RE: [Harp-L] groove?- The Russian Dragon

[Burke Trieschmann <burket@xxxxxxx>]

I don't know if this will help anybody "get their groove on".  But 2 bits & a bit of history before this topic fades into Harp-L archive meta.

Back when cutting teeth and bleeding ears as a young recording engineer, several studios I worked in used to have a rack mount, analog unit that was called, "The Russian Dragon".  Mostly used it for drummers who were working with a click track and trying to get the band to lock into the "groove" with a visual display for feedback.  It was also handy if you were working with any midi drum machines and synths while tracking to make sure there was no latency and make corrections to keep everything tight timing wise.  But it could be used for any instrument (including harmonica).

The basic concept (to quote): 

" of the unit is to provide an accurate method of determining which of two different audio signals came first -- a perennial problem in the recording industry since the first drummer played along to a click track -- and one which has been further compounded since the arrival of frame accurate sequencers and MIDI triggered samplers. The Russian Dragon offers a finite LED display capable of graphically showing the timed relationship of two individual sounds, all within a claimed accuracy of a fraction of a millisecond."

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/1995_articles/aug95/jeanius.html

So in a nutshell, you could tell if the drummer or any other instruments were playing ahead of the beat (rushin') or behind the beat (draggin'), or dead on.  Hence the "Russian Dragon" name/pun.

Pretty much rendered moot by today's DAW's that can show the waveform display and clearly who is ahead or behind the beat.  Many ways to accomplish this same with today's technology & some experimentation.

Burke T. 


-1"

> On Sep 10, 2013, at 11:01 PM, "JON KIP" <jonkip@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> > I'm curious as to if anyone who's been reading along on this fine discussion 
of swing and/or groove feels that their actual playing has the potential of 
being changed by virtue of what's been discussed.
> >