Songs by Death Cab (for Cutie)'s guitarist seized at border

[Newsjock]

Source: Associated Press

... Chris Walla, the guitarist and producer for indie rock legends Death Cab for Cutie, says border guards seized a computer drive containing the master tracks for his upcoming solo album last month when a courier tried to deliver it to Seattle-based Barsuk Records from a studio in Vancouver, B.C.

... Walla said he had been working on the extremely political album, called "Field Manual," in British Columbia, and that the songs had been mixed by producer Warne Livesey. Barsuk needed the music to meet its production schedule, and a Hipposonic Studios employee volunteered to drive the mixed songs, on tape, and the original master tracks, on a computer hard drive, to Seattle on Sept. 19.

... Walla said he believed the confiscation was random, but Barsuk and some music publications hinted it may have been more than a coincidence that such a political album -- it includes songs criticizing the Bush administration's response to Hurricane Katrina, the Iraq war and the firings of U.S. attorneys by former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales -- was seized.

Mike Milne, a spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection, described any suggestion of political motivation as baloney.

... Whatever the initial reason the hard drive was detained, Milne said late Wednesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement forensic experts had examined it and decided it could be released.

Read more: http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/335922_deadcab18.html

[MADem]

1. Well, it was released. They couldn't send it by computer? nt

[TechBear_Seattle]

13. Master recordings are typically analog, not digital

Conversion from analog to digital would reduce audio quality. While this loss would normally be noticeable by humans directly, it would make a difference once the masters are in mass production.

[B3Nut]

14. These were digital files

hence the hard drive. Non-compressed, most likely 24-bit/96KHz (or even higher sampling freq) tracks if they were the 2-track masters. Analog masters would be on open-reel tape, typically 2" 24-track for multitrack masters and 1/2" 2-track for final stereo mixes (occasionally 1/4" 2-track, but for "big" projects the added quality of the wider tape is preferred.) And they do get converted to digital in final mastering, but in a fully-linear format and with much better A-D converters than those found in consumer audio equipment.

Not as many projects are tracked analog as there used to be...2" tape is frightfully expensive (~$150-$200) for roughly 15 minutes of running time at 30 inches per second...ouch. Nothing like it though...

Todd in Cheesecurdistan

[slampoet]

43. BTW B3nut, Are you a hammond man?

My heart goes out to the people who still use the great pieces of gear like original Hammond organs, Fender Rhodes, Mellotrons and all the other heavy gear.


I blew out my back moving a hammond C2 to a gig and just can't handle that type of equipment any more.

[B3Nut]

50. Yup, I am

B-3 and bass are my main instruments, though I do guitar and synth in a local cover band. Nothin' like grabbin' a handful of drawbars, playing a thick chord, spooling up the Leslie and laying into the volume. Wheee! :D I keep one of my Hammonds at my church gig, so I get to, as my wife loves to put it, "play with my organ in public" fairly regularly. :D

I'm eyeing the clones from Nord...I don't like the pushbutton LED drawbars, but the Leslie sim is the best I've ever heard and they close to nailed the Hammond tone, including all the quirks.

Todd in Cheesecurdistan

[slampoet]

17. Actually analog masters haven't been in common use since 2000.

unless you are a musician who has a specific reason for working in analog (such as a gear traditionalist/old school guy, or someone who is trying to emulate the sound of the past like Amy Winehouse or the White Stripes).

Sampling rates for digital recording are not in the 24 bit 192 KHZ range which is a lot better than the noise ratio of almost any existing analog tape even when it is running at 30 ips. Some would argue this point but even the 60-70 year old Nashville recording guys that i talk to have used digital masters almost exclusively for a decade.

The reason that the files were not sent digitally over the internet is that there is every chance for interception and bad reception. A digital multitrack master for just one 24-36 multitrack song 5 minutes long can be a large as 5-7 gigabytes. This is pretty large to send if you are a recording studio rat (like me) who doesn't know a whole bunch about FTP servers (i know only a little).

Conversion from Analog to digital does incur some loss. More than the digital to digital conversion from Master to Stereo Master To CD Product. That is EXACTLY why few people even record to analog in the first place.

[TechBear_Seattle]

20. Got it. Thanks slampoet and B3Nut n/t

[MADem]

27. How about sending them in 'chunks?'

Is that feasible? What if you have a dedicated or high quality line to transmit data, like the military and corporations use?

I'm just curious for 'general knowledge' at this point, if you happen to have insight into this aspect of the biz--since the issue was resolved.

[silvermachine]

31. A lot of people still use analog...

...the sound is warmer and more genuine. Yes, it is expensive but worth it. I just recorded an EP using it, not because I was trying to emulate the sound of the past, but because the sound is superior.

