Over the past few decades, Matt Ross-Spang has made a name for himself by creating some of today's most treasured recordings, by drawing on his love for the history of recording and adding what's he has learned from records of the past to his personal sonic signature to bring intention, personality, and vibe to some of the world's most treasured musical talent.
In this pureMix.net Exclusive, multi-award-winning Producer, Mixer, and Engineer, Matt Ross-Spang, takes us into the live room of Studio A at the incredible Sam Phillips Recording in Memphis, TN, and walks us through his entire process of setting up a band to record live off the floor.
Watch as Matt:
Discusses drum choice with former Wilco drummer and Nashville based producer, Ken Coomer
Tweaks the kit in the room, as opposed to through the microphones using different beaters, dampening tools, and drum tunings
Breaks down his microphone selection process on the drum kit
Explains his technique for using minimal micing techniques on drums and his placement of drums in the booth to find the perfect tone
Demonstrates the unique gain staging of the modules from his Spectrasonics console
Dials in the drum tones in the control room
Mics up the bass amp and compares with the DI tone to choose the best option within the context of the song
Dials in the bass tone with legendary Memphis bass player, Leeroy Hodges
Talks about the importance of choosing the correct players for the project
Explains his approach to micing Charles Hodges' Leslie cabinet on the Hammond B3 Organ
Chooses specific microphones on the different instruments and vocalists to EQ before reaching the console, as well as match the vibe of the track
Explains the importance of being out in the live room with the players
Join Matt Ross-Spang, Eli "Paperboy" Reed, The Hodges Brothers, Ken Koomer, and The Masqueraders inside the legendary Sam Phillips Recording in Memphis, TN for an incredible recording event, from Start To Finish.
00:00:00 Hello world! I'm Matt Ross-Spang,
we're in Memphis, Tennessee,
and I'm excited to do
my first pureMix video.
00:00:06 We are at Sam Phillips Recording Service,
kind of a legendary studio
here in Memphis.
00:00:10 This is Studio B, I call it Southern
Grooves, it's my little mix room.
00:00:14 Down the hall is Studio A
where we're going to track
Eli "Paperboy" Reed
live to 2" tape.
00:00:20 I got a cool band behind him,
we have some legends,
Charles Hodges, Leroy Hodges.
They were the Hi Rhythm Section,
they played on Al Green,
Ann Peebles, Otis Clay,
some classic records.
00:00:30 Ken Coomer, one of my favorite drummers,
he was in Wilco and Uncle Tupelo.
00:00:34 And we've got The Masqueraders,
one of the greatest vocal groups around.
00:00:38 They played on and sang
on some massive soul hits.
00:00:41 It's the first day so I'm about to
start setting up.
00:00:43 I'll grab some modules out of my console,
I love it so much I have to take it
with me when I go.
00:00:48 I'm going to set the band up,
we're going to go all live in the room.
00:00:51 I think we can get two songs done
and probably most of the overdubs,
and you guys will get to see
how to not engineer a record,
so it's going to be fun.
00:01:22 We're in Studio A which is one
of my favorite places to record.
00:01:25 I'm very fortunate because I
actually rent Studio B
and it's kind of mix room
where I keep all my equipment,
so I just go down the hall
and bring my stuff in.
00:01:34 One of my treasured pieces
is a 1969 Spectra Sonics console.
00:01:39 And I love it so much
I had a sidecar frame built
so I could pull the modules out of
the desk and pop them in the sidecar,
and actually take it with me
and record and do tracking.
00:01:48 I really love the sound.
I'm not much of a different pre
for different instrument kind of guy.
I really like a uniform sound
so I like to have as many of
the same pres as I can.
00:01:56 I spent a lot of money
on this console so I could use it,
so I thought this was a really cool way
to take it with me everywhere
and kind of keep a uniform
sound as I go.
00:02:04 So, Ken, we're doing kind of
that 60's, 70's, R&B thing.
00:02:09 - Yes sir!
- So we'll use the booth.
00:02:11 - Okay. And I brought my 'Al' tom.
00:02:15 - Awesome, yeah, we need the 'Al' tom.
00:02:17 And I think let's go headless front kick
at first, and see if it's too knocky.
00:02:21 - And we'll switch that out.
- Yeah, sweet.
00:02:24 - And snare-wise, I know
you brought your beautiful...
00:02:27 - I brought the babies.
00:02:29 But I've also got this, and I'll put up
like a little bandanna on here.
00:02:35 It's, like, from the 1800s,
and it is funky weird.
