Joe Meek Q for Steve

[Cousin It]

I was just looking thru' your discog and I saw that you had worked on a best of Joe Meek set.What sort condition were the tapes in and were they any problems from a mastering aspect,I might look for it now just to get a listen to your mastering of Telstar.I always thought his acts were crap but he was certainly a maverick recording engineer in his day.

[Steve Hoffman]

Ah, Joe Meek. That guy made "abuse of equipment" an art form.

I used DAT's from England. Never saw an actual analog tape, although I did check out a tape copy of "Telstar", made for the USA by Decca. It sounded exactly the same as the DAT, except more hiss, so I used the DAT. I was told that that song was bounced 16 times in the recording process. Being squashed by his homeade compressor each time. Ah me...:eek:

[RetroSmith]

Yes, Steve, 'Telstar" was dubbed many many times so Joe could
add more and more parts. All these parts, mixed on top of one another help give the track its eeire "feel", which was unlike anything else ever heard on the American charts.

Somewhere in there are 3 Clavoline parts (not one as some people have said), a full drum set part (buried by the overdubbed brushes on the high hats) A guitar lead, two bass parts ect.

When Meek submitted the master to Decca (i think) it was returned to him SEVEN times because the engineers said they could not press a tape with that much compression, limiting and distortion. Joe had to argue with them to even attenpt a laquer cut!!

As you may guess, I'm a Huge Joe Meek Fan. The more you listen to his some 300 tracks , the more respect you have for his genius. Joes power of isolation of instruments in a tiny, tiny room were beyond amazing.

if you want to hear a real Joe Meek Classic, dial into 'SkyMen" by Geoff goddard........

[Cousin It]

Hell,I'm surprised that people in the U.S know of Meek rather than a couple of songs he produced.There is a very good book on Meek released in the U.K. I like that classic photo of him with him surrounded by cords and tapes strewn on the floor,it sort of describes his sound.

[Steve Hoffman]

Can anyone post that picture of Meek? Or the one where he is at the controls of his little studio?

Amazing shots that I have only seen in the Razor & Tie Joe Meek CD booklet.

Thanks!

[RetroSmith]

Yes, that book "The Telstar Man" is very good, but there is a better one out that describes Joes equipment and techiques in much greater detail.

Old Joe would have been PISSED when 24 track came in!!

I could see him still overdubbing full track mono to full track mono in 1972!!!

Contrary to what some have said, Joe never did upgrade to 4 track....he merely used two stereo machines to overdub in stereo. thats why some of the later honeycombs stuff was true stereo.

[Cousin It]

Here's a link to an article on Meek that was in MOJO magazine,this is the full length version.Anyone who considers Phil Spector's antics as difficult,his were childish compared to JM and Meek was a technical guy.It's a great primer for those not familiar with Meek's life and career.

http://www.mccready.cwc.net/meek.html

[Steve Hoffman]

A truly amazing story.

I better go pull my Joe Meek Razor & Tie CD out and listen to some compression.:eek:

[Cousin It]

Reading that I wonder what the L.A crowd would have thought of him back in the 60's???:( :rolleyes: :eek: :eek:

[Steve Hoffman]

For those of you who care, here is an essay dealing with Joe Meeks recording setup, and abuse thereof:

http://www.joemeek.com/meekremembered.html

[Steve Hoffman]

And here is a very good primer on what COMPRESSION is, why we need it, and how to get it, via the modern JOE MEEK Compressor. I use one sometimes! Usually I just use a stereo Fairchild. The Joe Meek is too, well, "Telstar" sounding.

http://www.joemeek.com/whatitis.html

A picture of Joe and a tape machine with a REALLY big meter:
http://www.dailyimage.com/show.cfm?FuseCalendar_ID=367

[Cousin It]

Nothing can prepare you for the shock of listening for the very first time to a Joe Meek playback!

Ted's not kidding huh ???

Too bad you never got the analogs in your hands,it would have been fascinating.Steve,do you have the right equipment to master it to sound that crap.Imagine an audiophile version of Meek's stuff ???:rolleyes: :rolleyes: ;)

[Steve Hoffman]

Find the Razor & Tie disc. That's what I did!

[Dan]

I bought the Joe Meek VC-3 (Mic Pre-OptoCompressor-Meequalizer). Pretty crunchy! ;-)

[thxdave]

Steve,
Do you know anything about the compressors from RNC?
http://www.fmraudio.com/overview.html
Thanks,
Dave

[Steve Hoffman]

Have not heard them. Buy from a place with a 30 day exchange policy....

[Angel]

Wow, I've just been reading every word about this guy on the thread. How come I've never heard of Joe Meek before? I just thought he was a guy who was marketing a solid state limiter.

Now I find out that he's the British Phil Spector, even wackier, and what an ending. I was so shocked.

I think I've heard "Telstar", but I don't know about anything else. I better find some CD's by this guy, pronto. I want to hear what 16 bounces with full limiting sounds like!

Thanks to all who posted on this thread, and for the links to his story. Amazing isn't the word!

[Cousin It]

Meek's life story reads like some trashy novel but it was all true.The English could make a hell of a film and not have to embelish a thing,just think it has got sex,drugs,madness,occult worship,murder and suicide and the last 2 within minutes of each other.I rate Meek higher than Spector in the innovation dept for the simple reason that Meek built a lot of his gear wheras Spector relied heavily on a particular studio(Gold Star) and engineer(Larry Levine).I mean look at how easy it was for Sonny Bono to get a facsimile of Spector's sound also Bill Medley's production of the Righteous Bros "Soul & Inspiration".Spector had access to better songwriters wheras Meek's production really can't cover up a lot of really woeful material.The article lists quotes from Adrian Kerridge who was the engineer on the Dave Clark 5 sides and he admits to JM's influence and you can hear it in that great crunch those DC5 tracks(Anyway You Want It,Bits And Pieces) have.

[Justin Peters]

Originally posted by thxdave
Steve,
Do you know anything about the compressors from RNC?
http://www.fmraudio.com/overview.html
Thanks,
Dave

They're great compressors and regarded as one of the best buys in pro audio equipment, but the opposite of the Joe Meeks. The RNC was designed to be transparent. It has a "Super Nice" mode which mimics three compressors wired in series, to further reduce compression artifacts. If you push it a bit you can get it to pump and breathe and can do some tonal "shaping." I mainly use mine for evening out signals, rather than as an effect.


Justin