Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. I'm Matt Miller and
Speaker 1: I'm Hannah Elliott, and this is Hot Pursuit.
Speaker 2: All right, we have today an interview that touches my heart.
Speaker 1: Actually, yeah, we're talking with Tim Pride, who is the
Speaker 1: head of business for Dolby at Most Music and a
Speaker 1: great musician in his own right. I think he's being
Speaker 1: way too modest when he says he's sort of so so, but.
Speaker 2: I definitely want to get his new record.
Speaker 1: He refused to tell us. I just remembered he refused
Speaker 1: to tell us. I was sort of furiously googling trying
Speaker 1: to find it and I couldn't find the name.
Speaker 2: So, by the way, you've talked about this before because
Speaker 2: I think it was part of your Cadillac Escalade IQ experience.
Speaker 2: But tell us again how you got these guys.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, it's really interesting. I went up to San
Speaker 1: Francisco for to drive the Escalade IQ, which is the
Speaker 1: electric version of the Escalade, and the driver was great,
Speaker 1: but we sort of had this like forced march to
Speaker 1: Dolby HQ one evening and I went in thinking, this
Speaker 1: is ridiculous. Why are we here? This is supposed to
Speaker 1: be a car launch. We don't need to go to
Speaker 1: some press junket at Dolby. And Jamie, the pr for Dolby,
Speaker 1: came up and was so friendly and just completely disarmed me,
Speaker 1: and it was like, you know, come sit in the car.
Speaker 1: Let's sit in there. There was a Cadillac Optic, I think,
Speaker 1: so he was like, come on, come on and join
Speaker 1: me and sit in the car and we can listen
Speaker 1: to Chaka Khan and Tim Pride, our guest today, was
Speaker 1: also in the car, and these two completely flipped my
Speaker 1: opinion about why I was there and really made me
Speaker 1: evangelist for an evangelist for what Dolby is doing in
Speaker 1: atmost and for car sound in general. And we just
Speaker 1: sat in this car for like thirty minutes and listened
Speaker 1: to music and talked about their technology. It was awesome,
Speaker 1: And I really didn't know anything about Dolby before then,
Speaker 1: but that is how I first met Tim. And then
Speaker 1: of course when I wrote this piece on sort of
Speaker 1: automaker's embracing sound in cars and it becomes really a
Speaker 1: status symbol in luxury cars, then of course I went
Speaker 1: back and interviewed Tim for that story too. So it's
Speaker 1: been great knowing them, I've learned a ton.
Speaker 2: Well, I obviously care a lot about music and cars
Speaker 2: as well. Let's get straight to it. Here's Tim Pride.
Speaker 2: I think that automotive I think that audio is one
Speaker 2: of the most important and least discussed areas of car
Speaker 2: lover sort of universe, right, I mean, like in road
Speaker 2: and Track and car and Driver on any of the
Speaker 2: websites in pursuits even when we're writing and reading about cars.
Speaker 2: When we're talking about cars, almost no one ever mentions
Speaker 2: the stereo and listening to music in a car is
Speaker 2: one of the best things you can possibly That's like
Speaker 2: what a car is for after driving, right, Yes.
Speaker 3: It's the number one place people listen to music.
Speaker 2: So what's the deal? How come no one ever? I
Speaker 2: guess Tim, you're in a different kind of industry, so
Speaker 2: you probably talk about it all the time. But do
Speaker 2: you notice that when people review cars, nobody other than
Speaker 2: like Savage Geese ever talks about the stereo system.
Speaker 4: Yeah, the audio system has not been one that's discussed
Speaker 4: or talked about much. It's nowadays becoming something that is
Speaker 4: advertised or at least they'll be a mention of it
Speaker 4: by a lot of car partners. And auto manufacturers. But
Speaker 4: it is incredible given how many people I talk to
Speaker 4: who are music lovers saying I discovered music riding in
Speaker 4: my car, you know, when I was in high school,
Speaker 4: or talking to artists who are always saying, you know,
Speaker 4: I always listen to my music in my car after
Speaker 4: a mix because that's where I trust the audio system.
Speaker 4: I mean, it is It is incredible that it isn't
Speaker 4: talked about more, but maybe it's because there hasn't been
Speaker 4: a lot to talk about in the last you know,
Speaker 4: a couple decades.
Speaker 1: Can we go back to the very beginning of this,
Speaker 1: tim because I'm very interested in the history of Dolby
Speaker 1: and which started out as a sound canceling technology. Is
Speaker 1: that that's correct, right? And this will come back to
Speaker 1: cars because sound canceling seems to be a building block
Speaker 1: to creating a great environment for listening to audio. Can
Speaker 1: you just sort of walk us through the development and
Speaker 1: the history of Dolby from where it started to where
Speaker 1: we are now with atmost and then explain what atmost
Speaker 1: is because when I met you, I didn't know what
Speaker 1: atmost meant, so we need some magic here.
Speaker 4: Sure, Dolby has an amazing story behind it. We actually
Speaker 4: are celebrating our sixty years this year. And Ray Dolby,
Speaker 4: the founder, was a big believer in how technology can
Speaker 4: unleash a creative's abilities, how a creative, an artist, an
Speaker 4: engineer can do more with technology as it pertains to
Speaker 4: their craft. So where he started was really getting to
Speaker 4: understand in a music space what challenges musicians in the
Speaker 4: sixties were having when it came to recording audio. And
Speaker 4: what he noticed was as you would record a let's
Speaker 4: say a three piece jazz band, if you needed to
Speaker 4: add an additional track, like say a vocalist, there would
Speaker 4: be noise that would be introduced. And so what happened
Speaker 4: is you'd get this layering of noise on top of
Speaker 4: every track once you record worded it. So most recordings
Speaker 4: up until the sixties were done live in a studio
Speaker 4: with everybody having to nail their take, and the idea
Speaker 4: of multitrack recording, which was around, wasn't really adopted because
Speaker 4: of the noise problems. So what he introduced was noise
Speaker 4: reduction technology, and that paved the way for multi track recording.
Speaker 4: That is one of the absolute critical points in audio
Speaker 4: history that changed the way that musicians and artists created music,
Speaker 4: which was, hey, we can actually layer more instruments vocals
Speaker 4: on top of tracks, and that is how today everybody
Speaker 4: does it now. And so we got started in noise
Speaker 4: reduction technologies and through the sixties and seventies, if you
Speaker 4: look at a lot of vinyl records or in the
Speaker 4: eighties cassette tapes, if you look on the packaging, you
Speaker 4: actually see recorded in Dolby.
Speaker 3: Or cars stereo, right yeah, And.
Speaker 4: A lot of that was because of this technology and
Speaker 4: products that the company was building was integrated into the
Speaker 4: recording studios. The interesting thing about that is that Ray
Speaker 4: and team was not just thinking about the creatives as well.
Speaker 4: They were also thinking about the consumers, the people who
Speaker 4: would be hearing this stuff, and so they needed to
Speaker 4: create technologies for the playback environments. If we use the
Speaker 4: car as a great example, which a lot of people
Speaker 4: of maybe my generation or older remember, is you'd sit
Speaker 4: in your car and there would be on the stereo
Speaker 4: system a Dolby button or a Dolby NR noise reduction button.
Speaker 4: Well that was the put it simply the consumer side
Speaker 4: or the endpoint to get the most out of the
Speaker 4: Dolby technologies that were being made for creatives in the
Speaker 4: studio and for the consumer sitting in the car. So
Speaker 4: Dolby has a legacy in working with creatives, understanding the
Speaker 4: challenges that they have, using technology and engineering to solve
Speaker 4: those challenges and problems, and then most importantly, ensuring that
Speaker 4: the creatives and the artists, all of the things that
Speaker 4: they come up with are being able to be heard
Speaker 4: seen by the consumer. And so Automotive for us has
Speaker 4: got We're steeped in history there because we did so
Speaker 4: much of it and so many people know us from
Speaker 4: the Dolby NR, Dolby Button days of the seventies and
Speaker 4: eighties and nineties.
