this read like a bad joke:

Have you ever seen the SSL manual? It's as thick as a phone book! I can't stand reading manuals, so I didn't bother. I thought, How hard could it be? So, of course, the next day, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't do the simplest thing: get signal from my two overhead mics onto track 1 and track 2. I tried everything, but all I got was silence.
I was sort of embarrassed and I thought I was a total idiot. I was so frustrated that I literally started crying. Finally, as a last resort, I decided to replace the overheads with a couple of Shure SM57s, my workhorse mics. Immediately, I got a signal. And then it hit me: It wasn't my fault at all. My former engineer had been recording with two broken mics! Unbelievable.


- Eddie Van Halen.

psssst. Ed.


hit the button that....






hrrrmmm



nevermind.

Phantom power..?

I honestly don't have enough knowledge for this to be terribly funny, but might lack of phantom power being on be the culprit?

I'll put it this way...

Umm... Yes.

And this is hysterical.

I now feel superior and find humor in his failure.

As well you should, old chap.

This is only funny because it's someone who should really totally know better making a n00b mistake and being totally beyond oblivious to it to the point of telling a story about it. God knows we've all probably done the same how many times? "Why aren't I getting any sound?" "Well, is it plugged in? Is it turned on?" And generally the answer for "why isn't it working?" is "no".

I'm betting someone got a killer deal on a couple "broken" Neumanns or whatever though.

yes, I made the mistake myself once. Felt like a complete fool when I realized my error. We all do it, looking at the mic like "WTF is your problem buddy?"

The best part is that the context of the question was 'What's the trick to being a good engineer?' . The entire article had this sort of 'advice of a master' theme but he sounded like a tool throughout.

God, GW is lame.

Learn what +48v means

And here I was thinking it was something like "mic placement"?

Eddie Van Hagar

Give him a break, he did figure out cold fusion.

Eddie Van Halen invented humbuckers, the Marshall Plexi, particle beam weapons and oral sex.

All during the same afternoon hangover after having recorded Van Halen II the previous night.

...having recorded Van Halen I and II with things that were not yet invented.

Again, monkey wrench in the time machine.

I suppose he's also mastered time travel, then.

He's already finished his next rap battle.