Sound City Page #2

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something different about the

sound of this board.

And then of course, everybody -

"Oh, my god, it's a Neve board,"

I'll never forget them saying.

A recording console is like

the center of the spaceship.

If you're gonna fly to Mars, you

got to have something with all

the master controls.

It looks like, you know, the

Enterprise on steroids, from a

long time ago.

A desk that's like a giant

stereo, except instead of doing

bass, middle, and treble, it's,

like, you can do that on each

drum, you know, each mike, each

thing.

All the microphones in the

studio are routed into that

console.

From there, you can change E.Q.,

add effects, change the levels.

And that goes into the tape

machine, where it's recorded.

This board, if you put a

fader up and turn the mike pre

up, and somebody hits a tom-tom

or a snare drum, it sounds

great.

It sounds wide-open. It sounds huge.

If you turn the mike pre up too

loud and it distorts, it still

sounds great.

That's analog.

It's how it sounds.

Especially Neve's, you know.

I mean, everything is just better.

The human voice sounds better.

When you got harmonies going

together, they kind of meld

together.

You come on with a come-on

You don't fight fair

The Neve console really

embellishes things in the

context of rock 'n' roll.

It's good on drums.

It's good on bass.

It's good on guitars.

It's the facilitator.

It's a pretty badass console.

Hit me with your best

shot

It's unlike any other Neve

console that I have ever worked

on, and I've been lucky enough

to work on a ton of them now.

It would always be the

greatest-sounding desk I've ever

tracked on.

There is a large number of

modules about which look the

same, but which are marginally

different.

The circuit was a microphone

amplifier circuit.

Cross-talk between circuits and

between buses was absolutely

paramount.

The way that transformer behaves

with DC flowing in it can vary

according to the material of the

core and the gapping of the

core.

If those things are properly

controlled, you get a very sweet

sound.

Rupert Neve is a f***ing

genius.

At the time, that Neve

console cost $76,000.

To give you an example, I'd just

bought a house in Toluca Lake,

and I paid $38,000 for the

house.

My wife would've killed me if

she'd known I was doing that.

I thought, "If this place ever

goes under, that's the thing

that will pay all the debts".

The first track we cut on

this was "Crying in the Night"

with Buckingham Nicks.

Very first thing done on that

was that session.

That's how it started.

She was that kind of lady

Times were hard, whoa

We signed them to a

production deal.

They write their own songs.

So all we'd provide would be the

studio, the engineer, and the

tape.

Tom Skeeter and Joe Gottfried

were almost like parental figures to us.

But Keith's the one who got us

out to Sound City.

Crying in the night

She's back in town

When we first moved to L.A., we

didn't have a place.

We stayed at Keith's house.

They're starving and they're

broke.

Lindsey was painting, and Stevie

was cleaning Keith Olsen's

house.

I'd walk through with my

broom, and, you know, Keith

would go, like, "That's the

maid".

And I'd be like...

"I'm not gonna be the maid for

long, just so you know.

Just so y'all know".

But she'll leave you

Cryin' in the night

She will leave you

Cryin' in the night, whoa

It was obvious that Lindsey

and Stevie were really special.

Buckingham Nicks came out in

'73 to great critical acclaim

and then got dropped by Polydor.

The record label dropped

them, so they didn't have a

record deal.

So they were just hanging around

here.

She's a come-on lady

It was like our home.

It was like our home away from

home.

I was living in

Laurel Canyon, and I went to the

country store, which is exactly

the same now.

And someone I vaguely knew

was there.

He said, "Well, what are you up to?"

I said, "Well, I'm actually in

town to find a studio and cost

it out and see if we can afford it".

And he goes, "I'm just the guy".

This rock 'n' roll guy came

to us one day, and he said, "You

know, I hang out with all these

rock bands, and I go to the

clubs and all that.

If I can bring a band in here,

will you give me 10%?"

We said, "All day long.

Bring them in".

Mick Fleetwood came in to see

the studio.

I played him a couple of

tracks from Stevie and Lindsey.

Stevie and I were in

studio "B", in the back.

And I took a break, and I

wandered out.

And I hear our song,

"Frozen Love," coming out of

studio "A".

I open the door, and here's this 6'6"

guy just - just grooving on the solo.

And I'm going, "Who is that?"

I met Lindsey literally in

passing.

And I went off,

not even thinking anything other than,

"I've heard some good music that

was made in the studio that I'm

gonna use".

We made a deal to do

Fleetwood Mac's next album at

Sound City.

Joe was thrilled - "God, we're

gonna make our payments!"

Everything was good.

Fleetwood Mac had had

a few albums with Peter Green in

England that had been

successful.

Then after Peter left,

Bob Welch, who then joined the

band, was more of a jazz

guitarist.

Mick called me.

"Bob Welch just left the band".

I phoned Keith Olsen.

I said, "You know the tape that

you played?

Tell me, we're looking for a

guitar player".

And Keith's like, "Well,

there is a problem there,

because you will never get him

without taking her".

He's gonna have to take my

girlfriend, too.

And that was the beginning of

it.

We joined the band the first

day of 1975.

And then we go straight to

Sound City.

The first days in the studio

were just amazing.

Really exciting, completely

fresh, because Christine,

John McVie, and myself came from

a whole different sensibility

musically, really.

Rhiannon rings like a bell

through the night

And wouldn't you love to love

her

John McVie said to me, "You

know, we're a blues band.

This is really far away from the

blues".

And I said, "I know, but it's a

lot closer to the bank".

All your life you've never

seen a woman taken by the wind

It became pretty clear right

away how this all fit together.

And that isn't just musically.

It's just as people.

Something is translated, and

it is real and it is profound.

Just, in truth, out of

necessity.

It's powerful.

It's like true love.

Absolutely.

But what if that Neve board

hadn't have been there?

The main reason it was

important was so that we got a

fantastic drum track.

It's the drum sound.

Let's start there, 'cause it's

something we all love.

The drums and the feel of a song

are like the heartbeat of the song.

It can be the backbone of the

song.

It can be the foundation of the

song.

So that's the first thing you

do.

You set up your kit, and you

start putting up your

microphones.

A room like this has a really

nice decay.

So, you put mikes around the

room to capture that.

You put close mikes on the

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