NWR:de-constructed

Ned Hoey

Ned Hoey
This guy has obtained and posted individual tracks used in the mixing of some famous songs. Some of them are fascinating to listen to. What appears in the main window is just the most recently uploaded track, scroll through the rest over on the right.
 
"Blitzgrieg Bop" drum tracks are pretty cool. Fun stuff to practice my bass down stroke picking technique to. There's probably some way to download these and use them to construct new mixes on but I'm a player, not an engineer, so I'm kind of clueless about that stuff. Fun site, and thanks for pointing it out!

-Eden (many people believe that bassists are just one step above drummers in the evolutionary food-chain; if this is true, why are there so many producers who started out banging away in the rhythm section?)(of course, lots of engineers receive production credits these days, thereby reinforcing the myth that YOU NEED TO HAVE AT LEAST SOME MUSICAL EXPERIENCE to produce records)(but maybe that reinforces the myth that "drummers aren't real musicians"?)(and that begs the question of whether or not a double kickdrum set is better than a normal single-kick kit, not to mention bringing up the burning question about whether a five-string bass is better than a four-string bass (other than the Spinal Tap answer of "well, it's ONE better". And what about the guys wanking away with six or seven string basses and calling it "jazz"? Isn't this what they call sublimation, ie: making up for deficiencies in other, more "physical" realms? Hey dude, like opposable thumbs are the coolest!)(I mean, is a Porsche Turbo better than a Porsche 4S Cabriolet, and is it better to own a really uncomfortable and almost unstreetable GT3 RS just for the image enhancement instead of saving a ton of money and getting a Cayman that'll do almost everything the GT-3 can do, only with a radio, air conditioning, and a suspension that won't require getting your kidneys replaced every 25,000 miles?)(wouldn't it just be easier to join Hair Club For Men, move to southern Utah, marry a couple of nice Mormon gals, and get lifetime subscriptions to Cigar Aficionado, Hustler, Argosy, and the Robb Report when you're 23 and just avoid this whole "escalation of macho" mess entirely?)(I'm just sayin')
 
Re: Five String Bass - "You have to understand that the bass guitar is the party instrument. It only has four strings. If you see a bass player playing five strings, take your shoe off and throw it at him. The bass guitar only having four strings, that just means less to worry about and you can become more excited, you can become more animated, you can jump around, you can bust out your Gene Simmons moves, all that kind of shit." (Keith Morris-Black Flag/Circle Jerks)

Personally, I'm with him on that. But then again, I'm just a dude hitting drums.

I listened to those splits on YouTube, I wonder what program is able to strip away most of the other instruments to leave just the one? Some sound alright, but some (like the Beatles drums) sound like shit. Guess it could be fun to load 'em up into a program and muck about with them.
 
originally posted by lars makie:
I listened to those splits on YouTube, I wonder what program is able to strip away most of the other instruments to leave just the one? Some sound alright, but some (like the Beatles drums) sound like shit. Guess it could be fun to load 'em up into a program and muck about with them.

I'm pretty certain these are track files that have passed around among industry pros. There is no software that could isolate instruments and vocals that effectively from the released stereo mixes. Also, as you go back in time, prior to '68, there's only 4 track AFAIK. Eight track is introduced in '68 I think. So those early Beatles tracks are probably missing stuff on other reels that was bounced into the final mix.

Particular faves are the Gimme Shelter tracks, Merry Clayton's vocals at about 2:30-3:00 are amazing. Plus Keith's interplay with himself on two separate tracks is cool, post Brian Jones and Mick Taylor hasn't really come aboard yet. Also I've never heard Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts so distinctively. Then check out "Helter Skelter", Lennon's bass playing on it is pretty primal. Or Eric Clapton's guitar track for "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", or Harrison's vocal track for "Something". That stuff all gets into the 8 or more track era where individual pieces all have a track on the same reel.

Some of these tracks are remarkably ordinary sounding, yet the final finished mixes are legendary. It's that "whole greater than the sum of the parts" thing. WHICH got me thinking in terms of wine and how we never get to check out the components that created great blended wines such Chave Hermitages (of the past). What if those components had been stored and tasted years later, or re-blended later?
 
originally posted by Eden Mylunsch:
many people believe that bassists are just one step above drummers in the evolutionary food-chain; if this is true, why are there so many producers who started out banging away in the rhythm section?

Soloists, especially guitarists, are narcissistic ego-maniacs, while back-up musicians, especially the rhythm section, tend to be team players, who care a little about others, and can therefore go on to become producers.

I have a cassette with Sergio Mendes tracks before vocals. Great stuff to solo to, with ego-maniac abandon.

I am more daunted by fretlesness than by the number of strings.
 
In my brief dalliance with production, I found track separation (which by then was, of course, zillion-track and rapidly transitioning to fully digital) fascinating. One of the ways I made myself miserable was using to to demonstrate to all five people in a room (the four musicians and the drummer...just kidding, Lars) who was really the problem at a given point. It was when someone was always the problem that I tended to become...unpopular.

But it's all so easy now, in relative terms, and while I have great respect for what good producers do now, I am absolutely floored by what the great producers of yesteryear were able to accomplish, and these isolates -- some sublime, some ridiculous. There's a show on VH1 Classic where they actually get the musicians/producers into the studio to do this sort of thing, playing around with the original tapes and so forth, and I've always found it fascinating, and worth the psychic damage of voluntarily watching VH1 Classic.
 
originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:

I have a cassette with Sergio Mendes tracks before vocals. Great stuff to solo to, with ego-maniac abandon.

And I've got a cassette with Danny Gatton playing on it and you can barely hear the band. We should do a mashup of the two recordings!!

originally posted by Oswaldo Costa:

I am more daunted by fretlessness than by the number of strings.

I too fret about when the frets grow sparse, but the good thing about the Jacofication of the Fender Bass is that if you hit a wrong note, you just slide to the correct note and sneer "that wasn't a clam baby, it's just my style."

-Eden (not that I ever did that or anything)
 
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