How to work with Daniel Lanois?

[badger17]

Originally Posted by atiller

He's probably got his axe tuned down a step. It's really not all that groundbreaking!

Fair point :-). For some reason it was something that had never occurred to me to try.

[Paul EQ]

$5000 an hour ?

Phew he could buy a BCM10 every day..

[octatonic]

Originally Posted by MickeySmid

He says in his film: "I'll work with Sinead O'Connor any old time."

I have some friends who worked with her (well for her actually) as a backing band.
They had nothing positive to say about the experience.

[travisbrown]

Originally Posted by badger17

A bit off topic...

I watched the Lanois DVD last night, and noticed that in several parts his guitar seems to be tuned a whole tone flat. For example in one scene he was clearly fingering an open G chord, but the tune was in F.

Anyone know what he's up to?

Not uncommon. I use 15-60s on one of my electrics and usually have it tuned down a whole step. When playing fingerstyle acoustic, I'm often tuned down 1/2 step, and that's a very common thing.

Stevie Ray Vaughan was and the Edge is usually tuned down at least half a step for playing live. A lot of the powerpop guitarists are tuned down for a thicker sound.

Sometimes it's just because it's an easier range for the singer in live situations; sometimes its because the guitar sounds better or thicker tuned down a bit; sometimes it's because you use heavy strings and don't want all the string tension, especially if you bend like a mofo like SRV; sometimes it's because you want an open chord in that key for the arrangement of the song.

[Mertmo]

As far as I can tell, U2 started tuning back up to 440 as of the Elevation tour. (most of the set, there are still a couple songs still in E flat) Although I haven't really checked EVERY concert that they've put out recently...
Hope I'm right about that, I really was paying attention to that for a while. It inspired me to try it and I ended up writing and recording a lot of my own songs tuned a half step down, I really like it.

Strange that they finally switched back up I think. Wonder why after such a long time playing a half step down...
I also like how they changed the keys and/or switched the chords around on certain versions of "even better than the real thing", "until the end of the world", and "the fly".
But then, reinterpretation always entertains me hugely.

[Mertmo]

Wait for the Lanois add-on pack for the Producer Plugin. Otherwise, I wouldn't hold your breath.

awesome!