Theo Katzman's Keyboard Emporium (or, adventures in tracking a full band live in a single room)

[SamuelBLupowitz]

I'm pretty sure a lot of the keyboard gear you see in this video belongs to our own Jim Alfredson, is that right?

 

Regardless, I'm a little bit, dare I say, offended. Some of the early publicity for this new album (this is the lead single and title track) involved claims of "live to tape, no edits," that sort of thing. There's definitely at least a couple of background vocal overdubs, and I thought the Hammond might be an overdub unless what we're hearing truly is that synthesizer through the Leslie. Beyond that, though, that sure looks like the vocal take that we're hearing. You know, sung into that ribbon mic. Which looks like it's also picking up the muted piano to the same track. With the drum kit five feet away. And no headphones.

 

Are you KIDDING me? I find it hard enough to just book a session and get a record finished without adding extra challenges to the process... rude, Theo. Very rude. 😉 

 

 

[Redknife]

Dude is super-talented. Enjoy his stuff. Several Vulfpeck adjacent bands record this way and it’s hard to understand the ways around mic bleed etc. that you allude to.

[Paul Henry]

Personally, I don't care how they recorded this number....I loved it and think it's a great song.

 

Paul 

[SamuelBLupowitz]

22 minutes ago, Paul Henry said:

Personally, I don't care how they recorded this number....I loved it and think it's a great song.

 

Paul 

Ultimately I don’t care either, which is what makes the subtle middle finger at a more typical, isolation-based recording process so jaw-dropping. 
 

Just making sure it’s clear that my “outrage” is just based on the sheer skill involved to make this track happen under the circumstances.

[stoken6]

Great song, wonderful falsetto, and I love how the tag drops two beats at the end

 

But the piano keeps going when he stops playing at the start of verse 2 (1:28)?

 

Oh yeah, that was probably the dog.

 

Cheers, Mike.

[SamuelBLupowitz]

1 minute ago, stoken6 said:

Great song, wonderful falsetto, and I love how the tag drops two beats at the end

 

But the piano keeps going when he stops playing at the start of verse 2 (1:28)?

 

Oh yeah, that was probably the dog.

 

Cheers, Mike.

That’s what I thought at first, but the piano that takes over in verse 2 is the Wurlitzer. And the Wurlitzer drops out when the keyboard player hits the “organ” parts on the synth. I think it’s a testament to how carefully crafted the arrangement is!

[Dave Bryce]

Looking at that video, I do have a hard time understanding how that track could be recorded live with no overdubs.

 

Are you sure that’s a ribbon mic? 

 

dB

[SamuelBLupowitz]

Just now, Dave Bryce said:

Looking at that video, I do have a hard time understanding how that track could be recorded live with no overdubs.

 

Are you sure that’s a ribbon mic? 

 

dB

There are definitely overdubs (background/double-tracked vocals at the end, and the Leslie doesn't appear to be going during tracking, so it's either an overdub or a reamp of the dry part he's playing on the synth). I'm not 100% sure it's a ribbon mic but it looked like it to me, and the balance between the (mono, center) piano and the lead vocal is such that I'd be willing to put some money on the figure-8 pattern making that happen.

 

So I'm curious exactly what the correlation between what we see and hear is. But the audio/video sync between the lead vocal, the piano, and the other players when the camera is on them is SO exact that I'm pretty sure we're largely seeing what we're hearing. I imagine we'll be seeing more in-studio videos from these sessions if that's the case. He did something similar with his last record, but there were iso booths and headphones involved. And of course, Vulfpeck does this stuff all the time, but those tend to be more about capturing a fun performance than crafting a clean singer-songwriter track.

 

Tl;dr I think other than a few overdubs we really are hearing what was happening in the room while the cameras rolled. It's in keeping for Theo and his crew, but this is, I think, another level of it for him.

[Al Quinn]

Great performance!
 

They’re able to get a good recorded sound because they’re playing at a polite volume. I’ve done this type of recording where we play close to each other (like a gig in a small club) which means no need for headphones (some folks hate them) and then try to deal with the mic bleed when mixing. It works up to a certain volume: the piano needs to be louder than the drum bleed in the piano mic(s).  Once the drum bleed dominates the piano mic the entire recording sounds like crap.