00:02:39 - Let's start with that if you want.
- Yeah, yeah.
00:02:41 - Once you get it all set I'll get
some microphones in your face.
00:02:44 - Right on!
- Ken, these two songs
we're going to do with Eli,
one is a ballad
and the other one is kind of
a little bit more of a funk rocker.
00:02:53 Both of them will go for more of a
Willie Mitchell 70's drum sound.
00:02:57 Even though I think the rest of the track
might be a little more 60's,
but if we keep you dead I can always
send you to the chamber or the plate.
00:03:05 - We'll start with kind of a
deeper-tuned, darker...
00:03:08 - I love the chamber.
00:03:09 - If this kick drum is a little
too knocky, I'll change that.
00:03:17 And we can address this tuning-wise,
whatever you need.
00:03:21 We can put some more stuff
in there, do it all.
00:03:26 - It's pretty awesome.
- That's what I'm talking about!
- Like an 808.
- The low end on that is sick.
00:03:37 These hi-hats won't fit on a new, fancy...
00:03:39 - That's wild.
- Isn't that wild?
A lot of people drill bigger holes
but I don't want to.
00:03:43 - Oh, so this hole is the problem?
- Yeah, that's smaller,
so I have to use a smaller
60's Rogers clutch
- and it's pretty awesome.
- Wow.
00:03:54 - Want me to hand you that snare?
- Hand me that snare!
- I'm afraid to touch it,
I don't want to break it.
00:04:06 - And see how wide it is?
- I know, it's wide.
00:04:09 - And it's different.
This is an experiment, so...
00:04:13 But you got to cover it up or it sounds
like we're marching into battle.
00:04:17 - It looks like just a giant tambourine.
00:04:19 - It really does!
But it's got a thing.
00:04:33 - That's very...
- That's weird.
00:04:36 - It sounds like you are making a loop.
00:04:39 - But I've also got the 'Al' snare.
- Yeah, we might start on the 'Al' snare.
00:04:50 - If you're cool, I think we'll start
on the 'Al' snare. But that's cool!
- Oh, yeah! It's got a high end
thing that's...
00:04:57 - Hey Ken, what if we try this snare?
- What a great idea Mr. Producer man!
I would never have thought of that!
- Oh, man.
00:05:13 - Get ready for that all day!
- I'm ready for that all day!
I'm more ready for that than you know.
00:05:19 All right, so this could be...
00:05:22 - That's loose.
- Yeah. That will be perfect though.
00:05:25 What is the 'Al' snare exactly?
- The 'Al' snare is a 1928 six-lug
Student Model, so it's cheap.
00:05:35 It's a Ludwig Universal.
00:05:37 - We call it the 'Al' snare because we
used it on this last Al Green recording
where we were trying to copy Al Jackson,
Howard Grimes, their drum sound.
00:05:46 - Like that, but...
00:05:47 - Which is higher pitched
than a lot of people think.
00:05:49 - That's true.
00:05:52 - It's not a bad start.
00:05:53 - We are just hearing in the booth
as opposed to hearing the microphones.
00:05:56 - Yeah, yeah.
00:05:57 - Is there a difference we can split
on the fuzzy beater
to give it a little bit more attack?
- Yeah, I've got other fuzzy beaters.
00:06:05 Because every man needs more than one.
00:06:06 - The low end is awesome, I'm just
worried about not having enough knock.
00:06:10 - There's this, let's try this.
00:06:12 - Because that's, like, full-on.
- Yeah.
00:06:15 - Can you do both at the same time?
- If I had a double pedal...
00:06:22 - I like that.
- That's what I used last time.
00:06:24 - Yeah, that's cool.
- Groovy.
00:06:26 - Let's start with this.
- All right, we can start with this.
00:06:29 I'll play the groove.
00:06:34 I need to tune that a little bit.
00:06:37 - Can we deaden the rack tom just a hair?
- Yeah! That's where I was going.
00:06:44 - You're stealing my tricks.
00:06:46 You're stealing my tricks, dog!
- Yeah. Now the kick drum and the rack tom
sound like one now
instead of two different kits.
00:06:58 - It does.
00:07:08 - I think it's a great starting spot.
00:07:11 I'll get some mics and I'll be back.
00:07:13 Starting with the drums,
one of my favorite mics is the D25.
00:07:18 I just love D25s, I love D12s.
00:07:22 Over the years I've tried
a lot of stuff on kick drums
and of course it depends on
what you're doing.
00:07:28 I've always found that condensers
get the low end really good,
but you don't get the knock.
