The program was outstanding. While Tom is correct, it is, however, important not to diminish Les Paul's accomplishments both as a musician AND inventor. The portability of his "modified" recorder allowed use of different architectual spaces to augment both instruments (voice & guitar) and microphone pick up, a technique that I thought was pure genius. I also enjoyed his rail road guitar. Such a creative human being. Have any of you ever played a "Les Paul" guitar??? Sweet. I've also been blessed with having had the opportunity to hear him play live. Saw him in a small club on a Monday night in NYC about 15 years ago. The man is a guitar GOD. It's a privilege to share the planet him. Klara Foeller, Curator Moving Image & Sound Collections Missouri Historical Society 314 746-4513 Tom Fine wrote: > Beware the legend/myth amplification factor -- based on their teaser, > PBS did little or no fact-checking. Les Paul did not "invent" > multi-tracking or over-dubbing as he's claimed over the years. ARSC > Journal published the first-hand history of how the Ampex 300 8-track > Sel-Sync "Octopus" came to be (see the article by Ross Snyder, ARSC > Journal): > http://www.aes.org/aeshc/docs/sel-sync/snyder_sel-sync.pdf > > "Overdubbing" (ie laying recorded sound on top of recorded sound or > live sound played with recorded sound) goes back to the disk and > optical film eras long before magnetic tape. And "multi-track" > recording and mixing goes to the earliest days of optical sound in > Hollywood (ie rooms of dubbers, carrying various dialog, music and SFX > mixed to a final soundtrack). Furthermore, a musician playing many > parts by himself goes back at least to Sidney Bechet "The Sheik of > Araby", "Sidney Bechet's One Man Band", Bechet recorded over and over > on different wax, overdubbing himself on clarinet ,soprano sax, tenor > sax, piano, bass, and drums. Recorded in New York; April 18, 1941. > > -- Tom Fine > > ----- Original Message ----- From: "Steve Ramm" <[log in to unmask]> > To: <[log in to unmask]> > Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 9:14 PM > Subject: Re: [ARSCLIST] new Les Paul doc on PBS - July 11 > > >> >> In a message dated 7/6/2007 10:16:33 A.M. Eastern Daylight Time, >> [log in to unmask] writes: >> >> "Les Paul - Chasing Sound", a new documentary on the life of Les >> Paul, has >> its TV debut on PBS - Wednesday, July 11, 2007 at 9pm (ET), part of >> their >> "American Masters" series. See here for more info: >> http://www.lespaulfilm.com/ >> >> >> Will be released on DVD in August with Bonus Footage - Coming from >> Koch Ent. >> >> Steve >> >> >> >> ************************************** Get a sneak peak of the >> all-new AOL at >> http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour >> > >