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162-556: Steven Paul Smith (August 6, 1969 – October 21, 2003), known as Elliott Smith , was an American musician and singer-songwriter. He was born in Omaha, Nebraska , raised primarily in Texas , and lived much of his life in Portland, Oregon , where he gained popularity. Smith's primary instrument was the guitar, though he also played piano, clarinet, bass guitar, drums, and harmonica. He had

324-410: A National Merit Scholar . After graduation, Smith began calling himself "Elliott", saying that he thought "Steve" sounded too much like a "jock" name, and that "Steven" sounded "too bookish". According to friends, he had also used the pseudonym "Elliott Stillwater-Rotter" during his time in the band A Murder of Crows. Biographer S. R. Shutt speculates that the name was either inspired by Elliott Avenue,

486-1144: A softsynth or virtual instrument (e.g., VSTi ) which converts the data to audio sound. Multitrack software may also provide other features that qualify it being called a digital audio workstation (DAW). These features may include various displays including showing the score of the music, as well as editing capability. There is often overlap between many of the categories of musical software. In this case, scorewriters and full-featured multitrackers such as DAWs have similar features for playback but may have less similarity for editing and recording. Multitrack recording software varies widely in price and capability. Popular multitrack recording software programs include: Reason , Ableton Live , FL Studio , Adobe Audition , Pro Tools , Digital Performer , Cakewalk Sonar , Samplitude , Nuendo , Cubase and Logic . Lower-cost alternatives include Mixcraft , REAPER and n-Track Studio . Open-source and free software programs are also available for multitrack recording. These range from very basic programs such as Jokosher to Ardour and Audacity , which are capable of performing many functions of

648-407: A submix ) onto two (or one) tracks of a multitrack recorder, allowing additional sound (tracks) to be layered on the remaining tracks. During multitracking, multiple musical instruments (and vocals) can be recorded, either one at a time or simultaneously, onto individual tracks, so that the sounds thus recorded can be accessed, processed and manipulated individually to produce the desired results. In

810-438: A "sweeping kaleidoscope of layered instruments and sonic textures". However, some reviewers felt that Smith's trademark dark and melancholy songwriting had lost some of its subtlety, with one reviewer likening some of the lyrics to "the self-pitying complaints of an adolescent venting in his diary". Album art and promotional pictures from the period showed Smith looking cleaned-up and put-together. An extensive tour in promotion of

972-644: A 10 story, $ 98 million headquarters in the Aksarben Village which it completed in Spring 2011. Another major mixed-use development to come to Omaha was Midtown Crossing at Turner Park . Developed by Mutual of Omaha , the development includes several condominium towers and retail businesses built around Omaha's Turner Park. There have also been several developments along the Missouri River waterfront near downtown. The Bob Kerrey Pedestrian Bridge

1134-533: A Basement on the Hill , shortly after the first anniversary of his death. Smith's family, as well as Joanna Bolme, Jennifer Chiba, Neil Gust, Sam Coomes , and Janet Weiss , all declined to be interviewed. It contained interviews with Rob Schnapf, David McConnell, and Pete Krebs . The book received mixed reviews, with Publishers Weekly remarking that while "Nugent manages to patch together the major beats of Smith's life, he can offer little meaningful insight". In 2005,

1296-621: A bad state" at the time. Smith's live performances during 2001 and 2002 were infrequent, typically in the Pacific Northwest or Los Angeles. A review of his December 20, 2001, show at Portland's Crystal Ballroom expressed concern over his appearance and performance: his hair was uncharacteristically greasy and long, his face was bearded and gaunt, and during his songs he exhibited alarming signs of "memory-loss and butterfingers". At another performance in San Francisco that month,

1458-447: A band may start with just the drums is because this allows the band to pick the song's key later on. The producer and the musicians can experiment with the song's key and arrangement against the basic rhythm track. Also, though the drums might eventually be mixed down to a couple of tracks, each individual drum and percussion instrument might be initially recorded to its own individual track. The drums and percussion combined can occupy

1620-556: A bill for the abandoned sessions to DreamWorks, executives Lenny Waronker and Luke Wood scheduled a meeting with Smith to determine what went wrong with the sessions. Smith complained of intrusion upon his personal life from the label, as well as poor promotion for the Figure 8 album. The talks proved fruitless, and soon after, Smith sent a message to the executives, stating that if they did not release him from his contract, he would take his own life. In May 2001, Smith set out to re-record

1782-450: A built-in feature of other audio equipment. Software for multitrack recording can record multiple tracks at once. It generally uses graphic notation for an interface and offers a number of views of the music. Most multitrackers also provide audio playback capability. Some multitrack software also provides MIDI playback functions not just for audio; during playback the MIDI data is sent to

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1944-644: A cabin in the Silver Lake section of town, where he would regularly play intimate, acoustic shows at local venues like Silverlake Lounge . He also performed in Toronto in April that year. In the fall, his cover of the Beatles ' "Because" was featured in the end credits of DreamWorks' Oscar-winning drama American Beauty , and appeared on the film's soundtrack album. Figure 8 , the final album Smith completed,

2106-416: A candid interview in which he spoke of his assessment of his music career until that point: Yeah, I don't know. I mean, I mostly only know things are different because people ask me different questions, but I don't feel like things are very changed. I mean, I still, I do the same things that I did before … I think about the same things, so … I'm the wrong kind of person to be really big and famous. As part of

2268-538: A cliff, but let's talk about something else." Christopher Cooper, head of Cavity Search Records (which released Roman Candle ), said about this time in Smith's life, "I talked him out of thinking that he wanted to kill himself numerous times when he was in Portland, Oregon. I kept telling him that he was a brilliant man, and that life was worth living, and that people loved him." Pete Krebs also agreed: "In Portland we got

2430-538: A computer and audio recording software. Multi-track recording devices vary in their specifications, such as the number of simultaneous tracks available for recording at any one time; in the case of tape-based systems this is limited by, among other factors, the physical size of the tape employed. With the introduction of SMPTE timecode in the early 1970s, engineers began to use computers to perfectly synchronize separate audio and video playback, or multiple audio tape machines. In this system, one track of each machine carried

2592-572: A contract with DreamWorks Records , for which he recorded his final two albums. Smith rose to mainstream prominence when his song " Miss Misery "—included in the soundtrack for the film Good Will Hunting (1997)—was nominated for the 1998 Academy Award for Best Original Song . A heavy drinker and drug user, Smith was also diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and depression . His struggle with drugs and mental illness affected his life and work, and often informed his lyrics. He died at his Los Angeles home from two stab wounds to

2754-576: A course of treatment for substance use disorder. In one of his final interviews, he spoke about the center: "What they do is an IV treatment where they put a needle in your arm, and you're on a drip bag, but the only thing that's in the drip bag is amino acids and saline solution. I was coming off of a lot of psych meds and other things. I was even on an antipsychotic , although I'm not psychotic." Two sold-out solo acoustic concerts at Hollywood's Henry Fonda Theater, on January 31 and February 1, 2003, saw Smith attempting to reestablish his credibility as

2916-450: A difficult childhood and a troubled relationship with his stepfather Charlie Welch. Smith stated he may have been sexually abused by Welch at a young age, an allegation that Welch has denied. He wrote about this part of his life in "Some Song". The name "Charlie" also appears in songs "Flowers for Charlie" and "No Confidence Man". In a 2004 interview, Jennifer Chiba, Smith's partner at the time of his death, said that Smith's difficult childhood

3078-467: A distinctive vocal style in his solo career after Heatmiser , characterized by his "whispery, spiderweb-thin delivery", and often used multi-tracking to create vocal layers, textures, and harmonies that were usually finger picked and recorded with tape. After playing in the rock band Heatmiser for several years, Smith began his solo career in 1994, with releases on the independent record labels Cavity Search and Kill Rock Stars (KRS). In 1997, he signed

