New Music Gear Monday: Optogate PB-05

Anyone involved in live sound either as an engineer or a player knows that the biggest problems with a lot of open mics on stage is leakage and feedback. You don't always have enough gates at your disposal to clean things up, and setting them up can be tricky, especially if the band uses a lot of volume dynamics. Here's a little inline device that can solve all of those problems - the Optogate PB-05.

While not exactly a new product, the Optogate PB-5 is still pretty cool in that it uses an infrared beam to sense if there's someone in front of the mic. If there is, it'll open the gate and the mic turns on. When the singer steps away, the mic turns off.

I first spotted this device on the mics of the Doobie Brothers on their World Gone Crazy show that appears occasionally on the Palladia hi-def music channel. If it works for them, it might work for you too. The Optogate PB-05 retails for $249. There's some additional good info about it here.

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"Long Train Runnin'" Doobie Brothers Multitrack

Here's a look at the individual tracks from the multitrack of The Doobie Brothers 1973 top-10 hit "Long Train Runnin'." The song was originally a jam song that the band played during their time as a bar band, and they were reluctant to put it on their 3rd album, "The Captain And Me," which became their most popular album. Supposedly, singer Tom Johnson finished the lyrics at the last minute in the bathroom of Warner Brother's Amigo Studios right before the song was recorded.

I've always been a big fan of Doobies, especially of their vocals, and you'll hear some of the secret to their vocal sound on this video.

1) The first thing you notice is the guitar layers. There are two electric guitars that are doubled playing the main chordal phrase, and 3 different acoustic guitars that add both counterpoint and motion.

2) Even though the Doobies are known for their dual drum kit sound, this song has only one kit that's recorded very old school on only 3 tracks - kick, snare and overhead. The stereo spread comes from the 3 tracks of percussion - tambourine, and 2 different conga patterns.

3) Tommy Johnson's vocals are on a single track, while the chorus harmonies consist of two tracks of 3 part harmonies (their signature vocal sound) and a track of gang vocal on the lowest part.

4) The harmonica solo is track-shared on an empty section on two of the background vocal tracks, a practice that was almost standard back in the tape days. Take notice to the difference in levels. In the final mix, it sounds like they used most of the loud one with a few phrases from the quiet one.

5) The outro ad lib lead vocal lives on the lead vocal track, with a second pass on one of the background vocal tracks, again employing track-sharing.

6) Everything you hear was done on only 15 tracks!

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Follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Don't forget to check out my Music 3.0 blog for tips and tricks on navigating the music business.