I think it can help. Listen to the new Avalanches album 10 times straight, then have a toot and listen some more. The music is so layered and smoking helps me pick apart these layers and therefore gives me a better picture of what these guys were trying to do with their music.

I'd love to smoke whilst working on mixes but I doubt that my employers would greet that with enthusiasm.

On some things it helps, on others it hinders. I know one engineer that's great, and pretty much smokes pot from the minute he wakes up in the morning until the end of the day, he's used to working like that, for him it's normal.

Me, I can't really function too well in a tracking session if I've been smoking pot. However, after 6p...I've been known to take a drink or 70, I've found that for me, Bourbon and guitar overdubs go hand in hand.

I find that when I mix after smoking pot, my mixes come out with way more effects than when done sober...I've also found that when I drink when I mix, the mixes usually come out way too guitar heavy.

While we're on the subject...I've found that when I do Cocaine during a gig that the mixes come out thin and vocal heavy...when I do smack they come out with a pretty cool, but sloppy vibe to them (and often too much bass).

Different drugs will effect different people in different ways. You really have to find your own comfort level with any of them. I'm generally not all that comfortable working on pot...but like I mentioned, a friend of mine does amazing work on it.

When in doubt...try sober.

glad you could tackle that one, Fletcher.

I have a friend who *mixes* on pot, too. I've tried this and, while it does make me retarded with things like patchbays and troubleshooting, I find that I have more *vision* when I sit down to work. another benefit I've found is I can stare straight ahead and focus easily on the perimeter -- the far left and right sides. and I'm less afraid to crank knobs on things like compressors and delays and *hear* the gear really work. but like all drugs, pot is a drug. :eek:

everything in moderation!

peace and harmony..
wj

lmao, fletchers pulling out the flangers all baked :D, ween mentions that on their live CD how all their holland shows are always drenched in phasing and delays.

pot is NOTHING, its barely a drug. alcohol is more of one. i dont say that as some anti war statement but pot NEVER makes me unable to do my job, alcohol makes me happier doing my job [especially when its sucking]. as for any others they just totally get in the way. acid is great but dont even think of going near the patchbay, you NEED a sober assistant to work that way, im afraid the music turns out far too strange for most people to understand sober, you included once you come down.

i think pot is like coffee in terms of being ble to function, its great to smoke while drinking coffee too.

hey fletcher, if smack makes the mixes bass heavy, WTF happened to the Velvet Underground? NO BASS!?! sounds more like what you described as a coke mix. still love it anyways.

whats up with the general retardation statement? the only people i know that get that way stoned are that way to begin with.

aw, i don't know. i'm pretty good in pro tools baked. in my experience, the one patchbay i've really used doesn't belong to me, so that adds to the confusion. weed doesn't slow me down when i'm really goin. rather, it keeps me focused, both on the music and the tasks.

everything in moderation is the key

someone posted a while a "sober till 6" rule. I think thats a good call, and if whoever came up with that doesn't care - I'd like to the steal the idea :)

for me - its good to get your structure in place - then when you want to add to it and get deep (especially non-destructively) - let do spark one and really see the sounds :)

but I agree with alpha - pot isnt anythign, I have no problem with clients that smoke, Id worry about many other things before this, some just seem to have a plantation in their backyard and puff the shtuff from rise till fall.

Depends what you're smurkin. I have some bush that makes me roll around on the floor, laughing and dribbling.

Fantastic stuff but I wouldn't like to try and tune a piano on it, or anything else for that matter.

I had a hard drive go down because of smoke particulates. No more weed in the control room. From what I understand, the smoke particulates from weed are much larger than tobacco. I also had to help clean an old one-of-a-kind desk. You could have resmoked the ganja grime that coated the internals :D

I haven't done any drugs (except alcohol) for six years but when I did,
SHROOOOOOM! :eek:

Originally posted by Rog:
Depends what you're smurkin. I have some bush that makes me roll around on the floor, laughing and dribbling.

Fantastic stuff but I wouldn't like to try and tune a piano on it, or anything else for that matter.

lol...sWEET!

Originally posted by Bear's Gone Fission:
if you haven't read that Phill Brown story about smoking a large doobie while editing a Bob Marley session, you might want to keep the smoked stuff away from tape.

spill it! My fav. story is still with Nixon and Louis Armstrong...where they bumped into each other at a US airport, and Nixon was such a huge Sachmo fan that he offered to carry one of his bags thru customs....the one with absolutely pounds of pot in it!

hey, anybody know studies/facts about the long term effects of pot vs. cigarrettes? i tried to grab an article once, but it wouldn't open on my mac...

"SHROOOOM" love it. its been 7 years since i have last seen the fun guy. in fact the last time was ONE 14g bohemoth. and bob marleys natural blues was playing... aliens everywhere. no wait, that wasnt the last time... but still 7 years gone by.

laughing on the floor giggling? man its been far to long since i remember doing that on pot. that only happened the first couple times. now it just feels like ultrareality with a twist. although i dont smoke shit until everything is set up and the first one is down tracking.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by alphajerk:

hey fletcher, if smack makes the mixes bass heavy, WTF happened to the Velvet Underground? NO BASS!?! sounds more like what you described as a coke mix. still love it anyways.