[jazzpiano88]

Love the song and the video (whether live or MTV, either way).

Great vibe, sound, feel, chords.  Amazing creativity.   (and love the dog cameo)

 

Thanks for the post!

[TommyRude]

Those guys are good.  They're attractive too... bastards!

[ksoper]

How it was achieved is irrelevant.  Holy crap!  That was a great 3:49 spent.  

[stoken6]

Check out Theo's earlier "You Could Be President" for some more intelligent, catchy songwriting:

 

 

Cheers, Mike.

 

[SamuelBLupowitz]

In case anyone else was interested in the process as much as I was, I went to that fountain of accurate information, Instagram, for answers... 😉 

 

Looks like I was wrong about the vocal mic, it is a condenser, not a ribbon; there's a stereo ribbon *behind* the piano picking that up. Makes a little more sense to me! Still such sensitive playing by the ensemble.

 

Glad y'all enjoyed! Theo's last album, Modern Johnny Sings: Songs in the Age of Vibe, was my most-played of 2020, and Lee Pardini's piano playing on that record is out of this world and sent me DEEP down a rabbit hole that led to my obsession with Lee's main band, Dawes. The guy playing on this newer record seems like he can hang, too.

 

[Morrissey]

In this vein, the recording marvel for me remains Scary Pockets recording on the street corner!

 

 

[SamuelBLupowitz]

15 minutes ago, Morrissey said:

In this vein, the recording marvel for me remains Scary Pockets recording on the street corner!

 

 

You know, I remember @Dave Brycetalking about outdoor recording awhile back when the Peter Jackson "Get Back" film was released. If you'll forgive my clunky paraphrase, dB, the takeaway was something like "we spend all this money on gear, and treating our space, and getting everything just right, and then you watch how they make a record live on a roof in London, with two mics on the drums and those weird little vocal mics..."

 

I know some of you have said "I don't care how they make the record as long as I enjoy the end result," but I find the process of making a compelling recording just as interesting as the recording itself, so I eat this stuff up.

[Al Quinn]

Sam, I posted my last attempt at “embrace the bleed” recording on the Let’s Hear It! Post Your Music Here thread. The song is Israel. I don’t think it’s obvious from the video how close we were to each other. Here’s a pic of our setup. The bass player was by the Hammond. I think the mix came out pretty good considering the far from optimal setup. There’s a temporary plexiglass wall between the piano and drums which helps with the biggest challenge: drum bleed in the piano mics. It shields the piano mics from the direct sound from the drums.
 

[SamuelBLupowitz]

1 minute ago, Al Quinn said:

Sam, I posted my last attempt at “embrace the bleed” recording on the Let’s Hear It! Post Your Music Here thread. The song is Israel. I don’t think it’s obvious from the video how close we were to each other. Here’s a pic of our setup. The bass player was by the Hammond. I think the mix came out pretty good considering the far from optimal setup. I’ve got a temporary plexiglass wall between the piano and drums which helps with the biggest challenge: drum bleed in the piano mics. It shields the piano mics from direct sound from the drums.
 

What a beautiful space to make some music! I'll check your video out for sure. The three live rhythm section tracks I did for my solo album had my little spinet similarly close to the drums. We got a great balance but it was trickier to mix, for sure.

 

I remember reading that when recording The Stranger, Phil Ramone tried a bunch of different ways to keep the drums out of the piano, until ultimately deciding that that was part of the sound and working the mix around the drum bleed. 

 

Gus Dudgeon, on the other hand, apparently built an enormous "silo" around Elton John's piano that went from the soundboard up to the ceiling, so they could put mics in there and keep the bleed of the band's instruments out. Listen, I'd take the sound of any of those 70s records.

 

But the thing that always gets me as far as defeating the bleed is the vocal. Not just keeping the drums to a minimum in a vocal mic, but singers who can nail a tune in one take like that never cease to amaze me. If I'm the singer on a track and I'm doing a live scratch, it's a foregone conclusion that I'm going to replace it later when I'm not multitasking.

[TommyRude]

41 minutes ago, SamuelBLupowitz said:

In case anyone else was interested in the process as much as I was, I went to that fountain of accurate information, Instagram, for answers... 😉 

out of the likely numerous/thousands of comments, he chose to respond to you... cool world we're living in!