[Zorra]

33. I agree, analog sound is "warmer" and "fatter" to my ear.

I prefer it also.
:hi:

[proud2BlibKansan]

16. Not a master recording

[MADem]

24. I'm still not understanding why they couldn't have used the internets to get the info there.

Upthread, they're saying that analog is outta style, so what's the diff? Digital is digital...I thought that was the appeal of digital, that it loses nothing in the translation???

:shrug:

[proud2BlibKansan]

25. A master is on a tape, not a computer

It is literally a hard copy. Transferring it to a computer can muddy the sounds.

[MADem]

26. That's not what they're saying upthread, though.

There shouldn't be any difference with a digital recording. It is what it is, and there shouldn't be any loss of clarity. It's why you either 'get' that digital signal, or you don't.

There must be a legal, not a quality, reason for needing it.

At any event, all was well that ended well.

[proud2BlibKansan]

28. They are saying pretty much the same thing I am

They just make it sound more complicated than I do. LOL

DH is a musician. So I know a wee bit. And I know they don't like to put master copies on a computer. Some do but many, like my DH, just won't under any circumstances.

[MADem]

29. It's all pretty greek to me, honestly.

I do wonder if the idea of the 'master' is to treat the thing like an original 'document.' Even if you 'can' reproduce the thing perfectly...I'm more curious about the legal end, rather than the artistic!

I suppose having your hard drive crash with all of your work on it wouldn't be fun, so it might be preferable to keep it on a stand-alone drive.

[proud2BlibKansan]

32. Yes that's exactly right.

Although I understand the artistic aspect better than the legal.

[Penance]

45. Yes, it's the "original document"

When you need to reissue an album or take a track and put it in another work you go back to the master for the work. I've had to deal with situations where the original master was lost and we had to use an old CD copy, so that is possible. The master itself is typically owned by the record company (or an arm of that company). They own that recording and it's considered a very valuable piece of property because it's the best quality version. If the original work is lost (as above) the right to the recording (and the right to determine how it is copied excepting fair use) is retained by the company. The rights to the *song* is different and usually held by the songwriter(s). These are administered separeately. If you play a snippet from a Nickelback song in a movie, the record company (master holder) and the songwriters (publisher) get royalties. If the song is whistled (so it's not the original recording) only the publisher gets a royalty. Entertainment law is one of the more complex and confusing things I've ever encountered - and I'm a computer programmer.

Having the master on hard drive is better IMO than on tape. It's easier, faster and more reliable to get a perfect copy of the master and since they're not regularly used they should last longer than tape.

[slampoet]

38. You must work with the over 35 yr old crowd. These days, Pro-Tools is the standard, not tape.

I'm over 35 myself and recall those days of overdubs that couldn't be reversed, but fact is that of the studios i have seen in NYC, Detroit, Boston and especially when i recorded in Seattle and Vancouver only a very few still have many projects that use analog. Only a very few even have the decks and many of those are left over and available only on request. The Vancouver recording industry is very much associated with doing sound for movies and TV. I know of Nobody who still does analog for that.

I myself was recently tempted to buy an MCI 2" 24 track deck but i decided against it, because for how often i would use it, the MCI would just be annother piece of Eye Candy for clients.

I think the term now is Studio Bling. Stuff you have in the studio that looks great but really isn't in regular use and is really replaced in function by other smaller, and less impressive looking hardware.

I don't doubt that there will be people who think that tape sounds better for the next few decades, just like when i started there were people who said that recording to tape and multi-track ruins recordings and that the only way to make a record is to gather around just one mic and send the sound directly to a Vinyl Record Cutter like they stopped doing in the late 50's.

These days even 93+ year old Les Paul, the inventor of modern studio multi-tracking uses some Pro-Tools in his studio. Take a look at his studio in the American Masters series running on PBS recently and you will see a computer monitor with a digital display for the program Pro-Tools.

[northzax]

36. not in this case

since the guy is complaining that a computer drive was seized containing the master.

[slampoet]

34. Would you send your baby on an airplane or train without supervision? It's the same if your baby is

an "Album".


I wouldn't send my recordings over the unsupervised internet.


To Quote Mark Twain, "You can put all your eggs in one basket, but watch that Damn Basket."





It isn't that it isn't possible to send over the internet, it is that there is little that can be done if god forbid someone intercepts your new record. Recording engineers are not IT Security experts so they go with what is familiar and tried and true.


No one would send a precious Sculpture through the Mail/FedEx/UPS no matter what the insurance because it is one of a kind. The same goes with master recordings. Sending a Master tape over the internet is like sending a fragile sculpture via UPS. It might work but is it worth the stress?

Also there are rumors and horror stories all over the industry about great recordings that have had the original masters die and will never be the same. One story that i heard was that Bruce Springstein's "Born in the USA" master tapes were recorded in an experimental format that then died and thus you will never be able to hear a remastering direct from the master tapes ever again. i don't know if this is true but it is a story i heard from more than one source.

