THE POWER OF SOURCE
- Thread starter DartSmohen
- Start date
Been lurkin' for some time now...here, there, everywhere. Been readin' lots of the stuff...here, there, everywhere. Never posted ‘til now but thought that some of you might be interested in some “skinny” regarding POS, from someone that knows a meal worth of morsels ‘bout the Stars, POS and El Ron.
The story of POS, in my opinion, is a microcosm of El Ron in "20.0-Action" that foots seamlessly with the macrocosm of what I saw “up-close and personal” over 15 years. I was a minor but inexplicably, off and on, well positioned piece on El Ron’s chessboard as he played out incessant gambits on his Mad Hatter dash along the pathway to “possessing all of ‘It’”.
I was not one of the Stars or their retinue…just another “Gump” or “Kilroy” giving heart mind, body and nearly soul to “Free This Sector”. Over the years—at all echelons of Public, Franchise, Org Staff and SO—I had the good fortune to work with and get to know some of the finest people I've ever met. Most of my fellow staff and crew were truly hardworking, decent, intelligent, talented, humorous, creative and dedicated people. Over those same years and echelons, I saw more than a handful of those same people—unnecessarily and undeservedly—treated deceitfully, cruelly, disrespectfully, unfairly, callously, wastefully and shamelessly.
The Stars were an ad hoc group of SO crew; 1/3 excellent musicians, 1/3 very good and 1/3 good to alright. Some of them, like Luten Taylor (trombone), could really blow. All of them worked very hard (dare say “slavishly?), giving their best with a hand dealt from a short-carded deck . The POS recording takes were marathon, exhausting and tortuous. Wayne Marple (trumpet) got to the point where someone had to sit behind him so he could half-lay propped back his chair, his diaphragm muscles beyond pain. Only someone that was ever first person involved with El Ron “The Producer”, “The Director” or “The Photographer” fully fathoms what a frenetic and stultifying experience that “Joy of Creating” with him could be.
Dan Auerbach was El Ron’s audio & electronics geek. Dan was a very smart guy and, particularly in the field of tape recording machine electronics, actually quite brilliant. Although Auerbach was not a professional recording engineer, he was a quick study on all things electrical/mechanical, an avid music lover and a pretty darn good musician in his own right (he was not one of the musicians on POS). Auerbach (he’s the bearded guy sitting on El Ron’s right on the album cover) was the brains and interfacing whiz-kid that got the Studer Co. (Dr. Willi Studer) to build El Ron custom portable studio recording equipment that was, for the time, “State of the Art”.
The final POS sound “mix/mess” was not Auerbach’s or Studer’s fault, nor was it the fault of the Stars—many of whom had done studio recording sessions on “Wog” albums, some of which were with relatively “big-names”. You see folks, EL Ron was in the midst of making another “Technical Breakthrough” regarding sound recording! El Ron knew better than anyone! El Ron was certain! El Ron was giving Earth (within the limits of the woeful, inept and SP/DB Earthlings and their extant technology) a “new and brilliant” sound that, upon the hearing of, all civilization would piss its’ Thetan Pants!
Alas, from there the “plot thickens” [say ‘sickens’ with a lisp] when “Mission: POS Master” fired off to Hollywood. Over the next few months, with El Ron personally all over Action Bureau lines, the “Power” of “The” true “Source” was proofed-up! El Ron went “Poof”, “Poof” and “Poof” yet again and morphed a fender-bender to a car crash and ultimately—as “knowing and willing cause, etc.”—a triumphant Revenimus Opus Nauseous train wreck …but, that’s another storey.
I think the story was that the Appollo group was very well received live but the vinyl didn't do justice to their sound.
I remember a track "This planet is ours"
I lost my copy, and you can't buy it now, any links to this?
afaceinthecrowd
Gold Meritorious Patron
Ooops. Double post.
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afaceinthecrowd
Gold Meritorious Patron
How POS became a POS
Sorry X-X, that’s NOT the story,
The story is that the Stars were very well received in a handful of backwater ports. They were a decent group, cobbled together, as I have already covered in my first post.
The reason “the vinyl didn’t do justice to their sound” is not because they had some incredible sound that couldn’t be captured on vinyl…it was because El Ron was:
1. Incompetent as a sound engineer
2. Borderline tone deaf
3. Musically sophomoric
4. Artistically juvenile
5. Intellectually and emotionally disingenuous
6. "Victimized" by the "willful incompetence" and "ev purps" of others
7. Unable to listen to sincere advice from professionals and bona fide experts
8. Unwilling to accept help Hisself did not select, direct or control
9. Always riding one of Hisself’s hobbyhorses
10. Never uncertain, knew everything and was never ultimately wrong
I knew the man; I had “face time” with the man.
