How to write and record HEAVY FUNK

Lumpy · April 14, 2011, 04:02:26 AM

by Gabriel Roth (Dap-Kings bass player, producer etc). Hilarious article with lots of good pointers on writing/arranging/recording music, and how to make it sound raw. Yes, he's talking about Funk, but a lot of it applies to any type of primal, raw music like punk or underground metal. Article is a few years old, doesn't matter though.

Note - he's into the late 60s, early 70s stuff. It's about getting those vintage sounds.

http://www.gro-beak.com/tunes/shitty_is_pretty_1.pdf

http://www.gro-beak.com/tunes/shitty_is_pretty_2.pdf

He name-checks a lot of songs as examples in Part 1 -- it's kinda helpful if you've heard them (I only have about half or maybe less as MP3) but not totally necessary. Most of that stuff can be found on music blogs if you really want to find it.

TAPE OP magazine says a lot of the same stuff... you don't need fancy microphones and nice equipment to make a cool sounding record. And sometimes, that stuff keeps your music from sounding raw.

Hemisaurus · April 14, 2011, 07:40:12 AM

Tape-Op interviewed him a few years back, interesting guy.

If you can convince your drummer all he needs is a $15 Radioshack mic on his entire kit, go for it

Discö Rice · April 14, 2011, 09:14:41 AM

Quote from: Hemisaurus on April 14, 2011, 07:40:12 AM
Tape-Op interviewed him a few years back, interesting guy.

If you can convince your drummer all he needs is a $15 Radioshack mic on his entire kit, go for it

I can be convinced of that.

LogicalFrank · April 14, 2011, 09:54:39 AM

I could be convinced of that as well.

That article is awesome, by the way. Thanks Lumpy.

Ranbat · April 14, 2011, 07:16:09 PM

I stumbled onto this a couple years ago while looking for tips on how to record. Dude became my recording hero.

Discö Rice · April 14, 2011, 08:18:20 PM

I've made decent recordings (read: perfectly hideous in the best way) with one SM-57 sitting in the middle of a rehearsal space. It's all about capturing the moment and keeping it just shy of unlistenable.

Hemisaurus · April 14, 2011, 09:37:29 PM

One band I played, we were in a long narrow basement, with the drums in the middle, me at one end, and the guitarist at the other. A single SM58 into a cassette recorder used to yield very listenable results.

One thing I would say is that the DapTone stuff is very much a backing band and either solo vocal or instrument, so the rest of the band is meant to sit back more.

mortlock · April 14, 2011, 10:07:33 PM

talk to michael henderson..

Lumpy · April 14, 2011, 11:40:22 PM

So many regional level punk rock bands had their records basically ruined in the 80s because they were forced to record with "pro" studios where they were told that records had to be made a certain way, to sound good... and it just sounds sanitized.*

I love rockabilly but I'm totally uninterested in modern rockabilly - it doesn't have the right SOUND that the 50's stuff has, that comes from recording in rooms that weren't (gasp) properly treated with acoustic material, and so on. "Genre" music (example: black metal) has certain trademark sounds that are not always the result of slick recording setups. Now I'm not arguing that nobody should ever exceed the limits of the genre they choose to work in, but you at least need to understand the format, before you decide to ignore it.

*there's a great single from like 1980 called "Gacy's Place" by the band The Mentally Ill, where the guitars sound like vacuum cleaners... just totally fucked up sounding, in the best possible way. Even now, people are still impressed by how wrong (and good, in a punk rock way) that record sounds, and it was recorded in a slick studio that specialized in making radio commercials (StarBeat in the Chicago south suburbs).

We here (mostly) play 'underground' music... when it doesn't sound like stuff you hear on commercial radio, that's probably a plus.

VOLVO))) · April 14, 2011, 11:44:12 PM

My only criteria for recording is that there can't be a bunch of shit buzzing in the room. I usually like all of us to be in the same room, amps outside, being recorded.

Hemisaurus · April 14, 2011, 11:52:51 PM

I like production. I like something that is well recorded. I don't like the majority of Steve Albini recordings, it's like having a band play in a hospital, sounds thin and fizzy.

There are a lot of recordings, that I would say are well recorded, despite being done the wrong way.

If you can make your drumkit sound like the intro to High on Fire's 10,000 Years with one $20 mic, I take my hat off to you

VOLVO))) · April 14, 2011, 11:55:32 PM

Quote from: Hemisaurus on April 14, 2011, 11:52:51 PM
I like production. I like something that is well recorded. I don't like the majority of Steve Albini recordings, it's like having a band play in a hospital, sounds thin and fizzy.

