Our tipster who let us know a new issue of Scientology’s Advance! magazine was out also mentioned that there was something that might interest us this time besides the fun ghost stories of “OT Phenomena” that we looked at yesterday.
The Mellotron was not just an electronic organ like the Wurlitzer. It had tape loops for each sound, so you could play what sort of sounded like a violin or trumpet.
Hubbard later got a Fairlight, which did the same thing with crude digital recordings. You can hear it on his famous song "Windsplitter".
He also had a beautiful old Hammond B3 with a Leslie cabinet (rotating speaker to make a haunting vibrato sound). This was completely electric except the tubed amplifiers, using rotating disks to make the sounds. Rockers like the Doors loved the B3 because the sound had a little percussive bite to it as the keys made contact.
There is a famous picture of Hubbard playing the Wurlitzer with one hand and the Mellotron with the other. Sadly, no recordings were made for us to mock.
Old Hammond organs are coveted instruments. We had one in my group PEOPLE!. In the rock era 1966. what we had before our Hammond was the VOX keyboard that was a portable version of a Hammond. We ran it through a Leslie which is a big wooden box with a bass speaker and a high frequency horns that rotate.
We had one in the Music Studio at the Int Base. Just a glorious sound with the Leslie but every time they wanted to use it we had to replace tubes, capacitors or clean the contacts on the sound matrix assembly.
The music studio also had two of those old plate reverbs, like the ones at Chick Corea's Mad Hatter. Tubes! You could adjust them every which way but who knows the best way.
They also have two echo chambers, one with a rotating microphone. Amazing how they can create such lifeless music with such great tools. Scientology sucks the life out of everything it touches.
Not in recording these days, I'm working in manufacturing.
The front-of-house engineer we worked with on events was also named Geoff. Can't remember his last name. Used to tour with the "Wall" tour. He told me he had an office in the UK while he was working with the Who and one day they looked in the attic above - there was an old Mellotron! He refused to go to the Freewinds unless I was there to keep everything together. Wonder what he did after I escaped. He has a really well set-up business in Simi Valley, probably doesn't need the grief of a crowded "cruise ship" with a bunch of prima donnas.
He could tell some stories though, like the Tom Cruise Birthday Party.
Don't know if I will ever come out publicly, I am still working (at 72). Hard to explain to a new customer that his assigned engineer is someone who has dramatically violated a non-disclosure agreement with a former employer!
The classic hyperbole is indicative of Scientology’s portrayal of Hubbard. This paragraph is something I have first hand knowledge.
“The many facets of LRH’s talents and pursuits are evident everywhere in his office. An avid composer who mastered many instruments as well as recording technologies, LRH regularly performed on his Kemble piano, Wurlitzer organ and Mellotron electronic keyboard.”
BS. I worked with Hubbard in several music groups on the Apollo in 1974. I also wrote an original instrumental that was somewhat sophisticated for its time while on the ship. A piece called BOLT FROM THE BLUE.
If he really could play and compose he would have hammered out melodies or chord progressions and rhythms for us. He was not an avid composer. He was not even a hummer. The Apollo Stars album was his level of direction. Not very musical.
Hubbard set the pattern of lying about himself and his minions follow that formula religiously to this day.
All hat and no cows, that's Hubbard. Dozens of cameras, no good shots. Musical instruments all over the place, couldn't play a note. Super expensive mix boards like the Neve and the Massenburg, couldn't mix anything that sounds better than "Windsplitter".
The real crime is that old Neve mix board with the Stephens 16 track recorder. That was a real classic mobile recording rig. Supposedly he used it to record himself with 12 microphones! Anyone who has ever set up a mic knows that more than one microphone gives you phase shift effects, frequency dropouts, weird effects when you turn your head a little. One microphone for a vocalist or a well setup stereo pair (like the Telefunken Stereo Mic). Not twelve!
I've seen that 12 mic setup. Looks like a cat scratching post with the old screw mounts for goosenecks all over it. At the Int Base they had it set up with a teddy bear for his "audience" and an ancient Apple II or some such as a teleprompter. I don't think he actually ever recorded anything in there. But Dave sure burned cash and lives of slaves setting it up!
