Kula Shaker sounds

[The Reel Thing]

Dear Mr Leckie,

the Kula Shaker album you produced remains one of my favourite albums, and has also served as a reference for mixing and mastering time and again. still does.

One of the things i like the most about this album is your use of delay on vocals, guitars, and generally, all over the place. do you recall which delay units you used, or if there was tape delay (the vocal delay on Hey Dude sounds like tape to me), and if you used one general delay on the mix or several discrete delay units?

The other thing i've always loved on this album is the drum and bass guitar sound. do you remember the mic set-up and console you recorded on, and maybe the compressor you used for the kit?

Did you get the band to play live for keepers or did you go for drum tracks and overdubbed the rest?

Thank you kindly, and best wishes,


Tom Ripphahn

analoghaus :: studio label verlag - home

[johnleckie]

Hi Tom
K was recorded at Eden and Livinston studios in London and some tracks done at Chipping Norton. Some of mixing was done by Stephen Harris and he did good job. Eden and Livinston e series SSL and Chipping Norton, now closed was Trident TSM (great!)
Most tracks that sound live were cut live with guitar, bass, drums and guide vocal. The guitar FX would be changed live by Crispian and we would DT or add parts as overdubs. Drums were 57, 421 D12, 84, 87 . The room is pretty dry. The kit is Slingerland (?) and sounded great in room but always a bit mad with the cymbals. Much time was taken on getting the right backing track and most tracks no clicks used. Compresor probably Urei 1176 and/or SSL channel compressor. Delays would maybe be tape but often Roland 3000 at 250msec with top wound off return. Maybe stereo ping pong delay from Lexicon PCM70. Bass sound was down to Alonzo's playing.

Cheers
JL