00:07:32 And it's easier to add a little sub
or something to, like, a D12
if you need a little more thump,
whereas with the condenser you're
kind of stuck with what you put in there.
00:07:42 So I've always found that while soloed
the condenser sounds good in the mix,
I always have trouble with it later.
00:07:48 These are obviously...
they don't make them anymore.
00:07:50 I've tried a couple of different D12s,
and this D25 I got
has a little more low end than my D12.
00:07:55 I'm going to try this out today
on the kick drum.
00:07:57 For the overhead...
00:07:59 I've had the fortune of working a lot
with Ken Coomer, our drummer,
so I kind of know what he sounds like
and what he does.
00:08:08 And I usually use pretty much
all vintage stuff
but this is a newer microphone
made by Upton,
it's kind of a copy of a 251,
and it's just a beautiful-sounding
microphone.
00:08:20 It captures low end from a distance,
so it's really amazing to me
how it picks up drums.
00:08:27 And it's a little bit smoother on the top.
00:08:29 It's a tube microphone
so I like what it does to the cymbals
and how it just reacts to the transients,
so I've been using this
a lot on overhead.
00:08:38 I usually kind of jump
between this and a U67,
they are my kind of first ones to go to.
00:08:44 Similar reasons for the U67,
I like the smoothness on the cymbals
and how it picks up drums
from kind of afar.
00:08:52 Although I will say
that as you're about to see,
I kind of mic drums way closer
than most people do.
00:08:59 What I'll do is I'll kind of get these
somewhat close,
and I always wait until
the drummer is in here
because I like to put the overhead mic
pretty much right in their face.
00:09:09 And Ken, once again,
he's one of my favorite
drummers of all time
and I get to work with him a lot,
and I know that he's not going to
hit that hard
and I also know that I can do this
without losing a microphone
to a big drum hit.
00:09:25 Knock on wood, that won't happen today.
00:09:27 This is an older SM57 Unidyne III
and I've done...
00:09:32 you know, I've used 57s all the time
and over the years,
and these just have, like,
a little more thump to them
and they're just a little more...
00:09:41 a throaty sound, I'd say.
00:09:43 These really sound great on snare
and just about everything.
00:09:46 I'm not sure if there is a difference
in the builds
but that's what I found
and fell in love with.
00:09:54 So I'll set this somewhat in place,
and when he gets in here
he's going to move his stuff around
and then I'll really kind of place them
to my liking.
00:10:07 So this is the Sam Phillips Studio A,
this is the drum booth in Studio A
that they added in the 70's
as you can tell by the
cool burlap and stuffing.
00:10:16 It's a great little wooden room with some
thick soundproofing and burlap over here.
00:10:23 And you can even see that in the booth
they have a 2 x 4 nailed into the floor
because they used to do
the drum kit straight that way
and that would help the kick drum
from moving forward.
00:10:31 It's kind of a genius idea,
but I've played in here a little bit
with drums and moving stuff around
and I found that if you angle
the drums to the corner
you get this really beautiful
bloom on the kick drum,
there's more low end, I think,
just because everything
is off at an angle.
00:10:49 So I angle the drums,
and we had some extra time
to kind of soundproof around,
so I kind of lay them on this long wall
because to me it helps
with some of the early reflections
in the room.
00:11:00 Ken is a fantastic drummer
who I've used quite a bit
and me and him both like kind of
simple kits, not a lot of cymbals,
and just kind of keeping it old-school.
00:11:11 And he does not hit hard,
which is a big plus for me.
00:11:14 He hits hard when you need him to,
but he hits quiet.
00:11:17 When drums are hit quiet
they sound better to me.
00:11:21 You don't have so much attack, you get
more of the overtones and the note,
and it just sounds huge to me.
00:11:27 And it can still be aggressive,
it can still be big-sounding
while hit quietly.
00:11:34 And he also doesn't flail around,
so I can get around with it.
00:11:37 This is a little bit lower
than what I'll do.
00:11:39 When he gets in here I'll kind of
move it to where his forehead is.
00:11:42 But I usually start with this simple
kick and overhead,
and I make sure that the phase between
these two is awesome and really tight.
00:11:50 A lot of times I'll use
just these two microphones,
and then I'll include a snare mic
in case I need to do something.
00:11:56 And the snare mic can be a snare top,
it can be moved to a snare bottom,
it can be on the side.
00:12:02 Sometimes, depending on the song, I'll
move the snare mic to just the floor tom
if the snare is coming through great
on the overhead
and I need a little bit more 'oomph'
on the floor tom.
