The Car Test
After recording our first song, we gathered around to listen to the playback.
Tim started playing with knobs and faders. He played around for a bit, moving random faders up and down. Sometimes he had them all turned down except for one track so that we could hear it solo. He did this for each track until we were listening to just the bass.
“Dude,” said Tim. “I think you’re drifting from the beat on that part.”
“No, I think it’s you,” said Mick as he turned up the drums.
“Don’t give me that. I’m the drummer.”
“Don’t mess with me dude,” said Mick. “We can replace you with a drum machine.”
“Oooh,” said Rose, and we all started laughing.
We listened to it some more and it actually sounded pretty good.
“Let’s mix it down,” said Mick as he grabbed a new cassette.
"Ok, now's the real test," said Tim when we finished the mix down.
"The real test?"
"That’s right. We have to do the car test."
"What's that?"
"We have to play it on a car stereo. Where do people crank up tunes the most?”
“In their car?”
“Right. That's the real test. It has to sound good on a car stereo. You know what I mean? And it's gotta have that oomph!"
This has been an excerpt from the book:
In Search Of The Perfect Buzz: An 80s Metal Memoir
Please see the following links to read more.
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