Now that the band is warmed up and the song is rehearsed, Eli "Paperboy" Reed, The Hodges Brothers, The Masqueraders, and Ken Coomer head back into the live room and record the final takes and overdubs for "Anytime You Want Me".
In this episode, you'll watch as Matt and the band:
Lay down the final take with the entire group playing in the legendary live room at Sam Phillips Recording
Turn up the intensity of the performance
Explain the tape workflow at Sam Phillips Recording
Edits different takes together for a perfect composite to build off of
Grabs a few special moments from different takes to add to the composite
Records B3 overdubs with Charles Hodges
Records the "Hillbilly Bongo" and percussion overdubs with Ken Coomer
Join Matt Ross-Spang, Eli "Paperboy" Reed, The Hodges Brothers, Ken Coomer, and The Masqueraders inside the legendary Sam Phillips Recording in Memphis, TN for an incredible recording event, from Start To Finish.
00:01:27 - I'm sorry, I'm going to stop you
because we're really close.
00:01:29 Ken, can we do the half-time of that?
- Actually, Matt, I have an idea
that we put The Masqueraders in
at the top,
sing the first line of the chorus,
and then we add an extra... like...
00:01:58 - Yeah, I love that.
- Do you want to try that?
- And can we mess with this pre-chorus
for just a second?
- Because I think there's something here.
- Okay.
00:02:05 - Ken, you know what I'm talking about?
- Yeah, half-time.
- Do the gallop, but not like...
00:02:13 Maybe have that bell,
I'm trying to think of the Al Green song,
is it "I'm Still In Love With You"?
- The intro?
- Yeah.
00:02:20 - Yeah, that's the intro of
"I'm Still In Love With You."
- Yeah, that might be it right there.
- That's it right there.
00:02:28 - Can we hear that on the pre-chorus
real quick?
- 1, 2, ready, play.
00:02:46 - Maybe no accents, Ken.
00:02:48 - On the bell?
- No 'bom bom bom'.
00:02:51 - Yeah.
- Okay, I won't do any of them.
00:02:53 - Eli, can you sing just for fun?
- Yeah.
00:02:56 - 2, 3, 4...
00:03:19 - Yeah, yeah, that's the way to do
all those pre-choruses, Ken.
00:03:22 - It makes that chorus pop.
- Okay, you got it. Right on.
00:03:24 - Can we try this intro real quick?
You all sing just the first
line of the chorus,
and then we'll just add...
00:03:30 - It's basically adding an extra 2 beats.
- Right on the top?
- Right on the top,
and then...
00:03:39 2, 3, boom.
00:03:42 - Okay, let's try it.
- Right.
00:03:45 - From the top. Are we stopping
or are we going to keep going?
- Uh, let's stop this time to practice it.
- Okay, right on.
00:03:52 1, 2,
1, 2, 3...
00:04:09 - That's it,
that's it, that's it.
00:04:14 - I like that. All right, this is it.
- Here we go.
00:04:18 - Yeah, we're rolling, friends.
00:04:20 - 1, 2,
1, 2, 3...
00:06:19 - That's where you do the bell
and then the riff.
00:06:22 - Do you want to practice that real quick?
- Oh, no. We got it.
00:06:26 - We're going from the top.
Hey guys, it sounds really good
but we sound just a little timid too,
so let's just dig in just a little bit.
00:06:35 - Just in general?
- Not the BG vocals, just the band.
00:06:38 You guys sound great.
00:06:40 Stand by, and we're rolling.
00:06:43 - 1, 2,
1, 2, 3...
00:11:58 - That was fantastic, can we just do
one more right behind it real quick?
- Yeah!
- Everybody good?
- Yeah, we can do one more.
- 1, 2,
1, 2, 3...
00:17:21 - Gentleman! Take a minute,
I think we got it
between these last two takes,
and then we'll punch the riff.
00:17:26 But take about four of five minutes.
00:17:29 - I think actually the third one
was better.
00:17:31 - Let's Repro the last two.
00:17:35 Thanks.
00:17:36 We ran the song about four or five times
and the last three takes were all
pretty magical in different areas.