[northzax]

37. um, you know that emailing something

of FTPing it, doesn't delete the original, right? this is the bonus of digital, it can be replicated endlessly with no difference.

[slampoet]

40. Repeated ENDLESSLY BY PIRATES IF IT IS INTERCEPTED.

Please do us all the courtesy of reading that post before you respond.

Also do me the courtesy of assuming that if i am emailing at a computer that i have touched a damn computer before. i mean really, put a microsecond of thought into your posts please.

You have most likely NEVER had to go through the limbo of someone other than your self having a copy of your master tapes that You Don't Control, but let me say that i hope that neither you or anyone you know or listen to is ever in that situation. It happened to the Beatles. It can happen to anyone.

To spoon feed this to you, usually unless the studio is directly in the pocket of your record label, a recording studio DOESN'T keep your master tapes after you pay them for studio time. In fact if they did, i wouldn't do business with them. There are too many copies that can be made thus affecting record sales. Also it makes it possible for people to copyright your song and release it before you are done mixing it.


Also on the VERY NIT-PICKY level, there is some minuscule loss of data when making even a digital copy. Only real electronic engineers can explain this and I barely follow when they have explained it to me, but there is some loss of data.

[northzax]

41. it's not at all like the Beatles, and you know it

the Beatles lost control of the actual masters. they didn't have a copy either.

and music should be free, right? if the Pirates get ahold of it, they are simply going to distribute it a week or so ahead of you, if anyone actually wants to listen to your music, it will be on the web within minutes of you releasing it, anyway. Their access doesn't stop your access, that's the arguement for legal downloading, right?

and how often do you think someone is reading your email? paranoid much? and it was your sculpture analogy that was problematic, if the sculpture breaks or is stolen it is irreplaceable, right? wasn't that your point (along with the baby comment?) if your email doesn't get there, or is stolen, you STILL HAVE YOUR COPY. it makes your analogies, frankly, make you look like you have never touched a computer, which is is why I spoke to you like you never had.

[slampoet]

42. Go ask your dentist to do his job for free. Muscians have a right to income.

As for the masters.....Someone else having a copy of your masters IS LOOSING CONTROL OF YOUR MASTERS!!


No Pirate has copies of ANY Multi-track masters!! All they have is control of relatively low quality CD Copies (16bit 44.1 Khz at best). Go to Pirate Bay and you won't find anything that is Master Tape Quality.

I will record you for FREE in my studio if you can find one recent 24 bit 192 khz Multi-track Master tape torrent on the web.


Please, learn something about the process before you display your lack of knowledge like it is something to be proud of. I don't presume to know your job and the patronizing attitude and sense of entitlement is a little much for someone who is just exercising their email muscles.


You don't work in this field. You obviously aren't trained in recording or music. So just stand there stubborn in Zax land. Is that Highway construction that i hear?

[northzax]

49. wow, you are very angry about this

fact is, of course, that as soon as a Master leaves the studio, someone can get ahold of it, by hook or by crook, right? a hard drive can be lost in transit, a courier can fail, the plane can crash, the car can crash. shit happens. All you can do is minimize the risk, and if you are lucky, have backups (which you will aknowledge is much easier for digital, right?) transit involves risk, you take the risks you are comfortable taking.

and, for the record, I was parroting the 'music is free line' I have paid or obtained legally (gifts, free downloads and the like) for every bit of the 80+ gigs of music on my MacBook) to do otherwise is stealing, as you will find me saying on every thread on this subject, so turn your ire on that subject elsewhere.

[MADem]

44. Well, I was alluding to an intranet--like the DOD and many corporations have

It's a pretty straight shot over a dedicated line from office to office, encryted and secured. I know of corporations, in addition to DOD, that send very complex and voluminous amounts of data over dedicated lines; thus my question was, couldn't recording studios do the same?

And since you're sending information, you aren't going to lose it or break it, like that sculpture--you'll still have it, you're just sending a perfect clone of the original if the quality of the dedicated line is high enough.

But anyway, the situation is resolved.

I was just curious about the nuts and bolts of how the industry does business.

[Penance]

46. The record industry isn't as monolithic as you think

I work for a very large indie that's technically owned by a major but run independantly. Most producers and artists have their favorite studios where the work is recorded and we have our favorite mastering house that's not affiliated with the record company directly. We have to get the whole shebang over to our distributor in time to get the record in stores by the release date Even though the distributor is a part of the larger company that owns us, it is run separately. That's typically several GB of data that we have to coordinate getting the master from the mastering house to the distributor. A FedEx tracking number is infinitely superior to trying to coordinate two companies you have no control over getting their various systems in sync. With the exception of the whole siezed at customs thing, this is pretty normal.

