A Rare Look At A Motown Session

It's Motown week here on the Big Picture and we're going to start with an extremely rare look into a session by the legendary Temptations backed by the legendary Funk Brothers and recorded at the legendary Motown Studios in Detroit (the "Snakepit" as they used to call it).

This video was shot back in 1967 for a CBS News piece called appropriately "The Motown Story." It featured the classic Temptations lineup including David Ruffin (the lead singer) and Eddie Ruffin, both of which would leave the band soon after this video was made. The song is called "Sorry Is A Sorry Word" and was produced by Motown writers Ivy Jo Hunter and Brian Holland (who stops the song mid-way through).

Some things to observe when watching:

1) As we'll see in upcoming posts, no one at Motown cared much about isolation between instruments since they were never going to replace anything anyway. Either the band got the track or it didn't, and no one ever came back to "fix" a part. Most of the songs cut in Detroit were cut on an 8 track recorder, so a lot of overdubs weren't much of an option anyway. They were only used for a bit of control over the final balance.

2) The usual Funk Brothers band consisted of a rhythm section of 2 drummers, tambourine, congas or bongos, bass, 3 guitars, and 2 keyboards which were all recorded at the same time in the same room! Horns and strings might also be cut at the same time as the rhythm section as well. Motown was only a house in the residential area of town and the studio was in the basement. Imagine doing that in your basement!

3) Only the arranger (the very talented William Witherspoon, who I believe was actually responsible for the early sound of Motown) used headphones. No one else needed them because they were all playing in the same room so they could hear themselves as if it were a rehearsal or gig.

Enjoy. Tomorrow, more Motown.

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Goodbye Ronnie.

Ronnie James Dio died today, which is a blow to everyone that loved hard rock music. Ronnie was a fabulous singer, but he was an even better person, a real gentleman who was truly concerned about everyone he came in contact with.

Most everyone knew Ronnie from either his days as singer for Rainbow, Black Sabbath or his own band, Dio, but I met Ronnie way before that when he was a bass player for The Electric Elves (eventually changed to Elf). I was in a band that opened for the Elves at a small festival in Pennsylvania back in the early 70's when I first got to know him. We met again when another band I was in opened for them at the long gone Electric Circus in New York City.

When I moved to Los Angeles, I'd run in to Ronnie again and again at parties and in various studios and we'd always fondly reminisce about the old days back East. I even did a surround mix for one of his albums along the way that unfortunately was never released.

Ronnie was always a kind and gentle soul, which absolutely no airs about him. He was your buddy from next door and he really cared about everyone he touched. Happy Journey, Ronnie. And thanks for the great memories and music you leave behind.

Session Musician 101

It's a good time for another book excerpt, this time from one that I've neglected on this blog - The Studio Musician's Handbook. Here's a little from chapter 9, entitled "Session Musician 101."

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YOUR MUSICALITY - Ears, Chops and Feel
Studio musicians are known for their musicality, which consists of your ears, chops, and feel, as well as your judgment. Session players have enough experience to know what to play and when to play it. They know how to best interact with the artist, other musicians, the engineer, and the producer to make the session the most efficient and fun. They have an innate feel for how to make you and your song sound great. Let’s take a look at some of the musicality attributes that you’ll need.

Your Chops
Studio musicians are expected to be creative, extremely versatile, and have a formidable skill set. They’re usually the best players in town. Overall, the session musician is playing to a recording medium where there is little or no entertaining involved. Playing live is all about entertainment and finesse gives way to the crowd and the heat of the moment. The same musician will come from a different place in the studio and will need to utilize finesse and restraint to create a different “feel” than when playing live. And there is a completely different set of challenges on a session. Live music terminates in the air and is a series of “snapshot” moments. Sessions can be seen as opportunities to create musical “building blocks” that terminate on recorded media and are meant to be frozen in time forever. That’s why session musicians fare just as well in the live idiom as everyone else. Sadly, the same cannot be said for the majority of musicians who cull most of their experience playing live.

Your Technique – Purity, Not Perfection
Successful session musicians all have an innate feel for their instrument(s). Their actual technique may not be textbook perfect, but they all have a way of sounding great when they play. Studio musicians know how to make their instruments sound “right” for the song, cue or jingle. They know just what axe to use and are capable of responding to direction in a way that yields audible results that are more than pleasing to producers’, engineers’ and artists’ ears. Session players are also remarkably consistent in that they can play a part many times over without losing the fire or feel. There’s a zone all session players strive for, where they’re hitting the note and the groove just right and are capable of sustaining that moment and repeating a performance as many times as it takes until that voice from the control says “We got it!! Excellent!”