Speaker 3: So now you.
Speaker 4: Fast forward to today and you asked about Dolby atmost.
Speaker 4: Dolby ATMOS is the evolution of what Dolby started in
Speaker 4: the seventies, which was immersive audio. In the seventies there
Speaker 4: was a little film, an indie film that came out.
Speaker 4: It was called Star Wars, and Ray Dolby and George
Speaker 4: Lucas got together and George said, I really want to
Speaker 4: do something different when it comes to the storytelling element
Speaker 4: of sound, and so I'm doing that with the music
Speaker 4: which on Williams scoring.
Speaker 3: This amazing score for that movie.
Speaker 4: I'm doing it with the visuals that are going to
Speaker 4: be seen that's never been seen, but the audio experience
Speaker 4: must be something unique, and so they set out to
Speaker 4: create the first truly immersive audio experience in cinema, which
Speaker 4: was with the debut of the original Star Wars movie
Speaker 4: in seventy seven, and that was Dolby Surround. So Dolby
Speaker 4: Surround has then evolved over decades to where the idea
Speaker 4: that you can place and put audio in different parts
Speaker 4: of room, whether it be in a cinema or in
Speaker 4: a home through headphones and now in cars, is one
Speaker 4: that we've been really at the very beginning of Dolby
Speaker 4: Atmost is our latest greatest immersive spatial technology that creatives
Speaker 4: can create in. So I'm a musician, I'm a sound
Speaker 4: designer on a dub stage at a Hollywood movie. I'm
Speaker 4: a podcaster trying to create some type of immersive audio
Speaker 4: experience for my listeners. I'm a game developer, whatever genre
Speaker 4: of content. Dolby Atmost is the engine, is the tools
Speaker 4: and the playback products that allow for this immersive experience,
Speaker 4: and automotive is really where we're very excited about because
Speaker 4: to Matt's point, we do so much listening of music
Speaker 4: and audio, and now podcasts and audiobooks and even av
Speaker 4: is starting to come audio video experiences where being immersed
Speaker 4: in a set cabin where you have you're not moving,
Speaker 4: you are sitting there somewhat like a movie theater. It's
Speaker 4: a lot of fun for the creatives to know, Hey,
Speaker 4: if I place an instrument here or there behind somebody
Speaker 4: or in front of them, they're going to experience that
Speaker 4: in their car, and they might be experiencing it for
Speaker 4: a significant amount of time if they're taking a long
Speaker 4: drive somewhere down to San Diego, right, Matt.
Speaker 2: Yes, from San Francisco down to San Diego. By the way,
Speaker 2: the first movie wasn't wasn't the first movie Clockwork Orange,
Speaker 2: the first Dolby movie.
Speaker 4: Well, Star Wars was the one that really got it
Speaker 4: on the map as far as Dolby being the thing
Speaker 4: that really showed through as like, oh this is Star
Speaker 4: Wars presented in Dolby. So yes, Clockwork Orange was working
Speaker 4: with Ray and how they developed the sound design. But
Speaker 4: Star Wars was the thing that when we look back
Speaker 4: in time and people look at like win did the
Speaker 4: mass become aware of what Dolby was doing, it was
Speaker 4: Star Wars.
Speaker 2: In terms of the bands, do you know who some
Speaker 2: of the first bands were that recorded with the technology.
Speaker 4: So what Ray was working on initially was a lot
Speaker 4: of jazz and classical artists because they were the ones
Speaker 4: that were starting to try to figure out, hey, instead
Speaker 4: of a live environment, can we do things where we're
Speaker 4: adding multi track. That technology then got adopted by say
Speaker 4: like Capital Records, and then Capitol Records started incorporating it
Speaker 4: into their studios, and so you'd have artists of all
Speaker 4: from now they'd be classic rock, but you could have
Speaker 4: folks like Elton John or led Zeppelin or folks like
Speaker 4: that who are leveraging the technology back then. And ironically,
Speaker 4: Elton John is one of the artists we worked with
Speaker 4: as we started to do stuff in Dolby atmost.
Speaker 1: I mean he's eternal. I mean he's timeless. Yeah, not surprised.
Speaker 2: So what I'm wondering what I always wonder when I'm
Speaker 2: listening to music in Dolby, you know, or I guess
Speaker 2: now in at moost is does it have to be
Speaker 2: recorded with that technology to sound perfect with that technology?
Speaker 2: Or you know, if I'm listening to an old record
Speaker 2: by the Pink Floyd or the Dead, like, can I
Speaker 2: use Delby to enhance it even if it wasn't recorded
Speaker 2: with Dolby.
Speaker 3: That's a great question.
Speaker 4: So Dolby Atmost is not something you necessarily record with.
Speaker 4: You stilled all the same recording techniques and technologies, microphones,
Speaker 4: multi channel, all that still remains the same dolbiy atmos
Speaker 4: for the creatives in this case, a mixing engineer is
Speaker 4: something they used to mix in. So think of it
Speaker 4: as an environment that we're providing them that gives them
Speaker 4: the sense of space around them to place instruments anywhere
Speaker 4: they want in the room, whether they want them to
Speaker 4: be sitting static or they want them to be moving.
Speaker 3: This can be.
Speaker 4: Applied to any music, any multi channel music.
Speaker 3: So you use the example of Pink Floyd.
Speaker 4: Last year there was a release fiftieth of that with
Speaker 4: Dolby Atmost.
Speaker 3: Incredible incredible.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's incredible record, but it's also an incredible
Speaker 4: mix to where they had all the original multi track tapes.
Speaker 4: They then brought it into an atmost work environment, which
Speaker 4: just you know, at most work environments are a part
Speaker 4: of almost every sound design environment today. Because we've integrated
Speaker 4: our tools into all the most common digital audio workstations.
Speaker 4: So the stuff that your team is probably using to
Speaker 4: mix you today right now most likely has Dolby autmost
Speaker 4: too already.
Speaker 3: Integrated into help.
Speaker 4: So that makes it easier for creatives that way, they're
Speaker 4: not even a second guess.
Speaker 3: So then you take Pink Floyd.
Speaker 4: You've got a mixing engineer that's working on that, and
Speaker 4: they would say, okay, in the case of an album
Speaker 4: like Pink Floyd, which has been listened to billions of
Speaker 4: times over the last fifty years, you're.
Speaker 2: Talking about Dark Side of the Moon, by the way,
Speaker 2: and I get when I think of Dark Side of
Speaker 2: the Moon without even listening to it, I get goosebumps
Speaker 2: already just thinking up like all the clocks going off
Speaker 2: all around the room or us in them, and like
Speaker 2: you know, money with the cash register, Like what an
Speaker 2: incredible what an unbelievably great record.
Speaker 4: It's a great record, And how you take that record
Speaker 4: and do something even more immersive without changing it too
Speaker 4: much where people are now saying, well, this sounds different,
Speaker 4: and that's that's where they are terrifying it is, and
Speaker 4: that's where the creatives artistry and their skills come in
Speaker 4: like we purely are building the tools based on their feedback.
Speaker 4: But then they're the ones who have to say, Okay,
Speaker 4: I'm going to take David Gilmore's guitar and I'm going
Speaker 4: to move it to the right because if I listen
Speaker 4: to the original stereo, that's what they wanted. But now
Speaker 4: I'm going to do it a little bit more. I'm
Speaker 4: just going to you know, move and so subtlety when
Speaker 4: it comes to things like catalog music is often applied.
Speaker 4: What's exciting for new music is when it's never been
Speaker 4: heard before. So I'm an artist that's creating a brand
Speaker 4: new album and I'm loving what I'm what atmost can do.