00:17:42 There is only one issue with the second to
last take, that really is the take for me,
we just need to punch the riff.
And then vocally with Eli,
the first verse and the cool intro
from the last take was really nice,
so I'm going to actually splice
the whole band,
intro, verse one, chorus one,
probably from the last take,
and pop it on the second to last take.
00:18:02 And then we'll punch the band
for the outro riff.
00:18:07 We're doing the splicing in Pro Tools
but we're doing the old-school splice,
we're taking the whole band
and really just cutting around the vocal
because the band is playing
great every time
and Eli just had a really special
vocal moment
that I feel I want to put in there.
00:18:20 And there's no click track
but Ken is a fantastic drummer
and keeps time really well.
00:18:26 And it's okay when things sway
a little bit to me,
it doesn't need to be completely
like a robot.
00:18:32 So we will try this edit and see how
it feels, and then go from there.
00:18:35 How I usually like to record is I like to
record everything to tape first.
00:18:39 I think it really gives a great sound
and makes the band play differently,
it does things to the drums
and stuff on playback,
you can manipulate it really cool,
and then I like to dump the tape.
Obviously budgets aren't what they were,
where you could buy 10 or 11 reels
to make a record.
00:18:54 But you can buy 1 or 2 reels
and record a whole record on it,
and just get the song, dump it,
and go to the next song
and erase the previous take
or previous song.
00:19:02 So it's a really great way of working
on tape and not killing the bank.
00:19:06 Also, every time you run the tape
you introduce more noise,
and every pass it goes
you lose a little bit of something,
so it's cool to get it and then
dump it at its peak
and get the best sound quality.
00:19:17 Sam Phillips has BURL converters
which sound really good.
00:19:20 Every tape machine has a different sound.
They have a Studer A827 here
which is the most hi-tech
machine they made,
and it also has the least kind of
tape sound that they had.
00:19:30 There's all kinds of tape machines
and they all sound differently,
just like converters,
and with the Studer A827
you get a rock-solid transport,
you get all these great features
but you lose a little bit
of the sonic things
of maybe an A800 or a Scully.
00:19:44 So what's cool is the BURLs
kind of give some of that back
by going from the Studer to the BURL.
00:19:49 So I have the BURL connected directly
to the back of the Studer machine
and so I'm transferring the tape
directly to the BURL
without using the patchbay.
It's the shortest signal path there is
and the best quality, I think.
00:20:00 When you're recording to tape...
There's three heads on a tape machine:
an Erase head, a Record head,
and a Playback head.
00:20:07 You can't monitor what it sounds like
off the tape
if you're doing headphones for the artist
because it's delayed,
there's a delay from hearing what's going
to tape and playing off the tape machine,
so we record on the Input
or the Sync side.
00:20:20 That's what we're listening to,
what you're listening to,
and when I say Repro
we're going off the Playback head,
we're playing the tape back and recording
into Pro Tools simultaneously,
so I'm recording what's playing
off the tape machine.
00:20:31 That way we can track to tape,
they hear it all instantly,
and then we can also get the tape side.
And it's fun to A/B
and you'll get to A/B
what happens before tape
and what happens after tape,
and see what the tape is doing
and what it's not doing,
and vice versa. So it's pretty cool.
00:20:48 It doesn't really add too much
to the process.
00:20:51 Obviously there's time to align
the machine
and rewind and fast-forward time,
but as they are playing,
listening back to the tape,
you can be printing the reproduction
so it doesn't really add too much
to the workflow.
00:21:08 So there is no click track,
we cut this all live to tape
and we didn't have any click
reference or tempo reference.
00:21:14 It's just what feels good,
but there is some swaying
and all that stuff
but it's natural swing.
00:21:21 And Ken and everyone
are so laid back in the groove
that there might be a little fluctuation
but I don't think anyone will know
but me at this moment,
and I'll forget by the time we do
some overdubs and stuff.
00:21:31 So I think it'll be all good
and we're about to hear what it will do.
00:21:37 Also I'm going to cut it out
and edit at a break
so it also gives us
a little bit of leeway.