Your Reading
Your ability to read music will determine the type of sessions you can play on. For record dates, the ability to read and transcribe lead sheets is essential, but many other sessions like jingles and television and movie scores require expert sight reading.

To illustrate the reading abilities of session players, here’s a story about the late Tommy Tedesco, one of the most recorded guitar players ever and charter member of the famed Los Angeles studio band The Wrecking Crew during the 60’s and 70’s. Tommy was playing on a Jan & Dean date when, as a joke, singer Jan Berry turned Tommy’s music upside down on the stand. The take started and Tommy proceeded to play the backwards score note for note. A frustrated Berry yanked the page off the stand and said, “You’re just showing off!”

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6 Questions For IK Multimedia's Starr Ackerman

Musical artists the world over know and love Starr Ackerman, the PR and Artist Relations person for IK Multimedia. How could you not? She's fun, gregarious, accommodating and knowledgeable. But Starr is also an artist and producer in her own right, so she knows of what she speaks by virtue of her own experience. Visit Starr's blog and her YouTube channel for a real treat.


1) How did you break into the business?
My first real job was in radio, but I realized I wanted to make music rather than sell advertising or be on the air... So I went back to school to learn - Full Sail in Orlando Fl. I started out as a music producer/vocalist, and had gone to recording school to learn the art of recording, producing electronic music and mixing sessions (which is SO IMPORTANT if you expect to have real knowledge of the craft).

Once that was finished, I worked in studios as an engineer (for Mario Winans, and other heavy hitters), and on the side I was making music and playing electro-house shows with my pal DJ “Rolan Live” Sereny. It was a lot of fun playing the Hard Rock in my hometown of Tampa FL!!! But both jobs are sort of hectic in the “earning money” category, so I always had a side job...and that was at IK Multimedia and Sonic Reality (where I was doing freelance public and artist relations/marketing). Of course, now it is more of a full-time gig, and I still get to make music with the best software and work with some of the best artists for music software promotions. I still have releases on iTunes and Beatport (and like 300 download stores all over the planet for electro house and breaks).

2) What makes you unique?
I guess that I am a girl and I know how to produce music from start to finish, and use that knowledge to spread the craft to others. I don’t know too many girls who have done a kickass remix on an NIN song, or released their own music (and made the video too...). But I guess if you look at the NIN site, there are probably a LOT Of girls who made NIN remixes...and videos...so who knows. I do have a unique perspective as a female who works both on the business side of things in addition to the stage performance ( I’ve also thrown some pretty large scale concerts and festivals). I also thoroughly enjoy my job(s), so I think that’s why its easy for me to do PR and AR, as I naturally gravitate toward musicians, because we all speak the same language. So yeah, basically nothing...lol. Here is a video I made when I was in Ibiza, Spain last summer for a song I solely produced and wrote, called “Anything”. I guess you could consider the genre- deep house, or electro.  


3) Who was your biggest influence? 
OMG... There are too many to count. On the female side? My Mom - she is a natural in PR, and hilarious! Bjork and Jewel, because they made their own music too, and it was really out there but still commercial enough to get notoriety.

Males - well of course, the CEO of IK Multimedia, Enrico Iori, is an absolute genius, so its easy to be inspired by his passion for music production software and hardware (pro audio toys!). Same with Gary and Dave Kerzner from IK Multimedia and Sonic Reality. Those two guys could sell ice to an eskimo, and have amazing talent at building unique teams of people that all get along and love each other! Bands? NIN- obviously, U2, Rabbit in the Moon (my friends!), Jane’s Addiction, The Cure, Massive Attack, Daft Punk, Delirium, Justice, Armin Van Buren....I am sure there are a lot I have forgotten to say- but you get the idea. I love alternative rock, beautiful vocals, French electro, trance and tribal music.

4) What's the best thing about your job? 
I love making music, so mostly that anything I write, say or breathe turns into someone making music at the end of the day, if I am not actually in the act of producing it myself. I also get to meet famous musicians all the time, and they are actually happy to meet me, because the software is so incredible and I am hooking them up. Mostly, I have met a lot of my childhood music heroes and they were some of the most down to earth people- to name a few- Trent Reznor, Nikki Sixx (he taught me how to use Logic!!!) Eric Avery, Perry Farrell, Dave Navarro, Stefan Lessard from Dave Matthews Band, Outkast, Daft Punk and there’s a lot...

