. Super interesting to me, nobody cares if he thinks Prince was a pain in the ass!
Prince was an inconsiderate pain in the ass very often to a lot of people. It is this guy’s right to relay his factual account of some instances of Prince being a jerk, which anyone that knew him could definitely tell you he could be.
@@AllenGarberGuitarFun says someone who never met or worked with Prince. You need the intelligence of Susan Rogers to be able to understand Prince. Not many people were so close to Prince for such a long period like Susan Rogers!
@@najinelson6742 I know several people who worked with Prince, both well known and not-so well known. I haven’t spoken on anything that isn’t a well known fact.
@@AllenGarberGuitarFun did he tell him face to face??
@@annickb6183 He who and him who and what are you talking about?
Prince = most overrated artist of the 20th century.
Selected at birth, a phony juiced in somebody's kid. Plenty of proof
Nope.
Goat!
I never could get into Prince. That baby screaming shit he did all over the place was just nonsense.
Prince was an awesome live performer.. his after-shows were he went away from the commercial stuff and just jammed, he was Funk. If you get a chance look for Undertaker it's a jam session w P, Sonny Thompson and Michael Bland
Sure. Nonsense. Gotcha.
cool story, bro
Poor you
frank who?
Demedio