00:21:45 And we'll see.
00:22:01 I'll just see something.
00:24:40 Actually, I'm going to transfer
one more thing
because I like that last take,
the verse two.
00:24:44 It had some kind of emptiness
which was cool.
00:24:47 I recorded the Input side of the tape,
so we actually have that in Pro Tools
but I am using what happened
after the tape,
the Playback side,
so I actually have to go back
and find it on tape and dump that
into Pro Tools so I can edit
or you'll hear a difference
between the Input side of the tape
and the Playback.
00:25:19 So I'm just going to
record this real quick
and I'll pop that in there
because I think it's nice.
00:27:08 I'm popping in this verse two
that I really like from the last take,
and upon listening back I kind of
changed my mind about verse two
and I'm just popping that in
and seeing how it feels in the mood.
00:27:18 It kind of picks up the tempo a hair
which I kind of like,
it helps the song be
a little more cinematic
so I'm kind of messing with that.
00:27:34 I love the edit and I just had to move...
00:27:36 it was a complete vocal line
from one take.
00:27:38 And I slid the B3 a little bit
because Charles has this amazing swoop
so I've got that kind of edit now
where the take feels really good to me
and it picks up just a hair.
00:28:02 It's in a cool pocket there so I think
we'll work with that and punch the riff,
and then we'll finish
the background vocals.
00:28:07 - You guys want to give it a whirl?
- Yeah.
00:28:31 - Oh, okay, I'm sorry.
00:28:34 Next.
00:29:02 - One more time and I'll leave you in
just for a little bit
in case I need to get out later.
00:29:20 Yeah, that's it. Here we go.
00:29:42 Let me play that back for you real quick.
00:29:44 I'll put this on Input so I can hear you.
00:29:58 - I think I slowed down a little bit.
Play that...
00:30:01 I'm hearing something I'm not liking
coming into that, that...
00:30:08 Something happened there
on the organ.
00:30:14 I think what we'll do is go ahead
and record that part,
and then I'll come back and listen to it
and see what I need to do to that.
00:30:23 - Yeah, there's the band punch
and I think we got that.
00:30:26 Only play that one section.
00:30:36 - That's all good. You want to come
in here, Charles, and listen down?
- All right, yeah.
00:30:55 - I don't want to do more of that again.
00:30:59 - Yeah.
- I didn't want to do that.
00:31:01 - Yeah. Let's listen from the top
and we'll play what you want to hear.
00:31:05 - Okay.
00:31:26 - I heard a...
00:31:31 Can you get rid of that,
or do I need to cut that again?
- Let me see.
00:31:44 - You want to get rid of that note?
- Right.
00:31:48 - That didn't bother me.
- Yeah, I kind of like it.
00:31:50 - That didn't bother you?
- I kind of like it too.
00:32:39 - Just that verse?
- Just do that verse spot.
- Okay, you got it.
00:32:44 - Played percussion but I didn't want to.
- Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:32:48 - I'm going back.
- I got you.
00:32:51 All right, Mister Do Funny.
00:32:54 Here we go!
- I'm doing it again.
00:34:12 - I love it, Charles.
- Okay, now,
run it back before that,
before the part I just recorded.
00:34:20 - Go back a bar.
- Okay.
00:34:22 - I heard something I don't like.
- Okay.
00:34:29 - Right there, right there,
I didn't like that.
00:34:33 - The 'bom bom bom'? You got it.
- Yeah.
00:34:50 - Okay, did you cut it?
- Yeah.
00:34:52 - Let me hear it.
- You got it.
00:35:09 - Okay.
00:35:11 - Okay.
- Come on in, thank you.
00:35:14 - I think that sounds better.
00:35:15 - Yeah, and I wonder if we take
this snare hit and...
00:35:19 Let's see what you all think about this.
00:35:25 Make them wait for the drum hit.
00:35:47 - Keep the bell.
- Oh, I'll definitely keep the bell.
00:35:50 - And on that run too.
00:36:00 - Get the bell in there too.
00:36:03 - I like that idea.
- Yeah.
00:36:08 - We'll go to your bass hit for the time.
