- 'RECORDING AND
MIXING TECHNIQUES AND EQUIPEMENT' -
Source :
See Will Shanks
full article & interview
of Paul McManus (owner of the 610 console which was used to record the
MC5 at the Grande!) - "Analog
Obsession : History of the 160
Preamplifier
with Paul McManus"
"BRUCE BOTNICK brought WALLY HEIDER along to help with
the the mobile
recording setup" consisting of 3 loud speakers L604 , 1 utility cabinet
, and the famous UNIVERSAL AUDIO TUBE CONSOLE (610 console , a
1960 custom built Universal Audio 12 input by 3 output vacuum tube
recording console designed by BILL PUTNAM.)
A little bit of history...
"WALLY HEIDER was the manager of remote recording for both UNITED and
WESTERN STUDIOS, and this console was used to record many artists,
including Wes Montgomery, the Smothers Brothers, and the Doors.... also
was the one used for the MC5's classic album 'KICK OUT THE JAMS.' BRUCE
BOTNICK used a 3M 1" 8 track along with [the 610 console] that
he had flownin by WALLY HEIDER from Los Angeles to record the MC5 live
in the Grande Ballroom in Detroit on Halloween 1968."
(Will Shanks & Paul McManus)
From Rick Clark's interview
(March 2003) with producer and engineer Bruce Botnick about recording
the MC5's
Classic Track, Kick out the Jams. Classic Tracks: The MC5's "Kick Out the Jams"
:
"For the 8-tracks, BOTNICK had two mics out in the hall, two vocal
mics, two guitar mics, a bass mic and a drum track. It was recorded
non-Dolby on BASF tape at +10. “For the drums, I probably used
two Sony C37s on the overhead, one on the snare, and probably a SM56 on
the kick — four mics in all,” BOTNICK says. “I seem
to remember using AKG, not the C12, but the other one — the 12A,
which was the forerunner of the AKG 414, but the tube version —
on the guitars. Everything had pads, and the bass was miked as well
with the direct box. I used SM57s or 58s on the vocals. It was a pretty
simple setup. I wasn't using any booms; just little short stands with
sandbags in front of the guitar amps and the bass amp, so they weren't
going anywhere. It was the same thing with the drums; they had sandbags
on them, too."
Further in the interview, Bruce Botnick tells Rick Clark that he made a
SURROUND MIX of "Kick Out The Jams" :
"They were so loud that there was incredible isolation,”
continues BOTNICK. “If you were standing in front of FRED
‘SONIC’ SMITH's guitar, that's all you'd hear. I was
astonished at how much separation there was on the drums. When I
recently went in to do a SURROUND REMIX, there was more than enough for
me to go in and EQ everything the way I wanted to do it. If I wanted to
compress anything, I could do it without bringing up the other
instruments. Sometimes, too loud works in your favor. It's amazing. You
don't really need a whole lot of baffling." ...
... "BOTNICK mixed the album at ELEKTRA SOUND STUDIOS Los Angeles.
“When I mixed this, I was not really happy with the perspective
that I was getting through the big loudspeakers, so I wound up mixing
it with some electrostatic headphones,” he says. “I think
they were Koss. They worked pretty good for this, and I was able to get
the balances that I wanted. I couldn't seem to hear it on the
loudspeakers for some dumb reason. Maybe it was because the music was
so different than anything I had ever done. The perspectives just
didn't seem to work on the speakers in the studio."
|
THE
FILLMORE
EAST 45 PREVIEW PRESSING FOR THE BROTHERS AND SISTERS OF THE MC5 "Kick
Out The Jams b/w Motor City Is Burning"
The Fillmore East 7" given away at their show in New
York City on
december 12, 1968 is labelled "preview pressing for the brothers and
sisters of the MC5." Concerning the 2 tracks of this 7", enlightenments
are given by Ralph Heibutzki
questionning Ben Edmonds in R.H.'s "Edge Of The Switchblade: To Hell,
and Back, with the MC5" (DISCoveries 12/95) :
"The MC5 spent two nights, 10/30-31/68, recording for its live debut.
