"What's Goin' On" Marvin Gaye - Multitrack - via Bobby Owsinski's Big Picture Production Blog

"What's Goin' On" Marvin Gaye - Multitrack

Today we'll take a look at the individual tracks of the multitrack of Marvin Gaye's seminal hit "What's Goin' On." The song was recorded at a low point in Marvin's career. Depressed over his partner Tammi Terrell's death, he was about to quit music and try his hand at pro football with a tryout with the Detroit Lions, when Obie Benson (of the Four Tops) presented him with the germ for the song.

This is the song that has one of the greatest recording session stories ever. Marvin was anxious to record the song, and after gathering the other Funk Brothers in the studio, found legendary bassist James Jamerson drunk in a bar. Jamerson was so hammered, in fact, that he couldn't sit up without falling down. He would up playing the song laying on his back on the floor of the studio. What's even more amazing is that the part he played was written, and he read it down like the legend he was. Here are some things to listen for.

1) Marvin's vocal is, of course, great, but listen to how shaky the background vocals in the intro are. Marvin's football friends from the Detroit Lions were among the singers and participated in the crowd noise that occurs later in the song.

2) The kick, drum kit and congas are on three separate tracks, which was normal in 16 track recording at the time. The configuration provides just enough flexibility for the mix however.

3) Listen to how the two guitar interact with each other. A Motown trademark, each play a complimentary part and have different sounds, but when put together they make a single bigger sound.

4) The vibes played by Jack Ashton outline the chord changes, which is another Motown trademark.

5) Eli Fontaine's soprano sax part wasn't written into the arrangement, and was a first take run-through that Marvin liked so much he kept in, and it became the signature line of the song.

6) Marvin's two vocal takes were left in the song after the engineer misunderstood what he was asking for. Marvin liked the effect so much that he used it on many of the subsequent songs that he recorded.

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via bobbyowsinski.blogspot.com

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A Rare Look At A Motown Session (via Bobby Owsinski's Blog)

via bobbyowsinski.blogspot.com

A Rare Look At A Motown Session

It's Motown week here on the Big Picture and we're going to start with an extremely rare look into a session by the legendary Temptations backed by the legendary Funk Brothers and recorded at the legendary Motown Studios in Detroit (the "Snakepit" as they used to call it).

This video was shot back in 1967 for a CBS News piece called appropriately "The Motown Story." It featured the classic Temptations lineup including David Ruffin (the lead singer) and Eddie Ruffin, both of which would leave the band soon after this video was made. The song is called "Sorry Is A Sorry Word" and was produced by Motown writers Ivy Jo Hunter and Brian Holland (who stops the song mid-way through).

Some things to observe when watching:

1) As we'll see in upcoming posts, no one at Motown cared much about isolation between instruments since they were never going to replace anything anyway. Either the band got the track or it didn't, and no one ever came back to "fix" a part. Most of the songs cut in Detroit were cut on an 8 track recorder, so a lot of overdubs weren't much of an option anyway. They were only used for a bit of control over the final balance.

2) The usual Funk Brothers band consisted of a rhythm section of 2 drummers, tambourine, congas or bongos, bass, 3 guitars, and 2 keyboards which were all recorded at the same time in the same room! Horns and strings might also be cut at the same time as the rhythm section as well. Motown was only a house in the residential area of town and the studio was in the basement. Imagine doing that in your basement!

3) Only the arranger (the very talented William Witherspoon, who I believe was actually responsible for the early sound of Motown) used headphones. No one else needed them because they were all playing in the same room so they could hear themselves as if it were a rehearsal or gig.

Enjoy. Tomorrow, more Motown.

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Mixing Bass Part 1, 2 & 3 by @JoeGilder

Mixing Bass Part 1

 

Mixing Bass Part 2 – EQ

 

Mixing Bass Part 3 – Compression and Limiting

 

Via: http://www.homestudiocorner.com/

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Menn Ársins rehearsing and composing in Arnarholt in 2006 (@mennarsins)

I decided to dig out this old pictures since I'm going with Menn Ársins to this farm on the countryside to work on some new material and record some demos. I can hardly believe it's been 3 years. I didn't even have kids then! Now I have 2 boys! :-)

I had just recently joined the band at that time (November 2006). I hardly knew all their names and their phone numbers had not yet been stored in the mobile phone :-D

 Here's a short recording from that weekend

That song/jam later turned into the song "Allt að gerast"

This is how it sounds like after we had jammed on it for a whole another year and recorded it, mixed and mastered!

Add another year ... and few months... this video is from the release concert last January.

I'm looking forward to start working on the new tunes... in fact we've already started.
Now we're just gonna focus a little harder :-)

Cheers!

 

 

 

 

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demo nr. 4

Demo Nr. 4 by Sigurdór Guðmundsson   (6083 KB)
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Rough demo I put togeather today.

Drum loops, acoustic guitar + electric bass.

The original drums were in 120 bpm but I slowed them down to 100 bpm... so that explains the strange sound :-p

Is the sound to dark/warm ? ... I'm totally getting tired by now :)

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Demo nr. 3 (intro)

Demo Nr. 3 (Intro) by Sigurdór Guðmundsson   (1318 KB)
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Short intro or verse from a song idea I'm working on.

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