00:12:10 So this mic I'll kind of
move around a little bit.
00:12:13 And depending on the song and the style
I might add one or two other kind of mics
for distortion
or more of a room sound.
00:12:23 But for this record we're kind of doing
almost an Al Green thing,
a really dead, tight drum sound,
so I want to keep it kind of simple.
00:12:32 And once I hear these,
if it's not doing it
I'll probably move these around,
maybe swap out the overhead
or add a microphone.
00:12:40 Usually adding a microphone
is the last place I will go to.
00:12:44 If I can't get it to happen
with the kick and overhead
then I'm doing something wrong
or something is weird.
00:12:50 So I'll get Ken in here,
we'll get him to hit drums,
and first up I'll hear the drums
in the booth.
00:12:56 I like to be in the room just as much
as I am in the control room
so I can hear the source, and then hear it
through the microphones.
00:13:04 So I'll grab Ken and then
we'll see what happens.
00:13:06 So, for drumming, and Ken
has heard this speech before.
00:13:11 If you look at the kick, I always
angle the mic down a little bit.
00:13:13 It helps get cymbals and stuff
out of the kick drum mic.
00:13:16 And being off-axis, the mic
is not taking a direct big SPL hit
so I feel like it helps the capsule some.
00:13:22 The snare is pretty simple, depending
if we want more of a 'thunk',
or bite, if we want more of a bite
on the snare,
this 57 should just kind of look
across the snare.
00:13:31 If you want more of a low end thump,
like 200 Hz,
that's when I would angle it up
and down on the snare.
00:13:38 So it kind of depends on how I hear
the snare in there.
00:13:41 The overhead is always pretty low.
00:13:44 This is in cardioid. And Ken
is such a balanced drummer,
he balances himself volume-wise
so I can really get away
with this kind of setup.
00:13:53 And I like for this mic to kind of get
this whole area,
it will get the hi-hat, it will get
the snare, it will get the rack tom.
00:14:00 And usually the right cymbal
cuts through the most of anything,
so it being kind of off the mic
helps it sit more in the mix
and balance itself in.
00:14:10 If I had the overhead more in the middle,
if he really rocks the ride,
it might overpower the rest of the kit.
00:14:16 And depending on how it sounds in there
I will move this mic
more to the center, or more to the right
if I need more hi-hat,
or if I need more ride, or more floor tom.
00:14:25 The overhead mic actually
becomes those things.
00:14:27 Or just even tilting it, so to speak,
will get me more of the balance
that I want.
00:14:32 So I'm going to start
with more of a bitey snare
because this snare sounds
really good like this,
so I'm just going to aim the 57
kind of across the head,
and I'll start with this
if Ken is okay with that height.
00:14:44 - Beautiful.
- And I usually start with the capsule
kind of a little bit where the rack tom
and the snare and the hi-hat all meet,
kind of a little cluster,
so this will come back
just a little bit.
00:14:54 And like I said, if the song
needs more floor tom
or something, I might adjust this.
00:14:59 - But we'll start with this Mr. Ken.
- Cool.
00:15:01 - I'll get you set up.
- You got it.
00:15:03 - All right, let's get some drum sounds!
The Spectra Sonics console I have
is a little bit different,
there's no Mic Gain knobs,
it's really old-school.
00:15:13 There's a 10 dB and a 20 dB pad,
and a fader,
so it's a little bit different way
of getting the level.
00:15:19 Kenny, can you hit some drums
for me? The whole kit.
00:15:22 - You've got it.
00:15:31 - One of my other favorite things
with this mic pre
is that it saturates really great.
00:15:36 It'll never...
there are no VU meters, obviously,
so you just use your ears.
00:15:40 But pushing it really hard
gets a fantastic saturation sound.
00:15:44 It's solid-state but it's very tube-like
in that it never really gives out,
the transient kind of gets chopped off
in a very musical way
so you have to be kind of careful
what you're doing.
00:15:54 So I usually start with all the pads off,
I put the fader at 0,
and then I'll flip on the pads
until I feel I get the best clean sound,
the best dirty sound, etc.
00:16:02 So with the kick drum up...
00:16:07 This will be with both pads off,
and I'll flip a pad on.
00:16:33 So we're cutting to tape today
and I'm looking at the Studer A827
right there.
00:16:37 You can see there's red lights,
those are Peak lights,
and we're at +5 over 250,
we are on ATR tape.