Absolutely. Hubbard thought owning the best gear made him a musician. To this day scientology media production music is flat and soulless. Somewhat functional and that passes as successful.
I think he thought he looked opulent. The mansion fits his stupid fake cravat he always wore. My brother and his son have some of the old music stuff as well as a bunch of my old 8mm recording equipment. They can do some pretty amazing things with that old technology. Hubbard just made noise.
For those of you who knew my friend Russ Meadows ((RIP) he played with the Apollo Stars. He said that “music” was the most excruciating stuff he ever made. He was an excellent musician. He was one of the Class XII Auditors who got out before Hubbard died. If you want to hear how bad it was search Apollo Stars Power of Source.
I wonder how Lroon's 'Butler' got along after he was either dismissed or escaped? It must have been fun to bring a Coca Cola bottle to him on the required silver tray. Or to watch the master tool about in his Bently or motorcycle? Never mind what the minions saw or experienced. I am surprised that Lroon wasn't carried about on a litter or palanquin. Lroon was beyond pretentious and well into grandiloquent land.
Don't forget the Jaguar. As he said to Mary Sue "You don't DRIVE the jaguar. You TAKE THE JAGUAR DOWN THE ROAD". Supposedly that cured her fear of driving it.
That old mansion is big but very old, with plumbing attached on the outside. There is a classic "servant's quarters" part with the old narrow stairways and so on. Like "Upstairs Downstairs", the old BBC show. Dave's office is in there, with the other executives. You go in by the side door, just like in the old movies.
I wish they would also feature the "Monkey Room" with its wall paintings of monkeys dressed as humans doing human activities. It is a hoot.
I noticed they said he oversaw the expansive growth in a certain part of the 1960s and that's it. Apparently we don't talk about the expansion that theoretically was also extraordinary after that? Or was he having to go in hiding by the 70s so this is 'true' because it's just about that office?
The Mellotron was not just an electronic organ like the Wurlitzer. It had tape loops for each sound, so you could play what sort of sounded like a violin or trumpet.
Hubbard later got a Fairlight, which did the same thing with crude digital recordings. You can hear it on his famous song "Windsplitter".
He also had a beautiful old Hammond B3 with a Leslie cabinet (rotating speaker to make a haunting vibrato sound). This was completely electric except the tubed amplifiers, using rotating disks to make the sounds. Rockers like the Doors loved the B3 because the sound had a little percussive bite to it as the keys made contact.
There is a famous picture of Hubbard playing the Wurlitzer with one hand and the Mellotron with the other. Sadly, no recordings were made for us to mock.
Old Hammond organs are coveted instruments. We had one in my group PEOPLE!. In the rock era 1966. what we had before our Hammond was the VOX keyboard that was a portable version of a Hammond. We ran it through a Leslie which is a big wooden box with a bass speaker and a high frequency horns that rotate.
We had one in the Music Studio at the Int Base. Just a glorious sound with the Leslie but every time they wanted to use it we had to replace tubes, capacitors or clean the contacts on the sound matrix assembly.
The music studio also had two of those old plate reverbs, like the ones at Chick Corea's Mad Hatter. Tubes! You could adjust them every which way but who knows the best way.
They also have two echo chambers, one with a rotating microphone. Amazing how they can create such lifeless music with such great tools. Scientology sucks the life out of everything it touches.
Techie, are you currently recording? We should compare notes. Only a few of us engineer nerds.
Not in recording these days, I'm working in manufacturing.
The front-of-house engineer we worked with on events was also named Geoff. Can't remember his last name. Used to tour with the "Wall" tour. He told me he had an office in the UK while he was working with the Who and one day they looked in the attic above - there was an old Mellotron! He refused to go to the Freewinds unless I was there to keep everything together. Wonder what he did after I escaped. He has a really well set-up business in Simi Valley, probably doesn't need the grief of a crowded "cruise ship" with a bunch of prima donnas.
