Where is this post about a recording engineer's "real" stories about working on a major artist's album, which devolves into Spinal Tap-esque antics?

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 Media & Arts (10 answers total)

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

Response by poster: 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