Shooting Stars

[afaceinthecrowd]

“It’s time for everyone to sit back, relax and enjoy…All! That! Jazz!” Bob Fosse

Over a few installments…not sure how many yet, probably 3 or 4…I hope to, as best I can, say what I wanted say when I first posted here almost a year ago. Having ESMB to post stuff on and all Y’all to read and comment on has done me a world of good. I hope something in this is helpful to someone else now or on down the road.

Thank you, blownstaffmember, for making the comment that led to me to realize that this was something I needed to do…thanks a whole bunch for your superb rhetorical question, “Was there anything that elron did that wasn't sophomoric?”

For anyone that comes across this thread somewhere down the river and hasn’t read the first two parts of my “Take” on the Apollo Stars it may be helpful, for full “context”, to do so before reading this.

http://www.forum.exscn.net/showpost....4&postcount=74
http://www.forum.exscn.net/showpost....0&postcount=84

If anyone out there has additional information, “seasoning” or a different “Take” I’m all ears.

Looking back on all this now and what came after, my “Take” is that the “Power of Source” story may well be the story of the "tipping point" that led to the Mission Holder’s Kristallnacht.


Part One

Ron, The Music Mogul

"The Situation”

The initial Test Lacquer Masters from several World Class Mastering Studio Labs were dispatched, post haste to the Apollo where Hisself, his electronics/recording geek Dan Auerbach, his audiophile Son-in-Law, Jon Horwich (Action Aide, Head of the Action Bureau Flag where all Flag Missions were prepped, briefed, “fired”, operated and debriefed) and a small cadre of “insiders” listened to them on El Ron’s personal and very expensive, Studio Quality, State of the Art sound system.

As said in my narrative in the 2nd link above, the POS Master Tape was one serious goat rope. El Ron insisted that the Master Discs (one for manufacturing each side of an LP vinyl disc) be cut “flat”…straight to the Lacquer Master with no Sound Engineering. This was done in face of the fact that the exacting, sequential and well established “Tech” for LP production was to get everything down per established parameters on a Master Tape. The generally accepted Master Tape “recipe” was for what is essential to be in the “pre-mixed” ingredients to best perform Master Mix and the next steps of a very technically exacting process.

POS had not been recorded that way…it had been recorded El Ron’s way…Hisself’s “New Technical Breakthrough In Sound Recording”—“ClearSound”, if I recall correctly. According to the Mastering and Recording Engineers there was nothing “New” about ClearSound. El Ron’s “ClearSound” was, in essence; a Master Tape Recording that was recorded on First Class “Live Performance Recording” equipment (with the exception of some of the mikes), in a too “Live” room and not a Studio, by an obviously inexperienced amateur engineer, trying to have it sound "live" without the technical knowledge or experience of how to do such. Unless the Engineers were allowed to do their job and “engineer” the Master Tape—or, better yet, a new Master Tape recording was done technically correct—the resulting vinyl disc would be one helluva turkey.

The Professional Sound Recording Engineers critique rendered El Ron a very irritated and frustrated Demonic Cult Leader. But, as always, Hisself bounced…err, that is to say…bounced back.

“The Why”

Source knew the source of the problem. After all, Hisself had “dealt with those ‘Hollywood Birds’” before. But, this time, El Ron El Rey was in the driver’s seat, this time El Ron El Rey was writing the checks and they were gonna do it El Ron El Rey’s way. Period.

Against the consensus of some of the finest record production folks in the world that the “Power of Source” was truly a P-O-S, El Ron found the “Real Why” that unlocked the door to the handling; they were wrong and Hisself was right.

With the caveat, “We don’t want our name on this,” the Mastering Studios said they would be happy to have all the money El Ron wanted to spend (waste), the way Hisself wanted to spend (waste) it, for as long as Hisself wished to (and their patience and sense of humor remained intact).

Thousands of upon thousands dollars (1974 $) of Lacquer Masters upon Lacquer Masters from a host of Mastering Labs were rushed to Flag and out of the stacks, finally, El Ron had an “A” and “B” side of POS that Hisself deemed as an acceptable reproduction “true” to the ClearSound Master Tape. Every one of those Lacquer Masters had been cut exactly the same…“Deadstick”…no boost, no EQ (“marrying” of tonal frequency of instruments), no mixing, no sound engineering—all knobs, dials and settings at “Flat” or neutral.

“The Bright Idea”

With the sweet taste of victory over the “Hollywood Sound Boys”, El Ron went hard after the next beach head…the Hollywood Music Industry.

In customary El Ron/CofS fashion, dummy shell-corporations were set up; “Source Music” (recording company), “Source Records” (record production company) and Tone 40 Music (music publishing company). Specifically selected Missioanires were well outfitted, briefed and fired to “look the part” of young, well financed and energetic record industry execs—Missionaires that El Ron personally trusted but were, as also customary with these types of ops, Hisself’s vassals and had no experience whatsoever in the Music Business or how Hollywood worked—all they knew was what El Ron told them they knew. Strategically located Hollywood offices were taken and outfitted, cards and letterhead printed, phones installed.