I mean, who could not be happy doing that? I could always be marketing toilet paper....talking to people about what is the best way for them to say “I love the way this wipes”, Or “This wipes the best!”. So I am pretty lucky that I get to market the tools that inspire musicians to make music/get Grammys, etc, instead of handing out toilet paper. When I was younger, I was a Smirnoff girl, dressed in a lime green cheerleader outfit handing out free booze...so a lot has changed over the years!

5) When and where were you the happiest? 
Hmmm, I guess that would be in 1 of 3 places, all the time: 1. Sleeping in my bed after a nice night in the club or a concert laughing with my friends. 2. On the beach in the morning before work- either surfing or just swimming in glassy clear water of South FL. 3. In the studio making music.

6) What's the best piece of advice you ever received? 
I’m not a huge fan of advice, so I try not to spread those “opinions” too much. But I am a big fan of kindness, and I would have to quote some lyrics from Jewel on this one: “In the end, only kindness matters...”.

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Britney Spears Real Vocals

Here's a great example of how someone with real talent can get warped by the glitz and glamour of Hollywood. Below you'll hear the real vocals of Britney Spears during her tour.

You're going to listen and say, "How is it that this girl got so far in the business?", but I urge you to keep an open mind. After you listen to the atrociousness of the first video, go to the second and have a listen, especially from about 1:00 onward.

This girl has some pipes! Or at least had them. It's hard to tell what her current vocal state really is with the so-called songs she now records being so unchallenging. Plus, when your fans care more about how you look and dance than how sound, the Brit has no reason to push herself.

I'm not a fan of Britney, especially of her music, and I don't want to be seen as an apologist for her. I don't believe for a single moment that she'll ever produce any kind of music that will last beyond a year, but I do think it's a real shame when someone lets any real talent they have waste away.

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Green Day's "September" Isolated Guitars

I'm a big fan of Green Day and especially of Billy Joe Armstrong. He's become such a great singer over the years and I'm always impressed whenever I see him perform.

Today's isolated track is from Green Day's American Idiot album released in 2005 called "Wake Me Up When September Ends." What we'll be listening to is the acoustic and electric isolated guitar tracks. A couple of things to listen for:

1) The acoustic guitar track is a little shaky time-wise, especially on the single note turn-arounds. Did it matter in the song? Not a bit. Would a producer be tempted to make the track perfect? Absolutely. Congratulate Rob Cavallo for resisting the temptation.

2) The acoustic track is pretty noisy, which I suspect is self-noise from a condenser microphone or perhaps a tube preamp. Doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things though.

3) The electric guitar track is doubled with the identical sound and panned left and right. Once again, it works great for this song. Many producers would change the sound or the ambience of the double to make it sound different, but not here, which proves the perfect fit.

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Foo Fighters "Everlong" Isolated Drums And Vocals

This week we're going to listen to some modern tracks. Not that there's anything wrong with the golden oldies from the 60's, 70's and 80's, but it's nice to contrast those tracks against the modern production techniques of today.

Everlong is a single off the 2nd Foo Fighters album released in 1997. The isolated drum and vocal track illustrate a number of points:

1) Dave Grohl is really a great drummer. So is Taylor Hawkins, the Foo's drummer on everything after this record, but Dave shows you just what he's made of, since this is no easy pattern to play as steadily as he did (especially the kick drum part). I suspect there was at least some cut and pasting done here, since you can hear what seems to be a section dropped in between :27 and :34 and edits at 1:21 and again at 2:39.

2) The vocals are a great example of modern vocal production. They're almost perfect except for the female background being slightly out of time on the first chorus (not that you'd ever hear it when all the instruments are added). In fact, the lead vocal is about as perfect as you can get. There's not an out-of-tune note or a mis-phrase anywhere to be found.

3) The vocal sound is also an excellent example of modern production techniques, with the vocal not relying solely on reverb to give it some space. You hear a fair amount of a modulation (sounds like a Harmonizer detuned slightly up and down - always a great effect but not that new) as well as a subtle delay.

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Finally, A Reverb Plug-In I Can Love

I'm not ashamed to say that I've always had trouble with reverb. It just seemed so hard to make it sound good. I could make it mesh perfectly with a vocal or instrument when soloed only to find that it stuck out from the track like a sore thumb with all the instruments in the mix. I would find that the correct wet and dry balance was always elusive, with the verb either disappearing or washing everything out (I've since learned a lot of tricks to make things work better, which I've shared in previous posts).