00:36:35 - A little late.
- Yeah.
00:36:38 Move it back a little closer.
00:36:45 - A little late still,
I'm behind the beat.
00:36:59 That's it.
00:37:01 I'll roll it until I'm there.
00:37:03 I think it's cool, getting rid
of that snare hit.
00:37:18 - Does that feel right, Leroy?
- Let it stay in there with the...
00:37:24 - With the hit?
- Yeah, with the hit coming back in.
00:37:38 - Yeah.
- Yeah, yeah.
00:37:41 - I got you, I got you.
00:38:29 - Thank you, Reverend.
- Oh, no.
00:38:31 - Beautiful.
00:38:33 Well, I'll get Ken and do that bongo
so we can knock this stuff out.
00:38:37 Let me hear a little bit more
of that, Kenny.
00:38:45 - Oh, yeah. Are we ready to go?
- Yeah!
- Hey, Kenny, I think this
comes in the first time
on that first pre-chorus.
00:41:07 - Yeah.
00:41:08 - Can we put a towel or something on there
to make it a little deeper-sounding?
You know what I mean?
Soften the attack and...
00:41:14 - I can go to a different spot.
You want to try different spots?
- That might be better, yeah.
00:41:23 Try that, I'm going to get you close
to that first pre-chorus.
00:41:26 - Because that's the highest spot.
00:41:28 - Yeah, sometimes it's just
a little too high, I think.
00:41:31 - Here we go, are you ready?
- Yeah, right on.
00:42:03 - And you stay on the chorus, I think.
- Okay, right on.
00:42:06 - It might come out of the chorus and come
back on that second verse, we'll see.
00:42:09 - Okay.
00:43:01 - I think maybe we leave it
off this chorus
and you do kind of like...
a tambourine or something.
00:43:07 - Just light hits now and then.
- Yeah, yeah.
00:43:08 - And then this goes back in
on verse two after the riff.
00:43:11 - Right on. You'll punch me there?
- Yeah, we'll punch you there.
00:43:15 That way you won't miss it.
00:44:16 - Let's just hit that pre-chorus again.
- Yeah, you got it.
00:47:06 - That was awesome!
What do you think about
swinging a tambourine or something?
- You know what I mean? Some kind of high.
- Yeah, yeah, let's do it.
00:47:16 - I'll move that microphone.
00:47:32 - Make it swing like...
00:47:35 - Okay. Any one you like better?
- The smaller was kind of cool.
00:47:43 What about no hits, just swinging?
Yeah.
00:47:50 Let's try that.
00:47:57 - Yeah, that will work.
00:48:11 - Just the choruses, maybe?
- Yeah.
00:49:03 - [Unintelligible]... right there.
00:49:08 - Maybe you can add the hit
for the second chorus.
00:49:11 The first one was cool
just swinging, I think.
00:49:13 - Right on.
- So maybe add a little hit on chorus two.
00:49:15 - You got it.
00:51:48 - [Unintelligible]... Ken.
- Right on.
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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.
"Your food's here, Kenneth." He is a monster on the tambo!
fangjin
2020 Jul 24
Who makes hand shadows there, hahaha.
pho
2020 Jul 23
Fantastic session, thanks for sharing this!
MitchH
2020 Jul 22
Is it just me or does the drummer's timing vary quite drastically between backbeats (and if so, it is on purpose?) Maybe my ears are so used to clicktrack accuracy that my brain automatically thinks "mistake" when listening to something not so streamlined. Same could be true for pitch/tuning and dynamics...
Edgar_Alvis
2020 Jul 22
Look to the right of the tape machine from 19:00 on. Someone's having fun.
thruhiker
2020 Jul 21
Good stuff and a great series so far. I like to think they all went to the Rendezvous there in Memphis for a big plate of ribs after this session.
Audiobsesion
2020 Jul 21
please subtitles in Spanish
BenCharbo
2020 Jul 21
The rythm section sound asolutbely incredible, that's awesome. Great job guys, it's amazing
jessrho
2020 Jul 20
Man, this whole session is a joy.
Matt, you're an inspiration, thanks dude!
