Motown - multi-tracking back in the '60s?
mannybolone
Los Angeles, CA 15,025 Posts
I had a question I thought maybe one of you Strutters might know the answer to:Was Motown multi-tracking their recordings back in the '60s or were they just two-tracking everything b/t band and vocals? I was listening to this Z-Trip remix of "I Want you Back" and trying to figure out if he had access to the master tapes and was able to isolate the guitar, bassline, drums, etc. or if he either had that stuff filtered or interpolated instead.Thanks,OW
Comments
I'm sure the Motown scholars no the exact date each piece of equipment was placed in each studio.
The first cds that Motown put out of classic stuff were heavily remixed and suggested multi tracks. Recently there have been almost dub remixes to show off the Funk Brothers. So I think they got multi tracks pretty early. I'm sure as soon as they hit LA they had as many tracks as were available.
Excellent. Thanks for that.
Z-trip had access to the masters of I want you back. i know that for sure. so i think for the most part most groups recording major label records in the late sixties were prob on an 8 track.
Yeah, I thought so too but my editor that I'm reviewing the CD for wanted me to double-check b/c he says most of the Atlantic soul recordings from the same era (in his recollection) where only two-tracked. I assumed Motown had an 8 - in fact, I seem to recall something in "Standing in the Shadows of Motown" about it but maybe I just imagined that. I mean, it's not like Gordy was getting all Brian Wilson up in the studio but it clearly sounds like they had enough tracks for Z-Trip and other remixers to be able to isolate shit.
So that Supreme song is 1966. Pretty early for an independent detroit studio to have more than 4 tracks. I have not heard the remix so maybe 4 is what it sounds like.
Sgt Peppers was recorded on 4 tracks with a lot of bouncing.
Dan
some further info: http://www.recordingeq.com/motown/motown.htm (scroll down for a picture of the 3-track & 8-track)
The layout was something like this... Track one would have the basic rhythm - the drums, bass, guitars, piano and organ - in mono of course. After this was finished, the 'sweetening' was overdubbed onto track two. This could be additional instruments such as brass or strings - also in mono. Finally, once the backing track was complete, the vocalists were called in to add the finishing touch, on the third track.
In 1964 it was decided that working with only three tracks was too restricting, so Motown decided to 'upgrade'. Upgrading to eight-track was the obvious step, but Motown's problem in 1964 was that it was only possible to order a four-track recorder from the manufacturers. There was just one course of action - the engineers would have to design and build an eight-track machine themselves! Motown's Head of Engineering - an enthusiastic electronics wizard by the name of Mike McLean (aka "Mikie") - burned the midnight oil until he finally came up with a workable set of plans. But, that was only half of the solution. The eight tracks on the new recorder could not be mixed using the existing three-track desk, so a more sophisticated mixer had also to be designed and built. Finally, there was the question of how to monitor eight channels. The three control room speakers were obviously not adequate to the task, and the whole monitoring problem had to be resolved somehow. The general consensus of opinion was that five additional speakers would have to be installed - one for each channel of the new recorder. Mike, however, something else in mind....
Instead of replacing the three monitor speakers with eight, he proposed two, whose output would be the mixed signal - a combination of the eight separate recorded channels. The other engineers were skeptical, but 'Mikie' was adamant that this was the way to go. Another innovation he devised for the mixing desk was a set of 'pan pots' (panoramic potentiometers), one for each channel. These would determine each track's relative position between the left and right speaker - known as "stereo panning". All of this of course introduced a new concept. It was now possible to mix music in stereo, at a time when every pop single on the chart was plain vanilla mono. Naturally, Motown's singles were no different, but the eight-track masters which were recorded from early '65 onwards have provided us with perfect source material for the full stereo mixes we hear on Motown's CD reissues today.
Some years later, Motown upgraded yet again to 16-track. This was before the move to LA. By the time the Jacksons got in to the studio, Motown had moved to Cali and expanded their operation no doubt upgrading once again.
courtesy of
Ritchie's Cellar of Soul : Recording at Motown
No, no, no. In the 50's, perhaps, but once Tom Dowd got into the picture, a lot of Atlantic stuff from the 60's were 4 and eventually 8-track, even before most studios had access to an 8-track.
Motown, I believe, had a 3-track, which is what Frank Zappa used in the early 60's before he was signed to Verve. According to one website I'm looking at now, the Motown basement had a 3-track, but was eventually upgraded to a 4-track to be up to date with other recording studios. Basically, by 1965, Motown was able to afford to update their basement studio.
Bob Dennis did an in-depth article on "The Motown Recording Heritage", which are linked here:
http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/printthread.php?t=932
It states that by 1964, Motown had an 8-track machine. A song like "(Reach Out) I'll Be There" would definitely be one recorded on an 8-track. Or "My Girl", and that was 1965, correct? You have the band, the vocals, and the strings, and that song was kind of like their "Wall Of Sound".
Anyway, read the article. Steve Hoffman is a well known engineer who has done loads of remasters, I would highly recommend reading the article for a more technical side of Motown's recording process back then.
Bob Olhsson was one of the main enigneers at Motown and this is pretty dang geeked:
http://www.prosoundweb.com/recording/tapeop/olmo/olmo.php
This is great, thank you. And the proof is here:
the only one that jumped out to me was the Ztrip. The rest were
I haven't heard this recent one, but I have the first Soul Source CD from Japan which remixes a bunch of Jackson 5 tracks. The tracks by Kenny Dope and United Future Organization are really nice. There's also a second J5 remix CD from Soul Source but I haven't heard that one yet. I believe that's what made Universal realize that if they were giving the multi-tracks for Japanese producers to remix, why not here?