3240-463: A double album or a regular album with a bonus disc, it was not clear whether it would have been possible for him to release it that way had he completed it. As completed by Schnapf and Bolme, it was released as a 15-track single album. Many songs from the sessions (later leaked onto the Internet) were not included, such as "True Love", "Everything's OK", "Stickman", and "Suicide Machine" (a reworking of

3402-725: A high-end laptop computer . Though magnetic tape has not been replaced as a recording medium, the advantages of non-linear editing (NLE) and recording have resulted in digital systems largely superseding tape. Even in the 2010s, with digital multitracking being the dominant technology, the original word track is still used by audio engineers. Multitracking can be achieved with analogue recording , tape-based equipment (from simple, late-1970s cassette-based four-track Portastudios, to eight-track cassette machines, to 2" reel-to-reel 24-track machines), digital equipment that relies on tape storage of recorded digital data (such as ADAT eight-track machines) and hard disk -based systems often employing

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3564-514: A large Tier 1 network provider, was founded in Omaha in 1985 as Kiewit Diversified Group, a division of Kiewit Corporation , a Fortune 500 construction and mining company still headquartered in Omaha; Level 3 moved to Denver in 1998. World Com was founded by a merger with Omaha's MFS Communications, started as Metropolitan Fiber Systems in 1993. MFS, backed by Kiewit Corporation CEO Walter Scott Jr. and Warren Buffett , purchased UUNET , one of

3726-415: A large number of tracks utilized in a recording. This is done so that each percussion instrument can be processed individually for maximum effect. Equalization (or EQ) is often used on individual drums, to bring out each one's characteristic sound. The last tracks recorded are often the vocals (though a temporary vocal track may be recorded early on either as a reference or to guide subsequent musicians; this

3888-409: A little more than half of a record done before this new one that I just scrapped because of a blown friendship with someone that made me so depressed I didn't want to hear any of those songs. He was just helping me record the songs and stuff, and then the friendship kind of fell apart all of a sudden one day. It just made it kind of awkward being alone in the car listening to the songs." When Brion sent

4050-602: A live performer. Before the show, Smith scrawled " Kali – the Destroyer" (the Hindu goddess associated with time and change) in large block letters with permanent ink on his left arm, which was visible to the crowd during the performance. On several songs, he was backed by a stripped-down drum kit played by Robin Peringer (of the band 764-HERO ), and members of opening band Rilo Kiley contributed backing vocals to one song. Near

4212-716: A lot of noise." He was also in the process of recording songs for the Thumbsucker soundtrack , including Big Star 's " Thirteen " and Cat Stevens 's "Trouble". In August 2003, Suicide Squeeze Records put out a limited-edition vinyl single for "Pretty (Ugly Before)", a song that Smith had been playing since the Figure ;8 tour. Smith's final show was at Redfest at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City on September 19, 2003. The final song he played live

4374-420: A lot of planning ahead of time, a lot of gear to carry and set up, a lot of waiting, and then a lot of hectic activity over the next 40 minutes or so! There is little doubt that a pseudolive studio performance can enhance certain forms of music, particularly those with a lot of intensity in the live performance, but it still lacks the atmosphere of a real gig. You may record the moment with a portable setup during

4536-406: A mainstream recording technique. Since the early 1990s, many performers have recorded music using only a Mac or PC equipped with multitrack recording software as a tracking machine. The computer must have a sound card or other type of audio interface with one or more Analog-to-digital converters . Microphones are needed to record the sounds of vocalists or acoustic instruments. Depending on

4698-487: A major effect on recording quality. A single studio-quality microphone can cost $ 5,000 or more, while consumer-quality recording microphones can be bought for less than $ 50 each. Microphones also need some type of microphone preamplifier to prepare the signal for use by other equipment. These preamplifiers can also have a major effect on the sound and come in different price ranges, physical configurations, and capability levels. Microphone preamplifiers may be external units or

4860-438: A mile away from the studio, and to reach the location, he would trudge through hundreds of yards of brush and cliffs. He started telling people that DreamWorks was out to get him: "Not long ago my house was broken into, and songs were stolen off my computer which have wound up in the hands of certain people who work at a certain label. I've also been followed around for months at a time. I wouldn't even want to necessarily say it's

5022-402: A mistake in it, and wanted to replace it, one could do so by re-recording only the guitar part (i.e., re-recording only the track on which the guitar was recorded), rather than re-recording the entire song. If all the voices and instruments in a recording are individually recorded on distinct tracks, then the artist is able to retain complete control over the final sculpting of the song, during

Elliott Smith - Misplaced Pages Continue

5184-623: A nearly $ 500 million system of public transit. According to the United States Census Bureau , the city has a total area of 130.58 sq mi (338.20 km ), of which 127.09 sq mi (329.16 km ) is land and 3.49 sq mi (9.04 km ) is water. Situated in the Midwestern United States on the bank of the Missouri River in eastern Nebraska, much of Omaha is built in

5346-407: A single track ('mixed down'), they were previously considered inseparable. More recent software allows sound source separation, whereby individual instruments, voices and effects can be upmixed — isolated from a single-track source — in high quality. This has permitted the production of stereophonic or surround sound mixes of recordings that were originally mastered and released in mono. The process

5508-496: A small acoustic guitar bought for him by his father. At this age he composed an original piano piece, "Fantasy", which won him a prize at an arts festival. Many of the people on his mother's side of the family were non-professional musicians; his grandfather was a Dixieland drummer, and his grandmother sang in a glee club . At fourteen, Smith left his mother's home in Texas and moved to Portland, Oregon, to live with his father, who

5670-404: A solo melody has its own microphone, the different microphones can record on multiple tracks simultaneously. After recording the orchestra, the record producer and conductor can adjust the balance and tone of the different instrument sections and solo instruments, because each section and solo instrument was recorded to its own track. With the rock or pop band example, after recording some parts of

5832-407: A song, an artist might listen to only the guitar part, by muting all the tracks except the one on which the guitar was recorded. If one then wanted to listen to the lead vocals in isolation, one would do so by muting all the tracks apart from the lead vocals track. If one wanted to listen to the entire song, one could do so by un-muting all the tracks. If one did not like the guitar part, or found

5994-485: A street that Smith had lived on in Portland, or that it was suggested by his then-girlfriend. A junior high acquaintance of Smith speculates Smith changed his name so as not to be confused with Steve Smith , the drummer of Journey . In 1991 Smith graduated from Hampshire College in Amherst, Massachusetts with a degree in philosophy and political science . "Went straight through in four years", he explained to Under

6156-415: A tribute album, A Tribute to Elliott Smith , was released. It featured various bands performing tributes to Smith. On May 8, 2007, a posthumous compilation album New Moon , was released by Kill Rock Stars. It contained 24 songs recorded by Smith between 1994 and 1997 during his tenure with the label, songs that were not included on albums, as well as a few early versions and previously released B-sides. In

6318-555: Is 23.5 °F (−4.7 °C), with lows reaching 0 °F (−18 °C) on 11 days annually. The lowest temperature recorded in the city was −32 °F (−35.6 °C) on January 5, 1884, and the highest 114 °F (45.6 °C) on July 25, 1936 . Average yearly precipitation is 30.6 in (777 mm), falling mostly in the warmer months. Snow is the most common precipitation in winter, with average seasonal snowfall being 28.7 in (72.9 cm). Based on 30-year averages obtained from NOAA 's National Climatic Data Center for

6480-625: Is built into the computer motherboard . The most sophisticated audio interfaces are external units of professional studio quality which can cost thousands of dollars. Professional interfaces usually use one or more IEEE 1394 (commonly known as FireWire) connections. Other types of interfaces may use internal PCI cards, or external USB connections. Popular manufacturers of high-quality interfaces include Apogee Electronics , Avid Audio (formerly Digidesign), Echo Digital Audio, Focusrite , MOTU , RME Audio, M-Audio and PreSonus . Microphones are often designed for highly specific applications and have