00:16:44 So we're on a higher bias tape
which you can hit a little bit harder.
00:16:48 I'm not a big fan of hitting tape hard,
so I'm going to get the drums
to be where I just see
one occasional red light.
00:16:54 On the A827 you can see
about three red lights
and you're getting pretty hot.
00:16:59 On playback you'll notice
that a lot of times
the tape soaks up the transient
in the peak,
so on playback you'll actually lose it.
00:17:06 If you're seeing 3 on input,
you'll see 2 on playback.
00:17:10 But I don't like to hit tape that hard,
I don't think it sounds as good.
00:17:14 So I got the kick drum level up.
00:17:16 I always have them play the whole drum set
because I want to hear it all together,
and what I'll quickly do is check my phase
between my kick and my overhead
because I want the kit to sound amazing
with just these two mics.
00:17:32 - Here we go, cool!
Depending on the overhead
microphone choice
and where you place it,
you can flip the phase
and actually really change the sound
of the snare drum,
you can get it more bitey,
or more bottom too.
00:18:11 I find that happens a lot
with the Coles 4038, a figure-8 mic.
00:18:16 In the booth, figure-8 mics to me
sound a little more weird
because it's such an enclosed space,
so I typically go cardioid.
00:18:22 You ready? So we're going to
hear it first without it flipped.
00:18:31 Flip it.
00:18:33 This is an old-school console,
the channels don't have phantom
or polarity.
00:18:37 So I use outboard phantom boxes
which I actually really like,
doing everything out there
so it's not on the patchbay
and separated.
00:18:48 Okay, it was better before,
so we were in phase.
00:19:14 So right away I hear that the phase...
00:19:16 the kick drum kind of loses bottom end,
it kind of feels farther away.
00:19:20 If things were panned you would
really feel it. This is mono
but you can hear the low end go away,
which is what we don't want.
00:19:26 Here's our kick and overhead,
just the two of them.
00:19:34 What I'm listening for is the balance
of the hi-hat versus the snare.
00:19:37 There's no snare mic in right now.
00:19:38 I'll ask him to play the whole kit
with the ride and the floor and rack tom
so we can hear the balance.
00:19:44 Ken, do you mind doing occasional tom
fills and hitting the ride now and then
- so I can hear the balance of the OH?
- You got it.
00:20:11 - That all sounds amazing to me.
00:20:13 On Eli's last record we just used
those two microphones,
and when I tried to bring the snare mic in
on his last record, it didn't sound good.
00:20:21 The imaging was so perfect this way.
00:20:23 I'll attempt it now and if it doesn't work
we won't even have the snare mic.
00:20:27 But Ken is such a great drummer
that I can get away with this,
and it just sounds amazing to me
to have just that kick and overhead,
and that beautiful image of the whole kit.
00:20:35 It gives it the depth and everything
I love, so we'll try...
00:20:57 So this is with our kick/snare/overhead.
00:20:59 And the way I do the gain,
I'm seeing about one to two,
at the max three peaks on the VUs.
00:21:06 I've got a good headroom
here on the console
which gives me room
to put everybody else in.
00:21:10 And I'm just going to cut the snare
out of the mix
and just see if it sounds better
with or without it.
00:21:15 And I should say that I try and get
my whole mix
where all my monitor mix faders are at 0.
00:21:21 There's no point in getting
the gain way up so your fader is at -10.
00:21:23 If you can get your gain right,
you can still hit the pre hard
but without the cut after it,
and if all your monitor mix is at 0
then it makes your mixing
so much easier.
00:21:33 So we'll see what happens. Kick.
00:21:36 Overhead.
00:21:39 Now I'm going to try to slide
the snare in.
00:21:53 In this case I really like the snare, it's
giving me a little bit more of the body
which I like, I want a deeper...
a little more 200 Hz.
00:21:59 I'd be fine without it
but I think it adds a little bit
of this 'oomph' that we will want.
00:22:04 So that's what we'll start with,
just kick, snare, overhead,
and I think we should go to the bass now.
00:22:08 So we'll get some levels.
00:22:11 Let's see where we are,
we'll start with the DI.
00:22:27 Wesley, can you make sure the knob
is all the way up on the Motown?
DI-wise I have kind of a replica of...
00:22:34 Acme sells a Motown DI, it's really
just an older Triad transformer.
00:22:39 It's got a really cool saturation
to it that I like,
it kind of has an old-school thump.
00:22:44 So I've got my own version of that
with the old transformer.
00:22:47 And I also have an amp.