The POS Master Tape was taken to a number of the top Mastering Labs in Hollywood. A Mastering Lab, in those days, would take a Master Tape that had been recorded and mixed in a recording studio, re-mix it and produce a final master tape. That final master tape was used to produce production masters to make commercial tapes for sale (reel to reel, cassette, etc.) or, as in the case with the POS Master Tape, a Lacquer Master disc. That Lacquer Master would be used to make the metal masters, to make the metal “mothers”, to make the metal “stampers”, to “press” the commercial vinyl records for sale to consumers.
The POS Master Tape was rife with problems according to the Mastering Lab engineers. These Labs were some of the best in the business, had Mixed and Mastered numerous Platinum and Gold Albums for decades and were respected members of small cadre of very talented engineer/musicians that had created the LP record industry. Bottom line was; the final POS album is not their fault either as their collective opinion about POS was:
1. The mix, recording, arrangement and sound reproduction technique was amateurish and woefully substandard.
2. That the mix, as it was, would not result in a record that sounded even close to the
rough sound of the Master Tape on any but the finest, most expensive stereo
systems. This was because the mix was “spread” in such a way that, as was, would
create grooves producing vertical and lateral flux demands that would bang the
stylus around excessively when the record was played.
3. Unless the mastering engineers were allowed to re-work the mix with their expertise
via their State-of-the-Art multi million $ studio equipment, the resulting record
was not going to sound very good, no matter how expensive the stereo system was
that it was played on. There was microphone distortion, no eq
(equalization, “marrying” of the frequencies of the instruments), no boost (flat, thin,
tinny sound), etc., etc. all which the engineers said would yield a very substandard
representation and sound quality when the record was played and would be especially
poor on the stereos that the majority of people owned. In short, if you had a studio
quality or near studio quality sound system, POS would sound like the Master Tape,
i.e., not very good. If you had a very good sound system, or less, POS would sound
like shit.
El Ron’s answer to 1-3 above was to “Tone 40.0” reaffirm #’s1-10 above…but, that’s another story.
Sorry X-X, that’s NOT the story,
The story is that the Stars were very well received in a handful of backwater ports. They were a decent group, cobbled together, as I have already covered in my first post.
The reason “the vinyl didn’t do justice to their sound” is not because they had some incredible sound that couldn’t be captured on vinyl…it was because El Ron was:
1. Incompetent as a sound engineer
2. Borderline tone deaf
3. Musically sophomoric
4. Artistically juvenile
5. Intellectually and emotionally disingenuous
6. "Victimized" by the "willful incompetence" and "ev purps" of others
7. Unable to listen to sincere advice from professionals and bona fide experts
8. Unwilling to accept help Hisself did not select, direct or control
9. Always riding one of Hisself’s hobbyhorses
10. Never uncertain, knew everything and was never ultimately wrong
I knew the man; I had “face time” with the man.
The POS Master Tape was taken to a number of the top Mastering Labs in Hollywood. A Mastering Lab, in those days, would take a Master Tape that had been recorded and mixed in a recording studio, re-mix it and produce a final master tape. That final master tape was used to produce production masters to make commercial tapes for sale (reel to reel, cassette, etc.) or, as in the case with the POS Master Tape, a Lacquer Master disc. That Lacquer Master would be used to make the metal masters, to make the metal “mothers”, to make the metal “stampers”, to “press” the commercial vinyl records for sale to consumers.
The POS Master Tape was rife with problems according to the Mastering Lab engineers. These Labs were some of the best in the business, had Mixed and Mastered numerous Platinum and Gold Albums for decades and were respected members of small cadre of very talented engineer/musicians that had created the LP record industry. Bottom line was; the final POS album is not their fault either as their collective opinion about POS was:
1. The mix, recording, arrangement and sound reproduction technique was amateurish and woefully substandard.
2. That the mix, as it was, would not result in a record that sounded even close to the
rough sound of the Master Tape on any but the finest, most expensive stereo
systems. This was because the mix was “spread” in such a way that, as was, would
create grooves producing vertical and lateral flux demands that would bang the
stylus around excessively when the record was played.