Speaker 4: Let's do the whole new album in ATMOS and get
Speaker 4: really extreme with where I place things, how it sits,
Speaker 4: how I can use it.
Speaker 3: That's where it really gets exciting.
Speaker 2: Hannah, Can I just a quick comment as almost a
Speaker 2: public service announcement to our listeners before before you ask
Speaker 2: your next question, and unrelated, anyone who likes or anyone
Speaker 2: who loves Dark Side of the Moon should check out
Speaker 2: if you haven't already, an album by a band called
Speaker 2: The Easy Star All Star Dumb Side of the Moon,
Speaker 2: which is like reggae. It's like a reggae version of
Speaker 2: Dark Side. It is also amazing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's a it's a wonderful Uh, it's like a
Speaker 4: reimagination of it in a way.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's cool. I'm familiar.
Speaker 1: I was going to say, to finish your sentence, if
Speaker 1: you love Dark Side of the Moon, the completion of
Speaker 1: that sentence is you are a man because I am
Speaker 1: not the target audience for Okay, well maybe it's a
Speaker 1: generational thing, but I mean, I have you ever had
Speaker 1: an artist or a band that were very hesitant and
Speaker 1: reticent to go back in and start changing things on
Speaker 1: their masterpiece? I mean that seems very fraught emotionally and technically.
Speaker 1: How do you talk to them about Yeah.
Speaker 4: So there's those two buckets I think are important, the
Speaker 4: emotional side and the technical side. So yes, there are
Speaker 4: artists that are like, look, I never want to I
Speaker 4: don't want to open that Pandora's box again. That was
Speaker 4: a difficult time for me when I was writing that record,
Speaker 4: recording that record. For me to go and now dig
Speaker 4: up into that, that's hard. The technical side of it
Speaker 4: is relatively easy as long as as long as the
Speaker 4: creative team, an engineering team has access to the multi track,
Speaker 4: so the original multi tracks. In some cases they might
Speaker 4: not exist. In other cases they have to go and
Speaker 4: find them. They're in some locked up cave somewhere. They
Speaker 4: need to restore them. So some can be more technically
Speaker 4: difficult than others.
Speaker 2: What we have.
Speaker 4: Found for a lot of again what we call catalog,
Speaker 4: which is really music that's two three years plus older.
Speaker 4: But when you think of like music from the seventies, eighties, nineties,
Speaker 4: where artists are going back in and reimagining the music
Speaker 4: and delby at most, it's oftentimes done with the trusted
Speaker 4: artists engineer. So like the mix engineer that the artists
Speaker 4: spent time with, you know, for decades. They trust them.
Speaker 4: They know that they're going to be able to take
Speaker 4: what atmost can do to their original vision and then
Speaker 4: do something new with it.
Speaker 3: So it is a it's a it's not a one
Speaker 3: answer to all of it.
Speaker 4: But you're right, it's emotional, there's technical, there's operational, there's
Speaker 4: if the artist isn't around anymore, there's going to be
Speaker 4: a pro mixes. Yeah, like is it one person?
Speaker 3: Is it?
Speaker 1: You know?
Speaker 4: I mean they're you know, Miles Davis Prince. All these
Speaker 4: artists have got like multiple people who need to approve
Speaker 4: those reimagination and that that sometimes can take time.
Speaker 1: Tim Before we get into car talk, can you tell
Speaker 1: us just about your journey you. I know that you're
Speaker 1: a very accomplished musician in your own right, and I
Speaker 1: also think are you a voting member of the Grand.
Speaker 3: Yes?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so that's fascinating to me as well. Can you
Speaker 1: just tell us a little bit more about your journey
Speaker 1: and how you ended up at Dolby where you are
Speaker 1: now basically the boss.
Speaker 4: I I was eight years old and I I took
Speaker 4: karate lessons and I had a guitar, and I had
Speaker 4: to make a quick decision on which one I wanted
Speaker 4: to go and spend more time on. I could either
Speaker 4: do more karate or I could take more guitar lessons,
Speaker 4: and I was not very good at karate. So I
Speaker 4: quickly got the bug for music and started taking more
Speaker 4: lessons on guitar.
Speaker 3: And so, like a lot of kids, I just it
Speaker 3: grabbed me. I got the bug. I loved it.
Speaker 4: I was decent at it. But what I really loved
Speaker 4: about music was the ability to.
Speaker 3: Play with other players.
Speaker 4: And learn what it was like to be on you know,
Speaker 4: in a team, in this case a band. So by
Speaker 4: the time I was thirteen, I was already playing musician
Speaker 4: with other music, playing music with other musicians, and I
Speaker 4: learned quickly I'm not a very good guitar player. I'm
Speaker 4: not going to be the next Eddy van Halen. But
Speaker 4: the people that I'm surrounding myself with were really good,
Speaker 4: really good drummers, really good guitar players, and so they
Speaker 4: made me better. And that set me on a path
Speaker 4: to where, Okay, if I surround myself people were better
Speaker 4: at what they do than I am, I can be successful,
Speaker 4: which sounds like something out of like a business book
Speaker 4: or something, but like it was true. And then the
Speaker 4: next kind of big thing that happened to me was
Speaker 4: my very first job. My very first job, when I
Speaker 4: was fourteen fifteen years old, was working at a music.
Speaker 3: Store in Chicago.
Speaker 1: Chicago, Okay, yeah, Sugar.
Speaker 4: Just right outside the city, and it was a mom
Speaker 4: and pop store. They had a couple of locations teach,
Speaker 4: you know, they taught, They had teachers sheet music, which
Speaker 4: for younger people listening. Sheet music was a piece of
Speaker 4: paper that had notes on it that you would put
Speaker 4: in front of you and then read.
Speaker 3: Yes, very analog.
Speaker 4: We had lots of that and guitars and amps, and
Speaker 4: so very early on I learned, if you're going to
Speaker 4: spend time doing something, do it in an environment that
Speaker 4: you love. Like I was taking out the trash, cleaning toilets,
Speaker 4: mopping the floors literally, but at least I was around
Speaker 4: other musicians, and I very quickly learned about the industry,
Speaker 4: instrument industry teachers. I went to school and got an
Speaker 4: undergrad in both business and music and where you just
Speaker 4: started working Illinois State University, and it was a great experience.
Speaker 3: It was one of them.
Speaker 4: It was a great experience of just kind of that
Speaker 4: marriage between like music, creative and then also business acumen.
Speaker 4: And that was really the merger of the two things
Speaker 4: that I always really enjoyed, which is I love business
Speaker 4: business strategy, but I also loved music and creative and
Speaker 4: I love being around creatives and musicians. And so fortunately,
Speaker 4: throughout my entire life, I've been able to write and
Speaker 4: record and perform music at a I wouldn't say professional
Speaker 4: level where I was like out touring all over the place,
Speaker 4: but like I did enough of it to where I
Speaker 4: still love it. I didn't get burnt on it, you know,
Speaker 4: like a like a chef might get burnt where they
Speaker 4: like cook all day and the last thing they want
Speaker 4: to do is cook at home. I was able to
Speaker 4: always have music part of my career. I was fortunate
Speaker 4: to work at a company called Monster Cable. I was
Speaker 4: there the inception of Beats by Dre and got to
Speaker 4: experience that whole, that whole how that was born, what
Speaker 4: happened there, what we did when we brought that to market.
Speaker 4: And I've had lots of really great successes along the
Speaker 4: way when working with companies like Jawbone and the Jam Box,
Speaker 4: and now at Dolby, where I've been brought on to
Speaker 4: head up the business and business strategy as it pertains
Speaker 4: to how we bring Dolby at most music to musicians,
Speaker 4: to streaming services, to partners, automotive partners, TV partners, et cetera.
Speaker 4: So I've had a I mean, it sounds like it
Speaker 4: has been I mean, I'll admit it, it hasn't been easy.