I never use both at the same time,
I usually pick one for the song.
00:22:53 I make a decision pretty early on,
but every Ampeg B15 I've ever run into
eventually gives out or makes a noise
on the song and it can be a bummer.
00:23:01 And this DI sounds so good and it works,
so you have an option.
00:23:06 And if I need to reamp, I can,
but I never use both at the same time.
00:23:10 Even when I time-align it,
it just sounds weird and phasey to me,
so I always choose one.
00:23:21 On the bass amp I've got a U48.
00:23:23 I'm a little spoiled here at Sam Phillips,
they've got all of Sam's original mics,
two U48s and a U47.
00:23:30 I've tried different things
on the bass amp,
I put this up, like, a foot back one day
and I just really loved the lower midrange
that it gives me.
00:23:37 It helps it really sit in the mix
perfectly with the kick drum,
so I've kind of been using
this U48 mic lately.
00:23:51 The bass amp feels a little woofy
to me right now with the mic choice.
00:23:54 Hey Wesley, can we just for fun
do straight bass to DI?
Not going to the amp afterwards,
and just seeing what it does.
00:24:29 Is there a pad on that, Wesley?
It's really low level.
00:24:36 One more time Mr. Leroy.
00:24:45 That's better.
00:24:48 It just went away.
00:24:59 Got it!
Leroy, please tell Wesley I got it.
00:25:03 - He got it.
- Cool.
00:25:07 Thank you, Leroy. Okay, let's get
the amp back in the equation
and see what happens.
The DI sounds great.
00:25:22 - Is it still buzzy? Buzzy again?
- Yeah.
- Uh...
00:25:29 Is this amp lifted?
It was changed lately.
00:25:34 Let me try by lifting the amp.
00:25:41 - I'll go look at something real quick.
00:25:52 - It's the pedal.
00:26:11 - I don't have the DI
but I've got the bass amp.
00:26:20 I think we'll go with the bass amp, guys.
That DI is just too noisy and weak
so we'll skip the DI.
00:26:28 - Reverend Hodges, can we get you
to play a little organ?
- Yes sir.
00:26:32 - My friends!
- Hey Man! What's up?
- Look at you all! Tex!
- What's up, man?
- Not much.
00:26:42 - A busy man.
00:26:46 - We'll get you in there and then
we'll get The Masqueraders
and we'll be good to go!
First of all, as a producer
or as an engineer
you want to work
with the best of the best,
and that's why we got the guys
we have today.
00:26:57 We've got Ken Coomer on drums,
he's one of my favorite drummers.
00:27:01 Leroy and Charles Hodges
on bass and B3, respectively.
00:27:05 And they played on all
my favorite records growing up,
Al Green, Ann Peebles, Otis Clay.
00:27:10 They are legends in their own right,
and it's a treat to get to work
with them in the studio.
00:27:15 As you'll see with Charles, literally
you can put any microphone
up on the B3 and it will sound amazing.
00:27:20 Currently what I have on the B3
is an AEA R88 ribbon mic.
00:27:25 It's more of a recent purchase for me.
00:27:27 A lot of times we'll do B3 just mono
to really get the swirl,
but for something like this
that's going to be more of a ballad
and we have limited instrumentation,
I'm thinking of it more
as a stereo instrument
and having it kind of move
across the spectrum.
00:27:42 Because of the way Charles plays,
he does a lot of swoops and stuff,
so it benefits from that.
00:27:46 The B3 can be a hard instrument
to mic in stereo
because of the phasing nature
of how it works,
so there's a couple different
methods I use.
00:27:55 And when I got this R88...
00:27:57 it's the only stereo microphone I have
and I used it on a B3 one day
and loved it.
00:28:02 It gives a great wide image of the B3,
and since it's X/Y, figure-8,
it gives you all of the air
around it too.
00:28:10 So it sits in the mix
really nice, I think.
00:28:14 Also, I usually scoop a lot of the bottom
and the top of the B3.
00:28:18 In general that's not needed,
and the ribbon automatically
kind of does some of that.
00:28:22 And I don't mic the bottom and the top,
I usually just put either the two mics
or the stereo mic
kind of halfway down the Leslie,
a couple of feet back.
00:28:31 Micing the bottom... I think Charles isn't
going to do the foot pedals on this song,
so, having a close mic on there
isn't totally necessary.
00:28:38 And it's very muddy
when you get down there,
and you get a lot of motor noise,
so I've found that the farther
back off of it
and kind of going vertically with it...