There are a lot of recordings, that I would say are well recorded, despite being done the wrong way.

If you can make your drumkit sound like the intro to High on Fire's 10,000 Years with one $20 mic, I take my hat off to you

I can do it with a 58 and my laptop.

Hemisaurus · April 14, 2011, 11:58:55 PM

How much did you pay for the 58?

Lumpy · April 15, 2011, 12:19:39 AM

I like production too. I want to hear studio tricks and cool arrangements and so on. You can live in both worlds though... check this intro.

Maybe not a perfect example, but maybe you catch my drift.

VOLVO))) · April 15, 2011, 12:21:27 AM

Quote from: Hemisaurus on April 14, 2011, 11:58:55 PM
How much did you pay for the 58?

Zero dollars. Was left in my jam room. victory?

db3jed · April 15, 2011, 12:37:23 AM

Those were great articles thanks for that!
I always love to read memoirs of the old cats and how they did it or dudes that approach things from a different angle.
Hell back in the day we couldn't even afford a free SM58! (heh...)

I've been recording shit since 1969 (I was 6) when my mom and dad got me a reel-to-reel "dicta phone" for Xmas that year.
It featured a captive mic on a pigtail and the first thing I learned was that how shit sounded when I recorded it depended absolutely on where I had the mic positioned.
That's a lesson that lots of people work for decades to learn.

What was cool to me about the articles was that he laid it out that pricey doesn't necessarily mean good.
The first "album" that I ever recorded outside of a "real" studio was made with 4 Radio Shack mics (3 cardioid and 1 omni) and we must have recorded that tape a dozen different ways (on a 4 track Tascam Portastudio and a Peavey MD16 mixer) before we found "the sound".
I find myself yearning for those days when we had to plan out our tracks and cram as much shit onto 4 tracks as we possibly could.
Great times.

lordfinesse · April 15, 2011, 02:43:48 AM

I read that Tape Op article, and just for the hell of it, I recorded a couple of Husky songs with one mic on the drum kit. Not so good for what we do. A fun experiment though. I really respect that guy for what he's able to do.

LogicalFrank · April 15, 2011, 10:54:20 AM

For the record, it is not like Gabrial Roth is recording in a shoebox w/ a Tascam 414 and a broken mic.

What he is saying in the article is that transparent recordings are not necessarily the best recordings. He is also advocating spending an enormous amount of time getting everything set up just so, which is the most important thing really... aside from the performance.

Discö Rice · April 15, 2011, 11:09:51 AM

Quote from: SunnO))) on April 14, 2011, 11:55:32 PM
Quote from: Hemisaurus on April 14, 2011, 11:52:51 PM
I like production. I like something that is well recorded. I don't like the majority of Steve Albini recordings, it's like having a band play in a hospital, sounds thin and fizzy.

There are a lot of recordings, that I would say are well recorded, despite being done the wrong way.

If you can make your drumkit sound like the intro to High on Fire's 10,000 Years with one $20 mic, I take my hat off to you

I can do it with a 58 and my laptop.

You probably don't need the 58.

LogicalFrank · April 15, 2011, 11:47:02 AM

I got my drums sounding like John Bonham by just sitting in front of a tape recorder and thinking really hard about large, cavernous spaces.

justinhedrick · April 15, 2011, 12:41:26 PM

Quote from: LogicalFrank on April 15, 2011, 11:47:02 AM
I got my drums sounding like John Bonham by just sitting in front of a tape recorder and thinking really hard about large, cavernous spaces.

just don't think about choking on your own vomit . . .

LogicalFrank · April 15, 2011, 01:29:34 PM

Other people choke on my vomit and it sounds like Matt Pike on the first High on Fire record.

justinhedrick · April 15, 2011, 01:34:58 PM

Quote from: LogicalFrank on April 15, 2011, 01:29:34 PM
Other people choke on my vomit and it sounds like Matt Pike on the first High on Fire record.

nice. very nice.

Discö Rice · April 15, 2011, 02:38:44 PM

I dunno - If we're going for awesome drum sounds, I'd probably shoot for things more like Dale Crover's various recordings than silly old High on Fire.

Hemisaurus · April 15, 2011, 03:59:42 PM

Quote from: Nickelnuts McFroth on April 15, 2011, 02:38:44 PM
I dunno - If we're going for awesome drum sounds, I'd probably shoot for things more like Dale Crover's various recordings than silly old High on Fire.

Same diff, Crover's solo album, HOF's Art of Self Defense, Ramesses first two EP's, Sleep's Dopesmoker, Weedeater's And Justice and Sixteen Tons, all produced, or worked on, by Billy Anderson. That guy gets some nice sounds.