R/E/P > Terry Manning
The Big ZZ Top thread
thesoundguy:
Terry-
Its probably not worth me trying to convey what kind of influence the ZZTop catalog has been on me on various levels professionally, personally, whatever. The early catalog is rarely celebrated for the incredible recordings that they are, and its rare where Im from to be able to have any kind of sophisticated conversation about the band, I hope I dont scare you away with a barrage of questions:
First off, the edit from Waiting For The Bus onto the one of Jesus has got to be the single most bestest greatest edit that any human has ever done with a razor blade. That edit alone is worthy of a big space on the wall in the rock and roll hall of fame, put the master tape right up there.
What kind of console was Tres Hombres mixed on? Im assuming this is a 16 track master mixed to 1/4"?
Can you comment on the drum setup on this record? Were they in a booth, or baffled in a larger room? Was the kit on a linoleum floor? Sounds a little brighter than carpet.
Assuming there were scratch vocals from the tracking sessions, were any used on the LP or are all the vocals overdubbed?
The Fadeout on Beer Drinkers is about the most insanely perfect fadeout anyone could make...
Are we hearing mostly fender tweed amps on this record?
Do you recall if during the tracking sessions, the guitar solos were played live with the rhythm tracks, or if the backing rhythm guitar over the solos went down with the band?
Do you recall how long it took to track and mix?
Were you involved in preproduction meeting for Tejas? If so, was there an intentional and motivated effort to take the record in a new direction, or did the sound of the record just simply result from the work flow?
Do you recall if Ten Dollar Man was one of the fiirst songs tracked for this record or if it was recorded towards the end of the sessions? The snare drum move right before the DI guitar comes in absolutely gets me off every time I hear that song and is one of my favorite mix moments on all the zz records. Leaving dusty's cough coming into the last verse is a righteous rock moment, more people should take note of stuff like that, the average engineer would have muted that.
Was the master for Gimmie All Your Lovin VSO'd up a whole step? I have an original LP that definitley has a pitched up version, always wondered at which step along the way this occured.
Thanks for enduring my somewhat long list of questions I never imagined Id ever be able to ask the source...
dave
Pramrod:
YA MAN!!! Like he said! ZZ rule NATIONWIDE and Terry, your work with them is beyond heavy- seminal in fact!!! and let me just say that ZZ STILL kicks major ass (i've seen them 3 times in the last couple of years, including a front row center directly in front of the reverend- YESSSSSS). any further insight into ZZ and your working methods with them are greatly appreciated. long live ZZ TOP!!! tone, tone, tone for days...
russrags:
Hey Dave,
I don't think Terry worked on Tres Hombres, he came on board later during Fandango. The 1st few albums were recorded in Tyler, TX my home town !!!! I've spent a lot of time in that room and have pictures I'll have to dig up. When I worked at the Studio 1982-1985 the board was an MCI console. There's a Custom board all wrapped in plastic in the attic, it might have been used, I can find out. This was the desk I learned on ... a funny story: I live in Nashville now and do a lot of work for Leon Russell. While digging through Leon's warehouse I found the MCI board and turns out Robin Hood Bryans sold him the board the the late 80's. Small world.
Yea I'm REALLY interested in some great ZZ stories too.
I've always been a huge fan of Terry Manning's work.
Russ
compasspnt:
Hey Dave,
I'll try to get to some answers to your great questions tonight. Thanks!
Russ, as mentioned in some previous thread here, Tres Hombres was mostly tracked at Robin Hood's. It came to me for overdubs and mixing, which I did.
Thanks, guys!
TM
compasspnt:
thesoundguy wrote on Mon, 07 February 2005 22:19
First off, the edit from Waiting For The Bus onto the one of Jesus has got to be the single most bestest greatest edit that any human has ever done with a razor blade. That edit alone is worthy of a big space on the wall in the rock and roll hall of fame, put the master tape right up there.
Wow, thanks!!!
Quote:
What kind of console was Tres Hombres mixed on? Im assuming this is a 16 track master mixed to 1/4"?
The console was our (Ardent's) custom designed SpectraSonics, built by Auditronics of Memphis under license from SpectraS in Utah. It was a 16 tr 2" recording, mixed to 1/4".
Quote:
Can you comment on the drum setup on this record? Were they in a booth, or baffled in a larger room? Was the kit on a linoleum floor? Sounds a little brighter than carpet.
I wasn't at the original tracking, which was done at Robin Hood's Studios in Tyler, TX. Tres Hombres came to me for overdubs and mixing.
Quote:
Assuming there were scratch vocals from the tracking sessions, were any used on the LP or are all the vocals overdubbed?
There were some scratch vocals used, but most were overdubbed. I reached back to the scratch for some of the "aside comments," such as "they gotta lotta nice girls there" in LaGrange. There was one great one that I almost put in, and have always wished I had, into LaGrange. During the mid point of the guitar walk-down/drum stop bit, Billy said "Goin' halfway round the world and back again..." but we left that out, amongst many other things he said.
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The Fadeout on Beer Drinkers is about the most insanely perfect fadeout anyone could make...
Thanks! Good ole "Philly Ending."
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Are we hearing mostly fender tweed amps on this record?
Some, but some are also from BG's customised Marshall heads, which he renamed "Rio Grande" brand. The controls were all labelled in Spanish, and the logo was palm trees.
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Do you recall if during the tracking sessions, the guitar solos were played live with the rhythm tracks, or if the backing rhythm guitar over the solos went down with the band?
Most of the solos were overdubbed. The rhythm was usually played with the band. There were a lot of overdubs here, for instance many of the tom rolls are doubled.
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Do you recall how long it took to track and mix?
Can't remember how long I took in yesterday's session...I think we mixed one or two songs a day average.
Quote:
Were you involved in preproduction meeting for Tejas? If so, was there an intentional and motivated effort to take the record in a new direction, or did the sound of the record just simply result from the work flow?
What is a "preproduction meeting?" Seriously, Billy and I were just always looking for new ways to do everything. New or different guitars, amps, everything. On this session, the amps were Vox Super Beatle transistor ones. We just went in a bit cleaner direction.
Quote:
Do you recall if Ten Dollar Man was one of the first songs tracked for this record or if it was recorded towards the end of the sessions? The snare drum move right before the DI guitar comes in absolutely gets me off every time I hear that song and is one of my favorite mix moments on all the zz records. Leaving dusty's cough coming into the last verse is a righteous rock moment, more people should take note of stuff like that, the average engineer would have muted that.
Thanks. Can't remember tracking order, unfortunately. I like finding little anomoly things to leave in certain tracks. There's a lot of that in ZZ stuff. I used to look for and find it in Beatles' records, so I had to do it too.
Quote:
Was the master for Gimmie All Your Lovin VSO'd up a whole step? I have an original LP that definitely has a pitched up version, always wondered at which step along the way this occured.
Not sure about this one. I think I may have done a sped up version for a single. But this was on an LP???
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Thanks for enduring my somewhat long list of questions...
That's it, this puny little list?
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