3. Unless the mastering engineers were allowed to re-work the mix with their expertise
via their State-of-the-Art multi million $ studio equipment, the resulting record
was not going to sound very good, no matter how expensive the stereo system was
that it was played on. There was microphone distortion, no eq
(equalization, “marrying” of the frequencies of the instruments), no boost (flat, thin,
tinny sound), etc., etc. all which the engineers said would yield a very substandard
representation and sound quality when the record was played and would be especially
poor on the stereos that the majority of people owned. In short, if you had a studio
quality or near studio quality sound system, POS would sound like the Master Tape,
i.e., not very good. If you had a very good sound system, or less, POS would sound
like shit.
El Ron’s answer to 1-3 above was to “Tone 40.0” reaffirm #’s1-10 above…but, that’s another story.
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afaceinthecrowd
Gold Meritorious Patron
oh crap...I don't know what I'm doing...how do I get rid of my double post?
OK...I figured it out.
afaceinthecrowed aka numbnuts
OK...I figured it out.
afaceinthecrowed aka numbnuts
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afaceinthecrowd
Gold Meritorious Patron
DH Music
She had a grand piano in the family dining room on the Ship. I heard her play a few times. I only had a couple years of piano lessons, but I do play several instruments, one at fairly high (public performance) level of skill years ago. My mother was a piano teacher and church pipe organist and my sister was a piano teacher, High School choir director and church organist so I am somewhat passable at judging skill levels of pianists. Diana (this was in the early 70's) was not even close to as skilled as either my sister or mother and, at the time, my sister was around Diana's age. What I heard her mostly play were lilting, lyrical pieces that were basic chord based with simple to intermediate fingering. Her interpretive style was pretty but predictable and repetitious. She was raised to be and treated as a princess and, in my opinion, at that time had taken on a "princess valence". That came through, again in my opinion, in the lack of depth of her music. That all may sound harsh but it is my critique...she had some talent but nothing more than millions of other people have. I think she did an album or two in the 80's but I've never heard them...I'd be interested to hear a cut or two myself.
She had a grand piano in the family dining room on the Ship. I heard her play a few times. I only had a couple years of piano lessons, but I do play several instruments, one at fairly high (public performance) level of skill years ago. My mother was a piano teacher and church pipe organist and my sister was a piano teacher, High School choir director and church organist so I am somewhat passable at judging skill levels of pianists. Diana (this was in the early 70's) was not even close to as skilled as either my sister or mother and, at the time, my sister was around Diana's age. What I heard her mostly play were lilting, lyrical pieces that were basic chord based with simple to intermediate fingering. Her interpretive style was pretty but predictable and repetitious. She was raised to be and treated as a princess and, in my opinion, at that time had taken on a "princess valence". That came through, again in my opinion, in the lack of depth of her music. That all may sound harsh but it is my critique...she had some talent but nothing more than millions of other people have. I think she did an album or two in the 80's but I've never heard them...I'd be interested to hear a cut or two myself.
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Smilla
Ordinary Human
Thanks very much
Boojuum
Silver Meritorious Patron
Diana's music
I heard Diana's music and may have the album someplace.
I loved the music and was disappointed when you could no longer purchase copies of her album at the bookstore.
I haven't heard it in years but at the time I sincerely enjoyed all the pieces on the album.
I heard Diana's music and may have the album someplace.
I loved the music and was disappointed when you could no longer purchase copies of her album at the bookstore.
I haven't heard it in years but at the time I sincerely enjoyed all the pieces on the album.
Smilla
Ordinary Human
It's very sad that Hubbard's kids had to live through such crazy childhoods. What are the girls doing these days? Still in in some capacity, I believe. I've heard that Arthur is an artist.I heard Diana's music and may have the album someplace.
I loved the music and was disappointed when you could no longer purchase copies of her album at the bookstore.
I haven't heard it in years but at the time I sincerely enjoyed all the pieces on the album.
AmIFree
Patron
My apologies as I inadvertantly wrote on the thread about Apollo 1973 nstead of lookig for this thread. Here is what I wrote and believe it is answered LOL:
I wonder who else remembers the "great" Apollo Stars? The most "fantastically brilliant new music band ever in the world" ( according to LRH!
It was dreadful! We had a gathering in the mess room in Johannesburg and the new shiny LP was played for us. I was the only person with the guts to say it was hideous rubbish!
LOL
I wonder who else remembers the "great" Apollo Stars? The most "fantastically brilliant new music band ever in the world" ( according to LRH!
