16 posts

RELATED
PRODUCTS

Recreating Crime of the Century in the studio 2008-01-22T14:45:21+00:00 Hi guys. Squids here. I wanted to write to you while I was in the midst of something since it is no longer a secret. Sonic Reality announced at NAMM as part of the Studio ProFile series that we're doing a Ken Scott series. For those of you who don't know who that is just Google him! He's an engineer/producer who among many things recorded The Beatles White Album and Magical Mystery Tour. He also recorded Pink Floyd, David Bowie, Elton John, Duran Duran, Missing Persons, Procol Harum (going out of order there haha) and Supertramp. He produced and engineered Crime of the Century in 1974 which is considered by many audiophiles to be one of the best sounding albums ever. It was certainly one of those albums that was ahead of its time. So was Dark Side of the Moon. The fidelity those two albums had for THAT time still blows me away. Plus the analog warmth and the character of those production elements such as the drums, guitars, sound effects, vocals... So, what is Squids up to you ask? I'm in the studio this week with Ken Scott and Bob Seibenberg, the drummer from Supertramp, recreating THAT sound! It is fascinating watching Ken do it. We put up the Supertramp tracks and then match it up to the recorded tracks using the same gear! Ken's got a U67 on each tom (hard to find, I had to rent them from Ocean Way Studios), a KM56 on the snare (interesting! I'm always using a 57 for that but the KM is obviously crispier) and Coles for overheads which I've never used but they sound great! The character of the drums are authentic here and we A/B it with the original and it sounds like we are going back in time recording Crime of the Century... but for the NEW century. :D Well, it IS 96k and going to be chopped up into loops, slices, multi-channel drum kits you can play, Rexes, Apple Loopses and all the rest... eventually making its way into your favorite sampler formats one way or another. What we do is try to capture the sound and feel of the drummer in these sessions. We use a familiar song as a starting point but then go OFF from there with variations of the snare, kick, hats, ride, tom fills which are unrelated to any particular song but would be useful for someone's new music they are making with the library. Basically you could do anything from an extremely authentic cover of a Supetramp song with it (the more esoteric fun thing to do with the library) to what it is really meant for which is write a completely new style tune but using THAT particular 70's analog sound to do it. There's material in there that could be used for a lot of styles. There are a couple of rap songs out there using Supertramp hooks (don't you look at my girlfriend) and there were quite a few grooves we did that I could picture some rap producer making a hit out of. Some good loose funk in there too. GREAT rock and classic rock grooves galore. It's like you had Bob come play on YOUR session since there's so much variety and you ALSO have the playable kit which is worth it alone. I can't wait to play this kit and extra snares, percussion and various noises from the keyboard! One other thing that is very cool about this is that we're sampling to 2 inch analog tape and using a Trident A Range like the one that Ken used at Trident Studios in England. We're video documenting it so you'll get to see some of this on www.studioprofiles.com in a week or so. I am going to start posting behind the scenes videos like mad of this and also other Studio ProFiles sessions and even a little mini documentary on Genesis at some point with footage I have of Nick Davis mixing Mama in 5.1 and the guys rehearsing for the tour (which you can already see a little bit of at www.youtube.com/sonicreality ) Anyway, this is a really fun project. Expensive but fun. We've got Ross Garfield, the Drum Doctor, helping us as well on top of several audio experts. One of these days we'll have a live camera streaming on the web for one of these sessions so you can really be a fly on the wall if you wanted to. There WERE some great stories that we did miss on video including the real story why Supertramp's original members can't seem to get back together (even though Bob had convinced Roger to come back and it was THAT close to happening!!!!). There were some stories I know I can't tell either because it is too gossipy about other legendary musicians. Although some of this will be in Ken's book which I am helping him put together. Brian Kehew who wrote www.recordingthebeatles.com has been instrumental in putting this together and no doubt he will be helping on the book as well. Fun stuff. You should check out that book by the way. It's insane. The most detailed info about any band recording that I've seen. That's it from me. Just wanted to pop in and journal it. I will blog this on our myspace page as well. I'll be posting pictures there next week. www.myspace.com/sonicreality Squids Squids https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=2003

Squids Squids https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=2003: Sonic Reality Head Chef
Contact Squids

SoundCloud Website Facebook Twitter

YouTube; Topic Starter; 8566 posts since 11 Mar, 2002 from Florida; Contact:
Contact Squids

SoundCloud Website Facebook Twitter

YouTube

Post by Squids » Thu Jan 24, 2008 9:56 am

0
Quote

I posted a video clip of last night's session on our youtube page Timbale sampling ala Dreamer. Check it out!

http://www.sonicreality.com
http://www.esoundz.com
http://www.davekerznermusic.com

Post Reply

16 posts

Return to “Sonic Reality / eSoundz.com”