News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by cpr on Thursday August 13, 2009 @03:17PM (#761491)
I heard a great story about Les Paul's invention of multi-tracking in an old (long ago defunct) basement coffee shop in Harvard Square called Passim, featuring Guy van Duser (guitar) and Billy Novick (whistle, vocals).

Guy is a local Boston guitar phenomenon, playing stride guitar with 3+ parts at times. (Rounder Records carries his stuff--highly recommended.)

Anyway, Guy told the story of growing up adulating Les Paul, struggling for years to learn to play some of his recordings, until he got it right. He finally got to meet Paul, told him of his admiration, and showed Paul his licks. Paul's jaw dropped as he told Guy, "I double-tracked that recording!" Of course, that left Guy floating on air...

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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by jacquesm on Friday August 14, 2009 @06:09AM (#762717)
there ought to be a place to save little gems like this. Thank you for that!
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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by jamesbritt on Thursday August 13, 2009 @01:05PM (#761212)
This man was phenomenal. Not just a great musician, but a real hacker, inventing the solid-body electric guitar and multitrack recording.

And he loved what he did, and kept doing to the end.

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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by naz on Thursday August 13, 2009 @02:03PM (#761326)
And he had taste too. The original Les Paul guitars still look and sound great today.
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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by dzlobin on Thursday August 13, 2009 @02:04PM (#761329)
A real hacker indeed, at least he lived a long fulfilling life.
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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by aaronblohowiak on Thursday August 13, 2009 @02:20PM (#761374)
At least? What more could anyone ask for?
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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by madebylaw on Thursday August 13, 2009 @03:20PM (#761497)
To live forever?
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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by boundlessdreamz on Thursday August 13, 2009 @04:30PM (#761633)
Remembered something by Tolkien. "Death was a gift to men. Though elves did not die, as they aged they became more sorrowful". [paraphrased]. I don't think that living forever is a good thing.
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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by swombat on Thursday August 13, 2009 @09:34PM (#762164)
Fine. Those who want to die, be my guest. Those of us who want to live forever, we'd like the option anyway, please.
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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by rms on Thursday August 13, 2009 @09:46PM (#762177)
Living forever is only hell if you remain human. By the time I turn one million I will be an entity of nearly infinite wisdom, more powerful than the God of the Christians.
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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by derefr on Thursday August 13, 2009 @10:04PM (#762201)
A nice (though hella-long) follow-up to this thought: http://lesswrong.com/lw/xy/the_fun_theory_sequence/
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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by rms on Thursday August 13, 2009 @10:11PM (#762210)
I've read it. I wish more people were asking the questions asked by Eliezer.
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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by aswanson on Thursday August 13, 2009 @11:17PM (#762280)
Why not just reboot and live another interesting sequence of experiences every thousand years or so?
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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by rms on Friday August 14, 2009 @06:50AM (#762766)
Absolutely, I believe that is an important part of living forever. My immortal soul will get bored sometimes and have part of himself reincarnated.

Interesting knowledge will continue to exist into the future for a while. If no one has built a particle accelerator the size of a planet yet by the time I get my PhD in Physics, I'll build one for my dissertation. Then once we find the second and fourth dimensions, we may discover the actual secrets of the universe. Or AI will do it for us.

Ultimately I think the thing to do will be to colonize the universe for humanity. To try and reach the next type on the Kardashev Scale. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kardashev_scale

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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by s-phi-nl on Thursday August 13, 2009 @08:18PM (#762061)
If men lived forever, earth would be hell.
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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by eru on Friday August 14, 2009 @04:30AM (#762619)
Why?
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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by rfrey on Thursday August 13, 2009 @02:56PM (#761458)
God will be switching the angels over from harps within a week.
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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by edw519 on Thursday August 13, 2009 @02:05PM (#761334)
From the CNN report:

Paul is enshrined in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Grammy Hall of Fame, the Inventors Hall of Fame and the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

"I had to build it, make it and perfect it," Paul said in 2002.

"I learned a long time ago that one note can go a long way if it's the right one," he said in 2002, "and it will probably whip the guy with 20 notes."

