Walter Becker Quotes

Of course, we also have to play in concert halls. This is our dream when you are a musician - to play in a good, comfortable hall with a wonderful acoustic.

With American orchestras, in particular, because they play in such huge halls, getting a true pianissimo is very hard.

The room is the most important thing about recording.

With real estate, it's location, location, location. In public speaking, it's acoustics, acoustics, acoustics.

Kids now are so used to surround sound and the power in theater speakers, that the concert hall is a disappointment to them.

I hate the way chorus boxes sound.

I love playing the Hard Rocks; they've got a great stage, great lighting, great sound, and not so humongous; its more intimate, so we love playing theaters and clubs where the audience has a really good chance to see and hear the group and where the acoustics are good. I like it when we can hear what we're doing.

Well, they put me in a booth and then did some nice things to the speaker to make it come out sounding ok.

When you hear a large symphony orchestra. for instance, in a concert hall, there's a big, sweeping sound that just doesn't get on to a record.

Glasgow Barrowlands is the greatest concert venue in the world.

If you ever want to play bigger places, you need to have records that sound like you're playing in big places.

You can buy $20,000 speakers, but put them in a room that's not right, and it sounds terrible. If you buy $20 speakers and put them in a room that's tuned right, it'll sound great.

With an arena, it sounds so big and full sometimes it can obstruct the way we sing because we're hearing so much slapback and things like that.

I was told before that one of the hardest jumps to do, painlessly, is the one from playing clubs into playing arenas. I am completely aware of that now.

Rock shows are loud, so I try to use a sound that is warm on the high frequencies.

When a human being without amplification makes a sound that is high and loud, it is almost unworldly.

I've asked to go back into theaters and smaller venues because to me, in smaller venues I can really demonstrate my commitment to quality. Theaters are great containers for music.

And as far as the Disney Concert hall is concerned, it is a wonderful modern structure and I am extremely honored that I had this opportunity to have a concert here.

Studios are designed to pull out all of that beautiful ambience you get from singing in a room, and then the engineer puts it back in digitally or through whatever machinery you've got.

The sound was my greatest concern. There were certain difficulties getting used to the way every musician can hear his or herself, the way each of them relates to the musician in the next seat.

We were gradually playing larger venues and in the early days PA systems were kind of non-existent. So to play loud, we had to use louder equipment. The PA systems back then didn't mic the instruments - only the vocals.

I've played Madison Square Garden and Jones Beach several times, but I personally don't enjoy those larger venues. I much prefer theater or a performance space.

To be honest, I think about the clubs when I write. But I should probably start thinking about stadiums, because the songs sound even better there - and bigger.

Every day we make more progress toward understanding the concert hall.

When you're onstage with an electric band going through a massive P.A. system, it's very artificial. You can't really hear your own voice as it comes out of your mouth.