EDDIE KRAMER KRAMER Communication
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ISSUE #38 MMUSICMAG.COM ISSUE #38 MMUSICMAG.COM PRODUCER Tell us about your creative process. world, I urge bands to buy their own tape. It starts when I first hear a song. Usually, You can keep reusing it. I’ve done an entire these days, a band sends a digital file of a album on one reel. The moment you cut your rough track. If I like a song, I start prepping track, you can dump it into Pro Tools, wipe it over the phone with the artist, and get into it, and use it again. It’s an investment. Even the studio to rehearse. Then the real work if it costs you $250 for a reel, that’s nearly begins of tearing a song apart, rebuilding what a hard drive would cost, and you can it, and ensuring the singer or songwriter’s keep using it—not ad infinitum, but for a while. desires and message gets across. I want to help translate what he or she is thinking into If the Beatles, Zeppelin or Hendrix reality, so that when the audience hears it, Buddy Guy were recording now, how would they they go, “Wow, that’s cool.” I want listeners to use Pro Tools? love the way a song sounds, love the way the to fix every damn thing. It’s the antithesis I imagine they would do what I’m doing— vocalist is singing. I want to capture emotion. of what rock is all about. Listen to great record analog and dump it into Pro Tools. I don’t want any song to be a stiff, by-the- records—Zeppelin, Hendrix, the Stones, the [Jimmy] Page grew up on analog, like I did. numbers kind of thing. Beatles, I don’t care. You should hear the They would marry the two worlds. crap going on in there! Things are out of How do you make that happen? tune, out of time, and there’s no click-track. How did you capture Hendrix’s guitar? I love tracking live, with all the musicians But music has to breathe—it’s a living thing. If you go back to the ’60s, there was a recording at the same time. You get specific mic that I liked, the Beyerdynamic such a remarkable flow of energy and Prefer digital or analog? M160—a ribbon mic. That’s probably one We could get into a day’s discussion on that. reason his guitar sounded the way it did. The upshot is that over the last 10 years But there are so many factors that you I’ve figured out how to combine the best of can’t just say it’s the microphone. It’s Jimi’s analog with the best of digital. It’s sort of technique—the way he played was unusual. a handshake between the two. (laughs) It It’s the amp, an original Marshall. Then you probably started with the Hendrix material, have the sound of the room, the console, which I’ve done a lot of work on in terms of EQ, mic preamps, compression. Add up all restoration. We always have to be extremely those factors and you get magic. careful to preserve the original analog sound. So I figured out how to do that in the digital Have a clue he’d become a superstar? world, and applied it to the way I record bands. No, because the biggest things I was focused on were making sure Jimi was happy How? and getting sounds he hadn’t heard before— I record to analog tape and then transfer which I think we did. He was always very Anthrax everything into the digital realm with a happy with the sounds I got. When you’re EDDIEEDDIE KRAMER KRAMER communication. But to do that you have specific type of analog-to-digital converter in the moment like that, that’s what you’re TheThe legendary legendary producer producer recalls recalls creating creating some some of of rock’s rock’s greatest greatest recordings recordings to find a band that can actually play, and a made by Burl. It’s allowed me to work on the concerned with—and also keeping your job. singer who’s not going to be a quarter-note music digitally without losing the cool analog You’re not worried about much else. ByBy Michael Michael Gallant Gallant sharp the whole time. sound. I continue to work in the digital world until we mix. Then I mix back to analog again. How did you get those sounds? EDDIE KRAMER IS A ROCK ICON. THE SHEER NUMBER Yet his most defining and lasting relationships have been with Is that hard to come by? It was always a challenge because Jimi was of superstars whose music he’s shaped is stunning—from the Led Zeppelin, Kiss—and Jimi Hendrix. Kramer recorded all four of It is! When I found American Fiction, my first Is analog