[Video] Recreating Stevie Wonder's Keyboard Sound (with Jack Stratton/Vulfpeck)

[Kawai James]

Hello folks,

 

This popped into my YouTube recommendations feed earlier.  I thought other folks here would also dig it.

 

I'm a big fan of Jack Stratton and Vulfpeck (I loved his "Holy Trinities" series), so am rather interested in his "Mixing Masterclass" series, where this clip appears to be taken from.
 

 

Cheers,

James

x

 

[Jim Alfredson]

The most interesting thing about the video is when he plays the Stevie clip and you can see Stevie has a Mark I Stage but with a Mark II flat top. I dig it.

[Stokely]

One of my favorite concert videos of all time is the single-camera-continuous shot concert Vulfpeck did in Madison Square garden.  *That* is the kind of show that could get me out...no tracks, just great musicians having great fun.  And most of them were switching off playing various instruments....

Interesting to have that many EQs going on.  Not something I have done a lot.

[Tusker]

I like his willingness to multi-process too. Takes the pressure off a single plugin. So good for EQ, Comp and Saturation. Also a fan of subtle tilt eq (1-3 db per oct)

[jerrythek]

To my ears he went a little too far with the “crunch” and “sizzle”, but it’s still very good. I like his enthusiasm. 
 

Did you notice the major thirds in Stevie’s track? I (and most everyone on the planet) plays a Ebm7 chord… Stevie is slipping in some Eb7 there. Quite a surprise. 
 

He also did a really good tutorial on how to play Superstition a few years back. Another testimonial to how good that Vulf Compressor plug-in is. 

 

 

 

[Theo Verelst]

His playing nor his sound are on the same level as Stevie Wonder's, which is predictable.

 

T

[AROIOS]

4 hours ago, Theo Verelst said:

His playing nor his sound are on the same level as Stevie Wonder's, which is predictable.

T

Playing, Yes.

Sound,  Hell no.

The Scarbee Rhodes sounded warmer and fuller right out of the gate. In comparison, Stevie's original recording was thin and shrill. That sound might have worked well in the mix. In isolation, I'll choose the Scarbee sound every time.

[jazzpiano88]

That Scarbee EP sounds really nice!

[jazzpiano88]

22 minutes ago, AROIOS said:

The Scarbee Rhodes sounded warmer and fuller right out of the gate. In comparison, Stevie's original recording was thin and shrill. That sound might have worked well in the mix. In isolation, I'll choose the Scarbee sound every time.

 

Yeah, the original had to be thinned out for the mix most likely.   Stevie doubles the bass line on bass on the recording.  

[Theo Verelst]

Playing is style-wise quite off, timing, hardly funky, messy and uncertain phrasing, strange use of instrument tone. Sound is annoying, like as if it has mid range ensemble  compression under control but it goes acoustically all kinds of wrong ways anyway, and isn't even close to warm, very coherent and succinctly full of life sound of the original, even through YT.

 

T

[jerrythek]

35 minutes ago, Theo Verelst said:

Playing is style-wise quite off, timing, hardly funky, messy and uncertain phrasing, strange use of instrument tone. Sound is annoying, like as if it has mid range ensemble  compression under control but it goes acoustically all kinds of wrong ways anyway, and isn't even close to warm, very coherent and succinctly full of life sound of the original, even through YT.

 

T

I wouldn’t even judge his playing… he said it was quite sloppy, he was just trying to get a reference to compare tones. 

[jazzpiano88]

59 minutes ago, jerrythek said:

I wouldn’t even judge his playing… he said it was quite sloppy, he was just trying to get a reference to compare tones. 

 

My initial question was WTF is a "vulfpeck"?!? 

 

Pretty neat story, and good for him/them!    The process in the video seemed logical and well executed to me.  Would be interested in how T would approach that same goal differently. 

[CyberGene]

9 hours ago, jazzpiano88 said:

My initial question was WTF is a "vulfpeck"?!? 

So, what is it? I didn’t have patience to watch more than half a minute to hear if he explains it. Probably a fancy way to say “wolf pack”?

