Welcome Legendary Rec. Engineer Mike Ross (Hendrix, PG's Fleetwood Mac, the Who, etc)

Is it your stereo mix on this CD?

 

I've never seen this album before so I can't confirm if it is my stereo mix.

 

Thank you for sharing your time Mike.

Who was responsible for that "icy" reverb sound heard on "I Loved Another Woman", "Black Magic Woman", "Without You"among other early Fleetwood Mac tracks. I really dig that sound. It sounds great with Peter's bent-one note style of playing.

 

Hi, Mike, welcome.

Do you recall what Who songs you recorded? I believe some sources indicated Whiskey Man, Don't Look Away and Happy Jack were recorded at CBS, while others list other studios like IBC or Regent.

 

Great to have you sir!! Tell us some stories!

 

I think you might be referring to the natural echo chamber which was in the roof at CBS it was a small room 8' x 6' which was tiled like a bathroom with a ribbon microphone at one end and a speaker at the other end we used this a lot for vocals and guitars

 

Happy Jack, I Can See For Miles, Mary Anne With The Shaky Hand are the titles I recall but historical data could possibly reveal more titles as the Who were in and out during that period they also recorded at IBC and Regent Sound and Olympic it was really a case of what studio was available when they were ready to record.

 

Thanks. It looks like Early Morning Cold Taxi may have been recorded there as well.

What kind of equipment were you using at the time ('66-'67)? I know other studios in London were using 1/2" 4-track.

Also, did you record The Paul Simon Songbook? It has been written that was recorded to mono (in fact, with only one microphone), but the bonus tracks on the recent CD reissue note they were remixed.

 

Hi Mark ....I certainly do remember meeting you at the Spectropop party and you always amaze me with your knowledge some of the titles you mention I can't remember but I'm sure you are right it's very difficult for me to remember everything I've ever recorded unless they were major hits or meant something to people, most of the Mark Wirtz productions were recorded live apart from the solo vocal tracks and as you say Mark did not always get the easiest singers to record so a lot of work was put in after the basic track was recorded, Touch Of Velvet was completely live.

 

There were actually six girl singers on Touch Of Velvet and yes it was recorded totally live on to a three track Ampex recorder

 

Farther Along came about in a strange way.....The Byrds were in England for a tour and a TV appearance and because of that they had to pre-record a backing track for the show so they booked the CBS London studio and I recorded the backing track with them and afterwards they were so impressed by the sound of the room that they decided to stay an extra week in London and record a back to roots album there was no producer and each member of the band was responsible for producing the track he wrote I was not given any input and most of it was recorded live with minimal overdubbing apart from the vocals, they worked very fast and we were recording two tracks a night including the final mix, the attitude from the guys was good and the musicianship was outstanding and I was left alone to do my work and they seemed pleased with the sound I got for them everything was very easy and relaxed and they were great guys to work for, the whole album was recorded over five nights and each session lasted around 12 hours and finished in the early hours, Clarence White didn't want to finish his tracks in London and ended up finishing them in LA we never found out the reason for this but I felt the sessions were a bit too fast for him.

 

The equipment we were using in 66/67 was a custom made four track EMI tube desk with only 14 channels the EQ was basic with a boost and cut at 10kz and a boost and cut at 100hz but we did have a rack of pultec EQ's as plug in's and we had Fairchild limiters, we would record on to a 1" Studer J37 four track and mix to a Studer C37 reverb was a natural tiled room and EMT tube mono plates.

I have heard from several sources that Early Morning Cold Taxi was recorded at CBS so it may turn out to be true, in a lot of cases a backing track would be recorded without a title and then named at a later date.

Yes I did record the 'Paul Simon Song Book' and it was recorded in mono only with two microphones for voice and guitar, I'm surprised to hear there are some re-mixes around as I didn't think the mult-tracks were still around, I also worked with Paul when he produced the Jackson C. Frank abum in London.

 

Great stuff. Was that J37 1", or did you (also?) have a 1/2" head?

I can't say I know exactly what was done. Everything is mono, including the bonus tracks, but there is an explicit credit for mixing on those two tracks. Was the recording possibly actually done to 2 tracks, one for each microphone, and subsequently mixed to mono?

 

We were using a Studer J37 1" but we didn't own a half inch head block.

For the 'Paul Simon Song Book' we used two tracks of an Ampex 350 three track recorder ( this was just before we bought the Studer J37 ) in England during the mid 60's it was very much a mono market so we always thought in terms of a great mono mix first

 

Mike, I actually ended up with a lot of those records from Mark's own collection. The best one in my opinion is "I'm the Richest Man Alive" - wish I had the backing track to that. Ray Singer was not a great... singer... but man that track is stunning.

I'm glad Luke brought up the Paul Simon tracks. Mark Wirtz told me he was around when Simon was in the studio. I always kind of doubted him but its not the kind of detail he'd care about if he wasn't around then.

I have this picture of Mark with The Mirage (see the very young Dee Murray on the far left!). Is this CBS? Always wondered where this was taken. It looks like its during a playback of some kind but maybe not?

View attachment 210403

 

Thanks. I wonder if that may explain why Happy Jack wasn't mixed to stereo later. That is, if the multitrack was 1" while other studios like IBC were 1/2".

 

I've never seen this photo before but I can confirm it's the CBS control room and I'm probably sitting next to Mark but out of shot, this was probably taken during the recording of 'It's In Her Kiss' as this was the only single we made with them at CBS, amazing to see Dee Murray in the photo I had forgotten he was in the Mirage.

It is very possible that Mark saw Paul Simon because Paul was recording only in the afternoons and Mark would work the evenings so they may have crossed paths.

Glad to hear you like 'Richest Man Alive' it's an unbelievable track and we must have been trying to out do Spector it's just a shame about the vocal.

 

That is very true but I do believe Abbey Road also had a 1" Studer J37 but it's not a studio they ever went to.

 

. Yeah, the YouTube clip doesn't do it justice. On record its HUGE.

Singer must have given up on the vocal thing because a couple of years later he ended up working as a producer and became fairly successful. Some of his early productions are very much like what you and Mark were doing.

 

I did work with Ray again around 1978 when he was a producer and we worked on a Peter Sarstedt album he remembered me from the earlier years,

 

Welcome, Mike!

 

I also swear that I didn't make up the part about him putting instruments in hallways. Pretty sure if Mike sees this he'll confirm that story.[/QUOTE]


Yes it's true in the sixties we didn't have plug in's and black boxes to change the sound so we did it by changing the acoustics we did record in hallways, offices, reception areas and even bathrooms to create some interesting sounds, I even used a stair well once to record four violins and they sounded like 20 players, it's all we had and we had to use our imagination.

 

Hello Mike,
According to some sources, there was a Hendrix original recorded at CBS Studios on December 21st 1966, "First look around the corner".
No tape has ever surfaced.
This was the session that produced the UK "Are You Experienced" take of "Red House".
Any recollection of this song?
It's been 45 years, so perhaps it's asking a bit much of your memory?

 

I do remember there were four tracks recorded and I only know where three of them ended up but the title you refer to may have been just a basic rhythm track which may have been finished at another studio and may not have been given the name of 'First Look Around The Corner' at the time I recorded the track, sometimes tracks don't always have titles at the time of laying down the basic tracks as the lyrics are not always written at the same time as the backing track.

 

Awesome reading!