A hacker if there ever was one. Most of us still enjoy the output of his output. RIP.

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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by ErrantX on Thursday August 13, 2009 @02:08PM (#761347)
"I learned a long time ago that one note can go a long way if it's the right one," he said in 2002, "and it will probably whip the guy with 20 notes."

A sentiment proven time and again by Status Quo (the 3-chord band) :)

A serious hacker. RIP.

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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by bmelton on Thursday August 13, 2009 @03:35PM (#761524)
I think recently, another interesting proof for this is the Joker's note. Watching the Dark Knight behind the scenes commentary, Hans Zimmer talks about how he thought the most chill-inspiring theme for Joker wouldn't be an intricate composition, but one slightly sour note played at length. Other sounds and effects were layered upon it to fit with the soundtrack, but the effect is amazing, simultaneously warning the audience of the joker's presence and inspiring suspense at the same time.
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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by rewind on Thursday August 13, 2009 @02:17PM (#761370)
This is the kind of seemingly non-hacker RIP post I love seeing. I didn't know much about him before seeing this post, but the comments made me read more about him and I'm glad I did. Great stuff.
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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by daeken on Friday August 14, 2009 @03:48AM (#762568)
If he isn't a hacker, I don't know who is. Multitracking was innovative and early multitracking was a straight up hack. The first solid-body guitar was made out of a 2x4 mounted into an acoustic guitar. He may not have hacked computers, but he was a great hacker.
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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by mwmanning on Thursday August 13, 2009 @01:28PM (#761251)
Les Paul has been a personal hero of mine since I was a kid. It's really sad to see him go, but at least we can continue to enjoy all of the wonderful creations and creative spirit that he brought into the worlds of music and engineering.
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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by bigwill on Thursday August 13, 2009 @03:44PM (#761550)
Though less well known than Les Paul, Tom Dowd (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Dowd) was another amazing recording industry hacker. If you're interested in the Les Paul story, you might also like the documentary about Tom Dowd: Tom Dowd and the Language of Music.
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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by jamesbritt on Thursday August 13, 2009 @06:22PM (#761852)
I watched that a few months ago. Quite good.
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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by cmgarcia on Thursday August 13, 2009 @01:59PM (#761316)
I can't even count the ways his innovations shaped my life and how I express myself.
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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by paddy_m on Friday August 14, 2009 @02:28AM (#762495)
I live in New York, I heard that he used to play here every week, as recently as a year ago. I regret that I never saw him play. I regret even more that I never took my fater to see him play.
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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by flooha on Friday August 14, 2009 @09:35AM (#762959)
They were talking about this on the Bob & Tom show this morning and apparently he played as recently as June 1, '09 and did so every Monday. They told a story about how Jimmy Buffet sat in and Les was cracking jokes...great stuff. I hope to have so much spunk should I make it that far.
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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by flooha on Friday August 14, 2009 @09:37AM (#762967)
...and just when I was thinking about buying that black-to-blue sunburst Les Paul I saw recently...I bet the price tag has already been changed. ;) RIP Les, you were a Legend long ago and always will be.
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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by kjell on Thursday August 13, 2009 @02:59PM (#761462)
I watched an old documentary about Les Paul the other week. He's really fantastic. (http://www.mininova.org/tor/2607255)
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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by jazzdev on Thursday August 13, 2009 @05:34PM (#761743)
I got to hear Les Paul at the Iridium when I was in New York in April. So glad I got hear him live at least once. Thanks for the music and the inventions. Play on!
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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by russss on Thursday August 13, 2009 @08:48PM (#762102)
I think it's interesting that so many people on HN recognize Les Paul - it shows how many hackers are music lovers as well, which is definitely a curious data point.

RIP Les.

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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by justin_vanw on Thursday August 13, 2009 @06:41PM (#761892)
What does Les Paul have to do with Erlang?
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Re:R.I.P. Les Paul by SwellJoe on Thursday August 13, 2009 @07:13PM (#761962)
He invented concurrency in music recording.
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