VU did a lot of speed and heroin. :eek:

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Rog:
[QB] The music is so layered and smoking helps me pick apart these layers and therefore gives me a better picture of what these guys were trying to do with their music.

Yeah, I noticed a long time ago that pot helps me concentrate on single elements of a complex mix. It also enhances my listening enjoyment.
However, I also noticed a long time back that I couldn't mix very well if we burned one between sets. Not so much that I couldn't mix, but that I wasn't comfortable with what I was hearing. I haven't tried mixing recordings while stoned, so I really don't know what effect it has.

FYI: today is Space Odyssey 2001 and the Million Person March for the legalization of weed, its also Cinco de Mayo. SO DRINK UP AND SMOKE A FAT ONE!

Mix sober, you are the straight man in the studio at any given point, and being intoxicated at that time is bad timing. If something goes wrong intoxicants will cause you additional anxiety, as I have found they can produce exactly the opposite of the euphoric effects that they produce when things are going well. Drink Caffeine in the studio or water, it will produce better results.

huh? you sound like you are talking about an ER surgeon, thats where things go terribly wrong.

mix sober. thats funny. kinda like fucking with your clothes on.

Its like different speakers. Just keep tweaking the mix from several different points of view. Eventually, the mix should sound good from all perspectives, and all speakers.

Just don't make drastic changes. (baby steps)

I have no problem working and smoking herb. I am a fan of the herbal jazz cigarettes as well, but purely as a medication that keeps me from getting a gun and going to the mall. It also helps quiet down the little people that live in my head. I can see, at the ripe old age of 45, no lingering effects from long term use. izzat the phone????

Hmm, let's see. For pre-production and rehearsals I like Guinness and good Mexican. For tracking I usually go to caffiene and nicotine until everything is under way and then it's over to good Mex again.

For the times that require less mobility, such as editing and bouncing tracks, I go for a more crippling variety of VH5.

For mixing I like the lights down low, single malt and KAM (very crippling and vision inducing).

It's nice to live in Northern Cal.

Cheers,

TB :cool:

anyone ever make the mistake of smoking a bowl and then heading down to your local record store?

I had the day off today, and it was sunny out - so did the usual wake and bake thing - and decided it was tuesday, new tunes out - best go buy something.

anyways, dudes down at the local place I go were playing the new Black Crowes album, forgot it was out today, but I got onto the whole deal where I was just standing a few feet from one of the speakers looking into it, checking out the arangements - and I was sold. Hell - its a pretty damn good album. I don't really get into albums until a week of listens really - but this one is pretty good for day 1.

also - ever get too stoned and start wondering why shitty sounding speakers in other environments sound suprisingly good?

nevermind - been a hazy day

"also - ever get too stoned and start wondering why shitty sounding speakers in other environments sound suprisingly good? "

yeah, whats up with that shit?

Originally posted by alphajerk:
"yeah, whats up with that shit?

I don'y know man - but all I do know is that when I was a runner for a short while - I of course took to smoking when I was "running". One time I found myself In a hardware store looking for screws of a certain size. There was this old intercom-like speaker in the corner playing an easy listening station (mono of course) - some older James Taylor song came on and again I found myself stuck a few feet from the speaker lookint at and around it.

Anyways - this is kind of in a smaller neck of the woods now, so the older chap that works there starts approaching me with caution. He's found the screws I need - yet I tell him to wait a minute as I admire the floating images of vocal and guitar. I look back on that and laugh - but damn did that speaker sound good.

meaningful point: this opened my eyes up to how mixing in mono could be cool, I went home and started taking out sessions and doing my mono versions - really challenging at first, but it took me out of the mode of being a really stereo (natural stereo on top of that) person
take care - JC

I find myself doing that every day in front of my 1031's and my iMac at home...LOL
as of late I've also stumbled upon some rather amazing oil! and lots of it! spread some on a paper and roll some stinky in it! WOW! I see alot of cool shit being secreted out of my speaks it's really unnessicary (oops...) but it sure does work. :D
:D :D ;)

I forgot what I wuz gonna say.
:D

For the first 15 years I rarely did anything musical straight. Then, about 1984, I found I could play and generally function in the studio much better without indulging. For listening, fine. But for anything that requires manual deterity, which includes playing and recording, I no longer have the same urge to smoke. My productivity level has skyrocketed and it isn't any less fun. I just save it for unwinding afterwards. (I agree it is an effective way of preventing me from reaching for a weapon, as above mentioned.)

Jay Kadis
Dexter Records

the king of all drugs for me is ritalin. that shit is great [no im not snorting it], acutally havent had access to it in quite sometime but damn, i can focus like a motherfucker on it and it doesnt tweak reality out like other drugs do.

and playing on it is king too, a lot of times when im playing either in the studio or live, i start thinking about other things [either the way its sounding or what hot chick is up front, etc]. not on ritalin.