Some news from Squid’s work in progress. - Sonic Reality announced at NAMM as part of the Studio ProFile series we will be doing a Ken Scott series. Ken is 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, Devo, Mahavishnu Orchestra, Dixie Dregs, America 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. 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… just incredible and that is a sound that is truly timeless.
Sonic Reality was in the studio 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 matched it up to the recorded tracks using the same gear! Ken got a U67 on each tom (hard to find, we 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 4038 ribbon mics for overheads which I’ve never used that way 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 a NEW century. Well, it IS 96k and going to be chopped up into loops, slices, multi-channel drum kits you can play, Rexes, Apple Loops 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. You can write a completely new style tune of your own but use THIS 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 new 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 of course. It’s like you had Bob come play on YOUR album since there’s so much variety PLUS you ALSO have the playable kit which is worth the purchase alone! I can’t wait to play this kit and extra snares, percussion and various noises from the keyboard in our I-Map!
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. 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 )
Co-producing this with Ken Scott is an incredible honor for me and Sonic Reality. We’re thrilled about it! It’s been both a learning experience and we’re proud of being a part of his history. We had 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 stories I know I can’t tell but there are plenty of great ones that we can and will. Brian Kehew who wrote www.recordingthebeatles.com has been instrumental in putting this together. You should check out that book by the way. It’s fantastic. The most detailed info about any band recording that I’ve seen.
That’s it for now. This week Ken and I are recording Bill Cobham! Another challenging session recreating sounds of the 70’s with one of the most influential drummers of all time. See you again soon! – Dave Kerzner (aka Squids).