[MADem]

47. Well, I didn't think it was monolithic, necessarily, but I guess I thought

the different actors (studios, mastering houses) might be capable of a bit more 'connectivity' than they currently are.

My technological vision is ahead of the reality, I guess!

[Penance]

48. Vision is easy, coordination and follow-through are not

Connectivity of the type you're talking about is more work than it sounds. Security, ease of use for the computer-inept (a lot of our artist reps were forced to use iTunes to burn CDs of mixes rather than the good graces of the IT dept this year) and just general coordination is tough. Within the group of labels I work for my label and it's PARENT COMPANY have been having VPN issues for the past 6 months where my company's reps can't get things like sales figures themselves. And that's a situation where an Executive Vice President in my company can call an Executive Vice President in the parent company and get someone to actually listen. When the master has to be there at a certain date to guarantee making the release date in stores, you do what you need to.

[guitar man]

51. file size

for one. The file size on 24 bit/96 khz files is huge, 192khz even bigger. A complete set of tracks for a major album could easily be north of 30 gigabytes. Sending that much over the internets would be extremely difficult and time consuming.

[TacticalPeek]

2. Reminds me of many many moons ago when Santana caused a flap at the airport

when they were asked at the boarding gate what was in the box containing their new album and they answered "dynamite".

Got them searched and lectured. It was dynamite though.

[toddaa]

3. Yawn

... Whatever the initial reason the hard drive was detained, Milne said late Wednesday that Immigration and Customs Enforcement forensic experts had examined it and decided it could be released.

[Snarkturian Clone]

4. They shouldn't have released it

for the sake of ears everywhere. That band sucks.

[mac56]

7. oh my god

We even get treated to "Your Favorite Band Sucks" here in LBN.

[Snarkturian Clone]

21. anything is possible at

http://zombo.com

[DrDan]

5. This is LBN?

[meegbear]

6. I was wondering the same thing ...

talk about a slow news day. :sarcasm:

[DrDan]

8. with SCHIP and FISA and WW3 - not sure we could blame it on a lack of news

but I do believe it is somewhat lacking for a LBN story

[meegbear]

9. I was being sarcastic

I modified the post to reflect it.

But yes, this is not LNB.

[DrDan]

10. I knew that m-bear - just adding to the sarcasm . . .

sometimes the things our posters find important staggers me . . .

[bigworld]

11. I smell publicity shenanigans

I'm sure the US Border Patrol has higher priorities than keeping track of the lyrical content of the new Death Cab album.

[Mike Daniels]

12. Agreed. Bands that play arenas are allowed to tour and release albums critical of US policy

I don't think a band that plays rock "clubs" that hold 1000 people maximum capacity is even on the radar as far as the US gov't is concerned.

Same deal with Lily Allen.

To his credit, Walla claims he believes it was a random search.

[FredScuttle]

15. Can we get Nickelback to have their latest album sent by courier across the border?

n/t

[iverglas]

18. ah, I get it

The whole deal about the need for "security" on our border is a plot masterminded by Jack Valenti to protect the military-entertainment complex in the US from Canadian competition ...

[FredScuttle]

35. No, it's just that certain music has an violent effect on me

For example, listening to Nickelback makes me want to kill...Nickelback.

(apologies to Brian Posehn)

[iverglas]

53. oh well

that there was a joke.

[alcibiades_mystery]

30. ROFL

Make. Nickelback. Go. Away.

:rofl:

[The Stranger]

19. Now, they "detain" hard drives? This Orwellian Newspeak is AMAZING.

[KurtNYC]

22. Tapes of mine,

mixed 'til they sound fine,
The man at the borderline said:
"Follow me and put it in park"

Hard drives too,
Files that they looked through
Censorship is a screw
"Follow me and put it in park"

[truedelphi]

23. KPFA in Berkeley has long decried the fact that

Black poets are victims of "terrorism" charges field by the * Administration.
Things I wrote against the vietnam War in the late '60s while in high school could now land me in Gitmo.
The artists are the new Injuns of the 21st Century.

The technological culture is about on and off states - no wisdom or intellect required. Nothing but rote memory.

And the creativity of the artist flies in the face of the needed acquisence.

In this case, I'm Glad to hear the final result was the hard drive being released.

[SpikeTss]

39. They didn't send the hard drive to Guantanamo or Abu Ghuraib?

Because this obviously is a terrorist hard drive and should be interrogated at the aforementioned places.

Planning to release this rogue hard drive is unbelievable. Sorry, but now I don't feel save anymore!

This means the communists, no wait, the terrorists have won.

[AngryAmish]

52. Chris Walla is dead. An imposter was substituted at the border.

Now I have to figure out how to make a CD run backward for proof...