Speaker 4: But the thing that has always been true is my
Speaker 4: love of music, my love of creativity, my love of
Speaker 4: being around creative people, but also understanding that the business
Speaker 4: side of things and the strategy that goes behind it
Speaker 4: is so to me fascinating and also a creative path.
Speaker 4: And so where I am today is really an ideal
Speaker 4: situation where I get to be in an environment around
Speaker 4: people that are better at doing the things they do
Speaker 4: than I am, who push me in a business place,
Speaker 4: but also still have the ability to be creative. I
Speaker 4: still write music, I still work on music. I just
Speaker 4: released an album of my own, indul the atmost.
Speaker 3: That again, what's it called. I'm not here to promote it,
Speaker 3: so I'm.
Speaker 1: Not promoted promoted.
Speaker 3: But I use that.
Speaker 4: I use that as a vehicle for my creative outlet.
Speaker 4: But then I also like believe in what we do,
Speaker 4: and so I use our own tools for my own creativity.
Speaker 4: I get to hear it in a car yet, because
Speaker 4: it just released, so I got to hear in a
Speaker 4: car soon. But uh yeah, So that's that's been my journey,
Speaker 4: and it's been a it's been a great, great journey.
Speaker 2: Panna. Do you know why Tim's eight year old decision
Speaker 2: reminds me a lot of Ralph maccio?
Speaker 1: No, please please educate me.
Speaker 2: Well, I am imagine you've seen the Karate Kid, you know,
Speaker 2: wax on, wax off, yes, and then Ralph Maccio was
Speaker 2: in I think a much better movie a couple of
Speaker 2: years later called Crossroads.
Speaker 4: Oh that movie was that was one of those that
Speaker 4: and Back to the Future as a kid when you
Speaker 4: watch that, I mean those were like guitar amazing, just
Speaker 4: incredible adventures. And yeah, the Crossroads movie for people who
Speaker 4: don't know it, it's basically the story of it.
Speaker 3: It's a retelling.
Speaker 4: Of of how a famous blues artist had gone down
Speaker 4: to the crossroads and made, you know, a deal with
Speaker 4: the devil, did become this amazing artist. And Ralph Macchio
Speaker 4: plays this like kind of young kid, kind of on
Speaker 4: the same path, and he has to compete with the devil,
Speaker 4: who's played by Steve I who's an incredible guitar player.
Speaker 2: And Robert Johnson, right is I mean think the idea is.
Speaker 4: To be Robert Johnson, that he's that his his mentor
Speaker 4: in it.
Speaker 2: But of sorts, so many great musicians have made deals
Speaker 2: with the devil. It could have been Zeppelin as well,
Speaker 2: or you know. Oh yeah, so that is such a
Speaker 2: cool story. And let's get to cars now. I mean
Speaker 2: everyone has had experiences with music in cars, right.
Speaker 1: It's yeah, but car companies haven't realized that.
Speaker 2: Well, I just wonder can you tell us tim about
Speaker 2: the history of audio and cars, because when I was
Speaker 2: a kid, I didn't notice that my car stereo kind
Speaker 2: of sucked, you know, And it wasn't until I was
Speaker 2: older that I realized you've got to dump thousands and
Speaker 2: thousands and thousands of dollars into a car to make
Speaker 2: sonically sound. How does that worked out.
Speaker 3: Over the last few decades.
Speaker 4: I think there's been a lot of improvements to what
Speaker 4: kind of comes standard in cars versus say in the
Speaker 4: sixties and seventies, where an eighties where they wouldn't put
Speaker 4: a lot of investment, time or effort into.
Speaker 3: The car system.
Speaker 4: You know, you had eight tracks, those didn't sound all
Speaker 4: that great, and there was a huge industry that was
Speaker 4: born out of it. I mean I mentioned that I
Speaker 4: worked for Monster call a huge part of Monsters history,
Speaker 4: especially in the nineties, was in car audio products and
Speaker 4: accessories because there was such a huge market for third
Speaker 4: party folks going in and you know, souping up their system,
Speaker 4: even if it's some inexpensive car. They almost put just
Speaker 4: as much money into the system itself.
Speaker 2: But then over tie there used to be a store
Speaker 2: at every mall right, you'd go and put a pile
Speaker 2: driver in your Nissan Sentra so you could have as
Speaker 2: much base as possible. Yeah, A kicker.
Speaker 4: Yeah, those retailers back in the I mean if you
Speaker 4: think of like retail consumerlatronics, retail back in like Circuit City,
Speaker 4: best By days, all those they had huge sections of
Speaker 4: the stores that were dedicated to car audio, right. I
Speaker 4: mean that was where guys would come in and get
Speaker 4: their Bazuka subs and huge.
Speaker 2: Women right, or women might want to put a Bazuka
Speaker 2: sub in her in her car.
Speaker 1: I mean I'd like to meet that one.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So I think what's happened now is that in the
Speaker 4: last few decades, I think auto partners are you know,
Speaker 4: auto manufacturers are looking at like, hey, we can improve
Speaker 4: the sound quality. We could add more speakers, we could
Speaker 4: And part of that is because the source material was
Speaker 4: getting better. I mean, when CDs were introduced, you now
Speaker 4: had a more consistent, you know, i'll say, higher quality
Speaker 4: audio experience that was available to consumer that they could
Speaker 4: take with them versus say a terrestrial versus or a cassette,
Speaker 4: where those weren't always consistent in the playback experience, CD
Speaker 4: introduction really gave way to where people were like, Hey,
Speaker 4: I can have a pretty killer audio experience in my
Speaker 4: car because this source material is already starting at a
Speaker 4: pretty good place, which is a good, you know, high quality,
Speaker 4: fairly high resolution, shiny disc. And so with that, let's
Speaker 4: build systems around that. Nowadays, with most people streaming to
Speaker 4: their cars or using some type of connection to their
Speaker 4: phone device, they're also finding like, yeah, the audience is
Speaker 4: fairly decent, and I want to improve system is sound
Speaker 4: in my automobile?
Speaker 3: What can we do there?
Speaker 4: And so we've noticed that in the last few years,
Speaker 4: and as atmost was starting to gain a lot of momentum.
Speaker 4: The big question we got from all the artists was, hey,
Speaker 4: when is this coming to the cars? Because I use
Speaker 4: my car to check my mixes. And for those of
Speaker 4: you who don't know what I'm talking about, when an
Speaker 4: artist is doing a mix in a studio, nine point
Speaker 4: nine times out of ten they will want to rip
Speaker 4: a CD, a cassette, a USB stick, whatever a decade
Speaker 4: you're in and bring it into their car and listen
Speaker 4: to it because their car is the most trusted environment
Speaker 4: to them. It's the system they listen to the most so,
Speaker 4: even if the artist car is just some middle of
Speaker 4: the road basic sound system, they will still bring their
Speaker 4: mix into that, listen to it as a reference and say,
Speaker 4: oh wow, the vocals are definitely too quiet, because I
Speaker 4: know what vocals sound like my car, and they're typically louder.
Speaker 4: So go back into my million dollar studio or multi
Speaker 4: hundred thousand dollars studio, but then still come into my like,
Speaker 4: you know, forty thousand dollars car and make my mixing decisions.
Speaker 4: It's just another reference point. But that's starting to be
Speaker 4: you know, that has always been a part of a
Speaker 4: workflow for a creative and now they want to see
Speaker 4: autmost as a part of those workflows in these cars.
Speaker 1: I have to imagine too, that some of the hesitancy,
Speaker 1: I mean, until recent years with automakers has been the
Speaker 1: weight issue. I mean when you're adding like when you're
Speaker 1: adding in sound ending and you're adding in speakers and
Speaker 1: whatever else. Yeah, yeah, you just that's like the opposite
Speaker 1: of what you want to do for most.
Speaker 2: Cars and cost right yeah.