6642-411: Is chosen as the recording method (as opposed to direct to stereo, for example), a different arrangement is used; all tracks are recorded simultaneously. Sound barriers are often placed between different groups within the orchestra, e.g. pianists, violinists, percussionists, etc. When barriers are used, these groups listen to each other via headphones . Multitrack live recording is a lot like gigging –

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6804-464: Is considered as being in the "Heartland" of the United States. Important environmental impacts on the natural habitat in the area include the spread of invasive plant species, restoring prairies and bur oak savanna habitats, and managing the whitetail deer population. Omaha is home to several hospitals, mostly along Dodge Street (US6). Being the county seat, it is also the location of

6966-796: Is now the home of the College World Series , an event tourists flock to each year. The Union Pacific Center and the Holland Performing Arts Center opened in 2004 and 2005, respectively. Important retail and office developments occurred in West Omaha, such as the Village Pointe shopping center and several business parks. The site of the former Ak-Sar-Ben arena was redeveloped into a mixed-use development Aksarben Village . In January 2009, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska announced plans to build

7128-409: Is satisfied with the recorded sound finished tracks can be mixed into a new stereo pair of tracks within the multitrack recording software. Finally, the final stereo recording can be written to a CD, which can be copied and distributed. In modern popular songs, drums , percussion instruments and electric bass are often among the first instruments to be recorded. These are the core instruments of

7290-500: Is sometimes called a guide vocal , ghost vocal or scratch vocal ). One reason for this is that singers will often temper their vocal expression in accordance with the accompaniment. Producers and songwriters can also use the guide/scratch vocal when they have not quite ironed out all the lyrics or for flexibility based on who sings the lead vocal (as The Alan Parsons Project 's Eric Woolfson often did). For classical and jazz recordings, particularly instrumentals where multitracking

7452-545: Is the location of Carter Lake, an oxbow lake . The lake was once the site of East Omaha Island and Florence Lake, which dried up in the 1920s. The Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area consists of eight counties; five in Nebraska and three in Iowa. The metropolitan area now includes Harrison , Pottawattamie , and Mills Counties in Iowa and Washington , Douglas, Sarpy , Cass , and Saunders Counties in Nebraska. This area

7614-779: The Enola Gay and Bockscar used in the atomic bombing of Japan in World War II. The construction of Interstates 80 , 480 and 680 , along with the North Omaha Freeway , spurred development. There was also controversy, particularly in North Omaha, where new routes bisected several neighborhoods. Creighton University hosted the DePorres Club , an early civil rights group whose use of sit-in strategies for integration of public facilities predated

7776-714: The Yellow No. 5 EP (1994) on Frontier Records . They were then signed to Virgin Records to release what became their final album Mic City Sons (1996). Around this time, Smith and Gust worked a number of odd jobs around Portland, including installing drywall, spreading gravel, transplanting bamboo trees, and painting the roof of a warehouse with heat reflective paint. The pair were also on unemployment benefits for some time, which they considered an "artist grant". Smith had begun his solo career while still in Heatmiser, and

7938-603: The Billboard 200 and number 123 on the UK Album Charts, while selling 400,000 copies (more than double that of each of his two Kill Rock Stars releases), becoming the best-selling release of his career. Smith's backing band during most of this period was the Portland-based group Quasi , consisting of former bandmate Sam Coomes on bass guitar and Coomes's ex-wife Janet Weiss on drums. Quasi also performed as

8100-490: The Burlington Railroad , bringing along Gatling guns and a cannon for defense. When the event ended, one man was dead and several were wounded. In 1891, a mob hanged Joe Coe , an African-American porter after he was accused of raping a white girl. There were also several other riots and civil unrest events in Omaha during this period. In 1898, Omaha's leaders, under the guidance of Gurdon Wattles , held

8262-642: The Douglas County Courthouse to get the prisoner, causing more than $ 1 million damage. They hanged and shot Will Brown, then burned his body. Troops were called in from Fort Omaha to quell the riot, prevent more crowds gathering in South Omaha, and to protect the black community in North Omaha. The culture of North Omaha thrived throughout the 1920s through 1950s, with several creative figures, including Tillie Olsen , Wallace Thurman , Lloyd Hunter , and Anna Mae Winburn emerging from

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8424-537: The Figure 8 -era unreleased instrumental "Tiny Time Machine"). There has been unconfirmed speculation that Smith's family made the decision not to include some songs on the record due to their lyrical content, although songs such as "King's Crossing" that deal with darker subjects did make the album. Elliott Smith and the Big Nothing , a biography by Benjamin Nugent , was rushed to publication shortly after From

8586-461: The Missouri River , about 10 mi (15 km) north of the mouth of the Platte River . The nation's 40th-most populous city , Omaha had a population of 486,051 as of the 2020 census . It is the anchor of the eight-county Omaha–Council Bluffs metropolitan area , which extends into Iowa and is the 58th-largest metro area in the United States, with a population of 967,604. Furthermore,

8748-635: The Missouri River Valley . Other significant bodies of water in the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area include Lake Manawa, Papillion Creek , Carter Lake , Platte River and the Glenn Cunningham Lake . The city's land has been altered considerably with substantial land grading throughout Downtown Omaha and scattered across the city. East Omaha sits on a flood plain west of the Missouri River. The area

8910-472: The Omaha Claim Club was formed to provide vigilante justice for claim jumpers and others who infringed on the land of many of the city's founding fathers . Some of this land, which now wraps around Downtown Omaha, was later used to entice Nebraska Territorial legislators to an area called Scriptown . The Territorial capitol was in Omaha, but when Nebraska became a state in 1867, the capital

9072-465: The Roman Candle days. He finally began recording a new album with only himself and Jon Brion as producers sometime during 2001. The pair had recorded a substantial amount of music for the album when Brion stopped the sessions because of Smith's struggle with substance use disorder. Their friendship promptly ended, and Smith scrapped all of their work until that point. He later said "There was even

9234-691: The Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition , touted as a celebration of agricultural and industrial growth throughout the Midwest . The Indian Congress , which drew more than 500 American Indians from across the country, was held simultaneously. More than 2 million visitors attended these events at Kountze Park and the Omaha Driving Park in the Kountze Place neighborhood. With dramatically increasing population in

9396-667: The Woodmen Tower as the tallest building in Omaha and the state at 634 ft (193 m). The creation of the city's new North Downtown included the construction of the CenturyLink Center and the Slowdown / Film Streams development at North 14th and Webster Streets. Construction of the new TD Ameritrade Park , also in the North Downtown area, began in 2009 and was completed in 2011. TD Ameritrade Park

9558-530: The lead vocals , while not being applied to other tracks where this effect would not be desirable (e.g., on the electric bass ). Multitrack recording was much more than a technical innovation; it also enabled record producers and artists to create new sounds that would be impossible to create outside of the studio, such as a lead singer adding many harmony vocals with their own voice to their own lead vocal part, an electric guitar player playing many harmony parts along with their own guitar solo , or even recording

9720-444: The rhythm section . Musicians recording later tracks use the precise attack of the drum sounds as a rhythmic guide. In some styles, the drums may be recorded for a few bars and then looped. Click ( metronome ) tracks are also often used as the first sound to be recorded, especially when the drummer is not available for the initial recording, and/or the final mix will be synchronized with motion picture and/or video images. One reason that

9882-454: The 1860s and its graves were moved to Prospect Hill, where pioneers were later joined by soldiers from Fort Omaha , African Americans and early European immigrants . There are several other historical cemeteries in Omaha , historical Jewish synagogues and historical Christian churches dating from the pioneer era, as well. Two sculpture parks, Pioneer Courage and Spirit of Nebraska's Wilderness and The Transcontinental Railroad , celebrate