 

[SamuelBLupowitz]

Going to update the thread with today's new single/video release -- very different setup in the same space, and some really wicked overdriven and delay-manipulated Wurlitzer.

 

 

[Art-0252]

On 2/6/2023 at 10:32 AM, SamuelBLupowitz said:

In case anyone else was interested in the process as much as I was, I went to that fountain of accurate information, Instagram, for answers... 😉 

 

Looks like I was wrong about the vocal mic, it is a condenser, not a ribbon; there's a stereo ribbon *behind* the piano picking that up. Makes a little more sense to me! Still such sensitive playing by the ensemble.

 

Glad y'all enjoyed! Theo's last album, Modern Johnny Sings: Songs in the Age of Vibe, was my most-played of 2020, and Lee Pardini's piano playing on that record is out of this world and sent me DEEP down a rabbit hole that led to my obsession with Lee's main band, Dawes. The guy playing on this newer record seems like he can hang, too.

 

Coming back to this thread just to voice my appreciation for @SamuelBLupowitz and this thread because it introduced me to Theo's solo work! I have been obsessed with "Modern Johnny Sings: Songs in the Age of Vibe" the last few days and agree that Paradini's playing is like nothing I've ever heard before! The piano solo on 'The Death of Us' is so virtuosic and yet so tastefully right in the pocket, it blew my mind!

[SamuelBLupowitz]

1 hour ago, Art-0252 said:

Coming back to this thread just to voice my appreciation for @SamuelBLupowitz and this thread because it introduced me to Theo's solo work! I have been obsessed with "Modern Johnny Sings: Songs in the Age of Vibe" the last few days and agree that Paradini's playing is like nothing I've ever heard before! The piano solo on 'The Death of Us' is so virtuosic and yet so tastefully right in the pocket, it blew my mind!

Thrilled and honored to have introduced you to some music you dig! That's one of my favorite tracks on that record -- I think it owes a debt to Steely Dan (the guitar part and talkbox make me think Haitian Divorce; the piano solo really feels like a nod to Sign In Stranger). But Theo still has a unique voice as a performer and songwriter that I'm happy to hear that you appreciate!

[CyberGene]

I also discovered about Theo Katzman (and Vulfpeck) from this thread, thanks!

 

But I’ve had an odd experience that I’ve also had with other artists in the past too. Very impressed in the beginning and so happy to have found a bunch of great new music only to forget completely about it after a week with zero interest to listen to it again 😕 I’m trying to understand why that happens though. Might be wrong but I think it may have something to do with the music being too well crafted to give the impression it’s not too well crafted, if that makes any sense 😀

[Philip Clark]

Can't wait for this album and already have tickets to the live show. Theo and all his fellow Vulpeck crew are friggin' geniuses.

[Jim Alfredson]

I've worked on that piano (new hammers, lots of replacement felts and dampers) and yes that's my Hammond XK5 with the new Leslie 122H Heritage (probably the best sounding Leslie you've ever heard). Wurli isn't mine. I did loan him an Arp Odyssey mkII, an Emax I, DX7, Prophet 10 rev4, and some other goodies but I don't know how much he used. He did three sessions over the course of about six weeks. The new Vulfpeck, his solo record, and I think something with May Erlewine. 

They may have overdubbed the organ or they might have it connected via MIDI to the synth. It is an XK5 after all. Easy to MIDI.

Theo is insanely talented and a great songwriter. I hope he and I can work together musically in the future. We've talked about it. 

I'm currently working on a beautiful 1952 Hammond C2 for him.

[MAJUSCULE]

Crossing my fingers for you, Jim. Would be really cool to see you show up in one of these.

[SamuelBLupowitz]

Reviving this thread because I'm seeing Theo live in Cleveland this Friday, and in anticipation, I put together another one of those one-man-band cover videos, because that's been a really fun, satisfying way for me to mess around in the studio lately. Figuring out how to approximate that muted piano sound was cool (a blanket with gravity giving a little bit of "palm muting" pressure on the strings), but it didn't put the low Bb on my spinet back in tune, unfortunately... it was a real vocal workout too, as you might expect!