For all You Engineers/ Studio Tinkerers....

[fivebass52]

One of my friends posted this on Facebook; it's a video of the 10cc hit from 1975 "I'm Not In Love", and all of the recording tricks it took to make this song... very interesting.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=p ... q7oGenbp2I

[pjmuck]

256 voices?! I think that missing vocal line is very cool too.

I love these behind the scenes track breakdown docs. I've seen many on The Beatles, Queen, Fleetwood Mac, etc. Every time I see one it further validates my belief that the producers (and engineers) of these recordings were true genius pioneers and an equal invaluable part of the recording/creative process, especially given what they had to work with at the time.

Serendipitous post too. I just discovered this documentary on the making of XTC's single "Towers of London", recorded at Richard Branson's mansion and produced by a (very young) Steve Lillywhite. (It's an hour long doc and broken down into 5 parts, so sample them at your leisure). XTC are my absolute favorite band in the world (or perhaps a very close 2nd behind the Beatles). While the recording is nowhere near as innovative as the 10cc recording, it's a very entertaining doc about the basics of recording a song, and it's apparent straight away what a great band and great producer are capable of creating. Even the basic unmastered tracks just sound fantastic (especially Terry Chanbers' drums), and the little harmonizer trick on the acoustic guitar is something I'm going to have to try myself:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DT46kIDD8dk

[Frenchy-Lefty]

I am a sucker for that too. My favorite, the recording of the cover of My Way by the Sex Pistols in a French Recording studio. (read that in Recording mag a while ago). The Sex Pistols are so waisted, they can barely stand up and obviously play an instrument. The studio guy calls a few top studio musicians who quickly come over and record the music. Then, Sid Vicious insanely hammered mumbling and adding the F word to address anyone present in the studio get to the mike and record the famous punk hit. It must have been something to see.

[Addison]

34 years of air-time???

Holy crap!!!

[Basshappi]

I have always been amazed by the work that went into recording "I'm Not In Love", truly wonderful and imagininative.

[fivebass52]

What impressed me the most was the recording of a different vocal note, and then the sliders could be pulled up and down to create various chords. That is a very cool trick! All back in the day when parts were looped and spliced, not deleted and punched in like today with Pro Tools etc. Not that that's bad thing... It was also interesting that the total amount of airplay equals 34 years, which is the number of years this song has been playing on the radio! Cool how the universe works sometimes....

[AzWhoFan]

wow. simply wow.

[ptbass]

Pure genius! Got to love those old school multi track recorders.

[pjmuck]

What impressed me the most was the recording of a different vocal note, and then the sliders could be pulled up and down to create various chords. That is a very cool trick! All back in the day when parts were looped and spliced, not deleted and punched in like today with Pro Tools etc. Not that that's bad thing...

My sentiments exactly. This could be accomplished now in a fraction of the time it took then (i.e. sample vocal line, assign to master controller sliders or keys), but I can guarantee it wouldn't sound the same and who would come up with this ingenuity today? Likewise the acid trip merry go round parts in The Beatles, "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite." They cut up pieces of audio, threw them up in the air, gathered them up randomly and spliced them back together. All this stuff took an incredible amount of time, but I can't help thinking the creative process was much more fun, rewarding, (certainly more tactile) and organic.

Frenchy, there's a famous story about the recording of that Sex Pistols album and an altercation with Queen, who were recording in a studio down the hall. The 2 bands "bumped" into one another in the hallway and Sid Vicious got in Freddie Mercury's face. Freddie grabbed him and threw him against the wall and that was that. Leotards and ballet slippers, aside, Freddie took no crap from anyone.

[fivebass52]

Frenchy, there's a famous story about the recording of that Sex Pistols album and an altercation with Queen, who were recording in a studio down the hall. The 2 bands "bumped" into one another in the hallway and Sid Vicious got in Freddie Mercury's face. Freddie grabbed him and threw him against the wall and that was that. Leotards and ballet slippers, aside, Freddie took no crap from anyone.

If my original name was "Farrokh Pluto Bulsara" I wouldn't take Sh@t from anyone either!