"Studio Confidential" Preview Event Was Well Worth Attending!

your N.Y. metro area opportunity comes next February

The "Studio Confidential" event announced a few weeks ago had a pre preview last night (Nov.18th) at Technica House in Manhattan and it was well-worth attending. On hand with entertaining anecdotes were Niko Bolas, Frank Filipetti, Jimmy Douglass, Chuck Finlay, Sylvia Massy, and Elliot Scheiner. George Massenburg did something he never does while working: he "phoned it in" because he was working on the west coast.

This was not a tech-based discussion. Rather it focused on the human side of engineering/producing top artists. As such it's meant for fans more than techies, which should make its upcoming run a success at The Sheen Center for Thought & Culture in The Loreto Theater (18 Bleeker Street, NYC) Feb. 3-March 1, with 6-7 shows weekly.

Bolas, A/K/A half of "The Volume Dealers" had a funny story about Neil Young bonding through music with an auto mechanic who had a very different political persuasion. Filipetti told a hilarious anecdote involving Barbra Streisand and you surely know the perfectionist duo Scheiner focused on. The others had equally engaging stories.

Being a successful engineer—even if you are not also the producer on a session—requires a level of empathy and engagement that goes well beyond being good with microphone placement (etc.) and all of these folks had that quality on display, which made obvious why they were and continue to be successful.

I set up my DJI Pocket 3 video recorder and had a microphone directly next to the P.A. system and recorded the entire event. When I hit "stop" my finger lingered a bit too long and the screen said "erasing the entire video"! Yes the DJI Pocket 3 software includes that absolutely IDIOTIC "feature". It doesn't even give you a "are you sure you want to erase?". So I lost the entire recording. The first and worst time that's ever happened.

I wasn't going to publish on YouTube much of the event because it's better you go see them live and it wouldn't be fair. However, I was prepared to run much of the response to my question to the group since it wouldn't have occurred had I not asked the question, which was "If Phil Ramone was here, what stories would he tell?"

The room literally lit up and all had great Phil Stories. It was a genius question (if I do say so myself). In fact, I think the group should incorporate into their show a few of the Phil stories they told last night and maybe some for the others in the photo below no longer with us. I also think having a strong moderator on hand who can interject/interrupt with new questions as the show proceeds would be a great addition. I can think of one......

Here's the group meeting at CES 2005 to announce its formation. I made sure to attend this despite the busy CES reporting load—and I am glad I did to get this shot.

L-R: (unknown), the late Phil Ramone, Chuck Ainlay, George Massenburg, the late Al Schmitt, (unknown), Elliot Scheiner, Frank Filipitti, (unknown), and the late Ed Cherney, who I was fortunate to have interviewed in his studio a few years ago. Also fortunate to have met and spent quality time with Al Schmitt. These guys are some of the greatest engineers ever—proof is surely in your record collection.

And I am so sorry the recording got erased. And yes I dropped a few hundred dollars on file recovery software in an attempt to retrieve the erased file but it didn't work. You would have enjoyed the Phil Ramone stories.