[SamuelBLupowitz]

5 hours ago, CyberGene said:

So, what is it? I didn’t have patience to watch more than half a minute to hear if he explains it. Probably a fancy way to say “wolf pack”?

Vulfpeck is his band. They’re a funk group that became famous for their quirky live-performance YouTube videos about ten years ago, starting out as a mostly instrumental act and eventually featuring vocalists as well as high-profile guests like David T. Walker, James Gadson, Mike Viola, and other session aces. The name does come from using a silly German accent to say “wolf pack;” the original fictional backstory of the band was that they were a sort of German session musician team a la the Funk Brothers (in reality they’re all music students from Michigan and they dropped the premise after a few years).

 

Early on in their career, they got some press coverage for financing a tour by creating a “silent album” on spotify and asking fans to stream it on loop to generate revenue for the tour. They then were able to make all the shows free for entry, because they’d generated enough cash to cover their expenses through the streaming of … nothing. Spotify changed their rules to prevent this not long after. 

 

They’re incredibly successful for an independent band with no label. In 2017 they played multiple sold-out shows at Madison Square Garden. The members and associates also have some very high profile solo- and side-projects, like the Fearless Flyers and Theo Katzman.

 

 

[CyberGene]

3 minutes ago, SamuelBLupowitz said:

Vulfpeck is his band.

Hey, thanks for the very detailed information. I actually know they are a band and I have listened to them a few times, it’s a pretty good music 👍🏻 I was rather wondering where their name Vulfpeck come from. As a non-native English speaker, to me it sounds like a quasi-Germanic way of saying wolf pack but I may be missing some American context that explains the name. Not sure if @jazzpiano88 was asking about the band or the name though. 

[SamuelBLupowitz]

1 minute ago, CyberGene said:

Hey, thanks for the very detailed information. I actually know they are a band and I have listened to them a few times, it’s a pretty good music 👍🏻 I was rather wondering where their name Vulfpeck come from. As a non-native English speaker, to me it sounds like a quasi-Germanic way of saying wolf pack but I may be missing some American context that explains the name. Not sure if @jazzpiano88 was asking about the band or the name though. 

Yes, this occurred to me after I initially posted my lil Wikipedia article there, and I updated it to mention that it is in fact a silly phonetic spelling of “wolf pack” in somethjng resembling a German accent. They’re a funny little bunch of guys.

[Stokely]

In this awesome concert vid I mentioned (that features some great cameos from artists like Chris Thile), the guy from the video mostly plays guitar and drums from what I recall.  He gets on the CP70 or whatever that electric grand is a few times and the clav near the end.

Holy crap is Cory Wong a great guitarist too   

Just a fun, fun show that I'd love to see.  

 

[jazzpiano88]

5 hours ago, CyberGene said:

Not sure if @jazzpiano88 was asking about the band or the name though. 

 

Both.  Had never heard of either.

[Kawai James]

On 12/16/2023 at 12:13 AM, Stokely said:

One of my favorite concert videos of all time is the single-camera-continuous shot concert Vulfpeck did in Madison Square garden.  *That* is the kind of show that could get me out...no tracks, just great musicians having great fun.  And most of them were switching off playing various instruments....

Yeah, it's a fantastic concert. Those guys are seriously talented musicians, and make everything look so effortless while clearly having immense fun. The audio mix is also amazing!

 

I remember watching the video for "Running Away" by Joey Dosik a few years ago (when I was less familiar with Vulfpeck), being totally smitten by his velvety, soulful voice...then I realised to myself wait...he's the sax player?! Crazy talent...

 

 

[Docbop]

2 hours ago, Kawai James said:

Yeah, it's a fantastic concert. Those guys are seriously talented musicians, and make everything look so effortless while clearly having immense fun. The audio mix is also amazing!

 

I remember watching the video for "Running Away" by Joey Dosik a few years ago (when I was less familiar with Vulfpeck), being totally smitten by his velvety, soulful voice...then I realised to myself wait...he's the sax player?! Crazy talent...

 

 

 

Two for my favorite legend  David T. Walker and Janes Gadson that's what rhythm section playing is all about.