Andy Johns--Marquee Moon--Natural Sound--Vintage Equip

[AustinStudioGuy]

Hi,

I'm a big fan of the Tape Op article about Glyn Johns' engineering on the Brown Sugar sessions at Muscle Shoals.

Does anyone have any info about Andy Johns' work on Marquee Moon?

Tape Op: a similar article about this album, or a track from this album--possible?

I'm familiar with the (revelatory) liner notes included with the reissue of that album, but here I'm more concerned with gear-specific and technical issues. The album is all about the band's performance, and I'm interested in the techniques and era-specific equipment which might have been used in such an artful and "natural" capture of that performance.

Any help is much appreciated.

Some Guy

[austin]

Tape Op had an interview with Richard Lloyd about a year ago... I don't recall it including a whole lot of minute details about the engineering of that album or Andy Johns specifically, other than a version of the "drum sound story" recounted in the liner notes... It does talk a bit about the studio they used and the board that was there, I think.

[I'm Painting Again]

I'm a fan of that sound too..

and the way I go about getting it is like this..

good players - proper sounding instruments - decent small treated room - 1/2 way decent mics - discreet transformer preamps like the ones in 70's consoles (API, neve, audix, etc.) - clean high resolution WIDE bandwidth recording format like a Studer at 30ips or Lavry or Benchmark type ADC..those things in place make getting that sound easiest for me..may be completely opposite how they did it but that seems to work here..along with hard work of course..

[@?,*???&?]

Andy is on myspace, contact him there!

[jv]

Andy Johns was interviewed in TapeOp #39. I believe that album came up, but it seemed like he wasn't really into talking about it, as I recall. But it's been a while since I read it.

[AustinStudioGuy]

Thanks for replying.

A tube console may be out of the question, but recording with tube mics and my Telefunken/Siemens mic pre's is not though. I also won't use a compressor. The dynamics are in the playing, sure--but the drum sound = my Platonic form.

[jrsgodfrey]

I actually got a green light to write this for TO a couple of years ago. My angle was to talk to Greg Boyer, who was the assistant who recorded most of it w/ the band after AJ split. Never was able to get a in touch with him. And despite the efforts of some friends in common, entreaties to Verlaine came up dry as well, but I had been warned of that. Had some nice chats about it w/ Fred Smith and Richard Lloyd, but no revelations.

[kraigmason]

I was always impressed with the hi-hat on that record. (amongst all the other impressive elements).
It stands out in a very musical way.
I'm not sure if it is mixed slightly louder than other hi-hats in similar music from the time period, or the way it is played.
Maybe a combo of both.
It sounds real nice.

k.

[themagicmanmdt]

this thread spiked me to listen to the record again.

i actually don't care for the high end of the tracks too much, but it's still a pretty damn good recording, especially since the group was essentially live in the studio doing it.

[AustinStudioGuy]

Just in case anyone was wondering--there's no real gear-specific discussion with respect to Marquee Moon in Tape Op #39 issue with Andy Johns, but he does offer a "standard set-up if [he] was doing a date tomorrow", which is basically a bunch of prohibitively expensive pieces of equipment going through other Rolls-Royce-ish type stuff.

[kayagum]

this thread spiked me to listen to the record again.

i actually don't care for the high end of the tracks too much, but it's still a pretty damn good recording, especially since the group was essentially live in the studio doing it.

Were you listening to the first CD release? They have since reissued/remastered the album, and the high end is much better.

[honkyjonk]

I think that's the article where Johns talks about tuning and miking up the drums for a big room sound ala Zeppelin, and Television comes in and makes him completely change it for something more closemiked and dry.

And Andy was like "Wha . . . . ?"

And they were like "Oh yeah, that's right"

And Andy was like "Whatever"

And they were like "Just do it"

And Andy was like "Fine, I will"

I've also heard rumour of the possibility that the cymbals were recorded
separately. Don't know if that's true.

Sorry, no info regarding gear though