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10044-465: The 1950s, development of highways and new housing led to the movement of the middle class to suburbs in West Omaha. Some of the movement was designated as white flight from racial unrest in the 1960s. Newer and poorer migrants lived in older housing close to downtown; those residents who were more established moved west into newer housing. Some suburbs are gated communities or have become edge cities . Recently, Omahans have made strides to revitalize

10206-486: The 1960s, three major race riots along North 24th Street destroyed the Near North Side's economic base, with recovery slow for decades. In 1969, Woodmen Tower was completed and became Omaha's tallest building and first major skyscraper at 478 ft (146 m), a sign of renewal. Since the 1970s, Omaha has continued expanding and growing, mostly to available land to the west. West Omaha has become home to

10368-828: The 19th century, first rampant in the city's Burnt District and later in the Sporting District . Controlled by Omaha's political boss Tom Dennison by 1890, criminal elements enjoyed support from Omaha's "perpetual" mayor, "Cowboy Jim" Dahlman, nicknamed for his eight terms as mayor. Calamities such as the Great Flood of 1881 did not slow down the city's violence. In 1882, the Camp Dump Strike pitted state militia against unionized strikers, drawing national attention to Omaha's labor troubles. The Governor of Nebraska had to call in U.S. Army troops from nearby Fort Omaha to protect strikebreakers for

10530-484: The 2010s, many rock and pop bands record each part of the song one after the other. First, the bass and drums are often recorded, followed by the chordal rhythm section instruments. Then the lead vocals and guitar solos are added. As a last step, the harmony vocals are added. On the other hand, orchestras are always recorded with all 70 to 100 instrumentalists playing their parts simultaneously. If each group of instrument has its own microphone, and each instrument with

10692-445: The 20th century, competition and fierce labor struggles led to major civil unrest. In 1900, Omaha was the center of a national uproar over the kidnapping of Edward Cudahy, Jr. , the son of a local meatpacking magnate. The city's labor and management clashed in bitter strikes, racial tension escalated as blacks were hired as strikebreakers, and ethnic strife broke out. A major riot by earlier immigrants in South Omaha destroyed

10854-549: The 20th century, the Omaha Stockyards , once the world's largest, and its meatpacking plants gained international prominence. Omaha is the home to the headquarters of four Fortune 500 companies: Berkshire Hathaway , Kiewit Corporation , Mutual of Omaha , and Union Pacific Corporation . Other companies headquartered in the city include First National Bank of Omaha , Gallup, Inc. , Green Plains , Intrado , Valmont Industries , Werner Enterprises , and three of

11016-576: The 3M and Mitsubishi X-800 32-track machines, and Sony DASH PCM-3324 and later the PCM-3348 machines, which allowed greater flexibility with more available tracks for recording. As well, in order to mix using automation on the console, analogue recorders generally required adjacent tracks to the time code track to be kept blank to avoid the time code signal interfering with the audio signals, which limited available tracks to 22 or 23 track at most. Digital multitrack machines had time code inserted elsewhere on

11178-637: The 42nd-largest city in the United States, and is the core city of its 60th-largest metropolitan area. There are no consolidated city-counties in the area; the City of Omaha studied the possibility extensively through 2003 and concluded, "The City of Omaha and Douglas County should merge into a municipal county, work to commence immediately, and that functional consolidations begin immediately in as many departments as possible, including but not limited to parks, fleet management, facilities management, local planning , purchasing and personnel." Geographically, Omaha

11340-452: The Bars" with composer Danny Elfman for the movie. Smith also contributed a new song, "Miss Misery", and three previously released tracks ("No Name #3", from Roman Candle , and "Angeles" and "Say Yes", from Either/Or ). The film was a commercial and critical success, and Smith was nominated for an Academy Award for "Miss Misery". Not eager to step into the limelight, he agreed to perform

11502-568: The Beatles' self-titled ninth album . The Beach Boys ' Pet Sounds also made innovative use of multitracking with eight-track machines of the day (circa 1965). Motown also began recording with eight-track machines in 1965, before moving to 16-track machines in mid-1969. Multitrack recording also allows any recording artist to record multiple takes of any given section of their performance, allowing them to refine their performance to virtual perfection by making additional takes of songs or instrumental tracks. A recording engineer can record only

11664-520: The Dutch television special, Smith played live versions of "Waltz No. 2 (XO)", "Miss Misery", and "I Didn't Understand"—the latter two songs were performed solely on piano, while the first song was cut short by Smith, as he explained: "I had to stop it because it's… you know, what's the point of playing a song badly? It'd be better to play it and mean it, than to just walk through it." Smith relocated from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1999, taking up residence at

11826-428: The Heatmiser material, all solo songs recorded until his 1998 record deal with DreamWorks Records , and From a Basement on the Hill . DreamWorks Records was acquired by Universal Music Group in 2003, and Interscope Records currently "owns all studio and live recording from Jan 1998 to his passing, except for the songs on From a Basement on the Hill ." In December 2009, Kill Rock Stars announced that it had obtained

11988-853: The Omaha language means "Upstream People" or "Against the Current". In 1804 the Lewis and Clark Expedition passed the riverbanks where the city of Omaha would be built. Between July 30 and August 3, 1804, members of the expedition, including Meriwether Lewis and William Clark , met with Oto and Missouria tribal leaders at the Council Bluff at a point about 20 mi (32 km) north of present-day Omaha. Immediately south of that area, Americans built several fur trading outposts in succeeding years, including Fort Lisa in 1812; Fort Atkinson in 1819; Cabanné's Trading Post , built in 1822, and Fontenelle's Post in 1823, in what became Bellevue . There

12150-615: The Qwest/Century Link Center. These events were highlights in the city's sports community , as well as a showcase for redevelopment in the downtown area. In the 2020s, a number of large projects have been either completed or planned in an attempt to revitalize downtown Omaha. These include the redevelopment of the Gene Leahy Mall , a large park near Omaha's Riverfront, and the Omaha Streetcar ,

12312-513: The Radar in 2003. "I guess it proved to myself that I could do something I really didn't want to for four years. Except I did like what I was studying. At the time it seemed like, 'This is your one and only chance to go to college and you had just better do it because some day you might wish that you did.' Plus, the whole reason I applied in the first place was because of my girlfriend, and I had gotten accepted already even though we had broken up before

12474-587: The US. A greatest hits compilation titled An Introduction to... Elliott Smith was released in November 2010 by Domino Records (UK) and Kill Rock Stars (US). Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( / ˈ oʊ m ə h ɑː / OH -mə-hah ) is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County . It is located in the Midwestern United States along

12636-406: The United States, a record that still stands as of 2013. The Jobbers Canyon Historic District , along the Missouri River, was felled for a new headquarters campus for ConAgra Foods, a company which threatened to relocate if Omaha did not allow them to raze the city's historic district. The Jobber's Canyon warehouses had before then been allowed to deteriorate and were the scene of several fires set by

12798-423: The United States, the album debuted at number 24 on the Billboard 200, selling about 24,000 copies in its first week. The record received favorable reviews and was Metacritic's 15th best-reviewed album of 2007. A portion of the proceeds from album sales were to go to Outside In , a social service agency for low-income adults and homeless youth in Portland, Oregon. On October 25, 2007, a book titled Elliott Smith

12960-480: The album, mostly on his own, but with some help from David McConnell of Goldenboy . McConnell told Spin that, during this time, Smith smoked over $ 1,500 worth of heroin and crack per day, often talked about suicide, and on numerous occasions tried to give himself an overdose. Steven Drozd of The Flaming Lips and Scott McPherson of Sense Field played a few drum tracks, Sam Coomes contributed some bass guitar and backing vocals, but almost every other instrument

