Tom Petty/Rick Rubin vox

[sad iron]

I'm listening to Tom Petty/Wlidflowers and listening to how right up front the main vocals and wondering how the hell they got the vox to sit like that. it sounds completely un-effected. I've heard that Petty likes to track vocals with a 57.

True for this record? Info anyone?

[stewd]

ive heard the same thing about the 57 which I bet is true for some earlier recordings. those wildflower vox however are fucking unreal. I've seen pictures, studio shots, of him standing in front of a u67(i think it was a 67). anyway, I bet he's not 'exclusively' 57.

I've also heard that he at some point, liked mixing to 1/4 inch. ???

[the_riff]

I know Rick Rubin is a big fan of the SM7 for vox. This could be different for Mr. Petty though. Agreed though, amazing sounding record. I heard that the drum sound on "you don't know how it feels" was achieved with one mic.

[@?,*???&?]

Jim Scott mixed much of that disc and did many albums with Petty after that. Jim's vocal sound is your basic U47 Tube, Neve preamp (of some sort) and LA2A, 1176 or dbx160 compressor in some chain. Jim may track scratch tracks with a crap mic, but when it comes to the real deal, it's the real deal at a real studio. Jim always does that up close, bone dry vocal thing. It's a signature sound of his and compression with the right eq is they key.

[xSALx]

I heard that the drum sound on "you don't know how it feels" was achieved with one mic.

Well if thats the case, then that's the most inspired I've ever been to do good recordings. Of course I know the drum sound wasn't recorded with a 57 so I have to save up some cash.

[theistheman]

I find it rather hard to believe that they tracked those drums with one mic.

[radmike]

A good kit, a good mic, good placement and a good room can yield fantastic resullts. If it is one mic theres definatly some delay on 'em, theres more than just room sound goings on. maybe.

[bigtoe]

there should be an article about that record...i have heard that they tracked the drums about 100 times and edited them all togther....i think there was one in mix.

jeff, do you know how they did it? not to call ya out or anything.

Mike

[auralman]

I can unequivocably state 2 things:

1) The drums are not tracked with one mic
2) Jeff does not know what he's talking about

Jim Scott's signature sound? Give me a break...what, do you just lie when don't know something? Like any good engineer, the guy doesn't HAVE a signature sound - it changes depending on what he's working on. Further - he didn't mix the damn record, friggin Dave Bianco did, and promptly won a grammy for it. Jim tracked it faithfully and honestly, and Bianco mixed it that way. If you can listen to that record and tell me it's one mic, then I can finally know once and for all that you're deaf.

Unreal.

[MoreSpaceEcho]

i seem to remember reading that they recorded it on adats.

but i may well be wrong. i often am.

[honkyjonk]

ADATS? KWHAT?


You could be thinking of the first Rick Rubin/Johnny Cash collaboration. . . .

Maybe? . . . . .

[wayne kerr]

Oh this is getting good. Where's Caesar when you need him????



SH

[@?,*???&?]

I gleaned alot from working with Jim on numerous sessions at Master Control. The success of 'Wildflowers' kind of solidified Jim and Rick as a team. There's a solid feeling of trust between them. As for the adat thing, Jim later helped set-up the adat studio at Tom's house for his demos and continued making records with him. Interesting story is that everytime Tom goes in the studio he cuts a version of 'Blue Suede Shoes', so he could potentially release a disc of nothing but that song dating back to the mid-70's!

[MoreSpaceEcho]

ADATS? KWHAT?


You could be thinking of the first Rick Rubin/Johnny Cash collaboration. . . .

Maybe? . . . . .

i know i know....i just seem to remember reading that about the TP record, then hearing it and thinking, 'hey that sounds alright actually!'
i even seem to recall a quote from tom saying "those adats sound pretty warm..."

but, y'know, i've kinda smoked a lot of pot over the years...

[sad iron]

Y'know, after I started this thread last night I got to thinking abou the first time I heard this record the whole way through. It was the late 90s and my band was tracking our first LP @ Coyote in Bklyn. At the end of the first day we weren't really getting anything. We were a little jazzed, a little nervous and forcing everything, especially me in the signing department. At the end of the day we hung out for a while and Albert, the engineer and co-owner, just very nonchalantly put on Wildflowers and said 'listen to this, listen to the way he's singing.' I did. We drank a couple beers, listened to the whole record and then he put on Nick Lowe-Dig My Mood. We llistened to that.

Suddenly the whole thing fell into place. I learned to sing in the studio at that very moment, drinking beers, listening to Tom Petty and Nick Lowe. We gave Albert production credit on the record for being able to hear what we needed to be hearing and helping us hear it.

We only had 2 days to track the record 2 days to overdub and 2 to mix. We came back the next day and it was like we were a different band. Everything clicked. We retracked everything from the day before and got all the basics done that day. There were some great studio magic hours in those sessions.

All this goes by way of saying: Thanks Mr. Petty and thanks to Albert.