Of course, there were those times when the verb sound came easy if I worked in a studio that had an EMT 250, a wonderfully tuned EMT 140 plate, or even a great chamber (like at Capitol or the old A&M), but if you weren't working in the A-list places, you could probably forget about having access to any of these. When the Lexicon 224 and the later 480 came along, I was afraid to tell anyone that I had one personal setting that I thought sounded good and worked for me, and I would never deviate from it because I found the unit too complex to set up. Only years later did I find out that I wasn't alone, and most engineers felt the same way.

When the DAW came along, reverbs got a little easier to make sound good, especially with convolution-based reverbs like Altiverb, but I still had to fiddle more than I wanted to make everything sit in the mix just right. That's why I'm so blown away with the new Lexicon PCM Native Reverb plug-in. No matter what you do and how you do it, it always sounds great.

The PCM Native Reverb is actually a bundle of different reverb plug-ins - vintage plate, plate, hall, concert hall, random hall, room and chamber. It works on the Mac 10.4.2 or later, Windows XP, Vista or 7, and any version of Pro Tools after 7.3. It also works as a VST, Audio Units or RTAS plug-in, so it's compatible with just about any DAW on any platform.

It takes up about 500 meg of disc space and isn't very processor intensive at all like you'd expect. I haven't tried more than 3 plug-ins at a one time yet, but the processor load hardly budged under those conditions.

I won't get into a long review here except to say that I can't make it sound bad, regardless of the type of verb plug-in or it's setting. I especially love the chamber, which just sounds so thick and gorgeous, yet lays in the track perfectly. I compared the Lexicon to 4 of my other plug-in reverbs, all of which I think sound pretty good and I was pretty happy with, but they just don't sound as good. I'll continue to use them, but the Lexicon is now my go-to verb.

Michael Carnes and Casey Young should really be commended for their work on the PCM Native Reverb, especially the user interface. Unlike Lexicon hardware of the past, the PCM Native plug-ins are logical and easy to use, and have a built-in help screen that tells you what each control does if you need it. The fact is, it's harder to make it not sound good than the other way around.

So kudos, Lexicon. I don't think I'll be having any of my former reverb problems ever again.

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6 Questions For JamHub VP Sales And Guitarist Dave McCarthy

Dave McCarthy is one of the most well-liked people in the pro audio business, having met just about everyone during stints in executive positions at lexicon, Line 6, Peavy and now with JamHub. Dave is the perfect guy to sell a new product like JamHub (the silent rehearsal studio - see my JamHub article for a description, or the JamHub website) because he's more of an evangelist than a sales exec. It's difficult not to get caught up in his excitement, and his product explanations are so clear on its benefits that you've got to have one now!

What most people don't know is that Dave is a hell of a guitar player, having toured with a variety of bands including everyone's 60's favorite Mitch Ryder. Here are Dave's answers to this week's "6 Questions."

1) How did you break into the business?
I played and toured with bands in the Midwest and Canada. In the early 80’s I landed in LA and had to go to work selling gear in music stores. At the end of my retail career, I began jumping store to store and taking my rather large clientele with me. Joe Goodman decided to end the chaos (to Los Angeles retailers) and make it his mission to get me a rep gig ( and get me out of retail) so he had me work on pro accounts while he shopped my resume. He helped me get my first rep gig with a manufacturer, which was with Lexicon.

2) What makes you unique?
I think I’m unique because I still believe that we’re in the joy business. It’s not about the products, it’s about the joy they create. It causes me to approach my job with wonder and excitement.

3) Who was your biggest influence?
When I was working in music stores, I met Dan Armstrong and we became close friends. I wasn’t really smart enough to hang with him, so he spent most of the time teaching me what he knew. So much of this business is undocumented and the only way some of that knowledge continues is from one person to another. Knowledge is the greatest gift.

4) What's the best thing about your job?
Every once in a while I get to see someone have a perfect moment. When something I show someone opens the doors to expression for them and you see the lights go on, that is the best part of what I do.

5) When and where were you the happiest?
In the late 80’s traveling the world evangelizing for Lexicon and meeting the kind of folks that cared about fantastic audio.

6) What's the best piece of advice you ever received?
You have 2 ears and 1 mouth. Listen twice as much as you talk. If you listen twice as much as you talk you’ll know what to say.

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EQing To Overcome Proximity Effect

A few weeks ago I posted an article about one of the mixing engineer's unsung tools, the high-pass filter. The HPF works like magic to clean up mixes either live or in the studio by rolling off the low frequencies that many times don't add anything to the sound. Here's another EQ tip that will also clean things up substantially.