13122-486: The area that became Omaha. Brown is generally credited as having the first vision for a city where Omaha now sits. The passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act in 1854 was presaged by the staking out of claims around the area to become Omaha by residents from neighboring Council Bluffs. On July 4, 1854, the city was informally established at a picnic on Capital Hill, current site of Omaha Central High School . Soon after,

13284-401: The artist could blend and alter all of the instrument and vocal sounds with complete freedom. Multitracking a song also leaves open the possibilities of remixes by the same or future artists, such as DJs . If the song was not available in a multitrack format recording, the job of the remixing artist was very difficult, or impossible, because, once the tracks had been re-recorded together onto

13446-548: The audience began shouting out lyrics when Smith could not remember them. In the first of only three concerts performed in 2002, Smith co-headlined Northwestern University's A&O Ball with Wilco on May 2 in Chicago. He was onstage for nearly an hour but failed to complete half of the songs. He claimed that his poor performance was due to his left hand having fallen asleep and told the audience it felt "like having stuff on your hand and you can't get it off". Smith's performance

13608-480: The brunt of Elliott's initial depression ... Lots of people have stories of their own experiences of staying up with Elliott 'til five in the morning, holding his hand, telling him not to kill himself." Smith's first release for DreamWorks was later that year. Titled XO , it was conceived and developed while Smith wrote it out over the winter of 1997/1998, night after night seated at the bar in Luna Lounge . It

13770-460: The capabilities of the system, some instruments, such as a synthesizer or electric guitar , can also be sent to an interface directly using Line level or MIDI inputs. Direct inputs eliminate the need for microphones and can provide another range of sound control options. There are tremendous differences in computer audio interfaces. Such units vary widely in price, sound quality, and flexibility. The most basic interfaces use audio circuitry that

13932-640: The chest at age 34 in 2003. The autopsy evidence did not determine whether the wounds were self-inflicted. At the time of his death, Smith was working on his album From a Basement on the Hill , posthumously produced and released in 2004. Steven Paul Smith was born on August 6, 1969, at the Methodist Hospital in Omaha, Nebraska, the only child of Gary Smith, a student at the University of Nebraska Medical Center , and Bunny Kay Berryman, an elementary school music teacher. His parents divorced when he

14094-699: The city's Greek Town in 1909, completely driving out the Greek population. The civil rights movement in Omaha has roots that extend back to 1912, when the first chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People west of the Mississippi River was founded in the city. The Omaha Easter Sunday Tornado of 1913 destroyed much of the city's African-American community, in addition to much of Midtown Omaha. It

14256-460: The city's development, were founded in South Omaha in 1883. Within 20 years, Omaha had four of the five major meatpacking companies in the United States. By the 1950s, half the city's workforce was employed in meatpacking and processing. Meatpacking, jobbing and railroads were responsible for most of the growth in the city from the late 19th century through the early decades of the 20th century. Immigrants soon created ethnic enclaves throughout

14418-621: The city's pioneering history. The economy of Omaha boomed and busted through its early years. In 1858, the Omaha Daily Republican was founded by the Omaha Printing Company (rebranded Aradius Group, 2016) , it was Nebraska's first regional newspaper–founded before Nebraska claimed statehood. Omaha was a stopping point for settlers and prospectors heading west, either overland or by the Missouri River. The steamboat Bertrand sank north of Omaha on its way to

14580-568: The city's sprawling park system on boulevards designed by renowned landscape architect Horace Cleveland . The Omaha Horse Railway first carried passengers throughout the city, as did the later Omaha Cable Tramway Company and several similar companies. In 1888, the Omaha and Council Bluffs Railway and Bridge Company built the Douglas Street Bridge , the first pedestrian and wagon bridge between Omaha and Council Bluffs. Gambling, drinking and prostitution were widespread in

14742-698: The city, including Irish in Sheelytown in South Omaha; Germans in the Near North Side , joined by the European Jews and black migrants from the South ; and Little Italy and Little Bohemia in South Omaha. Beginning in the late 19th century, Omaha's upper class lived in posh enclaves throughout the city, including the south and north Gold Coast neighborhoods, Bemis Park , Kountze Place , Field Club and throughout Midtown Omaha . They traveled

14904-559: The corner." Smith had attempted to go to rehab several times, but found that he was unable to relate to the popular treatments for people with substance use disorder who used a twelve-step program basis for treatment. "I couldn't do the first step ... I couldn't say what you were supposed to say and mean it." In 2002, Smith went to the Neurotransmitter Restoration Center in Beverly Hills to start

15066-675: The county courthouse. Omaha is generally divided into six geographic areas: Downtown, Midtown, North Omaha, South Omaha, West Omaha, and East Omaha. West Omaha includes the Miracle Hills, Boys Town , Regency, and Gateway areas. The city has a wide range of historical and new neighborhoods and suburbs that reflect its socioeconomic diversity. Early neighborhood development happened in ethnic enclaves, including Little Italy , Little Bohemia , Little Mexico and Greek Town . According to U.S. Census data, five European ethnic enclaves existed in Omaha in 1880, expanding to nine in 1900. Around

15228-481: The device will be used for each instrument, voice, or other input and can even blend one track with two instruments to vary the music and sound options available. At any given point on the tape, any of the tracks on the recording device can be recording or playing back using sel-sync or Selective Synchronous recording. This allows an artist to be able to record onto track 2 and, simultaneously, listen to track 1, 3 and 7, allowing them to sing or to play an accompaniment to

15390-741: The downtown and Midtown areas with the redevelopment of the Old Market, Turner Park, Gifford Park, and the designation of the Omaha Rail and Commerce Historic District . Omaha, due to its latitude of 41.26˚ N and location far from moderating bodies of water or mountain ranges, displays a hot-summer humid continental climate ( Köppen : Dfa ). July averages 76.7 °F (24.8 °C), with average relative humidity around 70% which then leads to relatively frequent thunderstorms. Temperatures reach 90 °F (32 °C) on 29 days and 100 °F (38 °C) on 1.7 days annually. The January daily average

15552-508: The drums and replaying the track backwards for an unusual effect. In the 1980s and 1990s, computers provided means by which both sound recording and reproduction could be digitized , revolutionizing audio recording and distribution. In the 2000s, multitracking hardware and software for computers was of sufficient quality to be widely used for high-end audio recordings by both professional sound engineers and by bands recording without studios using widely available programs, which can be used on

15714-538: The end of the first show, the musician responded for several minutes after a heckler yelled "Get a backbone". Smith played two more Los Angeles concerts that year: The Derby in May 2003, and the L.A. Weekly Music Awards in June 2003. After his 34th birthday on August 6, 2003, he gave up alcohol. Director Mike Mills had been working with Smith during his final years and described Smith's troubles and apparent recovery: "I gave

15876-457: The fact that sometimes people look at major labels as simply money-making machines, they're actually composed of individuals who are real people, and there's a part of them that needs to feel that part of their job is to put out good music." Smith also claimed in another interview that he never read his reviews for fear that they would interfere with his songwriting. It was during this period that Smith appeared on Dutch television in 1998 and provided

16038-590: The first ski lift in the U.S.; the Top 40 radio format as first used in the U.S. at Omaha's KOWH Radio ; and the TV dinner . Various Native American tribes had lived in the land that became Omaha since the 17th century, including the Omaha and Ponca , Dhegihan-Siouan language people who had originated in the lower Ohio River valley and migrated west by the early 17th century; Pawnee , Otoe , Missouri , and Ioway . The word Omaha (actually Umoⁿhoⁿ or Umaⁿhaⁿ ) in

16200-467: The first day." After he graduated, he "worked in a bakery back in Portland with a bachelor's degree in philosophy and legal theory". While at Hampshire College, Smith formed the band Heatmiser with classmate Neil Gust . After Smith graduated from Hampshire, the band added drummer Tony Lash and bassist Brandt Peterson and began performing around Portland in 1992. The group released the albums Dead Air (1993) and Cop and Speeder (1994), as well as

