CCR "Proud Mary" - anyone know how it was recorded?

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I'm doing a soundalike of CCR's Proud Mary for a production class. I
can't find much info on the web about it, which isn't all that
surprising; it's not a particularly standout recording. I'm wondering
if anyone knows (or can intuit) anything about the instruments, mics,
etc. used on it.

Obviously it's in mono. I've seen one site say the guitar parts were
recorded on a Les Paul, and another says it was a Gibson ES-175. Both
agree it was tuned down a whole step.

I haven't seen anything about the vocal mic(s), drum mics, or reverb;
anyone have any clues?

--
Jay Levitt |
Wellesley, MA | Hi!
Faster: jay at jay dot eff-em | Where are we going?
http/www.jay.fm | Why am I in this handbasket?

 

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I remember seeing a CCR documentary style piece on TV back in the day. Maybe
it is around somewhere in an archive.

It was them in their studio etc.


---------------------------------------
"I know enough to know I don't know enough"

 

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Jay Levitt <jay+news@jay.fm> wrote in message news:<MPG.1bdf829070a14a91989837@news-east.giganews.com>...
> I'm doing a soundalike of CCR's Proud Mary for a production class. I
> can't find much info on the web about it, which isn't all that
> surprising; it's not a particularly standout recording. I'm wondering
> if anyone knows (or can intuit) anything about the instruments, mics,
> etc. used on it.
>
> Obviously it's in mono. I've seen one site say the guitar parts were
> recorded on a Les Paul, and another says it was a Gibson ES-175. Both
> agree it was tuned down a whole step.
>
> I haven't seen anything about the vocal mic(s), drum mics, or reverb;
> anyone have any clues?

I think it was a rickenbacker through Kustom solid state amps.
drums sound like ludwigs with the front head off the kick, snare tuned
low

the mics around were usually u67's, but the choice for some r&b voices
was the sm7 because the rough vocal style may come through as sharp
sounding on condensers.

 

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"Jay Levitt" <jay+news@jay.fm> wrote in message
news:MPG.1bdf829070a14a91989837@news-east.giganews.com...
> I'm doing a soundalike of CCR's Proud Mary for a production class. I
> can't find much info on the web about it, which isn't all that
> surprising; it's not a particularly standout recording. I'm wondering
> if anyone knows (or can intuit) anything about the instruments, mics,
> etc. used on it.

I'm pretty sure it was engineered by Russ Gary at Wally Heider's in San
Francisco. My understanding is that it was done on a 3M 8-track and was
virtually all overdubs by John Fogerty. Wally Heider's had more 57s than I'd
ever seen in one place at the same time.

--
Bob Olhsson Audio Mastery, Nashville TN
Mastering, Audio for Picture, Mix Evaluation and Quality Control
Over 40 years making people sound better than they ever imagined!
615.385.8051 http/www.hyperback.com

 

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<< Jay Levitt jay+news@jay.fm >>
<< I'm doing a soundalike of CCR's Proud Mary for a production class. I
can't find much info on the web about it, which isn't all that
surprising; it's not a particularly standout recording. I'm wondering
if anyone knows (or can intuit) anything about the instruments, mics,
etc. used on it.

Obviously it's in mono. I've seen one site say the guitar parts were
recorded on a Les Paul, and another says it was a Gibson ES-175. Both
agree it was tuned down a whole step.

I haven't seen anything about the vocal mic(s), drum mics, or reverb;
anyone have any clues? >>

According to Steve Hoffman (who has a nice little Forum, I think he
remastered "Cosmo's Factory") the first 3 albums were actually recorded by Hank
McGill, I think Russ Gary was the Mixing engineer. (Hank also recorded Vince
Guaraldi "A Boy Named Charlie Brown" "A Charlie Brown Christmas", and Wally
Heider's studio did the cartoon recordings too. Love the sound on that
cartoon.)

http/www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=398&highligh
t=creedence

Steve has also said that the audio quality on some Fantasy records
suffered from runs of bad pressings, because while people have often commented
on how bad some of their releases sounded on lp, the original masters actually
sound fabulous. You might find the remastered CCR recordings (there might even
be a SACD) more interesting to listen to.

