A guitar tech explains Van Halen's most infamous tuning disaster

[toodlelew]

@cnlblgrg

The only tech that needs to get blamed is the one who originally invented the Floyd Rose.

Oh, you mean Floyd D. Rose ?

[inactivist]

@thomdunn

but not to the pre-recorded synthesizer sample. Oops

Pre-recordings for live shows seem so limiting. Without them almost any band that’s any good can get around technical issues and buy time by improvising an instumental or distracting with a story etc.

The most important thing in executing a successful live show for me is that the (often semi-deaf) muso’s have a decent monitor mix and can hear themselves and the others they need to.

When I hear a live singer with dodgy pitch these days I give them the benefit of the doubt and assume they’ve got a shitty monitor mix.

@fiddlingfrog

Again, no idea if it’s true, but it’s the kind of story we pass around backstage.

Ha. The genius there is the plausible deniability in blaming the guitarists setup for the delay!

I’ve never sabotaged a gig but during soundchecks when I’d get requests for more volume in foldbacks (and couldn’t push the noise on stage any further) I’d often just pretend to slowly turn up the gain and ask if it was better until I got a thumbs up. The eye and brain can often trump peoples hearing.

[Maneki.Nekko]

“Can you turn up the other instruments in my monitor, so I can hear what we sound like together?” said no musician ever.

[thomdunn]

@aml

If I recall correctly Van Halen said they had a keyboardist offstage. The issue wasn’t that Van Halen had a mistake in the performance, but they couldn’t explain the mistake away and not admit to the lie.
I guess now recorded (and live offstage) accompaniment is so common now, no one remembers they it was at one time something to lie about.

I mean, if we’re being technical, they DID have someone offstage who pushed a button (possibly a keyboard-shaped midi trigger?) to make the sample play. They just didn’t plan it in a way that would make it fixable on the fly.

[Mangochin]

It helps that the song is pretty much anchored by the synth riff. It would have been far more noticeable if it were “Ain’t Talking About Love”

[Pretzellogic]

Even Miles Davis was abusing audiences with that same Oberheim patch around that time.

[robertmckenna]

Hahaha! Yeah, round about the time he was hailing Sussudio by Phil Collins…

I mean I love Miles’ music but around then…

ETA

I wonder did they use a recording of the Oberheim as they tend to have tuning issues as they get older having VCOs…

[Yasif]

@bryan

Am I oversimplifying it in my head, or couldn’t one just hold the pitch bend wheel at a consistent position

Was thinking the same thing but ‘Jump’ is a 2 hand job on a keyboard and holding pitch on a wheel is a very difficult task.

@philipstorry

But they’ve not used a Hammond much ever since.

It would have been known at the time that many analogue synths and keyboards were temeramental as far as keeping pitch… Moog’s were notorious!

@anon39846808

In the interview, Weber confirmed that there was no keyboard in Van Halen’s monitor.

Yet it would seem when he is bending notes up he was hitting the pitch correctly, so hearing it in the room I guess.

@inactivist

I’d often just pretend to slowly turn up the gain and ask if it was better until I got a thumbs up.

Have done this myself, I call this the placebo soundcheck. I once was EQing a very talented cellist in an Indie band not realising the EQ was compeletly out of the chain (dodgy pub gig environment)… together we scooped out the lower mids, tamed the high end and the musician felt the confidence to have a great show and thanked me afterward fot the personal attention. Sometimes mixing FOH and folback is setting a level of confidence that everyone is on the same side… even if you do nothing!