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honestly, this post has done it for me. i originally searched this site out because i was told that it was a good resource for audio recording tips as well as being the official site of steve albini's studio. pretty impressive qualifications to me, i thought at the time. i have been a member of this messageboard since june (when there were few members), and i have been nothing short of completely disappointed, disgusted, and literally sickened by what has been posted here. i realize that i have freedom of choice, and so therefore i will no longer be visiting this site...but i also have freedom of speech, so i figure i'll use this time to explain my disgust with the threads as well as the administration of this site. hopefully someone with the power to make decisions on this site will figure out how to cut their losses so the 10 perverts who post here regularly will not be the only ones left.

issue #1: completely impractical advice for entry and mid-level home studio recording engineers: my first post to this site was to inquire about finding a midi sync device to hook up an 8 track tape machine to a sound card. the advice given to me was to buy a 24 track studer a80. that makes sense, right? my question back is - should i take out a second mortgage on my house, or would the person who suggested that like to help me pay? another post i contributed to was for someone who was looking to upgrade from a little minidisc recorder. he recently asked about an "old fostex R8". he has been guided to get a neumann u87 and a tascam 58 - that'll really ease him into recording.

issue #2: the completely lack of any administrative checks and balances on what is discussed here. yes, i do understand this is general discussion...however, when people start calling others nazis and idiots because they are pro-life or christian...that's where someone needs to draw the line. you as administrators claim to support open discussion on issues, but instead allow open mockery and insult to a group that is apparently minority here because of their beliefs.

issue #3: why i almost lost my lunch last week. general discussion<best explicit sexual act. i cannot believe this one is still on the site. it makes me sick that there is open discussion about donkey-punches and strawberry milkshakes on this site. honestly, keep this perversion, this shit out of this site.

what should be an informative, yet fun site to talk about recording, music, and the like has turned into a pornographically perverse, religiously and idealistically hateful site. steve albini and crew, you truly disappoint me.

-eric.

If the majority of the populous of this "GENERAL DISCUSSION" forum (methinks you rebutted your own gripe) were right-wing Christian Fundamentalists, espousing the evils and morally bankrupt principles of the disgusting, perverse, left-wing abortionist Satan worshippers that you make us out to be for two pages worth of posts.....would you be equally as critical of the seemingly one-sided unbalanced opinions expressed.

I'm guessing the answer is a resounding NO!

Itchy,

Sorry you feel that way, but I think you have to take into your consideration the fact that this forum, whether it suits you or not, is public domain. You have as little control over these 'distasteful' threads as you do a chance encounter with someone you dislike. As far as engineering tips are concerned: Not all advice is expert advice!!

BTW, Why did you read that sex act thread? It has a title, right? If you don't want to read about explicit sex acts, don't hit that thread (I didn't). You don't have the right to blame the EA staff & forum moderators for your own closed-mindedness and naivety.

I'm sorry to put it so harshly, but I happen to know a few of them.

Itchy,

As far a home recording advice goes, this is probably not the best place for it.

You're seeking advice on a forum of professionals who work in a setting that is so far removed from most home recording environments. Not that this is a terrible thing, just don't be surprised if threads and posts center around equipment you can't afford and scenarios you won't encounter.

If you're serious about learning recording, the first thing you should do is learn all you can about electronics. Take some basic classes in passive and active linear circuits. Read books, both old and new, about analog amplifiers and filters. You will be a better engineer and much more useful to yourself and others if you understand the principles by which your equipment operates. Gain structure and signal flow will make better sense, your outboard gear will no longer be black boxes with knobs that "alter the sound", and understading how a compressor does what it does will allow you to better understand its limitations and capabilities.

One of the reasons so many recordings done over the last 30 years sound like such gimmicky, cheesey shit is that the "professionals" that did these recordings had no real knowledge of what they were actually doing, other than perpetuating old stereotypes and bad techniques that came from other poor "engineers". I've meet so many "engineers" that had no idea how a mic preamp or tape head worked, let alone a dynamics processor or digital delay. They got involved in recording for the "rock & roll lifestyle" they hoped it would entail and have no practical background in audio, and by all rights had no business making records. They are also the same morons that are responsible for the 80's new wave/pop sound and Def Leopard albums.

Mic placement and selection is something you can aquire through trial and error and experience based on fundimentals you must learn. Learning how and why your equipment does what it does electrically, learning basic principles of acoustics and physics - how sound behaves, will prove more valuable that the snippets you may gather on some web forum - even if it is associated with Steve Albini.

itchy,

i sincerely apologize if i've contributed towards ruining your experience here. but one thing i'm sure you're well aware of is the bad rap that gets imposed on *ALL* Christians because of a series of actions that have been taken by folks who declare themselves to be Christian, i.e. crusades, colonial massacres, sex scandals etc. That sort of bad rap is something you're probably going to encounter just about everywhere, short of church and other places that are explicitly Christian (there are plenty of Christian discussion boards out there that are safe). and just so you know, not everyone here was being all anti-Christian, because i know for a fact that at the very least, i wasn't. anyways, sorry if i'm a part of what's turning you off to this board, which i can imagine being the case.

itchy wrote:honestly, this post has done it for me. i originally searched this site out because i was told that it was a good resource for audio recording tips as well as being the official site of steve albini's studio. pretty impressive qualifications to me, i thought at the time. i have been a member of this messageboard since june (when there were few members), and i have been nothing short of completely disappointed, disgusted, and literally sickened by what has been posted here. i realize that i have freedom of choice, and so therefore i will no longer be visiting this site...but i also have freedom of speech, so i figure i'll use this time to explain my disgust with the threads as well as the administration of this site. hopefully someone with the power to make decisions on this site will figure out how to cut their losses so the 10 perverts who post here regularly will not be the only ones left.

