How are they getting the drum sound on the song Instant Karm

jckinnick · Post by **jckinnick** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 1:15 pm

Phil Spector produced that right. What are they using to get that effect, some kind reverb or echo effect.

JGriffin · Post by **JGriffin** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 2:05 pm

tape echo, most likely.

jckinnick · Post by **jckinnick** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 2:18 pm

Thats what I was thinking sounds like some reverb too though but cant tell

auralman · Post by **auralman** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 3:10 pm

I think it's just a vari-sped 15ips tape slap on the snare drum and toms. Not reverb, though.

Slider · Post by **Slider** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 3:23 pm

Drumming is pretty amazing too.

jckinnick · Post by **jckinnick** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 3:29 pm

What is vari-sped 15ips tape slap? Is that an anolog trick. Slowing it down or speeding it up somehow.

curtiswyant · Post by **curtiswyant** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 3:31 pm

Ringo probably played on that one ?

joeysimms · Post by **joeysimms** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 4:09 pm

jckinnick wrote:What is vari-sped 15ips tape slap? Is that an anolog trick. Slowing it down or speeding it up somehow.

Means they took the drums and sent them thru an aux send to a separate 3-head recorder in record mode, and fed the repro head output of that machine back to the console and mixed it in with the original.

Slider · Post by **Slider** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 6:38 am

curtiswyant wrote:Ringo probably played on that one ?

I want to say Andy Newmark, but I'm not sure.

Ryan Silva · Post by **Ryan Silva** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 8:43 am

Does sound like Ringo, but i'm pretty sure it's not.

honkyjonk · Post by **honkyjonk** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 9:00 am

The "vari speed" part is the knob on the tape deck that speeds up or slows down playback, which essentially is used to control how soon/late the slap hits the playback head.

cgarges · Post by **cgarges** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 3:37 pm

Slider wrote:I want to say Andy Newmark, but I'm not sure.

I was thinking Alan White, but could be wrong about that. I should know that for sure.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

auralman · Post by **auralman** » Wed Jun 07, 2006 4:08 pm

it is alan white:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant_Karma!

the brill bedroom · Post by **the brill bedroom** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 3:09 pm

It's definitely Alan White and some of thsoe fill still blow my mind, but this seems like a good thread to mention that I spent about an hour having coffee with Jim Keltner the other night (and Al Kooper, T Bone Burnett and Jakob Dylan, but i don't want to namedrop) and got a chance to thank him for playing on so many of my favorite albums. I blogged about it on my website (www.corinashley.com) but suffice to say, it wa spretty great to shake that man's hand.

BrianK · Post by **BrianK** » Thu Jun 08, 2006 6:07 pm

Yes, to summarize what they are trying to tell you:

It is tape echo, from a reel-to-reel studio machine (almost certainly 1/4" tape).

The tape echo machines were usually run at 15ips in most studios (good Elvis type slap echo), but you could Varispeed it (a knob to change e speed of the machine above or below the 15ips setting); this gave you other delay times, shorter or longer.

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How are they getting the drum sound on the song Instant Karm

How are they getting the drum sound on the song Instant Karm

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