Most engineers these days (especially beginners) tend to put a cardioid mic as close as possible to the instrument or amplifier they're trying to record. You see this especially on guitar and bass amps where the mic is smashed into the grill cloth. What happens when you do that is you cause the mic's low frequency response to increase due to the proximity effect. The proximity effect only occurs with cardioid or hyper-cardioid microphones, and is a condition where the low frequencies are accentuated (made louder) the closer the mic gets to the source.

The frequency where the proximity effect is centered is different for every mic, but most of low frequencies from the effect can be cleaned up with our friend the high-pass filter. But while that might take care of the low frequencies pretty well, you still have the 200 to 600Hz region (which is also boosted) to deal with, and the 400 to 600Hz part is a range that most of us don't find too pleasing to the ear.

What's more, the more mics that are mashed up against the source, the more those frequencies build up. So if during a tracking session you're using 15 directional mics, boy, is there a lot of build-up in that area.

The way to clean up your tracks (after first using the HPF) is to listen to the song with all the tracks in the mix, and before you EQ anywhere else, attenuate in the 200 to 600Hz area (or even a bit lower, depending upon the mic and the where you set the cutoff frequency of the HPF). What you'll find is that suddenly everything will begin to get clearer without having to add any mid or high frequency EQ (which is the first inclination of most engineers).

Of course, the way around the proximity effect in the first place is to mic all your instruments just the way the old timers in the 60's and 70's did - from a distance. It doesn't have to be much, just a foot or 18 inches will do, but you'll find that the instruments will begin to blend a lot better and you won't need nearly as much EQ in the mix.

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The Making Of "God Only Knows"

In staying with the Beach Boy theme for this week, here are two videos regarding the making of their hit "God Only Knows." Once again, this is a terrific piece of musical history that can teach us a lot about how great records were made back in the days of limited technological resources.

The first video is the vocal track without the music. Listen to:

1) How spot on the doubled lead vocals are. Remember, this was in the days before cut and paste.

2) The background harmony vocals are just gorgeous, especially the round-robin at the end at about 2:00.

3) The reverb sound is awesome. It's the famous Capitol Records chamber and it's so clean and smooth. Luckily, it's still in use today and still in great demand.

The second video is "the making of" for the song similar to the one posted yesterday. It doesn't feature a complete take, which is why I put the vocal one first.

4) Once again Brian is in full command. He knows what he wants and he knows how to get it from a great group of musicians (the famous "Wrecking Crew"). There's a great film about the Wrecking Crew. You can find out more on the film's official website.

5) And once again, all the musicians are playing at once in a relatively small room. Gold Star was another studio noted for it's superlative reverb chamber, which many think was more responsible for Phil Spector's "Wall of Sound" than he was. Unfortunately it closed in 1984. The studio is now the site of a mini-mall at the corner of Santa Monica and Vine Street in Hollywood.

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The Making Of "Wouldn't It Be Nice"

This is a fascinating piece of history that I recently found about the making of the 1966 Beach Boy's hit "Wouldn't It Be Nice." It's illustrates a number of things:

1) How much in control Brian Wilson is of the entire production. He was the writer, arranger and producer of the song so he knows exactly what he wants and he's very direct in getting it from his players, who were the cream of the crop of Hollywood studio musicians.

2) The song was done on a 4 track tape recorder at the now defunct Gold Star studios in Hollywood. That means that the entire band had to play at once in the relatively small studio area. Gold Star was originally a small demo studio that came to prominence thanks to Phil Spector and his many hits. It's still the same today - when a studio is hot, everyone wants to use it (same with the musicians).

3) Like many other Brian Wilson productions, there are 3 basses on the song. The genius is that they all rarely play at the same time, with the Fender bass played in the verses and the upright during the B sections and bridge. The 6 string bass is actually a baritone guitar that used to double some of the lines.

4) Hang in there until 6:10 when we get to hear the famous Beach Boy vocal harmony overdubs as they were being recorded at Capitol Records studios. These guys were so good!!

5) Notice the small tuning inconsistencies in the guitars and horns. This doesn't seem to bother Brian at all but it would never fly today, nor would some of the small timing errors.

6) Also notice the loud click every time that Brian hits the talkback switch. This was a problem on a lot of early consoles that used to annoy the heck out of anyone out in the studio or wearing phones. It was cause by chattering analog relay switches that weren't tamed until a digital alternative came on the market in the 80's.

Considering that this was just some audio out-takes, the video that goes along with it is extremely well done and keeps your interest through the entire piece. It's an awesome piece of musical history that really shows how a hit was made way back when.

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