Recording Vanilla Fudge Vocalist Mark Stein at Power Station Studios

For the past two weeks I’ve had the honor of working with one of music’s greats, Mark Stein. His group, Vanilla Fudge, made history with their version of the Supremes song “You Keep Me Hanging On”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vanilla_Fudge

Recording Mark and his group in the studio makes me realize how folks like him became music icons: Every note that comes out of his body is pure rock and roll dynamite! Energy, optimism and professionalism are ever present during the sessions, and that has translated into a truly great recording!

The band played live in the studio with Mark playing a 1960’s era Hammond B3 with the Leslie tone cabinet in the vocal booth. I recorded it with two Shure Beta 56’s at 90 degrees for the top rotor and a AKG D12 for the bottom speaker. The two top microphones went through our new Amek Recall’s preamps while the D12 went through our DW Fern mic pre and a Motown eq for a huge tone.
The guitarist, Jimi Fiano, recorded through our souped up 50 watt Marshall JCM 800 with the cabinet (4×12 vintage greenback speakers) in an isolation booth. The cabinet was recorded with a Shure SM57 through a Neve 1085 preamp/eq module.
The bass player, Steve Argy, recorded direct through our Avalon direct box directly into ProTools (we use Apogee DA/AD 16Xs for our TDM system).
The drummer, Jimmyjack, brought in his beautiful maple DW kit that we set up in our big live room. I used the AKG D112 he had mounted inside his bass drum for the close sound (through the Fern and Motown eq) and a Blue Dragonfly for the far mic (console). His Ludwig snare was recorded with a Shure SM7 through another Neve 1085 module. For the toms I chose Shure Beta 56’s (the hyper cardioid pattern works well with our room) with a AKG D112 for the floor tom. The cymbals were captured with a pair of AKG 414’s (silver face) and the room with our AEA stereo ribbon mic.

These recordings will be part of the soundtrack for a new documentary called Rockin’ the Wall by writer Larry Schweikart and producer Marc Lief.  Check it out.