tape hard to find? constantly futzing around with his amp and Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin to Buddy Guy, Anthrax the legendary guitarist’s pioneering albums Are You Experienced?, reaction was, “Man, what a great singer,” and Not that difficult. Just place your order well guitar. He was a master of tone control. He and Carly Simon. “I’m still standing and still making records,” the Axis: Bold as Love, Electric Ladyland and Band of Gypsys, as well the rest of the guys are fantastic musicians in advance. If you’re working in the analog knew what his guitar and pedals could do 72-year-old says with a laugh. as many posthumous albums. He also helped design and manage as well. It makes such a difference. How Born in South Africa, Kramer studied classical piano before the famed Electric Lady Studios in New York City. many times did I pitch-correct vocals? making his way to London in the early 1960s. After landing a job Kramer credits his success to his eclectic passion. “I’ve Maybe once or twice, just a tiny bit. But at Pye Studios, he worked with the Kinks, Petula Clark and Sammy recorded everything from symphony orchestras to film music to 99.9 percent of the time, the guy is just Davis Jr. By the end of the decade, Kramer’s engineering resume jingles. I enjoy everything. As long as it’s good, I’m into it.” singing in tune—which means it’s real. I will included the Stones’ Beggars Banquet and the Beatles’ hits The Renaissance man is also a noted gear developer, always leave something that’s a little off in “All You Need Is Love” and “Baby, You’re a Rich Man.” photographer and author, who’s currently compiling the photography Pro Tools. Is the singer communicating with In the summer of 1969, Kramer was tapped to record the book From the Other Side of the Glass. He also takes on new me, and the audience, from an emotional Woodstock festival for the film Woodstock and the album Woodstock: acts—his latest is Memphis rock band American Fiction. “I’m always standpoint? Is he getting the message of Music From the Original Soundtrack and More. “Woodstock was three getting flooded with requests,” says Kramer, “but the moment I heard the lyrics across? I’d rather take that than days of drugs and hell,” he recalls. Perhaps so—but the event cemented them, I realized that there was something really good going on here.” just a series of perfect notes. Kramer’s reputation as the era’s preeminent live rock producer. American Fiction recently released their debut album, Dumb Luck. Brian Petersen, Eddie Kramer; Josh Cheuse, Buddy Guy; Andy Buchanan, Anthrax Josh Cheuse, Buddy Guy; Andy Buchanan, Eddie Kramer; Brian Petersen, Brian Petersen, Eddie Kramer; Josh Cheuse, Buddy Guy; Andy Buchanan, Anthrax Josh Cheuse, Buddy Guy; Andy Buchanan, Eddie Kramer; Brian Petersen, So imperfections can be good. We’re in an age where Pro Tools can do ‘I love tracking live. You get such a remarkable flow of so many things, but it’s also destructive. Producers and engineers are now trained energy and communication.’ Rolling Stones 50 51 M mag 38.indd 50 3/16/15 1:11 AM M mag 38.indd 51 3/16/15 1:11 AM ISSUE #38 MMUSICMAG.COM ISSUE #38 MMUSICMAG.COM PRODUCER Jimi Hendrix Chuando & Frey ‘Producers and engineers are now trained to fix every damn thing. It’s the antithesis of what rock is all about.’ Kiss for him. Inherently, the sound we got was the best out of the artist and his amp and ribbons, for example. The approach to mixing governed by what he created in the studio. realize what he’s trying to do. Obviously as well was completely new and required a Estrada, Kiss Kevin Once that was together, it was possible they’re going to sound different but it’s all different sensibility. The music needed more to expand the horizon by using the limited sound, after all. It’s not rocket science. compression and was much more over the resources we had in those days, which A microphone goes in front of a speaker top. The ’80s was a very interesting time—I was pretty much nothing. (laughs) We had cabinet, through a mic pre, into some EQ try to forget the ’80s. EQ, compression, reverb, backwards tape, and stuff—and away you go. There’s flanging, phasing. If you’ve enhanced the nothing really mysterious about it. I want to How did you approach recording sound to the point where the artist comes debunk the myths.