February 17, 2004

8:48 AM

I know I must suck hard core, because I can't get the search engine to work, but does anyone remember where that MeFi post about a recording engineer's "real" stories about working on a major artist's album, which devolves into Spinal Tap-esque antics? I read a description of Metallica's new documentary, and it sounds almost exactly the same, so I wanted to read it again. I've put everything I could think of into the search engine, and have come up empty. Can anyone help me out?
posted by emptybowl to (10 comments total)

The Daily Adventures of Mixerman?
posted by kindall at 8:56 AM on February 17, 2004

Yes! That's it. Thanks!
posted by emptybowl at 9:06 AM on February 17, 2004

BTW, I found it using a Google search for "alsihad."
posted by kindall at 10:31 AM on February 17, 2004

found it using a Google search for "alsihad."
Huh?
posted by thomcatspike at 10:45 AM on February 17, 2004

"Alsihad" is the name Mixerman uses to refer to Pro Tools, a popular digital audio editing package. As in, "I wanted to record this on tape, but Pro Tools is alls I had."

He is not a Pro Tools fan. ;)
posted by kindall at 10:54 AM on February 17, 2004

Did anyone ever figure out who he was working with? Not that they were overly famous, as I recall.
posted by jalexei at 11:00 AM on February 17, 2004

you know, I read nearly three-fourths of the way through that before I started feeling that things were way too absurd to be a non-fiction account.

has anyone ever verified any of that? i stopped reading it, because as fiction, i didn't think it was that amusing.

i mean, I can believe the guy is a engineer, and I can believe that he's had clients like that, but I can't believe any of it would happen in one session. Are these composite characters? is it largely exaggerated?

i just hate the feeling of being suckered into believing hoaxes -- that's probably why i really stopped reading.
posted by fishfucker at 1:50 PM on February 17, 2004

Well, it's not really a hoax. My husband, also a recording engineer, knows Mixerman. You could call it "historical fiction," or a pastiche of the clients and issues all recording folks deal with who have been in the business for a long time.
posted by Lynsey at 3:54 PM on February 17, 2004

My husband, also a recording engineer, knows Mixerman.

Is this a great site or what? Give it up for MeFi, ladies, gentlemen, and vibrating overlords!
posted by languagehat at 5:24 PM on February 17, 2004

Just a bit more trivia associated with Mixerman's tale... another person on the recording newsgroup that Mixerman & Mr. Lynsey frequent actually gave ProTools the moniker Alsihad "while slandering the Free Masons. He even wore a fez and made a big deal about how much alsihad sucked at
AES (an Audio Engineering Society convention) even. They were riding around the convention center in a Harley Davidson golf cart swathed in a banner that said, "Analog is back and it's pissed." Also, if you have never read the stories, the band was called Bitch Slap, produced by Willie Show (*wink, wink, nudge, nudge*) .
posted by Lynsey at 5:52 PM on February 17, 2004