16362-744: The goldfields in 1865. Its massive collection of artifacts is on display at the nearby Desoto National Wildlife Refuge . The jobbing and wholesaling district brought new jobs, followed by the railroads and the stockyards. Groundbreaking for the First transcontinental railroad in 1863, provided an essential developmental boom for the city. In 1862, the U.S. Congress allowed the Union Pacific Railroad to begin building westward railways; in January 1866 it commenced construction out of Omaha. The Union Stockyards , another important part of

16524-453: The greater Omaha–Council Bluffs–Fremont combined statistical area had 1,004,771 residents in 2020. Omaha's pioneer period began in 1854, when the city was founded by speculators from neighboring Council Bluffs, Iowa . The city was founded along the Missouri River, and a crossing called Lone Tree Ferry earned the city its nickname, the "Gateway to the West". Omaha introduced this new West to

16686-408: The homeless population that had come to live in the abandoned buildings. At the time, there were no plans in place for revitalizing the buildings. In the 1980s and 1990s, Omaha also saw major company headquarters leave the city, including Enron , founded in the city in 1930 and taken to Houston in 1987 by the now-notorious Kenneth Lay . First Data Corporation, a large credit-card processor, also

16848-408: The house orchestra. Smith did not voice disappointment about not winning. He described the experience as surreal, and said: "The Oscars was a very strange show, where the set was only one song cut down to less than two minutes, and the audience was a lot of people who didn't come to hear me play. I wouldn't want to live in that world, but it was fun to walk around on the moon for a day." In 1998, after

17010-473: The intent of learning how to record with computers, noting that it was the only method with which he was still unfamiliar. Smith jokingly labeled his experimental way of recording "The California Frown" (a play on the Beach Boys ' " California Sound "). He said "They're kind of more noisy with the pitch all distorted. Some are more acoustic, but there aren't too many like that. Lately I've just been making up

17172-637: The lands that now make up the state. The treaty and cession involving the Omaha area occurred in 1854 when the Omaha Tribe ceded most of east-central Nebraska. Logan Fontenelle , an interpreter for the Omaha and signatory to the 1854 treaty, played an essential role in those proceedings. Before it was legal to claim land in Indian Country , William D. Brown operated the Lone Tree Ferry that brought settlers from Council Bluffs, Iowa to

17334-422: The largest Internet backbones in the world, for $ 2 billion in 1996. The now-infamous Bernie Ebbers purchased the much larger MFS for $ 14.3 billion in 1997 under his World Com . He moved headquarters of the merged company from Omaha to Mississippi. Around the start of the 21st century, several downtown skyscrapers and cultural institutions were built. One First National Center was completed in 2002, surpassing

17496-468: The late 1960s, the city rivaled, but never surpassed, the United States insurance centers of Hartford, Connecticut , New York City and Boston . After surpassing Chicago in meat processing by the late 1950s, Omaha suffered the loss of 10,000 jobs as both the railroad and meatpacking industries restructured. The city struggled for decades to shift its economy as workers suffered. Poverty became more entrenched among families who remained in North Omaha. In

17658-668: The late 1970s. In the 1980s, Omaha's fruit warehouses were converted into a shopping area called the Old Market . The demolition of Jobber's Canyon in 1989 led to the creation of the ConAgra Foods campus. Several nearby buildings, including the Nash Block , have been converted into condominiums. The stockyards were taken down; the only surviving building is the Livestock Exchange Building , which

17820-417: The majority of the city's population. North and South Omaha's populations continue to be centers of new immigrants, with economic and racial diversity. In 1975 a major tornado , along with a major blizzard , caused more than $ 100 million in damages in 1975 dollars. Downtown Omaha has since been rejuvenated in numerous ways, starting with the development of Gene Leahy Mall and W. Dale Clark Library in

17982-466: The mix-down (re-recording to two stereo tracks for mass distribution) phase. For example, if an artist wanted to apply one effects unit to a synthesizer part, a different effect to a guitar part, a chorused reverb effect to the lead vocals, and different effects to all the drums and percussion instruments, they could not do so if they had all been originally recorded together onto the same track. However, if they had been recorded onto separate tracks, then

18144-448: The months of December, January and February, Weather Channel ranked Omaha the 5th coldest major U.S. city as of 2014. Multitrack recording A multitrack recorder allows one or more sound sources to different tracks to be simultaneously recorded, which may subsequently be processed and mixed separately. Take, for example, a band with vocals, guitars, a keyboard, bass, and drums that are to be recorded. The singer's microphone,

18306-464: The most common being five tracks, with an additional low-frequency effects track, hence the 5.1 surround sound most commonly available on DVDs.) Most of the records, CDs and cassettes commercially available in a music store are recordings that were originally recorded on multiple tracks, and then mixed down to stereo. In some rare cases, as when an older song is technically updated , these stereo (or mono ) mixes can in turn be recorded (as if it were

18468-403: The most sophisticated programs. Instruments and voices are usually recorded as individual files on a computer hard drive. These function as tracks which can be added, removed or processed in many ways. Effects such as reverb , chorus , and delays can be applied by electronic devices or by computer software. Such effects are used to shape the sound as desired by the producer. When the producer

18630-575: The nation's ten largest architecture and engineering firms ( DLR Group , HDR, Inc. , and Leo A Daly ). Notable cultural institutions include the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium , Old Market , Durham Museum , Lauritzen Gardens , and annual College World Series . Modern Omaha inventions include the Reuben sandwich ; cake mix, developed by Duncan Hines ; center-pivot irrigation ; Raisin Bran ;

18792-720: The national movement. Following the development of the Glenn L. Martin Company bomber manufacturing plant in Bellevue at the beginning of World War II, the relocation of the Strategic Air Command to the Omaha suburb in 1948 provided a major economic boost to the area. From the 1950s through the 1960s, more than 40 insurance companies were headquartered in Omaha, including Woodmen of the World and Mutual of Omaha . By

18954-443: The night in jail. Smith's back was injured in the incident, causing him to cancel a number of shows. Wayne Coyne , lead singer of The Flaming Lips and a friend of Smith's, stated concern over Smith's appearance and actions, saying that he "saw a guy who had lost control of himself. He was needy, he was grumpy, he was everything you wouldn't want in a person. It's not like when you think of Keith Richards being pleasantly blissed out in

19116-445: The opening act at many shows on the tour, with Smith sometimes contributing bass guitar, guitar, or backing vocals. On October 17, 1998 , Smith appeared on Saturday Night Live and performed " Waltz No. 2 (XO) ". His backing band for this appearance was John Moen , Jon Brion , Rob Schnapf , and Sam Coomes . In response to whether the change to a bigger record label would influence his creative control, Smith said, "I think despite

19278-412: The original tracks erased, making more room for more tracks to be reused for fresh recording. In 1963, the Beatles were using twin track for Please Please Me . The Beatles' producer George Martin used this technique extensively to achieve multiple-track results, while still being limited to using only multiple four-track machines, until an eight-track machine became available during the recording of

19440-455: The output of the guitars and keys, and each individual drum in the kit can all be recorded separately using a multitrack recorder. This allows each track to be fine-tuned individually, such as increasing the voice or lowering the chimes, before combining them into the final product. Prior to the development of multitracking, the sound recording process required all of the singers, band instrumentalists, and/or orchestra accompanists to perform at

19602-478: The people from that label who are following me around, but it was probably them who broke into my house." During this period, Smith hardly ate, subsisting primarily on ice cream. He would go without sleeping for several days and then sleep for an entire day. A follow-up to Smith's 2000 album was originally planned to happen with Rob Schnapf , but their sessions were abandoned. Smith also began distancing himself from manager Margaret Mittleman, who had handled him since

