Below is
some good bits written by me from my forum.
When I started at PWL in 1988, Mike and Matt were recording
everything on a Song 24 Track digital tape machine.
The track list for a tipical Stock / Aitken / Waterman record
would look something like this.....
Tk 1 : Chords (L)
Tk 2 : Chords (R)
Tk 3 : Poly - Rhythm Seq (L)
Tk 4 : Poly - Rhythm Seq (R)
Tk 5 : Guitar
Tk 6 : Juno Seq
Tk 7 : Piano
Tk 8 : Bass
Tk 9 : Kick
Tk 10 : Snare
Tk 11 : Clap
Tk 12 : Hats
Tk 13 : Tambo
Tk 14 : Congas
Tk 15 : Rim
Tk 16 : Loop
Tk 17 : Matt Rhythm Keys
Tk 18 : M8 Vox loc / tom fills
Tk 19 : Bv's Lo (L)
Tk 20 : Bv's Lo (R)
Tk 21 : Main Bv's mix (L)
Tk 22 : Main Bv's mix (R)
Tk 23 : Lead Vox
Tk 24 : Lead D/T
If you was to pull out one of the SAW master tapes from the PWL
tape library it would look a bit like the above track list I
have made up.
I wanted to do the 'make-up' track list first as this topic I
think will become long, and the track list is a good place to
start as it will give you some ideas of how a BIG SAW track was
put together.
The first 8 tracks were used for Keys / Bass and maybe a bit of
Matt's guitar, the bass was always on track 7 (PWL law), tracks
9 - 16 were always used to record the drums and the Kick was
always on track 9 (PWL law).
Tracks 17 to 24 were for Vocals and any extra bits needed.
All the big PWL / SAW tracks were recorded on 24 track, but
later we started using a Sony 48 Track. Things went wrong after
that, too many tracks, keys, drums and over production, made the
PWL sound poor.
My point is SAW's biggest and best hits were recorded on a
simple 24 track tape machine and nothing more!
Simple and good songs, simple production and simple backing
tracks.
The famous 'Calrec Sound Field Mic'
Credited on loads of SAW hits. I think Pete did a deal for free
mic's if he credited them on records - something like that.
It's a stereo mic and it had a blue box that came with it. The
blue Calrec box would power the mic and also be used for setting
levels and so on..
If you look at the picture below just above Pete Hammond's head
you can see it.
So the Calrec mic was connected to
the Calrec box and the box was pluged into the SSL desk, those 2
channels were EQ'ed mostly by an insert point by a good quality
EQ like Forus Right, or Neve. In that same insert chain would be
a good quality DBX 160 compressor and DBX de-sser.
So the vocals were recorded, heavily treated on tape. The Calrec
SSL channels were then rooted to all channels on the SSL desk,
so the recording engineer could at anytime select a channel from
1 to 48 to record vocals onto.
Different producers record vocals in different ways depending on
how good the singer was, if we were recording Kylie or Donna
Summer who are 'Good' singers and can learn a new song fast.
Then Mike would do something called vocal runs. This just means
letting the singer sing the song from top to bottom without
stopping too much, so you would record say about 8 - 12 tracks
of Kylie singing.
Mike would make notes on what lines she sung well and what track
it was recorded on. If he felt he had enough to compile a master
vocal track then Kylie would be sent home. If not, we would
record more tracks of vocals until we had enough.
After Kylie or Donna were out of the studio then Mike or Matt
would sit down with the engineer and compile a master vocal
track and double track. Mark and Karl would also work like this.
The other way we would record vocals is section by section,
which is alot harder for the engineer and the singer. The singer
would learn the song first by doing full runs, when the singer
was happy we would then start recording the verse.
He would do one track and then Mike would say he likes line 4
for the verse, or half of line one or even just one word.
Then it came down to the engineer to record on that track again
without erasing the line or word Mike liked. You would do this
by dropping the tape machine in and out of record with fast
fingers and lazer light reflex.
By the end of the session the engineer would be mentally
drained.
Some vocal session would last an hour (Kylie, Donna, Sonia) and
some ages (BIG FUN, Mandy Smith), Big fun vocals sessions were
hell. Poor Mark was not a very good singer. I know Mike Stock
would ghost some singers like Big fun and even Jason D in his
early days (Jason got better with time).
Mandy was sometimes backed up by a girl called Suzanne Rattigan,
all the tricks were used in recording vocals with BAD singers.
I can even remember when we recorded the Man U FA Cup song, the
football team sounded rubbish, so Mark, Karl and Chris helped
the boys out a bit with the vocals on 'Move, Move, Move'.
The use of drum loops was introduced
by Phil Harding and Tony King in about 1988. When the master 24
track tape would come down from SAW Borough studio, Phil would
add drums loops sampled from new dance tunes doing well in the
clubs at that time. The loops would be mixed in with the SAW
drums they had programmed. Sometime Mike, Matt and Pete would
like the new loops added sometime not.
I was Phil Harding’s assistant for about 3 years and was on the
mix session for Kylie’s “Hand On Your Heart”. I can’t remember
what loop he used on the intro but I’m certain it came from a
current big dance tune of 88/89.
Your comments about SAW saying in interviews that quite often
never heard the finished tracks until someone played them in the
office, is a little true. You must remember the PWL hit factory
at it’s peak in 1989 was sooooo busy in recording and producing
a ton of new hits that sometimes Mike and Matt would not hear
the finish mix until they came in to work at about 11.30am, by
that time the office staff might have a copy DAT or cassette of
the Kylie, Jason or Rick’s new single, a mix that Pete Waterman
would have approved that morning. But maybe not the final 7” mix
you guys got to here.
But if Mike or Matt was un-happy with anything regarding the mix
Phil Harding or Pete Hammond had done they would recall the mix
on the SSL desk and change it before cutting the master.
The rumours you hear on SAW sending a half finished track for
mixing and then Phil Harding or Pete Hammond adding new stuff
and finishing the track off is rubbish. On all the mixes of SAW
songs I worked on, the 24 Track master tape would come from the
SAW Borough studio fully finished and sounding like a hit record
as soon as you put the faders up. But sometime Mike or Matt
would change overdubs during the mix to improve the record and
Phil wound add new 12” overdubs like dub basses and vocal
cut-up’s and drum loops for the 12” master mix and dub remixes.
Read about mixing with the master Phil Harding. |
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