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[compasspnt]

This came as a PM, but I thought it might be a good topic as well, so:

bigbone wrote on Sat, 19 February 2005 08:46

Hi sorry to disturb you like that, i'm [.....] a drummer from montreal , canada, and i [read] in one of the threads, that you did a session for the shakira album with abe jr, i got this album and the drum sound [is] amasing, here my question,,,,, Can you remember the mic and the preamp that you use to record the drums, and a couple of tips,,(only if it's possible) of howy tou did the tracking,,,, I realy appreciate the time that you will spend to answer,,,,,,

Hello Jean,

Thanks for the question.

Abe Jr. was an amazing drummer to work with.  His time is impeccable, and he controls the dynamics extremely well.

The drums were tracked on a Neve 80xx series console, so the pre's would have been the good old Neve discrete ones.  Once again, no outboard pre's, just a great console!

The mics were all old Neumann valves.  There was very minimal mic'ing.  I used an M-49 in cardiod higher than normal over the snare.  This was the snare, high hat, drummer's-left crash, and rack tom mic.  I then used another cardiod M-49 positioned between the ride and right-side crash, over the floor tom.  This mic picked up the drummer's-right side of the kit.  The 49's were not placed for any x/y or m/s stereo, but were moved for every song to pick up the best balance of tom-to-cymbal or snare-to-tom-to-hat-to-cymbal ratio.  For example, when ride was heavy, and floor tom was important, the mic was placed accordingly.

The only other mic was a Neumann U47 on the bass drum.  This again was moved for each song, to the best position for that track.  Sometimes it was placed on the beater side of the bass drum.  Sometimes it was placed on the front head side.  At other times, a second, resonant bass drum was placed in front of the 'regular' bass drum, for extra ring or extra bottom resonance.  The 47 was placed in between these at most times, occasionally in omni, occasionally in cardiod, whatever fit the track best.  (IMPORTANT:  Care was always taken that excess air movement did not hit the capsule directly!)

Three mics, three tracks, one great drummer.

All of this was recorded onto 499 analogue tape, along with the bass guitar, before moving it all into Protools.

Thanks for your interest!

Terry

[bigbone]

Hello terry

Thank's for the answer on the Shakira session with abe jr, i realy appreciate,
And you don't have to tell me how great Abe Jr, is.....i'm one of his bigest fan
north of the border, and again , that shakira album sound great,,,thank's again.

P.S, i guess abe Jr, use his DW kits....you better say yes for the sake of is endorsement,,,,hihihih

Bigbone
Montreal, canada

[compasspnt]

bigbone wrote on Sat, 19 February 2005 20:42

...i guess abe Jr, use his DW kits....you better say yes for the sake of is endorsement...

Yes, of course!

DW shipped in whatever Abe wanted, two full kits' worth of everything.

[jfrigo]

bigbone wrote on Sat, 19 February 2005 17:42

Hello terry Thank's for the answer on the Shakira session with abe jr, i realy appreciate, And you don't have to tell me how great Abe Jr, is.....i'm one of his bigest fan north of the border, and again , that shakira album sound great,,,thank's again. P.S, i guess abe Jr, use his DW kits....you better say yes for the sake of is endorsement,,,,hihihih Bigbone Montreal, canada

I was at school with Abe, and he was a standout even then. He was a powerful hitter too. A good, well-tuned kit with a good player player who knows how to hit 'em is the biggest part of a great drum sound, but we all knew that already. Another person there at the time was Carlos Paucar, who also was involved in the Shakira album as an engineer. Carlos used to play guitar in a Steve Vai/Frank Zappa band and really had the parts down. Fun times. Also in that circle of people at the time was an amazing bassist, Wes Wehmiller, who passed away a couple weeks ago. It's sad to lose such a talent so young.

[bigbone]

I know that DW are the best,,,,,,i'm one of there endorse in Montreal.....

[compasspnt]

jfrigo wrote on Sat, 19 February 2005 21:21

I was at school with Abe, and he was a standout even then. He was a powerful hitter too. A good, well-tuned kit with a good player player who knows how to hit 'em is the biggest part of a great drum sound, but we all knew that already. Another person there at the time was Carlos Paucar, who also was involved in the Shakira album as an engineer. Carlos used to play guitar in a Steve Vai/Frank Zappa band and really had the parts down. Fun times. Also in that circle of people at the time was an amazing bassist, Wes Wehmiller, who passed away a couple weeks ago. It's sad to lose such a talent so young.

Hi Jay.

Very sorry to hear about Wes.  What happened?

Yes, of course I know Carlos well...nice guy!

Hard to beat Abe...

Best,

Terry

[compasspnt]

From another Forum, but appropriate here:

Ryan Moore wrote on Sat, 19 February 2005 07:30

Great drummer, I read an interview where he mentioned some Shakira sessions, I assume those ones?,  as being his most traumatic studio experience, or something to that effect due to the infamous lack of the artiste knowing what they were looking for...

Well, there was certainly drummer-artiste friction, but I'd better not comment on that!  This was indeed the session, and the interview was printed a year or so ago in one of the drummer magazines...

TM

[Level]

Terry, if you get time, here is a site dedicated to Wes.

I don't know what happened and have not looked into it.

Here it is:

http://www.wez.smugmug.com/

[McAllister]

I was at school w/ Abe & Wes, too. Got the call about Wes a couple of weeks ago, right after he died, I guess. What an awful thing.

M

[jfrigo]

Level wrote on Sat, 19 February 2005 19:33

Terry, if you get time, here is a site dedicated to Wes. I don't know what happened and have not looked into it. Here it is: http://www.wez.smugmug.com/

Bryan Beller, a friend and another amazing bass player, was very close to Wes and also put up a rememberance page at:
http://www.bryanbeller.com/wes/

It happened in his sleep. I haven't heard the definitive cause, but there was speculation that it may have been related to his medication for a continuing minor health issue. Very sad.

[bc54]

Truly sad.This is a link to the obiturary.  http://www.capegazette.com/pages/obitpage.html#Anchor-John-4 9575

[jfrigo]

Bernard Carriere wrote on Mon, 21 February 2005 20:14

Truly sad.This is a link to the obiturary.   http://www.capegazette.com/pages/obitpage.html#Anchor-John-4 9575

Thank you for the link. It was a nicely written obituary.

[ajcamlet]

I had thought that Abe's tracks didnt make the record and she ended up using her Live guy....just rumour?

ajc

[compasspnt]

ajcamlet wrote on Tue, 22 February 2005 12:22

I had thought that Abe's tracks didnt make the record and she ended up using her Live guy....just rumour? ajc

Hi Alan,

Abe Jr.'s tracks definitely did make the record...in my opinion, they were irreplaceable, but that's just my opinion in Shakira's case.

But her live guy, Brendan Buckley, who is also a very good drummer, did play on a couple of the tracks, from the very beginning, as did other players from her live group.  This was all planned in advance (Brendan co-wrote a song, and had participated in the demo sessions), and had nothing to do with any later acrimony between drummer and artiste.  Abe was also properly credited.

Thanks for the question!

Terry

[bigbone]

Just my oppinion,,,,,you got to be out of your mind to erase track by abe,,,,i never hear
this guys play a bad track,,and he's got to much attitude to erase is track,,,no matter is you don't get along with him,,,,let your ego at the door, and let the man play those great drum track