19764-547: The performance already recorded on these tracks. They might then record an alternate version on track 4 while listening to the other tracks. All the tracks can then be played back in perfect synchrony, as if they had originally been played and recorded together. This can be repeated until all of the available tracks have been used, or in some cases, reused. During mixdown, a separate set of playback heads with higher fidelity are used. Before all tracks are filled, any number of existing tracks can be bounced into one or two tracks, and

19926-500: The performance. You can produce wonderful live recordings with just two microphones and a building's inherent acoustics, but that will have to wait for another day. Taking a feed from the front of house (or FOH) desk directly to tape or DAT is another technique of live recording, although this will only work in large venues where everything is run through the PA system. Even so, a loud backline will result in less guitar and bass being routed via

20088-561: The record ensued, book-ended by television appearances on Late Night with Conan O'Brien and the Late Show with David Letterman . However, Smith's condition began to deteriorate as he had become addicted to heroin either towards the end of or just after the Figure 8 tour. Around the time he began recording his final album, Smith began to display signs of paranoia, often believing that a white van followed him wherever he went. He would have friends drop him off for recording sessions almost

20250-515: The recording of his album XO . In the early 1990s, Smith's girlfriend at the time convinced him to send a tape of songs he had recently recorded on a borrowed four-track to Cavity Search Records . Cavity owner Christopher Cooper asked to release the entire album of songs, which surprised Smith, as he was expecting only a deal for a seven-inch record . The album became Smith's release Roman Candle (1994). Smith said: "I thought my head would be chopped off immediately when it came out because at

20412-452: The release. Following Smith's death, his estate licensed his songs for use in film and television projects such as One Tree Hill , The Girl Next Door , Georgia Rule , and Paranoid Park . In a March 2009 interview, Larry Crane said that Smith's estate was defunct and all rights previously held by Smith are now in the control of his parents. Crane went on to say that his parents own the rights to Smith's high school recordings, some of

20574-414: The rights to re-release Roman Candle and From a Basement on the Hill , originally released by Cavity Search and ANTI-, respectively. Roman Candle would be remastered by Larry Crane. Along with the press release, Kill Rock Stars posted a previously unreleased track of Smith's, titled "Cecilia/Amanda", as a free download. Roman Candle and From a Basement on the Hill were re-released on April 6, 2010, in

20736-505: The same time in the same space. Multitrack recording was a significant technical improvement as it allowed studio engineers to record all of the instruments and vocals for a piece of music separately. Multitracking allowed the engineer to adjust the levels and tone of each individual track, and if necessary, redo certain tracks or overdub parts of the track to correct errors or get a better take . Also, different electronic effects such as reverb could be applied to specific tracks, such as

20898-406: The script to him, then he dropped off the face of the earth ... he went through his whole crazy time, but by the time I was done with the film, he was making From a Basement on the Hill and I was shocked that he was actually making music." With things improving for Smith after several troubled years, he began experimenting with noise music and worked on his girlfriend Jennifer Chiba's iMac with

21060-440: The section being worked on, without erasing any other section of that track. This process of turning the recording mechanism on and off is called punching in and punching out . When recording is completed, the many tracks are mixed down through a mixing console to a two-track stereo recorder in a format which can then be duplicated and distributed. (Movie and DVD soundtracks can be mixed down to four or more tracks, as needed,

21222-469: The song at the ceremony only after the producers informed him that if he was unwilling to perform, they would choose someone else to play it. On March 5, 1998, Smith made an appearance on Late Night with Conan O'Brien performing " Miss Misery " solo on acoustic guitar. A few days later, wearing a white suit, he played an abridged version of the song at the Academy Awards ceremony, accompanied by

21384-523: The start of the 20th century. the City of Omaha annexed several surrounding communities, including Florence , Dundee and Benson . At the same time, the city annexed all of South Omaha, including the Dahlman and Burlington Road neighborhoods . From its first annexation in 1857 (of East Omaha) to its controversial annexation of Elkhorn in 2007, Omaha has continually had an eye towards growth. Starting in

21546-566: The success of Either/Or and "Miss Misery", Smith signed to a bigger record label, DreamWorks Records . Around the same time, Smith fell into depression, speaking openly of considering suicide, and on at least one occasion made a serious attempt at ending his own life. While in North Carolina, he became severely intoxicated and ran off a cliff. He landed on a tree, which badly impaled him but broke his fall. When questioned about his suicide attempt, he told an interviewer "Yeah, I jumped off

21708-409: The success of his first two releases created distance and tension with his band. Heatmiser disbanded prior to the release of Mic City Sons , prompting Virgin to put the album out inauspiciously through its independent arm Caroline Records . A clause in Heatmiser's record contract with Virgin meant that Smith was still bound to it as an individual. The contract was later bought out by DreamWorks prior to

21870-480: The tape, and thus did not require allocating it to an audio track, which meant all tracks were available for recording. What's more, in the case of the PCM-3348, which doubled the number of tracks from the PCM-3324, both machines could use the same ½” digital tape, and also a 24-track reel first recorded on a PCM-3324 was able to be used on a PCM-3348 and have another 24 tracks overdubbed. For computer-based systems,

22032-523: The theme of drugs as a vehicle for conveying dependence rather than the songs being about drugs specifically. Looking back, Smith felt that the album's pervasive mood gave him "a reputation for being a really dark, depressed person" and said that he later made a conscious move toward more diverse moods in his music. In 1996, filmmaker Jem Cohen recorded Smith playing acoustic songs for the short film Lucky Three : An Elliott Smith Portrait . Two of these songs would appear on his next album Either/Or , which

22194-521: The time it was so opposite to the grunge thing that was popular ... The thing is that album was really well received, which was a total shock, and it immediately eclipsed [Heatmiser], unfortunately." Smith felt his solo songs were not representative of the music Heatmiser was making: "The idea of playing [my music] for people didn't occur to me ... because at the time it was the Northwest — Mudhoney and Nirvana —and going out to play an acoustic show

22356-445: The timecode signal, while the remaining tracks were available for sound recording. Some large studios were able to link multiple 24-track machines together. An extreme example of this occurred in 1982, when the rock group Toto recorded parts of Toto IV on three synchronized 24-track machines. This setup theoretically provided for up to 69 audio tracks. In the late 1970s and 1980s, digital multitrack tape machines emerged, including

22518-513: The track " No Confidence Man ". In 1995, Smith's self-titled album was released on Kill Rock Stars ; the record featured a style of recording similar to Roman Candle , but with hints of growth and experimentation. Though the majority of the album was recorded by Smith alone, friend and The Spinanes vocalist Rebecca Gates sang harmony vocals on "St. Ides Heaven", and Heatmiser guitarist Neil Gust played guitar on "Single File". Several songs made reference to drugs, but Smith explained that he used

22680-417: The trend in the 2000s is towards unlimited numbers of record/playback tracks, although issues such as RAM memory and CPU available do limit this from machine to machine. Moreover, on computer-based systems, the number of simultaneously available recording tracks is limited by the number of sound card discrete analog or digital inputs. When recording, audio engineers can select which track (or tracks) on

22842-422: The vibrant Near North Side. Musicians created their own world in Omaha, and also joined national bands and groups that toured and appeared in the city. After the tumultuous Great Depression of the 1930s, Omaha rebounded with the development of Offutt Air Force Base just south of the city. The Glenn L. Martin Company operated a factory there in the 1940s that produced 521 B-29 Superfortresses , including

23004-483: The world in 1898, when it played host to the World's Fair, dubbed the Trans-Mississippi Exposition . During the 19th century, Omaha's central location in the United States spurred the city to become an important national transportation hub . Throughout the rest of the 19th century, the transportation and jobbing sectors were important in the city, along with its railroads and breweries . In

23166-477: Was " Long, Long, Long " by the Beatles . From a Basement on the Hill , almost four years in production, was released on October 19, 2004, by ANTI- Records (a part of Epitaph Records ). With Smith's family in control of his estate, they chose to bring in Rob Schnapf and Smith's ex-girlfriend Joanna Bolme to sort through the recordings and mix the album. Although Smith had voiced his desire for it to be