Speaker 1: Yeah, But obviously now we're really in an advanced stage
Speaker 1: where those aren't as much of a factor.
Speaker 2: By the way, Tim what was the uh, you know,
Speaker 2: when I was a kid, my first car was a
Speaker 2: nineteen eighty four baby blue Volvo station Wagon, and I
Speaker 2: had two cassettes. I had a record by Lard which
Speaker 2: was like Jello Biopera and Ministry doing a And I
Speaker 2: had a King Missile record with the detachable penis single.
Speaker 2: And those are the only tapes I had for like
Speaker 2: a year and a half or something. Did you do
Speaker 2: you have a memorable tim like car soundtrack from your youth?
Speaker 4: So my first car was a nineteen eighty eight four
Speaker 4: Bronco two, absolutely lovely car, and same thing. It came
Speaker 4: with a stock stereo system set deck, and I was
Speaker 4: one of many who then ran out to the local
Speaker 4: store and bought an Alpine removable face system and a
Speaker 4: six disc CD changer that was mounted to the back
Speaker 4: and all that.
Speaker 3: I think.
Speaker 4: It was the It was the music that I'd be
Speaker 4: sharing with friends in the car were the ones that
Speaker 4: had the most memories with were suddenly you'd be listening
Speaker 4: to a song together with you know, a buddy, like
Speaker 4: let's say it's you know, my friends and I were
Speaker 4: really into a lot of progressive music, so we put
Speaker 4: on something like, you know, King Crimson, or Pink Floyd,
Speaker 4: and you'd all start cruising around cranking up the music
Speaker 4: and it was like, wow, this is this is awesome
Speaker 4: to be cruising around with the music cranked. Rush was
Speaker 4: probably one of the ones that we did the most
Speaker 4: of where it's just like, okay, throw on Tom Sawyer,
Speaker 4: whose system can handle that first big bass hit? And
Speaker 4: we literally like my body had had a big old
Speaker 4: station Wagon. The drummer because he needed station way. Another
Speaker 4: friend of mine had a jeep which was a pos
Speaker 4: but like because it was just a basic, basic and
Speaker 4: the sound system was terrible because it was a canvas
Speaker 4: top jeep and it just sounded terrible. And another friend
Speaker 4: of mine had like a Forerunner and we would all
Speaker 4: like what sounds best in here?
Speaker 3: And yeah it was. It was great.
Speaker 2: Did you smoke cigarettes in the car back then? Of course, yeah,
Speaker 2: people used to smoke in cars.
Speaker 4: Now, this is in the Midwest where would be freezing
Speaker 4: and you'd have your window.
Speaker 2: If I see somebody smoking in the car, I just
Speaker 2: can't imagine how bad their car smells. But back then
Speaker 2: it was like a normal Hannah, what about you, Did
Speaker 2: you have a car music member?
Speaker 1: No, I mean I had an old Skylark, like a
Speaker 1: seventy one bog Skylark that I shared with my sister
Speaker 1: that we bought for two hundred dollars from a little
Speaker 1: old lady who went to our church, literally, who drove
Speaker 1: it to church on Sundays. And it was a great car.
Speaker 1: But I don't even remember. I honestly don't even remember
Speaker 1: if the radio worked. It must have, but you know
Speaker 1: I do not. I don't have any recollection of that
Speaker 1: car because I was so embarrassed of it. I sold
Speaker 1: my half of it to my sister as quick as
Speaker 1: I could. No, I mean, drive me around. It's very
Speaker 1: cool now. It was all of like this, all of
Speaker 1: green color. It was super cool. But yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: the radio was like an insert, you know, it was.
Speaker 1: It was forgettable.
Speaker 2: Looking at I'm looking at Buick Skylarks like sixty nine. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so cool.
Speaker 1: They're very cool. They're very It was a great condition
Speaker 1: to all.
Speaker 2: Right, So how about Tim? My question is how good
Speaker 2: can automotive audio be? Because I hear from a lot
Speaker 2: of people that it's just not the right environment for
Speaker 2: a high fidelity sound experience. Interesting, I don't know if
Speaker 2: that's true or not. That's just what I kind of hear.
Speaker 2: But I do know that even expensive luxury cars, even
Speaker 2: those that have like you know, Macintosh branded stereo systems
Speaker 2: or like you know, top of the line stuff, it
Speaker 2: just doesn't sound that good. Like it disc can't handle
Speaker 2: the bass, or I'm not getting the mid range that
Speaker 2: I want, or I don't know why. It just isn't
Speaker 2: as good as it is in like the sound studio
Speaker 2: down on housed in a Broadway, you know, right, Yeah, part.
Speaker 4: Of that is a lot of people listen to a
Speaker 4: lot of different genres of music, right, so that those
Speaker 4: genres can have different mixes, different timbre, different soundic qualities.
Speaker 4: And a great serio system is one that knows what
Speaker 4: to do with all that. A great atmost system is
Speaker 4: really meant to be recreating what the artists intended when
Speaker 4: they created their mix and autmost and because the nature
Speaker 4: of ATMOS is immersive, meaning there can be sounds literally
Speaker 4: placed around you, it gives more room and gives you
Speaker 4: more perceived fidelity. You can hear more nuanced and more
Speaker 4: detail in the music and at most than you can
Speaker 4: with stereo, simply because you're no longer fighting for space.
Speaker 4: So if I'm doing a stereo mix, which I love.
Speaker 4: Stereostereia is a wonderful thing. There are things as a
Speaker 4: mix engineer that you do to compensate for the fact
Speaker 4: that you're going to be going through two speakers or
Speaker 4: two channels, even if there's multiple speakers attached to those
Speaker 4: two channels. In at Most and Hannah, you heard this
Speaker 4: when we were giving you some most.
Speaker 3: You're even saying like, I've never heard the guitar do
Speaker 3: that before. I didn't know.
Speaker 4: Which keyboard was doing this choca thing in the background. Yeah,
Speaker 4: like it's always been there, but at moost is allowing
Speaker 4: people to now hear more of that. So to your
Speaker 4: question matter around the fidelity, we have seen a huge
Speaker 4: shift in mentality, especially with our auto OM partners who
Speaker 4: are there's now twenty five of them that have totally
Speaker 4: gotten on board with this, Like Wow, this experience is
Speaker 4: something that is truly unique to where I am getting
Speaker 4: that almost high five audio file studio file studio like
Speaker 4: experience within the car because it's a controlled environment. It's
Speaker 4: a cabin that meaning within the cabin itself for sound.
Speaker 4: It's something that a lot of the audio engineers that
Speaker 4: these companies are really geeking out on because it's like, oh,
Speaker 4: now I can finally really push the limits of what
Speaker 4: audio can sound like in a car, because yes, the
Speaker 4: materials can be expensive, but they're also getting more affordable.
Speaker 4: I know what I can do with DSP and how
Speaker 4: to place speakers around inside of a car, and what
Speaker 4: to do with them to tune them to have the
Speaker 4: best experience. And so now when people here don't be
Speaker 4: at MOST in any of our car partner's cars, it
Speaker 4: is always and I'm not it is always a oh
Speaker 4: my god, this I've never heard music like this before.
Speaker 3: We hear that all the time Transcend.
Speaker 2: I mean, you have multiple partners, so I'm sure you
Speaker 2: want to be fairly brand diagnostic. But can you name
Speaker 2: a few examples of some amazing car stereo systems you've heard? Like,
Speaker 2: have you heard one? And it just blows your mind?
Speaker 3: So we were yes.
Speaker 4: And what's fun too, is that they continue to tweak
Speaker 4: and adjust and improve on them because they can't the
Speaker 4: through the beauty of software. The recent launch we did
Speaker 4: with Cadillac, their entire EV line is now going to
Speaker 4: be supporting if it doesn't already.