The A-side (Kick Out The Jams) appears to come from the afternoon of
10/31/68, when the band recorded an entire set as "insurance" if
particular takes didn't turn out in concert that night. The A-side
stops cold, with no hint of crowd noise ... it's from the 10/31/68
afternoon taping .... This particular take of "Kick Out The Jams" was
to have been the clean version of the single - because Rob Tyner's
introduction, "And right now, it's time to kick out the jams, brothers
and sisters!"- is said all in one piece, while its LP counterpart
sounds heavily censored. Musically, the promo and LP takes of 'Kick Out
The Jams" share the same middle part, while their beginnings and
endings are different. That, in turn, raises another intriguing
possibility. Kick Out The Jams was engineered by BRUCE BOTNICK, who
worked under Doors producer PAUL ROTHCHILD, at Elektra. The late
ROTHCHILD was well-known for cutting and pasting on live and studio
albums, "so it's entirely conceivable that the (promo single A-side
take) body's on Kick Out The Jams, spliced together with different
takes from other version."
(Ralph Heibutzki & Ben Edmonds)
As for promo single B-side Motor City Is
Burning "appears to be same as LP take, possibly a different mix."
Indeed, this particular mix makes this version more 'crude' and the
guitars sound 'crunchier' than on the official LP - the result being
the 'supercharged' Motor City Is Burning preview pressing.
Also, one can hear clearly some 'echo' on Dennis Thompson's snare. Was
it an intentional choice for this particular mix? Or could it be the
echo caused by an empty Grande Ballroom. Was it recorded on 10/31
afternoon without an audience?
Note the audience is not heard at the beginning of this particular mix
but at the end. Were the 2 mics out in the hall shut up in the mix
process or was it recorded at the afternoon session without the crowd?
Any idea?
|
- THE MC5 GEAR -
Under construction
|
Date |
Last week |
This week |
Station |
City |
State |
7" / LP |
Weeks |
1969-01-30 |
--- |
26 |
WKNR |
Detroit/Dearborn |
Michigan |
7" |
|
1969-02-04 |
--- |
19 |
CKLW |
Windsor |
Ontario |
7" |
|
1969-02-06 |
26 |
9 |
WKNR |
Detroit/Dearborn |
Michigan |
7" |
|
1969-02-13 |
9 |
5 |
WKNR |
Detroit/Dearborn |
Michigan |
7" |
WKNR Top Album #1 |
1969-02-20 |
5 |
2 |
WKNR |
Detroit/Dearborn |
Michigan |
7" |
WKNR Top Album #1 |
1969-02-27 |
2 |
2 |
WKNR |
Detroit/Dearborn |
Michigan |
7" |
WKNR Top Album #1 |
1969-03-04 |
2 |
2 |
CKLW |
Windsor |
Ontario |
LP |
5 |
1969-03-06 |
2 |
2 |
WKNR |
Detroit/Dearborn |
Michigan |
7" |
WKNR Top Album #2 |
1969-03-13 |
2 |
3 |
WKNR |
Detroit/Dearborn |
Michigan |
7" |
WKNR Top Album #3 |
1969-03-16 |
--- |
58 |
WAVZ |
New Haven |
Connecticut |
7" |
|
1969-03-20 |
3 |
12 |
WKNR |
Detroit/Dearborn |
Michigan |
7" |
7 |
1969-03-23 |
58 |
46 |
WAVZ |
New Haven |
Connecticut |
7" |
|
1969-03-30 |
46 |
33 |
WAVZ |
New Haven |
Connecticut |
7" |
|
1969-04-06 |
33 |
24 |
WAVZ |
New Haven |
Connecticut |
7" |
|
1969-04-13 |
24 |
31 |
WAVZ |
New Haven |
Connecticut |
7" |
|
Billboard
TOP LP'S
MC5's LP is listed as "Kickin' Out The Jams" |
Date |
Last week |
This week |
Weeks |
1969-03-08 |
--- |
178 |
|
1969-03-15 |
178 |
108 |
2 |
1969-07-19 |
120 |
137 |
20 |
1969-09-09 |
159 |
158 |
23 |
Billboard
HOT 100 |
Date |
Last week |
This week |
Weeks |
1969-03-15 |
--- |
90 |
|
|
- REVIEWS -
|
|