It was dreadful! We had a gathering in the mess room in Johannesburg and the new shiny LP was played for us. I was the only person with the guts to say it was hideous rubbish!
LOL
Div6
Crusader
Here it is, a link to the 54 MB zip file of this (in)famous album:
http://www.mediafire.com/?10otwry0moy
http://www.mediafire.com/?10otwry0moy
afaceinthecrowd
Gold Meritorious Patron
For any that wanders across this long dead thread and has an interest in the rest of my story about the Apollo Stars, here's the link.
http://www.forum.exscn.net/showpost.php?p=525100&postcount=1
Face
http://www.forum.exscn.net/showpost.php?p=525100&postcount=1
Face
Ogsonofgroo
Crusader
Thanks Face! 
I rememberd this thread from a couple of years back (and laughin' my cringing guts out while playing some of the songs), tis indeed a worthy reminder of the 'excesses of 'ego'' (not to be confused with the 'axis of evil'), good lordy alrighty!
I rememberd this thread from a couple of years back (and laughin' my cringing guts out while playing some of the songs), tis indeed a worthy reminder of the 'excesses of 'ego'' (not to be confused with the 'axis of evil'), good lordy alrighty!
Ted
Gold Meritorious Patron
I have two of the album, signed no less. I don't know how I ended up with two. :confused2:
Haven't listened to it since I grew bored of it after several plays. Here's my take:
Relaxed, good background music. "I'll have two Tanqueray and tonics. It's Happy Hour, right? Now what were we talking about?"
But as this was from a Hubbard, and Hubbard promo tended to elevate to the highest high, to the hidden standards in open, flaunting view, the album just didn't cut it.
Could hard work and expert tutelage have paid off? Sure. But a princess would not go down that route.
afaceinthecrowd
Gold Meritorious Patron
Terril park
Sponsor
I'm a music buff. Classical and oriental as main areas of interest.
Even learned south Indian Veena.
Really great compositional creations are not so common.
Theodor Sturgeon , Great Si Fi writer, said on being attacked re poor
quality of sci fi commented , 90% of anything is rubbish.
So true. Perhaps applies to this forum?
Something not rubbish is Bach's Mass in B minor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0SdOyRO_nk
Even learned south Indian Veena.
Really great compositional creations are not so common.
Theodor Sturgeon , Great Si Fi writer, said on being attacked re poor
quality of sci fi commented , 90% of anything is rubbish.
So true. Perhaps applies to this forum?
Something not rubbish is Bach's Mass in B minor.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V0SdOyRO_nk
Veda
Sponsor
What's the matter? Run out of schmoozing pills?
Terril park
Sponsor
Another in a long line of wrong indications. Or Whatever?
A few times have asked if you'd like to speak on phone which is at no
cost for me.
You have always declined.
You scared of direct contact?
Put up or shut up.
I'm friendly to anyone. Lol.
Even prepared to be friendly with you.
La La Lou Lou
Crusader
POS means power of sauce?
I thought it was Pile Of Shit!
We all need reminders of this every now and then. I listen to a very wide range of music. I have no idea what genre POS is supposed to be, but it's not good.
The poor deluded guru was surrounded by terrified sycophants, of course he was convinced that he was a brilliant composer, film director, photographer, statesman, healer, natural OT etc etc etc.
As source he put himself above all the corrective elements in his Org Bored. Qual couldnt touch him, ethics, I don't think so, no one could say to him, 'sorry mate that's crap'.
DM is the same, he's not going to hold the cans, or go to qual for a cramming order or he won't get full pay! He will however get more and more bizarre until
he finds the need to research the next level of Idle Org, which can only be done without a body.
Then there will be another power struggle and some new person will take over, getting more and more insane till they do the same, or there's nothing left.
I thought it was Pile Of Shit!
We all need reminders of this every now and then. I listen to a very wide range of music. I have no idea what genre POS is supposed to be, but it's not good.
The poor deluded guru was surrounded by terrified sycophants, of course he was convinced that he was a brilliant composer, film director, photographer, statesman, healer, natural OT etc etc etc.
As source he put himself above all the corrective elements in his Org Bored. Qual couldnt touch him, ethics, I don't think so, no one could say to him, 'sorry mate that's crap'.
DM is the same, he's not going to hold the cans, or go to qual for a cramming order or he won't get full pay! He will however get more and more bizarre until
he finds the need to research the next level of Idle Org, which can only be done without a body.
Then there will be another power struggle and some new person will take over, getting more and more insane till they do the same, or there's nothing left.
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