"The Hopper"

[zmix]

Hi Butch,

When I mixed the last Soul Asylum record Dave Pirner told me about a piece of gear the Studer had given you to test back when you worked with them which you nicknamed "The Hopper"...

Is this true?

It sounds like it enabled multitrack fly-ins....

[ButchVig]

Originally Posted by zmix

Hi Butch,

When I mixed the last Soul Asylum record Dave Pirner told me about a piece of gear the Studer had given you to test back when you worked with them which you nicknamed "The Hopper"...

Is this true?

It sounds like it enabled multitrack fly-ins....

Ha! The Hopper!!!!
John Siket and I used a Studer 48 track digital on most of Let Your Dim Light Shine.

We recorded on 2" analog (tracked at A&M, now Henson) and transferred the basics into the Studer for overdubs.

The "Hopper" was the Studer's internal digital sampler. It allowed you to bounce digitally within the machine...I can't remember but I think you could do 2 or 4 tracks at a time. It was great for vocal comps, and shifting guitars if they were ahead or behind. It was a great sounding digi multitrack...never really went into wide production because Pro Tools was right around the corner.

Maybe John can add some stories about the "Hopper". We used it a LOT!

That was a fun, crazy record to make! We had 3 studios going in NYC at then end when we had to meet deadlines, doing vocals in one room, comping in another, and Andy Wallace was mixing in a third.

FYI: a must give Dave Pirner a nod, I nicked my publishing company name from him, Vibecrusher.

When someone from the label or management was coming by, he would say:

"Dude, incoming vibecrusher alert."

He would also step into the room when John and I were editing, and in his own way, drawl:

"Dude, what's not occurring?"

Yes, "The Hopper" was a 1-4 track/180 sec. onboard sampler in the Studer D827. It allowed you to fly parts around. I nicknamed it that because that of its ability to "funnel" good parts to other parts of any given song. Great machine it was! I used it with Dave Matthews and Phish as well.

[ButchVig]

Originally Posted by tekis

Yes, "The Hopper" was a 1-4 track/180 sec. onboard sampler in the Studer D827. It allowed you to fly parts around. I nicknamed it that because that of its ability to "funnel" good parts to other parts of any given song. Great machine it was! I used it with Dave Matthews and Phish as well.

Do you know how many of those Studer's were made?

That's the only one I saw!

Originally Posted by ButchVig

Ha! The Hopper!!!!
John Siket and I used a Studer 48 track digital on most of Let Your Dim Light Shine.

We recorded on 2" analog (tracked at A&M, now Henson) and transferred the basics into the Studer for overdubs.

FYI: a must give Dave Pirner a nod, I nicked my publishing company name from him, Vibecrusher.

When someone from the label or management was coming by, he would say:

"Dude, incoming vibecrusher alert."

He would also step into the room when John and I were editing, and in his own way, drawl:

"Dude, what's not occurring?"

Wait a minute! I thought "VC" was coined by me?

How about this gem: "What's the 'B Team' doing, now that the 'A Team's been bored into submission?"
D. Pirner '94

[zmix]

Hi Guys and thanks for the replies. Paisley Park had a D820 with the sampler, so there were at least 2 of them!

Pirner is one cool and humorous dude, when I was mixing "The Silver Lining" in 2006, he was living in Minneapolis (after having moved to New Orleans around 2001), he had moved back and was helping relocate Katrina victims temporarily. I would upload mixes to Soul Asylum's management, they would burn a CD and drive it to Dave. He'd listen, write down his notes in a spiral notebook, then the manager's assistant would drive out to Dave's house, pick up the notes, type them up and send them to me in an e-mail. This process became a little slow so they flew Dave here to Manhattan for the final tweeks. I asked him about his computer situation and he replied (In that unmistakable drawl) "I'm not really on the world wide web..". As I mixed he sat on my couch playing my guitar. I tend to mix at a very low volume but eagle-ear Dave missed nothing! At one point -during a fadeout- he commented that the BGVs sounded like they were off "by a skosh" on one line... indeed they had been flown in and were off . "Put 'em in the Hopper" Dave said. The rest is gearslutz history. Thanks for the replies!

[ButchVig]

Originally Posted by tekis

Wait a minute! I thought "VC" was coined by me?

How about this gem: "What's the 'B Team' doing, now that the 'A Team's been bored into submission?"
D. Pirner '94

Oh yeah, that made me laugh! Dave had a lot of good one liners.

It's possible you coined "VC"...I just remember Dave saying it on a regular basis!

[ButchVig]

Originally Posted by ButchVig

Oh yeah, that made me laugh! Dave had a lot of good one liners.

It's possible you coined "VC"...I just remember Dave saying it on a regular basis!

"Grammy's all around"

Ja mon!!!

I lost my "Hack n' Slash" hat...

Originally Posted by ButchVig

Do you know how many of those Studer's were made?

That's the only one I saw!

There were maybe 40 or so made. At the time, we had use of the only 2 in N. America. There was a shootout held at Oceanway (you weren't there that day) and nearly everyone there agreed that it sounded better than the Sony 3348--including Allen Sides.

[ButchVig]

Originally Posted by tekis

Ja mon!!!

I lost my "Hack n' Slash" hat...

I've got some OG Hack n Slash hats, I'll send you one!