Scott Henderson Discussion

paskiainen · Joined: 20 Mar 2016 Posts: 41

Hi Scott!

Just wondering do you have any recollections about recording elvis at the hop?
Were doing a covers project and doing the song and I was told it was one of the hardest thing for the drummer to get those accents after the solo. Did you record it in parts or did Heredia just read those rhythms while he was improvising or what. What a super drummer if he could do that just like that.

Really like the solo too. I'm going to rip it bluesy too. Really like those hip notes what you did.

For elvis we're going to use one nice sample of my one "hip" friend telling funny lines. Couldnt get the original like you did. Smile

Thanks for everything.

By the way, what do think of the new Beck album?

Scott Henderson · The Man Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 2124

We'd been playing it on the road for a long time, so recording it was just like doing another gig - I'm pretty sure it's a first take, but I punched in and fixed some mistakes in my solo (as usual).

I haven't heard the new Beck album yet - I'm sure it rocks!

Thelonious Beck · Joined: 01 Jun 2011 Posts: 33

paskiainen · Joined: 20 Mar 2016 Posts: 41

I know you don't like the productions of the old stuff, but at least to me they are part of the charm and artistry. It would be really boring if there was some plugin which would change the old records to sound like today stuff. The production and tones are also part of the art package.

Did you always record as a whole band and then punch in when necessary? I thought those old TT records were more or less played separately.

Stratus · Joined: 19 Oct 2012 Posts: 21

Scott Henderson · The Man Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 2124

I've never been in a band that recorded the basic tracks separately - we always record together and then fix mistakes or add post-production stuff later if it's a jamming record.

paskiainen · Joined: 20 Mar 2016 Posts: 41

I'm sorry I was just guessing that since you had so limited budgets back then that you would have sometimes played to a midi track since all instruments weren't possible to be isolated properly. Obviously musicians of your caliber never record to midi tracks separately no matter what.

The best thing is of course to do like you do it. Record the basic tracks together and then do the post processing. It's absurd to say that even doing it that way isn't proper music but everything has to be completely live.

Heard the new Beck yet?

Scott Henderson · The Man Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 2124

Compromises have to be made sometimes because of the budget. Back in the old Tribal Tech days, we were usually given about 20 thousand to make a record. We chose to spend 100% of that money on high quality studios with lots of isolation, and great engineers for tracking, mixing, and mastering.

When home recording was born, we were able to pay some money to ourselves by overdubbing at home, but the basic tracks still had to be recorded live in a real studio, and we still had to pay for mixing and mastering.

Fast forward 10 years to the Tribal Tech X and HBC records, and for the first time we didn't need a real studio because people had recording studios at home - in our case it was Scott Kinsey. The upside is that we were able to pay ourselves decent money for our work, but the downside is the records don't sound professional because of the compromised gear in Kinsey's home studio. The records were recorded at 44.1 so they sound boxy and thin, and the mastering was done with cheap, harsh sounding mastering software which can't even come close to the real thing.

Fast forward to Vibe Station, and we finally managed to do it right. The basic tracks were recorded in a high quality studio with lots of isolation and a great sounding Neve board, using ProTools running at 96k. The overdubs and mixing were all done in my studio, where I can dial in my best tones and take as much time as I need to mix. The mastering was done by Joe Gastwirt, one of the best mastering engineers in LA, who ran the project to half inch tape before mastering, which smooths everything out and gets rid of any digital spikes which are present in all computer recorded projects.

Even with all our expenses - studio plus engineer, mastering studio plus engineer, rental gear, supplies, etc, we were still able to pay ourselves decent money for our work. Total cost for the record was around 14 thousand, but it sounds much better than the old Tribal Tech records which were more expensive to make, and paid zero money to the musicians.

paskiainen · Joined: 20 Mar 2016 Posts: 41

Just noticed that you didnt use midi until "signal path" days. Those early records must have been stressful, even more so than sideman things since you weren't wholly responsible for those projects like you were for the TT albums.

Vibe station really sounds marvelous. One of the best sounding records ever. Gotta record too to 96 kHz from now on.