I just love boutique audio gear manufacturer's and one of the coolest is Black Lion Audio.
The company started by modding inexpensive analog and digital gear but before long began to create their own designs that so many engineers are talking about. Black Lion's Sid Duffour will take us through the Black Lion products and their philosophy in this week's podcast.
In the intro I'll give you an overview of YouTube's new Red paid subscription service, as well as look at the famous John Bonham drum sound.
The percussion track is an often overlooked element in a hit song, but don't underestimate its importance, since it's often responsible for a sense of movement and motion. There are numerous hits that would sound completely different if their percussion tracks were muted.
Here's the percussion track on a song that you probably thought didn't have one - Led Zeppelin's seminal hit "Whole Lotta Love." Here are some things to listen for (it doesn't start until 1:20 into the song):
1. John Bonham is certainly one of the most influential rock drummers ever, but that doesn't mean he was a great percussionist. His conga playing leaves a little to be desired as he searches for a groove throughout the song.
2. At 3:31 coming out of the guitar break in the bridge, Bonham switches to tambourine, which feels much more in the groove.
3. On the outro at 4:40, he returns to the congas and this time they groove a bit better as he plays to the end.
4. Listen at 5:43 as Bonzo sings along with the track for a couple of seconds.
This song is a prefect illustration that being a drummer does not automatically mean you're a percussionist as well. They are two different skills. Although some drummers can do both well (my good buddy Ronnie Ciago comes to mind), sometimes it's better for the song to get a specialist for each (although the percussion track didn't hurt this song much in the end).
Here's a really treat for all you Led Zeppelin aficionados. It's the isolated drum track from their hit "Whole Lotta Love" off of their 2nd album. This cut illustrates perfectly why drummer John Bonham's sound and style is still emulated to this day. Here are some things to listen for (the drums don't enter until :39).
1. The drum kit sounds like a single instrument instead of a series of closely related pieces. That's because that was the way recording drums was approached way back then (1969), where there wasn't enough mics or input channels to even think about miking each drum. As a result, the overall sound was more important than the individual drum sound and there's a lot of space around the drums because they weren't close miked. Still, there's plenty of power in his kick and snare, because he played them hard!
2. Bonham plays a modified shuffle feel in the song that really makes it work. That's why you rarely hear a cover band play it as well, since most drummers never quite hear inside the beat.
3. Check out the cymbal pattern Bonzo plays in bridge. It sounds random, but it isn't.
4. You can hear him singing (grunting) along at 4:00.
5. Bonham's fills are simple and powerful. Most drummers would flash technique in a song like this.
6. Listen for the song ending that you never heard on the record.
Today's song was requested by our friend from Romania, Emanual Alexandru, and it's Kanye West's "Power." This is the first single from his fifth album, My Beautiful, Dark Twisted Fantasy, produced by Kanye and Symbolyc One, and features a sample from one of my all-time favorite songs, "Twenty-First Century Schizoid Man" by King Crimson.
As with all analysis, we'll break the song down into four parts - the song itself, the arrangement, the sound and performance.
The Song - Like most rap songs, the form is fairly simple, with the same verse repeating and an interlude (The "21st Century Schizoid Man" sample) thrown in. That is, until the outro, when the song changes and basically turns into a bridge. Highly unusual but very cool. So the form looks something like this:
Intro, 2 verses, interlude,
4 verse (the lyrics could make the last one a chorus although nothing else changes), interlude,
4 verses (the last one could be a chorus), interlude
verse, verse, verse, bridge, outro
The Arrangement - This is a perfect example where the arrangement can make a song, since there's always something different happening in every verse. Instruments (including the drums) drop in and out, creating song dynamics and keeping the interest high. If we look at the musical elements, this is what we have (look here for explanations of the elements of a song):
The Foundation - This one's easy, since it's the pretty standard bass and drums.
The Rhythm - The rhythm element is an instrument that pushes the track along, usually double time or a complimentary rhythm to the foundation. Unusually, this element does not exist in this song.
The Pad - This is highly unusual in that it's a sampled background vocal track that's repeated from the intro through most of the song.
Fills - There are a lot of musical fills or contrary lines in this song, and there's not much room for them to stand by themselves. That's OK, because the mix is skillful enough to make them work.
The Sound - I'd love to see the track sheet on this song because I'm sure the number of tracks is pretty high. "Power" is a great example of modern layered ambience and accomplished exclusively with reverbs with short (1 second or less) decay times or short delays. You hear big sounding drums (rap records seem to love John Bonham these days), a separate short room on the background vocals, and most other instruments are either dry and in your face (like the vocal), or have their own short ambience.
Speaking of the repeated background vocal sample. it's a little squashed, but most of the rest of track is not.
The Performance - Kanye's vocal delivers on this tune but for me, it's the harmony background vocals way at the end of the song on the outro that really got me.
Don't forget to send in your requests for songs to analyze, but be sure to include a YouTube link.
This week we'll look at drummers on The Big Picture. First up is Led Zeppelin's John Bonham on the song "Fool In The Rain" from the 1979 In Through The Out Door album, which was the last single that the band released before Bonzo's death.
The first half of the song is based around a beat made popular by the famed funk drummer Bernard Purdie call the "Purdie Shuffle," a beat he used so effectively on Steely Dan's Babylon Sisters.The 2nd half of the tune is a samba feel, which made it impossible for the band to play live since it required bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones to play multiple instruments at the same time. Here are some things to take note.
1) This clip isn't the final take since the album cut is a minute or so longer.
2) The isolation is great, since you can only hear the rest of the band at the intro of the 2nd half samba part. I'm not sure, but this part may have been cut as an overdub.
3) Like all of Bonzo's drum tracks, there's plenty of room sound thanks to the distant miking technique that he preferred.
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." This is the first single from his fifth album, 
produced by Kanye and Symbolyc One, and features a sample from one of my all-time favorite songs, "
" by King Crimson.
from the 1979 
album, which was the last single that the band released before Bonzo's death.
