by alex u. case

the study of recording

Intruder

Notes:
First Gated Reverb

This is the first recording to include gated reverb, though maybe not the most famous example. It's actually compressed and gated reverb. The effect was both discovered and invented.
The room wasn't especially large, but it was live. The SSL console through which they were tracking had a built-in "Listen Back" button which enabled the control room to hear what was going on in the live room at the push of a button. A permanent microphone hanging in the room fed a microphone preamplifier and a rather aggressive limiter. The limiter was there, not for it's sound quality, but for the utility it offered, narrowing the level difference between loud drums with guitars and a distant/faint voice. Usually the button was pressed during conversations, not performances. Engineer Hugh Padham, "Well, it just so happened one day that I had that talkback mike open when Phil was playing the drums in the studio…” and he was smart enough to recognize the potential of the sound. He refined it further with a well-timed gate.
And so began the 80s.

Sources

Back to the full Recordingography

---

Latest News

• Can’t You Hear Me Knocking

  

  Rolling Stones Distortion: Keith Richards plays his Les Paul Custom Black Beauty with exquisite distortion, in open G tuning, for the iconic opening riff, panned hard right.(...)

  >> Read More

• Don’t Do Me Like That

  

  Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers Pitch Shift: Engineer Shelly Yakus fabricate a high harmony vocal in each chorus by pitch shifting Tom Petty's lead vocal by a fixed interval of(...)

  >> Read More

• Hold Me My Daddy

  

  XTC Chorus: Lush thick chorus appears on tasty guitars throughout. Pitch Shift: Note the 1-octave-down layer beneath the electric guitar solo. It's not about making the(...)

  >> Read More

© 2010 - 2023 Recordingology and Alex U. Case. All Rights Reserved.