Speaker 3: Dolby Utmost was really incredible and the.
Speaker 4: Reason why they're one of the more recent ones that
Speaker 4: have come to market is that they spent time with
Speaker 4: the artists, with musicians in their studios, listening to what
Speaker 4: it sounds like in a studio, and they said, how
Speaker 4: do we make the studio come to the car. That
Speaker 4: was their mentality, and that mentality is really what drove
Speaker 4: that team to take the time.
Speaker 3: It was a couple of.
Speaker 4: Years before they brought it to market because they wanted
Speaker 4: to get it quote unquote right, and right meant an
Speaker 4: artist could sit in their car and go, wow, this
Speaker 4: this does sound a lot like what I experienced in
Speaker 4: the studio. So the Cadillac, the work that Cadillac has
Speaker 4: done has been great. I've heard a majority of them,
Speaker 4: not all of them, but a majority of them, and
Speaker 4: they all sound great for different reasons, depending on the
Speaker 4: placement of the seats, the speakers, et cetera. The Polestars
Speaker 4: are really cool because they've got speakers that are in
Speaker 4: the headrest, so that gives them more ability to adjust
Speaker 4: what they do there and how they render the audio
Speaker 4: within the car. And we work with all these partners
Speaker 4: to help them in tuning their cars.
Speaker 1: Is an ev intrinsically better for sound than a combustion
Speaker 1: engine vehicle just because it's quiet.
Speaker 4: That's an interesting question there. I mean, we had gotten
Speaker 4: a question once from somebody saying, so it's Dold the
Speaker 4: utmost only for evs, because the trend had been almost
Speaker 4: all the cars that were coming to market with THELD
Speaker 4: the utmost for evs. And the answer was it just
Speaker 4: so happened to be a coincidence because those were the newest.
Speaker 3: Cars coming to market for many of these partners.
Speaker 4: It wasn't that it has to be an EV, but
Speaker 4: a majority of them more because that's where they were
Speaker 4: putting most of their R and D and promotion and
Speaker 4: marketing and et cetera.
Speaker 3: There is an.
Speaker 4: Advantage to an EV from yes, the engine noise is
Speaker 4: you know, next there's next to nothing, and they're they're
Speaker 4: incorporating noise into the car so that people can hear it.
Speaker 4: So the cabinets tend to be a little bit quieter
Speaker 4: when it comes to that. But then at the same time,
Speaker 4: every OEM is doing something different and auto partner is
Speaker 4: doing something different when it comes to inside car I
Speaker 4: sound isolation.
Speaker 3: You know, some are.
Speaker 4: Really deadening the sound inside, some are not as much.
Speaker 4: It just depends on what they're doing there. That's all
Speaker 4: part of the system. When you think of the system,
Speaker 4: car partners think of the system as also incorporating the
Speaker 4: sounds of the car itself.
Speaker 2: Or I'm driving this right now. I'm test driving this
Speaker 2: Mustang GT which is a convertible, so obviously it's got
Speaker 2: that high fidelity downside, but I also the speaker, the
Speaker 2: stereo is quite good. It's a banging all of some setup.
Speaker 2: And I've been listening to a lot of metal in there. Earthless.
Speaker 2: Earthless is this trio from San Diego that I recommend.
Speaker 2: It's like, oh, okay, metal jam band. But what I've noticed,
Speaker 2: or what I suspect is because it's a Mustang GTE
Speaker 2: and they want you to feel like a hooligan, and
Speaker 2: kind of the exhaust is you can change the volume
Speaker 2: of it. I think they're also playing the exhaust through
Speaker 2: the audio system or just to make it, yeah, to
Speaker 2: make it sound like you're the V eight really is kicking,
Speaker 2: and it is. I mean, it is a fun car
Speaker 2: to drive, but I keep trying to turn off the
Speaker 2: exhaust so I can just hear Earthless and Dude, all
Speaker 2: of the high end audio systems that I've played with
Speaker 2: in cars and even at my at my in my
Speaker 2: house have these equalizers that are either just as simple
Speaker 2: as treble and bass or treble mid and base, or
Speaker 2: they're like you know, I, as a person who has
Speaker 2: no expertise or experience with sound engineering, I never know
Speaker 2: how to set those Is there a proper way over?
Speaker 2: Is it different for every genre?
Speaker 1: Like?
Speaker 2: Can we get an AI to set it up for me? Like?
Speaker 2: What's what's the deal with those equalizers? Is if I
Speaker 2: leave it on zero zero zero, because I feel like
Speaker 2: Pink Floyd and you guys have done all the work,
Speaker 2: Why would I want to change it?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 4: You know, I always think of EQ as more preference.
Speaker 4: And if you go into it with that mindset versus
Speaker 4: how do I tune this? Am I doing it right
Speaker 4: or wrong?
Speaker 3: You could?
Speaker 4: It gets real dangerous. And the reason why a lot
Speaker 4: of AV systems, whether whether it's an AN a VR
Speaker 4: in somebody's home theater system or the audio system in
Speaker 4: a car, give consumers limited access to that you have
Speaker 4: to actually go deep into a menu with TV, like
Speaker 4: you have to go deep into the menu if you
Speaker 4: really want to adjust the picture.
Speaker 3: Is that you could really screw it up very quickly.
Speaker 3: Especially if you don't know what you're doing.
Speaker 4: And so I always think about things like EQ and
Speaker 4: a car like Based mid Trouble as a preference, and
Speaker 4: usually it's a set it and forget it. You know,
Speaker 4: you kind of get it. It's like, Okay, I mostly
Speaker 4: listened to the genre music. It's a little bass heavy,
Speaker 4: so I'll turn the bass down just a little bit.
Speaker 4: Or I listened to one genre and it's maybe he
Speaker 4: needs a little more base. I find that happy medium,
Speaker 4: and then I set it and forget it. What we've
Speaker 4: done with Dolbiatmoson when we work with our partners is
Speaker 4: they are trying to find ways to make the system
Speaker 4: work the best it can for any genre, and their
Speaker 4: goal is really to represent what the creative was doing
Speaker 4: in the studio. And so, like Hannah, when we were
Speaker 4: sitting in the car, we listened to Sha Ka Khan
Speaker 4: right yea, and then we listened to I think we
Speaker 4: listened to some Marvin Gaye, Yes, John Prince, we listened
Speaker 4: some more some newer music in there.
Speaker 3: We were kind of going, we were kind of going across.
Speaker 4: And at no point did you ever at least you
Speaker 4: didn't say anything to me about oh turn the volume up,
Speaker 4: turn it down, turn the base up, Like no, that
Speaker 4: kind of goes away. And so I think Matt for
Speaker 4: you is just like if you're somebody likes a little
Speaker 4: bit more base, then just turn the base up and
Speaker 4: know that everything you're gonna plays got a little Or
Speaker 4: somebody who's like, I want a little bit more high
Speaker 4: end because my ears are getting older and I need
Speaker 4: it's rolled off a little bit, Like, yes.
Speaker 3: That's it's just preference.
Speaker 1: What is that speaking of? Like equalizing things? Is AI
Speaker 1: becoming a factor in the work that you do? And
Speaker 1: what is the future of sound for Dolby in the
Speaker 1: next five ten years.
Speaker 4: So AI is really exciting when it comes to how
Speaker 4: it can really improve and enhance creativity in general. For Dolby,
Speaker 4: we always start with the creative because they are the
Speaker 4: humans who are the human creative and all the products.
Speaker 4: Even at the top of the hour, when I talked
Speaker 4: about how Ray started with sitting side by side with
Speaker 4: a mixed engineer trying to understand what is the problem
Speaker 4: they're having and them saying, oh, there's all this noise
Speaker 4: getting introduced that you know fit Sixty years later, it's
Speaker 4: still true to where we sit side by side with
Speaker 4: the creatives and try to understand, Okay, what is getting
Speaker 4: in your way of being more creative? Is it workflows
Speaker 4: that could become more efficient? Is it setting up your
Speaker 4: system faster? And those are the things we we learned from,
Speaker 4: right and so we've we definitely AI is not news
Speaker 4: to us. We've used it in a lot of our
Speaker 4: research and technology as we build products for creatives and
Speaker 4: build products for consumers.
