(an
excerpt from an interview with Yasohachi "88" Itoh, producer
of the East Wind series)
I
have to say that The Three by Joe Sample, Ray Brown and
Shelly Manne was by far the most challenging experience
of all the East Wind titles.
We wanted to use direct-to-disc or direct cutting recording
technique for the project, which we heard was being used
in Los Angeles. Since we were always interested in the
latest technology, we wanted to try this new method. So
we booked the session at a Los Angeles studio to work
with a certain cutting engineer. We later realized that
the booking was made on the week of Thanksgiving. Unfortunately,
the studio cancelled the session on us at the last minute.
I was already on a plane headed to Los Angeles. The session
was cancelled on the day I arrived. I found out about
it from our coordinator after I landed. The coordinator
had already notified everybody of the cancellation.
Refusing
to give up so easily, I started to look for an alternate
location to record. I was able to find Amigo Studio, owned
by Warner Brothers, who happened to have an excellent
cutting engineer, Bobby Hatta, on staff. The Doobie Brothers
was recording there until midnight and we were able book
a session afterwards. We had to call and round up all
the musicians and had to set up everything again and make
sure everyone was rehearsed.
An
excerpt from the original liner notes of the album
On a windy and unusually cold night in Los Angeles,
each of the three musicians arrived before the session
start time of 10 PM on November 28, 1975. At exactly
10 PM, The Doobie Brothers session that was going
on since morning ended. Two assistants immediately
started setting up for the session. The Steinway concert
grand piano, delivered the previous day, was wheeled
in to the center of the room and got tuned. Shelly
Manne’s drum kit was assembled in a makeshift
“booth.” Microphones were set up, checked
and positions adjusted.
Initially, Telefunken microphones were positioned
on the piano, but later were replaced by two Neumann
U87s. The piano lid was opened to the concert position
and microphones were centered relative to the keys
and placed a foot (30 centimeters) inward from the
hammer and a foot (30centimeters) away from the stings.
One mic was pointed toward the bottom notes and the
other pointed toward the top.
To record Ray Brown’s bass, a Shure SM56 and
a Sony 38A were pointed at the bridge of the bass,
two inches above it. The Shure was used to capture
the attack and the Sony mic was used to capture the
rich low tones.
Seven microphones were used to capture the sounds
of the drum set. Two U87’s were placed overhead,
roughly 16-inches above the cymbals facing down. The
bottom quarter of the kick drum was dampened with
a blanket on the outside and was mic’ed with
a Shure SM56. SM56’s were also used for toms
and bass toms. Sony 38A was used on the snare and
Sennheiser’s Syncrhon on the high-hat. Each
mic was placed 2_ inches away from the instruments
in a close mic set up. Mr. Itoh got involved with
fine tuning mic positioning for tone, stereo placement
and balance. Meanwhile, final adjustments were being
made on the cutting machine set up.
Within the hour, the set up was done and all preparations
were completed. The musicians finished warming up
and were ready for Take One. The usual banter subsided
and everyone put on their “game face.”
Even Ray Brown, who usually cracked jokes in a loud
voice, looked serious as he turned his attention to
Mr. Itoh, waiting for his cue. As soon as he was notified
through the intercom that the cutting needle was put
down, Mr. Itoh gave the signal with his hand, and
the recording started. In 16 minutes, three tracks
were recorded in rapid succession.
Relieved that the initial take was over, the musicians
joined the producer and engineer in the control room
to listen back from the 2-track tape that was used
as back up. With the initial tension gone, all three
excitedly made comments and evaluated their own performance
and the sounds they got. The thumbs-up was given by
the cutting engineer for take one and the musicians
went back to the live room for the next take. This
process was repeated until 4 AM the following morning,
resulting in a total of three takes per track.
Continuation
from the interview with Yasohachi “88” Itoh,
producer of the East Wind series
We finally got out of the studio around 6 AM. I felt sorry
for Ray Brown, who had to go to Japan that day for a one-day
session. Overall, I was very pleased with the session
and thought the recording came out very good.
I was gratified when the record sold extremely well. We
sold the first LP with all first takes until the stamper
mold for the vinyl gave out. We put out another LP with
second takes and that sold well. The CD version has both
the first and second takes of each song.
The success was particularly sweet because we had to go
through so much to get the project finished. It was both
a trying and memorable experience
