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Hi - I am huge Lenny Kravitz fan. I know he has that old retro sound. I am curious as to how me mixes his instruments. It sounds like there all in the right speaker panned, and the left has only remnants of tracksor something?

Comments

inLoco Tue, 10/12/2004 - 14:53

i think he uses traditional panning!
he plays a guitar on the left side and other on the right with different tone!
on the chorus he sometimes doubles!
as for the voice too...

but oh boy... how i hate lenny from 5
i'm a huge fan of let love rule... but from 5 it's all crap!
sell us the same product over and over again with nothing new to it!
it's like comparing fly away with the new one, california...
as we say here in portugal... roda o disco e toca o mesmo! (direct translation is, change sides on your disc and play the same!)

Guest Wed, 10/13/2004 - 04:39

The machines prior to "Circus" was an Otari "MTR-90" 2" 24-track and a Studer A-80 RC 1/2" 2 track. During 'Are You Gonna Go My Way' there was a Studer J-37 1" tube 4-track hanging around, I'm not sure if it was used or not... there was also "REDD-37 and REDD-17" [two EMI built tube consoles that were allegedly used at Abbey Road prior to the recording of Rubber Soul].

There was no panning capability on either the REDD-37 nor the REDD-17 which is why things on those early Beatle records are hard left / hard right.

Though I have heard Kravitz stuff on the radio, and did hear some of the material while it was still in production, I have never sat down and listened to a Lenny record, so I couldn't really tell you a whole lot more about mix decisions, etc.

I do know that none of the mixes were automated that all of the tape flanging etc. was done by hand using mulitple tape machines, and microphone selection and placement issues were taken exceptionally seriously.

I don't believe I have violated the terms of my NDA, but this is as far as I'm going with this.

Peace.

anonymous Wed, 10/13/2004 - 09:42

I can tell you one thing about his equipment..
I met him once early in his career (after first album, I think) when he was buying a TON of vintage guitar amps off a guy I knew. He has a serious arsenal of old guitars and amps to get those 'vintage' tones.

When I met him - he was also a very nice guy. Cool to talk to.

His music isn't always my cup of tea, but hey - different strokes..
"-)

anonymous Sat, 09/30/2006 - 23:50

Fletcher wrote:
There was no panning capability on either the REDD-37 nor the REDD-17 which is why things on those early Beatle records are hard left / hard right.

Actually the Redd.37 had not only pan controls, but a "spreader" control that controlled how "wide" the stereo image was. The pan controls were directly beneath the main fader select switches, and had 21 selectable positions: center as well as 10 options on each side of center.

However, I have read that these panning controls were actually intended for recording rather than mixing; as this desk was designed for classical recording (EMI Abbey Road's main clientele in the late 50's), so this setup would make sense.

The choice to hard pan Beatles recordings was definitely an artistic one.

anonymous Sun, 10/01/2006 - 10:05

Set back 10 years or entered into a Golden Era?

I'm not sure whether the hard panning was an "accident" or not at first, but considering that in that decade alone, technology evolved from recording straight to mono with only one or two microphones in a single take to recording electronically onto tape with 8 unique stereo tracks, I'm not sure how anyone can say it "set back the industry 10 years." In the 10 years surrounding the Beatles' recordings, the majority of effects and recording techniques that we still use today were invented.

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