Recording Be Bop Deluxe/Bill Nelson

[Beyersound]

Hi John, so glad you decided to join us here for a Q&A! Please tell us about your approach to the recording/producing approach with Be Bop Deluxe. I would also like to know if you often did live rhythm tracks and kept Bill's guitar tracks when and if you did that. How exactly did you record his guitar and vocal overdubs (mics, techniques, etc). Thank You

[johnleckie]

Greetings to Vegas !
All tracks on Sunburst Finish and Modern Music recorded with no click and cut live as backing track in studio with drums, bass, rhythm guitar or a scratch guitar and basic keyboard all going down at one time. The band were great players and Bill made difficult playing demands on them. The music was almost written to show off the talents on instruments and parts were complex. I never went to rehearsals but Bill demoed everything playing all instruments at home on little cassette portastudio and the band were sent away to learn it almost note for note. Overdubs were plentiful and somehow we managed to get it all on one 24 track. All mixed manually too as it was before SSL though may have tried Necam.
Guitar would be multimiked and lot of care and time on sounds and replicating what was coming out of amp, which was usually Carlsboro and later Mesa Boogie. Vocal were nearly always 87 with sponge spitscreen and sung close almost kissing.
Cheers JL