23328-515: Was another Kill Rock Stars release. Either/Or came out in 1997 to favorable reviews. The album found Smith venturing further into full instrumentation, with several songs containing bass guitar, drums, keyboards, and electric guitars, all played by Smith. The album title was derived from the two-volume book of the same name by Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard , whose works generally deal with themes such as existential despair , angst , death, and God. By this time, Smith's already-heavy drinking

23490-533: Was being compounded with use of antidepressants. At the end of the Either/Or tour, some of his close friends staged an intervention in Chicago, but it proved ineffective. Shortly after, Smith relocated from Portland to Jersey City, New Jersey, and later Brooklyn, New York. In 1997, Smith was selected by director and fellow Portland resident Gus Van Sant to be a part of the soundtrack to his film Good Will Hunting . Smith recorded an orchestral version of "Between

23652-585: Was conceived and developed by Ross Snyder at Ampex in 1955 resulting in the first Sel-Sync machine, an 8-track machine which used one-inch tape. This 8-track recorder was sold to the American guitarist, songwriter, luthier, and inventor Les Paul for $ 10,000. It became known as the Octopus. Les Paul, Mary Ford and Patti Page used the technology in the late 1950s to enhance vocals and instruments . From these beginnings, it evolved in subsequent decades into

23814-589: Was converted to multi-use and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. A historic preservation movement in Omaha has led to a number of historic structures and districts being designated Omaha Landmarks or listed on the National Register of Historic Places . Much of the push toward preservation came after Omaha gained the notorious designation of having, in 1989, demolished the largest-ever National Register historic district in

23976-460: Was during that same year that future United States President Gerald R. Ford was born in Omaha. Today, there is a museum dedicated to his birthplace. Six years later, in 1919, the city was caught up in the Red Summer riots when thousands of whites marched from South Omaha to the courthouse to lynch a black worker, Willy Brown, a suspect in an alleged rape of a white woman. The mob burned

24138-471: Was fierce competition among fur traders until John Jacob Astor created the monopoly of the American Fur Company . The Mormons built a town called Cutler's Park in the area in 1846. While it was temporary, the settlement provided the basis for further development. Through 26 separate treaties with the United States federal government, Native American tribes in Nebraska gradually ceded

24300-652: Was formerly referred to only as the Omaha Metropolitan Statistical Area and consisted of only five counties: Pottawattamie in Iowa, and Washington, Douglas, Cass, and Sarpy in Nebraska. The Omaha-Council Bluffs combined statistical area comprises the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan statistical area and the Fremont Micropolitan statistical area ; the CSA has a population of 858,720 (2005 Census Bureau estimate). Omaha ranks as

24462-648: Was founded in Omaha in 1969; as of 2009, its headquarters are in Atlanta. Inacom , founded in Omaha in 1991, was a technology company that customized computer systems for large businesses, and was on the Fortune 500 list from 1997 until 2000, when it filed for bankruptcy. Northwestern Bell , the Bell System affiliate for Northwestern states, had its headquarters in Omaha from its founding in 1896 until it moved to Denver in 1991 as US West . Level 3 Communications ,

24624-430: Was like crawling out on a limb and begging for it to be sawed off." One of Smith's first solo performances was in Portland at the now-defunct Umbra Penumbra on September 17, 1994. Only three songs from Roman Candle were performed, with the majority of the ten-song set being B-sides , Heatmiser tunes and unreleased tracks. The same year, Smith released a split 7-inch record with Pete Krebs via Slo-Mo Records, contributing

24786-537: Was opened to foot and bicycle traffic on September 28, 2008. Started in 2003, RiverFront Place Condos first phase was completed in 2006 and the second phase was opened in 2011. The development along Omaha's riverfront is attributed with prompting the City of Council Bluffs to move their own riverfront development time line forward. In the summers of 2008, 2012, 2016, and 2021 the United States Olympic Team swimming trials were held in Omaha, at

24948-676: Was partly why he needed to sedate himself with drugs as an adult: "He was remembering traumatic things from his childhood – parts of things. It's not my place to say what." For much of his childhood, Smith's family was a part of the Community of Christ but began attending services at a local Methodist church. Smith felt that going to church did little for him, except make him "really scared of Hell". In 2001, he said: "I don't necessarily buy into any officially structured version of spirituality. But I have my own version of it." Smith began playing piano at age nine, and at ten began learning guitar on

25110-566: Was produced by the team of Rob Schnapf and Tom Rothrock . XO also contained some instrumentation from Los Angeles musicians Joey Waronker and Jon Brion . It contained a more full-sounding, baroque pop sound than any of his previous efforts, with songs featuring a horn section, Chamberlins , elaborate string arrangements, and even a drum loop on the song "Independence Day". His familiar double-tracked vocal and acoustic guitar style were still apparent while his somewhat personal lyrical style survived. The album went on to peak at number 104 on

25272-526: Was recorded by Smith. Smith's song " Needle in the Hay " was included in Wes Anderson 's 2001 film The Royal Tenenbaums during a suicide attempt scene. Smith was originally supposed to contribute a cover of The Beatles' " Hey Jude " for the film, but when he failed to do so in time, Anderson had to use The Mutato Muzika Orchestra 's version of the track instead. Anderson would later say that Smith "was in

25434-529: Was released by Autumn de Wilde , which consists of photographs, handwritten lyrics, and "revealing talks with Smith's inner circle". De Wilde was responsible for the Figure 8 sleeve art, making a landmark and de facto Smith memorial of the Solutions Audio mural. A five-song CD featuring previously unreleased live recordings of Smith performing acoustically at Largo in Los Angeles was included in

25596-499: Was released on April 18, 2000. It featured the return of Rothrock, Schnapf, Brion, and Waronker and was partially recorded at Abbey Road Studios in England, with an obvious Beatles influence in the songwriting and production. The album garnered favorable reviews, and peaked at number 99 on the Billboard 200 and 37 on the UK Album Charts. The album received praise for its power pop style and complex arrangements, described as creating

25758-824: Was relocated to Lincoln , 53 mi (85 km) southwest of Omaha. The U.S. Supreme Court later ruled against numerous landowners whose violent actions were condemned in Baker v. Morton . Many of Omaha's founding figures stayed at the Douglas House or the Cozzens House Hotel . Dodge Street was important early in the city's early commercial history; North 24th Street and South 24th Street also developed independently as business districts. Early pioneers were buried in Prospect Hill Cemetery and Cedar Hill Cemetery. Cedar Hill closed in

25920-586: Was reviewed as "undoubtedly one of the worst performances ever by a musician" and an "excruciating […] nightmare". A reporter for the online magazine Glorious Noise wrote, "It would not surprise me at all if Elliott Smith ends up dead within a year." On November 25, 2002, Smith was involved in a brawl with the Los Angeles Police Department at a concert where The Flaming Lips and Beck were performing. The officers allegedly beat and arrested him and girlfriend Jennifer Chiba. The two spent

26082-437: Was six months old, and Smith moved with his mother to Duncanville, Texas . He had half-siblings through his mother, Darren Welch and Ashley Welch, and a half-sister Rachel Smith through his father. Smith later had a tattoo of a map of Texas drawn on his upper arm and said: "I didn't get it because I like Texas, kind of the opposite. But I won't forget about it, although I'm tempted to because I don't like it there." Smith endured

26244-514: Was then working as a psychiatrist. It was around this time that Smith began using drugs, including alcohol, with friends. He also began experimenting with recording for the first time after borrowing a four-track recorder . At high school, Smith played clarinet in the school band and played guitar and piano; he also sang in the bands Stranger Than Fiction and A Murder of Crows, billed as either Steven Smith or "Johnny Panic". His bandmates included Jason Hornick . He graduated from Lincoln High School as

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