Interesting what Bob Olhsson said about the abundance of SM57s at
Heider's. Heider's guys recorded several live albums in Hawaii in the early
70's, I still have a copy of "Waimea Music Festival" where you can see in just
about every picture Shure SM54's (same as SM53's with an internal pop filter),
and what appears to be a Telefunken Console of some kind in the truck.

Will Miho
NY Music & TV Audio Guy
Off the Morning Show! & sleepin' In... / Fox News
"The large print giveth and the small print taketh away..." Tom Waits

 

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In article <20041019222437.01575.00002823@mb-m28.aol.com>,
EggHd <egghd@aol.com> wrote:
>I remember seeing a CCR documentary style piece on TV back in the day. Maybe
>it is around somewhere in an archive.
>
>It was them in their studio etc.

I think Mix has also featured some of the CCR songs in their regular column
about older rock productions. I don't know if Proud Mary was among them, but
just seeing how any of them were done might be of some use.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."

 

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"Scott Dorsey" <kludge@panix.com> wrote in message
news:cl5ue6$kel$1@panix2.panix.com...
> In article <20041019222437.01575.00002823@mb-m28.aol.com>,
> I think Mix has also featured some of the CCR songs in their regular
column
> about older rock productions.

There was an interview with Russ Gary in RE-P.

--
Bob Olhsson Audio Mastery, Nashville TN
Mastering, Audio for Picture, Mix Evaluation and Quality Control
Over 40 years making people sound better than they ever imagined!
615.385.8051 http/www.hyperback.com

 

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On Tue, 19 Oct 2004 17:59:47 +0100, Jay Levitt wrote
(in article <MPG.1bdf829070a14a91989837@news-east.giganews.com>):

> Obviously it's in mono. I've seen one site say the guitar parts were
> recorded on a Les Paul, and another says it was a Gibson ES-175. Both
> agree it was tuned down a whole step.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The guys over on the Both Sides Now stereo discussion group seem to think
that most of the Creedence hits are actually in stereo, but some of the
tracks (like this one) just have very little separation.

My memory of checking out that song on a Tek phase scope revealed it wasn't
exactly a flat line, and did have a little teeny bit of separation here and
there. It's not synthesized stereo, but it's not mono, either.

I think Fogerty wanted the stereo record to have the same punch as the mono
single, and that was the easiest way to do it.

For more, check out the BSN discussion group:

http/www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/mb/bsnpubs

Lotta very good information there,

--MFW

 

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<< Marc Wielage mfw@musictrax.com >>

<<Jay Levitt wrote

> Obviously it's in mono. I've seen one site say the guitar parts were
> recorded on a Les Paul, and another says it was a Gibson ES-175. Both
> agree it was tuned down a whole step.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

<<The guys over on the Both Sides Now stereo discussion group seem to think
that most of the Creedence hits are actually in stereo, but some of the
tracks (like this one) just have very little separation.

My memory of checking out that song on a Tek phase scope revealed it wasn't
exactly a flat line, and did have a little teeny bit of separation here and
there. It's not synthesized stereo, but it's not mono, either.

I think Fogerty wanted the stereo record to have the same punch as the mono
single, and that was the easiest way to do it.

For more, check out the BSN discussion group:

http/www.websitetoolbox.com/tool/mb/bsnpubs

Lotta very good information there, >>

Mastering Ace Steve Hoffman says

"No, it is stereo, just *very* narrow. Same deal with Lodi, Bad Moon Rising,
and Sweet Hitch Hiker. No idea why Fogerty would have mixed those particular
songs that narrow...

Mixed just when mono was going out. Stereo mono compatibility problems worried
them, so they did the narrowest stereo mix in history."



Will Miho
NY Music & TV Audio Guy
Off the Morning Show! & sleepin' In... / Fox News
"The large print giveth and the small print taketh away..." Tom Waits

 

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"Marc Wielage" <mfw@musictrax.com> wrote:
>
> [...] My memory of checking out that song on a Tek
> phase scope revealed it wasn't exactly a flat line,
> and did have a little teeny bit of separation here and
> there.


That doesn't necessarily mean anything. I have a Tek sitting on top of
the console, and I get some L-R even on individual mics feeding the
master buss directly. I suspect it has to do with the small amounts of
crosstalk present in any stereo analog signal chain.

--
"It CAN'T be too loud... some of the red lights aren't even on yet!"
- Lorin David Schultz
in the control room
making even bad news sound good

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