Speaker 1: And it's not a scary thing. It's what I hear.
Speaker 1: It's a tool. It's a tool.
Speaker 4: It is a Yeah, we think of it as a tool,
Speaker 4: and AI is something that should be and is being
Speaker 4: embraced by lots of people for ways to become more efficient,
Speaker 4: more effective. So if you think of AI as like, hey,
Speaker 4: could I use this as something that inspires me? Could
Speaker 4: I use this as something that helps get the work
Speaker 4: out of the way so that I can just work. So,
Speaker 4: for example, if I'm a mixing engineer, you know, really
Speaker 4: good mixing engineers are ones who have already kind of
Speaker 4: got their system up and ring, and they know how
Speaker 4: to just get started thinking about it.
Speaker 3: If you're a chef.
Speaker 4: If you're a chef, you know where all your knives
Speaker 4: are you know where all your utensils are, You know
Speaker 4: where you're like, how you're going to work, where you're
Speaker 4: going to move throughout your kitchen. But if you throw
Speaker 4: that chef into a new kitchen, okay, now they have
Speaker 4: to readjust themselves. So now they, you know, think of
Speaker 4: a mixing engineer as Okay, I've got my kitchen, I
Speaker 4: know everything I need to do, But if I get
Speaker 4: thrown into a new situation, could AI help make my
Speaker 4: workflow faster so that can get comfortable right away, so
Speaker 4: that can be started working.
Speaker 3: That's the idea.
Speaker 4: That's one very simple example of that, And so we
Speaker 4: look at things like that like where does AI help
Speaker 4: a creative become more creative?
Speaker 3: And because we have such a deep history.
Speaker 4: And and really relationship with so many of creatives in
Speaker 4: all industries, that's what we hear from them too, like
Speaker 4: we're still going to be turning knobs making decisions, making
Speaker 4: creative decisions because it's the creatives who are finding that
Speaker 4: tapping into that emotional point within their artwork, whether it
Speaker 4: is a movie or a sound design for a movie,
Speaker 4: or sound design for a game, or a mix for
Speaker 4: a song.
Speaker 3: That's the human element.
Speaker 4: AI should just help get It's just like any good
Speaker 4: technology for a creative, the technology should get out of
Speaker 4: the way, right, it shouldn't be the thing holding them up.
Speaker 4: And technology has been I mean as long. I mean
Speaker 4: from the very beginning of recorded music, photography to phono records,
Speaker 4: like that's all technology that help push creatives along. Of like, oh,
Speaker 4: I can now do something that I couldn't do before.
Speaker 4: But if the technology gets too clunky or it's too slow,
Speaker 4: why would I. I mean, you can all relate this
Speaker 4: to anything in your life, like, oh it's too clunky,
Speaker 4: too slow, why am I going to use it?
Speaker 1: Right? Right?
Speaker 2: Dude? You remember when Sim's Dream came out?
Speaker 1: Yeah, what an insane I don't even know what that is.
Speaker 2: The Smashing Pumpkins second record, And you're from Chicago.
Speaker 4: So yeah, my cousin went to school with Billy and
Speaker 4: he was telling me about them before they hit and
Speaker 4: it was funny. I had a quick story on on
Speaker 4: the Pumpkins the music store we were at.
Speaker 3: We ended up doing work.
Speaker 4: With them on the Melancholy record, doing a lot of
Speaker 4: guitar tech and stuff, guitar teching for them and like
Speaker 4: working on their guitars and so I got.
Speaker 3: I had a chance to.
Speaker 4: Meet them and go to the quote unquote Pumpkin Patch
Speaker 4: and all that back in the early nineties and meet
Speaker 4: those folks.
Speaker 3: Really interesting.
Speaker 1: What was the vibe?
Speaker 3: Super creative.
Speaker 4: Gear everywhere, super rock and roll as in, like you know,
Speaker 4: everybody had it. This was ninety three ninety four, so
Speaker 4: they had hit big. We're working on the Melancholy the
Speaker 4: double record, and you walk into this place and it
Speaker 4: was just like guitars everywhere, amps everywhere, two mixing rooms,
Speaker 4: Billy had like a couple of different vocal booth like
Speaker 4: but it was beautiful because it was a creative den.
Speaker 4: I mean, it was them working on what some consider
Speaker 4: their masterpiece record of just total like everything and anything
Speaker 4: technology analog.
Speaker 2: We never understood that Melancholy as a master like to me,
Speaker 2: when Gish first came out, that was an awakening year
Speaker 2: like to me came out almost the same time as
Speaker 2: Pearl Jam ten and nine Inch Nails almost.
Speaker 3: Got lumped into grunge, but it wasn't quite Yeah.
Speaker 2: And then with Simon's Dream, the reason I thinking about
Speaker 2: it not only because you're from Chicago, but because he
Speaker 2: was overdubbing so much that it was like it's an
Speaker 2: element of the it's an instrument on the record and
Speaker 2: all of sound. Yeah, and uh, I just think like
Speaker 2: that's one of the greatest rock and roll American rock
Speaker 2: and roll records of all time. It's just unbelieve.
Speaker 3: He's got a podcast now. I don't know if you
Speaker 3: checked it out, really he he.
Speaker 4: He interviews lots of his friends, and there are all
Speaker 4: these different types of artists, so it's him interviewing Zach
Speaker 4: Wild to Corey Feldman to Bill Burt.
Speaker 2: I think he has Bill Burr on there.
Speaker 4: Bhil Bert, Like it's pretty interesting. You know, he's quite
Speaker 4: the intellectual. His interviews are. His interviews are interesting.
Speaker 3: For sure, very much.
Speaker 2: Tim. It's been so much fun talking to you. I
Speaker 2: hope we can actually have you on again if you're
Speaker 2: ever in New York, come by my studio and.
Speaker 3: Matt we got to get you listening to this stuff
Speaker 3: and atmost more.
Speaker 4: I mean, I would love for you to hear I
Speaker 4: assume you're big into like metal rock.
Speaker 3: It's kind of your vibe.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I like a lot of music, but
Speaker 2: I listened to a lot of Dead a lot of
Speaker 2: obviously that in early nineties kind of grunged up a
Speaker 2: lot of progressive rock I love to so much. Yeah
Speaker 2: at a record store too, Yeah, for years, years and years.
Speaker 4: A couple a couple of records you should check out
Speaker 4: that just came out that are in Atmost where you say,
Speaker 4: where we have creatives because metal and rock have always
Speaker 4: been a little bit more difficult when it comes to
Speaker 4: immersive because so much of the sound is based on
Speaker 4: a crushing stereo field. But they're getting you know, engineers
Speaker 4: are getting more and more educated on how to really
Speaker 4: create that big wall of sound. Judas priests last record
Speaker 4: is in Dolby Utmost and it is a monster of
Speaker 4: a record, as in just both the songs, but the song,
Speaker 4: the songs and the sound that Natmost is pretty awesome.
Speaker 4: The number one rock record right now is by a
Speaker 4: band called Ghost. They're actually one of the first bands
Speaker 4: to hit Billboard Top one hundred period in the last
Speaker 4: five years. I mean it's been mostly solo acts. Their
Speaker 4: new record is in Dolby Utmost. They're kind of like
Speaker 4: a like a i'd say metal versus meets eighties rock
Speaker 4: with a little bit of Queen thrown in there.
Speaker 2: Is all you have to say. I think, Yeah, I.
