Clementine's Loop

[Born Under Punches]

I know MacGuffin will probably defer this thread and all (j/k) but I was wondering if any of you guys, either PTA fans or anyone with know-how in music production or whatever can inform me how they created Clementine's Loop?  Also, I've heard it plays in Magnolia but I can't find it anywhere.  Does it appear in Magnolia?

[sphinx]

I know MacGuffin will probably defer this thread and all (j/k) but I was wondering if any of you guys, either PTA fans or anyone with know-how in music production or whatever can inform me how they created Clementine's Loop?  Also, I've heard it plays in Magnolia but I can't find it anywhere.  Does it appear in Magnolia?

clementine's loop is jon brion's creation, made from the sampling of different bells, samples, and atmospheric sounds he found.  brion frequently says that he never mixes songs with electronic samplings in them, he usually finds old instruments and samples their strange, old noises.  the loop can be heard briefly in the prologue of magnolia.  this post has pushed me to post a sticky pta faq

[MacGuffin]

I know MacGuffin will probably defer this thread and all (j/k)

If your question was "What is Clementine's Loop?" and we were on the old boards, I would.

Does it appear in Magnolia?

In the opening, during the Sydney Barringer segment, it plays under the shots of Sydney loading the shotgun and the hallway dolly in of the little neighbor boy talking about how Sydney would help his parents kill themselves.

[Duck Sauce]

i dont care what he says, PTA will use it again some day.

[MrBurgerKing]

Duck Sauce is right. Maybe in 20 years he'll put it in one of his films as a nod to the big fans.

Or maybe he won't.

[82]

I know MacGuffin will probably defer this thread and all (j/k) but I was wondering if any of you guys, either PTA fans or anyone with know-how in music production or whatever can inform me how they created Clementine's Loop?  Also, I've heard it plays in Magnolia but I can't find it anywhere.  Does it appear in Magnolia?

clementine's loop is jon brion's creation, made from the sampling of different bells, samples, and atmospheric sounds he found.  brion frequently says that he never mixes songs with electronic samplings in them, he usually finds old instruments and samples their strange, old noises.  the loop can be heard briefly in the prologue of magnolia.  this post has pushed me to post a sticky pta faq

Usually you are right sphinx.. but in this case.. I don't know where you pulled that crap about different bells and atmospheric sounds...

But... That sound is actually an Optigan which is a synth type piano (OPTIcal orGAN)..Pronounced "Opti-Gone"... PTA mentions this in the Hard Eight Commentary.

I'm pathetic when it comes to PTA.. don't feel bad sphinx...

[sphinx]

are we both right?

Brion's phone started ringing soon after with pitches from artists and managers seeking his services. The Mann albums stood out amid a glut of digitally overproduced California pop albums, Brion framing her songs in eerie, evocative soundscapes, thanks in part to an armada of supposedly outdated instruments he started stockpiling at garage sales and flea markets more than a decade ago: Optigans, Marxophones, Chamberlains.

"Everybody was selling everything they owned because they all bought samplers and sequencers," he says. "I'd buy their old Wurlitzers for $50, knowing that it not only has the complete range of expression a sampler has, but infinitely more because it's a real mechanical instrument so you can play with the mechanisms and alter all the tones as much and as often as you like. People like me, Mitchell Froom and Tom Waits who were using this stuff on our records got laughed at a lot. But about five years ago, enough of these records became well enough known that suddenly vintage keyboards were the thing. I couldn't afford to buy my vintage keyboards now."

As a result, Brion has his fingerprints all over a bunch of albums that don't leave any fingerprints -- that is, it's almost impossible to detect the source for many of the odd but alluring sounds he has conjured. "Sometimes I keep broken stuff just because it makes this one great weird sound," he says. "And I'm not going to get rid of it till I can find a place where that one weird sound is going to have a happy home."

The key is finding the right home. Otherwise Brion would just be the "weird-instruments guy," a sound-effects man. His art is in bringing out the atmosphere and intent of the song rather than merely packing it with sonic details. "Most of the stuff I do is a coloring job, and it's easy," he says. "The hard part is finding human beings who know what they want to convey in a song. If you're not into the songs as a producer, it isn't worth doing the job. Unfortunately, there aren't that many people who have a real individualistic stance."

[82]

are we both right?

Brion's phone started ringing soon after with pitches from artists and managers seeking his services. The Mann albums stood out amid a glut of digitally overproduced California pop albums, Brion framing her songs in eerie, evocative soundscapes, thanks in part to an armada of supposedly outdated instruments he started stockpiling at garage sales and flea markets more than a decade ago: Optigans, Marxophones, Chamberlains.

"Everybody was selling everything they owned because they all bought samplers and sequencers," he says. "I'd buy their old Wurlitzers for $50, knowing that it not only has the complete range of expression a sampler has, but infinitely more because it's a real mechanical instrument so you can play with the mechanisms and alter all the tones as much and as often as you like. People like me, Mitchell Froom and Tom Waits who were using this stuff on our records got laughed at a lot. But about five years ago, enough of these records became well enough known that suddenly vintage keyboards were the thing. I couldn't afford to buy my vintage keyboards now."

As a result, Brion has his fingerprints all over a bunch of albums that don't leave any fingerprints -- that is, it's almost impossible to detect the source for many of the odd but alluring sounds he has conjured. "Sometimes I keep broken stuff just because it makes this one great weird sound," he says. "And I'm not going to get rid of it till I can find a place where that one weird sound is going to have a happy home."

The key is finding the right home. Otherwise Brion would just be the "weird-instruments guy," a sound-effects man. His art is in bringing out the atmosphere and intent of the song rather than merely packing it with sonic details. "Most of the stuff I do is a coloring job, and it's easy," he says. "The hard part is finding human beings who know what they want to convey in a song. If you're not into the songs as a producer, it isn't worth doing the job. Unfortunately, there aren't that many people who have a real individualistic stance."

Well.. the loop seems to be a VERY basic one.. and I would believe PTA when he says its a optigan..  

I read before where people thought it was a Chamberlain..

It would be fun to get ahold of one of these instruments.

[Xixax]

Mark Motherbaugh of Devo (and more recently the "Mutato Muzika" commercial audio production company) swears by his. I think he has a couple of them. He has a neat collection of old stuff like that.

Might I suggest:

http://www.sparklehorse.org/organs.html

and

http://www.optigan.com