He could tell some stories though, like the Tom Cruise Birthday Party.
Don't know if I will ever come out publicly, I am still working (at 72). Hard to explain to a new customer that his assigned engineer is someone who has dramatically violated a non-disclosure agreement with a former employer!
The classic hyperbole is indicative of Scientology’s portrayal of Hubbard. This paragraph is something I have first hand knowledge.
“The many facets of LRH’s talents and pursuits are evident everywhere in his office. An avid composer who mastered many instruments as well as recording technologies, LRH regularly performed on his Kemble piano, Wurlitzer organ and Mellotron electronic keyboard.”
BS. I worked with Hubbard in several music groups on the Apollo in 1974. I also wrote an original instrumental that was somewhat sophisticated for its time while on the ship. A piece called BOLT FROM THE BLUE.
If he really could play and compose he would have hammered out melodies or chord progressions and rhythms for us. He was not an avid composer. He was not even a hummer. The Apollo Stars album was his level of direction. Not very musical.
Hubbard set the pattern of lying about himself and his minions follow that formula religiously to this day.
All hat and no cows, that's Hubbard. Dozens of cameras, no good shots. Musical instruments all over the place, couldn't play a note. Super expensive mix boards like the Neve and the Massenburg, couldn't mix anything that sounds better than "Windsplitter".
The real crime is that old Neve mix board with the Stephens 16 track recorder. That was a real classic mobile recording rig. Supposedly he used it to record himself with 12 microphones! Anyone who has ever set up a mic knows that more than one microphone gives you phase shift effects, frequency dropouts, weird effects when you turn your head a little. One microphone for a vocalist or a well setup stereo pair (like the Telefunken Stereo Mic). Not twelve!
I've seen that 12 mic setup. Looks like a cat scratching post with the old screw mounts for goosenecks all over it. At the Int Base they had it set up with a teddy bear for his "audience" and an ancient Apple II or some such as a teleprompter. I don't think he actually ever recorded anything in there. But Dave sure burned cash and lives of slaves setting it up!
Absolutely. Hubbard thought owning the best gear made him a musician. To this day scientology media production music is flat and soulless. Somewhat functional and that passes as successful.
“All hat and no cows.”! I haven’t heard that one in decades! 😂
I think he thought he looked opulent. The mansion fits his stupid fake cravat he always wore. My brother and his son have some of the old music stuff as well as a bunch of my old 8mm recording equipment. They can do some pretty amazing things with that old technology. Hubbard just made noise.
For those of you who knew my friend Russ Meadows ((RIP) he played with the Apollo Stars. He said that “music” was the most excruciating stuff he ever made. He was an excellent musician. He was one of the Class XII Auditors who got out before Hubbard died. If you want to hear how bad it was search Apollo Stars Power of Source.
I wonder how Lroon's 'Butler' got along after he was either dismissed or escaped? It must have been fun to bring a Coca Cola bottle to him on the required silver tray. Or to watch the master tool about in his Bently or motorcycle? Never mind what the minions saw or experienced. I am surprised that Lroon wasn't carried about on a litter or palanquin. Lroon was beyond pretentious and well into grandiloquent land.
Don't forget the Jaguar. As he said to Mary Sue "You don't DRIVE the jaguar. You TAKE THE JAGUAR DOWN THE ROAD". Supposedly that cured her fear of driving it.
That old mansion is big but very old, with plumbing attached on the outside. There is a classic "servant's quarters" part with the old narrow stairways and so on. Like "Upstairs Downstairs", the old BBC show. Dave's office is in there, with the other executives. You go in by the side door, just like in the old movies.
I wish they would also feature the "Monkey Room" with its wall paintings of monkeys dressed as humans doing human activities. It is a hoot.
Ken Urquhart is still around. There are video interviews on YouTube and posted in some indie Facebook pages.
I noticed they said he oversaw the expansive growth in a certain part of the 1960s and that's it. Apparently we don't talk about the expansion that theoretically was also extraordinary after that? Or was he having to go in hiding by the 70s so this is 'true' because it's just about that office?