Well, there were some gems that came out of Sigma, at least by my tastes:
1. David Bowie "Young Americans" (Sigma Philly, 1974)
2. Wilson Pickett did sessions with Gamble & Huff that resulted in
"Engine #9" and re-established his career (Sigma Philly, 70's)
3. Steely Dan "Goucho" was mixed at Sigma NYC
4. Talking Heads "Remain In Light" partly tracked and mixed at Sigma NYC
5. Talking Heads "Little Creatures" same story
6. David Byrne/Brian Eno "My Life In A Bush of Ghosts" was done at Sigma
NYC, using a 24-track to sync up their instrumentals to found tracks for
"lyrics". Very advanced use of the technology for that time, although it
was old hat to the electronic music crowd.
Then there were the endless disco session and thousands of vapid
commercials that paid the bills.
That Gamble & Huff stuff is HEAVILY sampled and used by the hip-hop/DJ
crowd today. I think "TSOP" was one of the top-selling singles of the
70's.
When I was an errand boy and tape dubber at Sigma NYC (1981-83 summers),
the commercial business was transitioning away from a squad of crack
studio musicians showing up, getting a chart and cutting a commercial in
3 hours to where one guy showed up with a Synclavier and dumped 8 tracks
onto tape and then a singer showed up and a voice-over guy showed up and
they cut a worse commercial but in half the time. Nowadays, it's a guy at
home with a MIDI rig cutting even worse commercials but for a fraction of
the cost. That's a large part of what killed off the big studio business
in NY -- the agencies took most of their production in-house and
musicians' union rates got to where no one could afford big sessions with
large ensembles anymore. Plus, the um "talent" pool has gotten very
brackish in recent generations of "musicians."
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message ----- From: "Marcos Sueiro" <mls2137@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, March 22, 2006 7:54 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Quarter-inch splicing tabs
Thanks for the correction --amazing that Sigma Sound was still working
until two years ago. Truth be told, I was never a big fan of that
sound, although it really is a feat of engineering...
marcos
--On Tuesday, March 21, 2006 6:18 PM -0500 Tom Fine
<tflists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Hi Marcos:
It was Joe TarsiA, founder and owner of Sigma Sound Studios. Joe sold
Sigma only a couple of years ago. That place was definitely home of the
Philly Sound, second home of Gamble and Huff (sp?). Their NYC studio was
the birthplace of the Village People, for better or worse (definitely
better for Sigma, as all those gold records led to a disco-fueled hot
hand).
-- Tom Fine
----- Original Message ----- From: "Marcos Sueiro"
<mls2137@xxxxxxxxxxxx> To: <ARSCLIST@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, March 21, 2006 9:42 AM
Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] Quarter-inch splicing tabs
I have
had a couple of opportunities to be a "recording artist" (popular
music, not classical) and I have found that as soon as musicians
find out the opportunity for "changes via edit" exists, they
immediately discover a near-infinite number of "flaws" in their
solos which need to be corrected!
So true. So goes also with artists who want to change the volume of one
track in the mix by half of one dB, or move one note in a solo by
miliseconds.
Perhaps my favourite quote from an ARSC Conference came in Philadelphia
from Joe Tarsio, pivotal engineer for the "philly sound" of the 1970s:
"Remember, automation was supposed to *save* us time!"
Marcos