00:28:46 If you want more top, go high,
if you want more bottom, go low.
00:28:49 That's really kind of the EQ
and the balances, that's how I do it.
00:28:53 There we go!
It sounds so awesome!
I'm pretty happy with this B3 sound.
00:29:21 Once I hear it in the track
and hear what preset he goes to,
then I might adjust it up or down
for treble or bass.
00:29:27 But I think it's a great starting
point for now.
00:29:30 It's sounding great, Reverend Charles.
00:29:31 I think we'll start wrestling
with the song a little bit.
00:29:35 - Okay.
00:29:36 [Unintelligible]
- Yeah. You want to try something else?
- No, that's fine.
00:29:43 - Hey, what I was thinking too was...
00:29:46 - For tremolo?
- Oh, I can use the Gibson for tremolo.
00:29:49 - Yeah.
00:29:51 - I think they will all
be feeding off your vocal.
00:29:54 - Yeah, that's fine.
- We can redo the guitar.
00:29:56 - Yeah, that's fine. Sure.
00:29:58 For this one I can probably...
00:30:00 - I bet you can do it.
00:30:02 I always believe in you.
00:30:05 - If you believe in me.- If you believe in me.
00:30:08 - I always believe in you.
- The Gibson might be the way to go.
00:30:11 It might be a little crunchy
but we'll see.
00:30:12 - I want to put your amp down there.
00:30:14 And then I'll probably have you here
and The Masqueraders here
- kind of looking at each other.
- Yeah. Do you have some stands?
- Yeah. Let's do this 67 on him,
the 47 on The Masqueraders,
and I'll put a 77 on my brother Eli.
00:30:28 We're cutting live in the room,
which is the best way to record.
00:30:31 We've got the legendary Masqueraders,
nobody is like The Masqueraders
and Eli, our artists.
00:30:37 And I like to put them close together
because they'll be singing
harmony with Eli.
00:30:41 - I'm not legendary yet.
- And Eli... He's on his way!
Eli is going to play
electric guitar and sing.
00:30:47 And I like to put
all the rhythm guys together
so we've got drums, bass, guitar.
00:30:51 And I've got a little baffle
between the amps
and they'll actually be side by side.
00:30:56 There won't really be any bleed
between the two.
00:30:58 And just by facing Eli's amp
away from Eli
I'll get a lot of it out of his vocal.
00:31:02 We've got a beautiful U47 here
which I'm going to put on The Masqueraders
because it will pick up
all their beautiful harmony,
and I'll put a 77 on Eli
because I want to darken
his voice a little bit.
00:31:13 By doing a condenser on The Masqueraders
and a ribbon on Eli
I won't have to EQ the background vocals.
00:31:18 I think the mic selection will put them
right there in the mix where I like.
00:31:22 I could be horribly wrong about this
but we'll see once we pull the faders up.
00:31:34 - And you patched it all in, I presume.
00:31:36 - Yeah.
- Cool.
00:31:48 - There it is.- Can you set up the chamber
and the plate?- Chorus.And the walk up.- It's like... not too fast,
not too slow, you know?
- Is that the right note?
- I was... like...
00:33:34 Do a little...
00:33:37 Yes, something like that.
00:33:42 Yeah, that's it, that's it.
00:33:49 - Is that all right?
- It's nice. Yeah, I like that.
00:33:53 - Can we quickly move Eli's amp
to the vocal booth?
Because it's a little sharp
and buzzy, yeah.
00:33:59 - Do you want to mess with the tone?
- Your tone is pretty awesome.
00:34:04 - It sounds good to me,
it sounds like it fits.
00:34:06 - It fits perfectly. I just want to
keep it out of your vocal
- so I'm going to move it to back there.
- Okay.
00:34:11 - Originally I had placed the guitar amp
beside the bass amp
with just a baffle between them,
and that keeps the sounds
of each amp out of each other.
00:34:20 It's a great separation with having
them right beside each other.
00:34:24 I do that a lot in live recording
in one room.
00:34:26 If you put the drums up and put
a baffle on each side of the drum kit,
and put the amps on each side of that,
you won't get any drums in the amps
and any amps in the drums.
00:34:34 It's pretty amazing.
00:34:36 And it works good
just to get the tone Eli wants.
00:34:39 The amp is a bit louder
and it's pretty bright
so it's cutting through on his vocal.
And I can just tell being out in the room
that's going to be too much
for The Masqueraders,
and I want to get The Masqueraders
as clean as I can.