I genuinely appreciate you telling us why you're no longer going to visit this site. This is a courtesy I wouldn't extend, and it speaks well of you.

I suppose anybody who can click the "delete post" button (there are several of us) has the power you suggest, but only Russ has weilded it so far. I am (personally) uncomfortable shutting discussions down on moral or taste grounds, as I'm not sure my morals and tastes would survive such tests here or elsewhere.

issue #1: completely impractical advice for entry and mid-level home studio recording engineers: my first post to this site was to inquire about finding a midi sync device to hook up an 8 track tape machine to a sound card. the advice given to me was to buy a 24 track studer a80. that makes sense, right? my question back is - should i take out a second mortgage on my house, or would the person who suggested that like to help me pay? another post i contributed to was for someone who was looking to upgrade from a little minidisc recorder. he recently asked about an "old fostex R8". he has been guided to get a neumann u87 and a tascam 58 - that'll really ease him into recording.

I can't argue with you. There isn't time in the day for Greg, Russ, Andrew and me to teach the basics. Specific problems, sure (and the one you posted is one), someone might be able to lend a hand, but if not, the Internet abhors a vaccuum; someone will pop in and say something, no matter if stupid.

issue #2: the completely lack of any administrative checks and balances on what is discussed here. yes, i do understand this is general discussion...however, when people start calling others nazis and idiots because they are pro-life or christian...that's where someone needs to draw the line. you as administrators claim to support open discussion on issues, but instead allow open mockery and insult to a group that is apparently minority here because of their beliefs.

Apparently you think it is okay to call someone a pervert, but not an idiot. I can understand that perspective, but I don't think that's what you're really talking about.

You would prefer a discussion site where you do not feel that you are being dismissed because of your ideas and faith. You don't want anything here to offend you as this has.

I appreciate your discomfort, but I can't adjust the discretion of this board to suit you or anyone. It will become what those involved make it, for better or worse.

issue #3: why i almost lost my lunch last week. general discussion<best explicit sexual act. i cannot believe this one is still on the site. it makes me sick that there is open discussion about donkey-punches and strawberry milkshakes on this site. honestly, keep this perversion, this shit out of this site.

what should be an informative, yet fun site to talk about recording, music, and the like has turned into a pornographically perverse, religiously and idealistically hateful site. steve albini and crew, you truly disappoint me.

-eric.

I don't think the site is hateful, taken as a whole. I don't think most perversions are bad, though I only indulge in a few myself. I think there is and has been a streak of generosity of spirit and in act on this board, and to fail to acknowledge that because you've been offended by some juvenile banter is allowing your less tolerant impulses to dictate that you ignore those things which you could find rewarding.

As regards the "abortion" topic: This is a stupid place to raise the issue if you want to have an illuminating conversation about it, and a stupid place to stake a claim on moral high ground. I'm not about to stop anybody from doing either, but I think they're both stupid enterprises. Especially considering that most people involved in this discussion (here and elsewhere) are men. Men, for the unaware, cannot become pregnant, and so have no legitimate interest in regulating pregnancy. It is easy to expect someone to carry a burden you will never be asked to lift yourself. It is easy and ignorant to criticise her for failing to do so. In short, if you cannot become pregnant, I don't think you have a say.

In short, if you cannot become pregnant, I don't think you have a say.

Of course you should have a say. Only allowing debate in issues we have experience with ourselves would put severe limits on discussion. Sure, you might be more of an idiot, more prone to insensitivity towards subjects involved, or lack empathy for them if you haven't experienced the issue first-hand. But I do believe these prejudices can be recognized and compensated for by any reasoning mind participating in the debate; at least this is thought to happen in discussions of any given political issue (except abortion, an issue where your argument is constantly called upon.)

I took an ethics course in college in which we when over this in detail. Here's what I gotta say. You really have to break it down in to what quality gives a living organism a "right to life". See my professor tied abortion and killing animals into the same thing. In order to deprive something of something they have to be aware of it. For example, a cow is aware of pain but now aware that it is mortal and some day it will die. Therefore, when you kill the cow (assuming that you do not cause it a horrific amount of pain) your not depriving it of anything since it was never aware of it in the first place. A fetus is the same thing. It's not aware of the fact that it is mortal, in fact at certain stages it has even less of a right to life that the fully grown cow in that it cannot preceive pain in anywhere as much detail as the fully grown cow. But my professor didn't stop there. He said if you accept this logical argument, then you have to be able to take to the next level. When does a human being develop to a level in which it can understand its own mortality? Arguably not until a few years after birth. With this stated is it not arguarbly acceptable to terminate a child before a certain age?, say two three years old? I'm not saying that it is but the point is to show that the arguement is flawed when applying it to actual life. Mortality is a function of consciencious and consciencious is something that cannot be applied to nature because nature has no rules, no morals, no beliefs, it just happens. The problem lies in human beings's arrogant portrayal of the importance of the human being's life over any other form of life. If you accept the fact that humans have evolved to a stage where conscensious has forced us to apply incompatible "rules" to the world around us, and that these rules will never align with the natural order of the world, you'll see that there is no solution to the arguement.

I thought you were making a great argument for "full birth abortion."

steve wrote:

As regards the "abortion" topic: This is a stupid place to raise the issue if you want to have an illuminating conversation about it

I concur

bdp