Speaker 4: Would check them out. I think that's a good one
Speaker 4: for you. And and again in at most uh, those are
Speaker 4: good ones. And then Devin Townsend if you haven't gotten
Speaker 4: into him yet, check out Devin towns And he's kind
Speaker 4: of like the modern day i'd say almost modern day
Speaker 4: Bowie as far as just every record sounds different. It's
Speaker 4: extremely emotional. He loves Autmost his songs are all over
Speaker 4: the place, you know, from real heavy to real folky.
Speaker 3: He does it all. But man, I think he dig those.
Speaker 4: And again they yeah, so respect he's crazy.
Speaker 2: The Brotherhood of the Musician and Billy you know.
Speaker 4: Well and Rob Halford from Priest. There you go, they go,
Speaker 4: thank you so much, guys, it's been fun. Thanks again
Speaker 4: for the time.
Speaker 1: You Know. What I love about Tim is I kind
Speaker 1: of empathize with him because he makes the point that
Speaker 1: he wasn't the best guitar player or the best singer
Speaker 1: or musician or whatever, but he wanted to be around
Speaker 1: creative people. And that is really how I feel. I
Speaker 1: don't consider myself an artist, but I love being a
Speaker 1: round artist and around creative people, and I love trying
Speaker 1: to facilitate them as much as I can. And it
Speaker 1: seems like that's kind of what he loves too, So
Speaker 1: it was really cool.
Speaker 2: You know, it's funny because I actually think of you
Speaker 2: as one of the best journalists that I know.
Speaker 1: I mean you, well, could I just set you up
Speaker 1: for that?
Speaker 2: No, No, I just think you know, when someone talks
Speaker 2: about journalistic integrity, I think of you.
Speaker 1: So that's very kind.
Speaker 2: We have obviously many really talented journalists here, and also
Speaker 2: you can be a talented journalist in a number of
Speaker 2: different ways, right, but I think you are being quite
Speaker 2: modest in the world that Tim was obviously being very
Speaker 2: modest as well. I'm sure when I find out what
Speaker 2: his record is, I'm going to listen to it, and
Speaker 2: I'm sure it's amazing.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I he has I think, according to Google, like
Speaker 1: fifteen albums out, so he's really accomplished. I can't find
Speaker 1: the current album.
Speaker 2: But well, yeah, I have to say, I think that's
Speaker 2: one of the to me, that's one of the most
Speaker 2: important conversations we've had on this podcast, and we've been
Speaker 2: to over a year.
Speaker 1: Really yeah, yeah, Oh, I'm glad you think. Really, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's informative.
Speaker 2: I would I would put him up there.
Speaker 1: We need to stay in touch, we need to stay
Speaker 1: in touch with these guys.
Speaker 2: What have you got going on? I know you had
Speaker 2: a number of luxury cars. I just want to quickly
Speaker 2: ask what is on your docket?
Speaker 1: Well, this week I'm driving the my Bock GLS Night
Speaker 1: Series Edition, which is the one that's two tone with
Speaker 1: wheels that look like discs with the my Bock logo
Speaker 1: repeated all over them in black plastic. Yeah, and the
Speaker 1: inside is white with lots of pillows, lots of suede
Speaker 1: pillows thrown around in pinstre It's funny.
Speaker 2: You'll be driving basically the rich person, the sort of
Speaker 2: loud rich person version of my family car, because we have.
Speaker 1: A gas You're right, and we need to discuss it
Speaker 1: at length when I finish this. I've had the car
Speaker 1: for half a week.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm going to actually get on Thursday. At least
Speaker 2: I think I am gonna get. The press guy is
Speaker 2: like calling me right now nine to eleven gts the
Speaker 2: hybrid car that you drove in Spain.
Speaker 1: Yes, oh good, okay, I can't wait to compare notes.
Speaker 2: I'm very excited. It's obviously not a stick which I
Speaker 2: keep getting these cars that are like vehicles you should
Speaker 2: only buy with the manual transmission. I keep getting the
Speaker 2: non stick version of these. It happened with the BMWM two.
Speaker 2: It happened with the Ford Mustang GT, and those two
Speaker 2: actually come with a manual transmission. This GTS is the
Speaker 2: first generation that doesn't. But I'm being assured that I
Speaker 2: will not miss it. What do you think?
Speaker 1: This could be some sort of universe evolution like consciousness
Speaker 1: raising for you, Matt, And yes, I've been in LA
Speaker 1: too long, but this could be the universe telling you
Speaker 1: your consciousness is being elevated into a post manual environment.
Speaker 2: Most importantly, you and I are going to fly off
Speaker 2: in separate planes to Paris next week. Yes, and then
Speaker 2: we'll get on likely separate trains and meet in Lamont,
Speaker 2: where they do not wait twenty four hour race. I
Speaker 2: can't wait either. This came together so well, don't you think?
Speaker 1: I believe it? At this meeting that we just had
Speaker 1: before recording this podcast, Cas got me really excited because
Speaker 1: we have very good guests. There are a lot of
Speaker 1: people working on it. I also just got off a
Speaker 1: call with Portia right before we spoke, Matt to update
Speaker 1: you on some nice things about from our friends at Porsche.
Speaker 2: That reminds me that I need to put Steiner. I
Speaker 2: need to guess the time slotted in for Steiner.
Speaker 1: We've got some things to do. It's going to be awesome.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm very much looking forward to it. I've never
Speaker 2: been to any kind of twenty four hour race before,
Speaker 2: so this will be my first time.
Speaker 1: I've never been to Laman. I'm really my first time
Speaker 1: at Laman the race. So yeah, I can't wait.
Speaker 2: All right, we'll do a special edition of our podcast
Speaker 2: from there. Yeah, and we're going to have so many
Speaker 2: amazing guests that I don't know how we'll choose, but
Speaker 2: we're going to be tired.
Speaker 1: Also, I think it's going to be grueling for anybody listening.
Speaker 1: This is not a glamour This is not a glamour race. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure our listeners already know that, but
Speaker 1: you know, I have been to the twenty four hours
Speaker 1: at Daytona and it is grueling. This is not some
Speaker 1: fluff fluff piece, you know, Indy five hundreds.
Speaker 2: I'm also going this race.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I'd love to hear what other people, what listeners think
Speaker 2: about this, And you can email us, by the way
Speaker 2: at Hot Pursuit at Bloomberg dot Net. I'm getting the
Speaker 2: sense that, you know, there was a time, obviously when
Speaker 2: the twenty four hour race at Lamon was the proving
Speaker 2: ground for your car. I'm getting the sense that it
Speaker 2: is once again an incredibly important venue. It's like the
Speaker 2: Davos of car makers, because all of the CEOs are
Speaker 2: all the companies.
Speaker 1: Yeah, completely, so completely, Yeah, switching gears, no pun intended.
Speaker 1: Real quick. You know what documentary I started last night,
Speaker 1: Dale Earnhardt. Amazon? Have you seen it? Have you seen it?
Speaker 2: No?
Speaker 1: It's kind of great. The mustaches alone make it worth it.
Speaker 1: It's on Amazon Prime. It's a four part documentary series.
Speaker 1: I'm I'm I've seen the first episode. It's kind of great.
Speaker 1: The accents, the mustaches, the racing suits.
Speaker 2: Good plug.
Speaker 1: I'm into it.
Speaker 2: I'm definitely going to watch that one again.
Speaker 1: It's really good. It's great, all.
Speaker 2: Right, very cool mustache goals, Dale Earnhart. He's right up
Speaker 2: there with Tom Selleck in terms of that. Yeah. All right,
Speaker 2: Well that's all we have time for this week. We'll
Speaker 2: see you back here in a different time, in a
Speaker 2: different place next week. At the same time.
Speaker 1: Speaking French.
Speaker 2: Yes, I'm Matt Miller and I'm
Speaker 1: Hannah Elliott, and this is Bloomberg.