00:34:51 And since Phillips has some
great booths here,
I know that in three minutes
I can move the amp to the booth
and I'll for sure have a great sound
and get a great background vocal sound.
00:35:00 So just being out there in the room
and hearing how loud the amp was
for him to get the sound he wanted,
and knowing that turning
the amp down would work
but I would lose some of that tone,
because the tone is so good,
I decided to move the amp
into the vocal booth,
since vocal booth is open,
and we'll record it in there.
00:35:17 But the most important part is all
the guys are in the room together
so they can feed off each other.
00:35:21 So that's what we're doing currently
and then I'll get the vocal mics up.
00:35:25 They're kind of running down the song.
00:35:27 I like to be out there as much as I can.
00:35:30 A, to hear what the stuff sounds like
live in the room
to know what it should sound like in here.
00:35:34 But also, I like to be kind of
part of the band
because it's so much easier to converse
out there about the arrangement,
our structure, our sounds,
what they're playing or anything.
00:35:45 So I'm often out there, mostly once
I know everything in here is cool.
00:35:48 But also, these guys have never heard
this song before
and some are just meeting each other,
so instead of just jumping
into the song right away
it's cool for them to kind of meet each
other, and play with each other, and bond
while I get sounds in here.
00:36:01 And then when they hear it
it will sound hopefully amazing,
and then they'll know each other
and we can just knock the song out.
00:36:06 So that's what we're doing now.
Once logged in, you will be able to read all the transcripts jump around in the video.
Matt Ross-Spang is a Multi award-winning engineer, mixer, and producer. His first brush with greatness began at only 14 years old when he received 2 hours of studio time at Sun Studios in Memphis, TN, for his birthday.
He went on to intern at Sun Studios when he was 16 and learned what it meant to bring recording back to its roots. Matt now operates out of the newly renovated Studio B at Sam Phillips Recording in Memphis, TN, which he now calls “Southern Groove.”
Among the many incredible entries in his discography, Ross-Spang was hired in 2016 by Sony Records to mix 18 previously unreleased songs by Elvis Presley from his historic 1976 sessions from the Jungle Room at Graceland.
Known for his unique taste and ability to preserve old school recording techniques and bring them into today’s music, Matt Ross-Spang has worked with some of the world’s most cherished artists from the most legendary studios in recording history.
I visited the studios years ago, what a trip! As a musician living on the other side of the world, growing up with this music, this is a real treasure. Guys, you have no idea of the gift you are making us every single time, and this is a very special one!
fangjin
2020 Jul 23
The sound is great.
Audiobsesion
2020 Jul 21
please subtitles in Spanish
shuchoco
2020 Jul 14
Wow, this was such a treat! Loved every second of it!
phil punch
2020 Jul 12
Thanks Matt for showing us how you set up and work
a great group of legendary musicians.
Love your single mike overhead .
Did you know that in the earlier days at Fame the single
oh U47 was placed a drum stick and a half above
Roger Hawkins snare drum ?
Pretty much the same as you.
Did you also know that the great, engineer
Malcolm Chisholm almost never used oh mics on
on his many famous Chess recordings ?
Many different approaches out there and they can
all be great.
Thanks again and looking forward to your next episode.
SubhraagSingh
2020 Jul 06
Love this! Can't wait for the next episodes. My biggest pet peeve about modern recording technique is too many mics on drums. It is so refreshing to see/hear minimal drum miking. And ooooooh what great musicians!! All together in a room..... yes yes yes! More more more! This is the kind of thing that really inspires me.
Pearlpassionstudio
2020 Jul 05
Excellent.... I can already see where your heading...great explanation with your approach...
leesparey
2020 Jul 04
Loving the contrast you are getting between each different producer in this series.
mark bass
2020 Jul 04
Absolute respect and fun to watch this track come together. Can't wait for a new episode.
mataran
2020 Jul 04
Cannot wait! I'm a huge fan of this genre of music! Great video!
leitrim_lad
2020 Jul 03
This is amazing.. im sick i have to wait a week for part 2 now :P
Michaeltn86
2020 Jul 03
Puremix team, in the next series, please make a tour of the studio. I bet it will be super cool. and we can have the context of the studio too! if you can add additional data like height size etc would be a really good bonus :]
nyoak34
2020 Jul 03
This is fantastic. Love the old school approach and can't wait for the rest of the series. I played blues in Chicago for a long time and Otis Clay was around and rockin' all the time. Great stuff.
iván_mauricio.c
2020 Jul 03
Great start! Pre production is so important. This "test" is right for the mix. :D
