los lobos

[QRS]

hi john,

great to have you here, thank you!

los lobos`good morning.. is a favorite of mine - wonderful songs and
sound!
how did you get this great drum sound from "heart of stone" ? do you
remember what drumset it was and how it was recorded/mixed - what
mics/pres/desk etc.
where/in what room did you record it?
the snare jumps so wonderful out of my speakers
cheers, matthias

[johnleckie]

Hi Matthias
Yes. It was an honour to work with Los Lobos as I had all the records and
Drum sound totally down to Pete Thomas who played drums on a lot of Lobos records. He has amazing snare drum tuning and can change drum tone at a turn of a key and its always usable and it'll fit the song. Whole record recorded at Cesar's house in East LA. If you get a special edition CD I think there's a little EPK with movie of us making record. Cesar had great set up and a little drum booth with door and window built into the control room and he always told me it was modeled on the booth at Sound Factory B in Hollywood. Its quite small in there and kit miked with 57, D25, 87s o/hs and I think we had a u47 on floor tom(!) about 6inches away and 84 or something 10 inches away from hihat. Most of sound just came from 57 on snare which was deep and rattled but in track was awesome. Nearly everything Los Lobos do is first take so you got to be ready. Guitars and bass were in kitchen and bathroom. Desk was Neve 'broadcast' like a mini Neve with aluminum coloured knobs? Recorded on MCI 24trk and mixed at Sound Factory B on API. Dave McNair did some mixing so you should check.
Cheers
JL