Poof!

El Ron was back!

El Ron had returned (?) triumphant to Hollywood!



In a few days or so:

Part Two

L. Ron Clouseau


Peace.

Face

[Dulloldfart]

Bring it on!

Paul

[Panda Termint]

Thanks for the above, Face. I'll wait with barely contained patience for the rest of the story.

[Mark A. Baker]

... As said in my narrative in the 2nd link above, the POS Master Tape was one serious goat rope. El Ron insisted that the Master Discs (one for manufacturing each side of an LP vinyl disc) be cut “flat”…straight to the Lacquer Master with no Sound Engineering. This was done in face of the fact that the exacting, sequential and well established “Tech” for LP production was to get everything down per established parameters on a Master Tape. The generally accepted Master Tape “recipe” was for what is essential to be in the “pre-mixed” ingredients to best perform Master Mix and the next steps of a very technically exacting process. ...

One caveat on this, Face. Not with regard to POS, but recording generally. Cutting from a "master tape" was evidently a normal industry practice, but this was primarily a cost driven decision, rather than a way of "maximizing quality" of the resulting recording.

Many of the best recordings I have personally ever heard were lp's made "direct to disk" by Sheffield Labs, aka Lincoln Mayorga & associates. Of course, THEY had the engineering and musical expertise to get things right; a process which requires the availability of specialized skills and the willingness to take the time to get the exact recording effect desired. Sheffield did brilliant work, as did several other top audiophile "direct to disk" manufacturers. The resultant disks were typically much more expensive than the norm for the industry, but frankly they were well worth the additional expense.

My audiophile ex-brother-in-law clued me in on this, a matter I hold to his credit. Whatever else he may have been, he was a serious lover of recorded music based as a result of his own work in the entertainment field. With regard to recording & sound reproduction he "knew his onions".

I've never had the misfortune of hearing more than a slice of the "Power of Source" recording. I heard a bit once at the mission where I was on lines. It was just enough for me to deem it a good idea to go spend time elsewhere for awhile.


Mark A. Baker

[afaceinthecrowd]

One caveat on this, Face. Not with regard to POS, but recording generally. Cutting from a "master tape" was evidently a normal industry practice, but this was primarily a cost driven decision, rather than a way of "maximizing quality" of the resulting recording.

Many of the best recordings I have personally ever heard were lp's made "direct to disk" by Sheffield Labs, aka Lincoln Mayorga & associates. Of course, THEY had the engineering and musical expertise to get things right; a process which requires the availability of specialized skills and the willingness to take the time to get the exact recording effect desired. Sheffield did brilliant work, as did several other top audiophile "direct to disk" manufacturers. The resultant disks were typically much more expensive than the norm for the industry, but frankly they were well worth the additional expense.

My audiophile ex-brother-in-law clued me in on this, a matter I hold to his credit. Whatever else he may have been, he was a serious lover of recorded music based as a result of his own work in the entertainment field. With regard to recording & sound reproduction he "knew his onions".

I've never had the misfortune of hearing more than a slice of the "Power of Source" recording. I heard a bit once at the mission where I was on lines. It was just enough for me to deem it a good idea to go spend time elsewhere for awhile.


Mark A. Baker

You are correct, Mark. I've heard Sheffield "Direct to Disk" vinyl LP's through tube, bi-amped, Klipschorn speakers and could hear a thumb rub on the sheet music when pages were turned.

From what I heard, Sheffield's offered to work with El Ron on a "D to D" of the Stars to give "Ron, The Sound Engineer" more of whatever the "ClearSound" was that Hisself was singularly hearing...for a most handsome fee. Obviously, that never happened.

I meant no disrespect to Jon Horwich with the term "audiophile"...I used the term in the truest sense of the word. Personally, I liked Horwich...we always got along just fine.

Thank you for the "seasoning".

Face

[afaceinthecrowd]

“He's All Hat and No Cattle.” Cowboy Saying

While working on “Part Two” I realized I was not properly “framing”, “L. Ron Clouseau”. So, here’s my revised Part Two of, “Shooting Stars”.

Part Two

Buckaroo El Ron’s Whip

“The Handling”

Unfortunately, the data collection and reports from His Mogulness’ Vassals out in Hollywood detailed yet another barrier El Ron would have to smash through; those Record Production Boys (RPB’s) weren’t part of the “New Civilization”…they were part of the crumbling old civilization that still hadn’t embraced El Ron’s “Modern Management Technology”. Without a clue that “Ron, The Management Genius” had invented and bequeathed to Earth, “The Monolithic Command and Control Organization”, those idiots had built an industry of vertically integrated companies.

Those RPB’s Vertical Integration was a Capital Intensive—and very heavy Working Capital Intensive—four legged stool; Recording, Manufacturing, Promotion/Sales and Distribution. RPB’s searched out talent or were ‘Pitched” talent and Master Tapes of talent by Agents or Independent Producers. Once a talent was taken on board—unless it was an proven, major or established talent—RPB’s set about the task of “molding”, “framing” and “presenting” that talent the way they deemed was the best way to make some money. Unfortunately, in the case of POS, that would most certainly begin with starting over with a new Master Tape, done either by a selected Professional Producer/Engineer or redone per “the recipe”.

El Ron wasn’t gonna leave anything to chance with these Hollywood Birds anymore. After all, it took Hisself to finally figure out how to properly record sound! “Ron, The Music Mogul” would have to by-pass the RPB’s to ensure Hisself’s Planet could hear the true “Power of Source” in ClearSound. Left to their devices, and “Old Tech”, those RPB’s couldn’t be trusted with such a landmark piece of…piece of……piece of….piece of “Artistic Brilliance” and “Technical Mastery”.

Although the POS album has a cut, “This Planet Is Ours”, the only way that pronouncement would reach Hisself’s Planet meant El Ron would have to out fox those RPB’s. El Ron had to beat them at their own game.

And so, Buckeroo El Ron set about the task of crafting and tooling Hisself the proper “Whip” to use to beat those RPB’s with and corral them.

“The Plan”

“The Whip”, El Ron fognited—triumphant yet again—would be to unleash the “Power of Source” on those RPB’s as a turnkey finished, manufactured, boxed and ready to ship Album. Only problem was…there wasn’t one. All there was, was the ClearSound Master Tape and “LRH Approved” Lacquer Masters.

Manufacturing a vinyl LP is a machine/labor intensive process requiring expensive equipment and skilled labor. The Lacquer Masters were the just the beginning of a technically precise, multi-step process of alternating positive/negative dye-casting and pressing that resulted in a vinyl LP to insert into a finished Album Jacket, shrink-wrap and properly box for bulk shipment. This took time, this took skill and it took serious money to set up an operation like this. Those pesky RPB boys owned/controlled most of the “Pressing Plants”.

But, the Hollywood Music Industry is huge, diverse and very entrepreneurial in nature, with niche “Mom and Pop” operations that provide—for a healthy fee—various parts of those RPB’s system. The Executive Vassals of Source Records were set about the task of finding a Custom Pressing Plant to acceptably manufacture and package “The Whip”.

‘The Program”

After an intense “Rush” Priority search the Vassals found what was widely regarded to be the finest Custom Record Manufacturer in SoCal. These folks were known for manufacturing LP Disks equal in quality to—if not better—than those RPB”S. They didn’t care how the Master Tape sounded, how the Lacquer Master was engineered, how many you wanted made. These guys—as long as you paid their exorbitant fee for a minimum run (I recall hearing it was 1,000), or their well above industry standard prices for larger runs—would make you all the records you wanted; their niche was the manufacturing of custom LP’s that were as close a representation of what was on the Lacquer Master as was humanly possible.

Ron, The Music Mogul was ecstatic. Not only had Hisself found a company that would manufacture POS LP’s at State of The Art Standard, the manufacturing company had a subsidiary that would take the clients artwork and photos and manufacture—for a handsome fee— the album jacket covers you as you wanted.

But, El Ron wasn’t about to leave anything to chance with these “Boys”. Even though this Custom Pressing Plant had been in business for over 30 years, Hisself was not about to yield quarter. Test runs—each at thousands of dollars for a “minimum run”—of various Lacquer Masters from Hisself’s piles were ordered to ensure that “Power of Source” was being “fully duplicated”. Numerous random vinyl disks were selected during the run and rushed to Hisself’s Research Room on the Apollo…the rest discarded in the trash.

After exhaustive “A to B” testing with the “inner circle” El Ron had named, wanted and gotten the product; an LRH Approved Metal Master to manufacture thousands upon thousands of true ClearSound of POS’s (double entendre intended). Shooting Boards for the front and flip side of the Album Jacket were rushed out to Hollywood from the Apollo. More test runs of thousands of dollars of printed album covers went into the trash until El Ron, finally, held “It” in Hisself’s hands.

Buckeroo El Ron had “The Whip”!

All that was left to be done was for the Source Records Executive Vassals to gain access to those “RPB’s” and unleash “It”!


In a few days or so:

Part Three

L. Ron Clouseau


Peace.

Face

[Panda Termint]

Fascinating. I once worked for a Major Record Company, your description of their modus operandi is accurate.
Looking forward to the next installment.

[Infinite]

Thanks Face - what a glimpse into a truly bizarre story. One thing you can say about Hisself, he was certainly a character.

Now . .. coming up with whack-a-doodle ideas, deceipt and intrique, interfering in every step, alienating professionals, paying over the odds, singular lack of success . . . where have I heard all that before?

[Mystic]

I MUST have III now or I will die a thousand s.

[afaceinthecrowd]

Yep, Blip...Hisself was real LuLu.

Unfortunately...what sticks in my craw...was that thousands of good and decent Org Staff and SO were working themselves beyond exhaustion, living in squalor, eating slop, their children wanting while thousands upon thousands upon thousands of Dollars were literally being chucked into a dumpster in some putrid back alley in SoCal.

Face