Can We Recreate The Motown Sound? | Reverb
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- Опубликовано: 7 июл 2024
- Read more and hear our mono and stereo mixes: bit.ly/2mUvr4g
More from Rax Trax Recording Studios: bit.ly/2mt4O6q
Download Motown Drum Samples on Reverb: bit.ly/2ot8BRM
What makes Motown sound like Motown? Will Kurk and Joe Shadid take a trip to Rax Trax Recording studios to explore the musical must-haves of the beloved Motown sound...and find out whether we can emulate the feel with a band of incredible session players and a Hitsville dream.
Film Production: John Gagen and Michael Lux
Directed by Michael Lux
Edited by John Gagen
Meet The Band:
Vocalists: Slique Jay Adams, Cherise Thomas, Malone Muzik, Sam Trump
Bass: Mendell Beckford
Guitarists: Neal Alger, Joe Shadid
Piano: William Kurk
Violins: Caitlin Edwards, Edith Yokley
Viola: Dominic Johnson
Trumpet: Corey Wilkes
Saxophone: Marqueal Jordan
Drum Kit: Leonard Maddox, Jr., Chuck Lacy
Tamborine: Mike Logan, Jr.
Bells: Stephen Lynerd
Timestamps:
Intro - 0:00
Opening - 0:45
The Studio - 2:18
Drums & Percussion - 5:13
Piano & Keyboards - 7:51
Bass Guitar - 9:12
Electric Guitar - 10:07
Strings, Horns & Overdubs - 11:00
Vocals - 12:35
Mixing - 15:00
Performance: "My Girl" - 18:00
Performance: "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" - 21:05 
Развлечения
This is like porn for audio engineers. Love it
this was absolutely amazing
Kris B YES YES YES. We need more content for us engineers to watchh
I appreciate the effort and sound, however I have no idea what anyone is talking about technically.
I love porn
hahahahahahahaha i know exactly what you mean, i almost came too
DAMN that male vocalist for "Aint No Mountain High Enough" absolutely killed it!
I agree. He completely captured Marvin's sound. I wonder how they found these musicians?
true, I think the female couldn't quite hang (even though she was good too)
Sounded more like Michael Jackson to me
@@proverbalizer I agree. There is only one Tammy. She had a very unique tone.
Chicago's Own @Slique Jay Adams Music on RUclips!
I recorded some Motown material in LA in the late 70's. Your effort got close. One thing that we did that you guys aren't doing is using a 4 track machine with vso (variable speed to get correct slap time) for tape slap. And using main channel input modules to return the slap tracks so that the delay can be sent to the live chamber. By using main input channels for returns it allows the ability to re enter the delay dry and wet. This was the same method used to create the Phil Spector 'Wall of Sound'
I don't know what you just said. But love that you said it. If they do a second attempt to recreate the motown sound i hope they read what you wrote.
which makes sound 'deeper/larger/wider'
As a person who wasn't even born yet in 70s, I was always fascinated by amount of effort and actual physics/math knowledge audio engineers put into their work back in the day. Most of modern “mixing engineers” who rely on distortions layered on top of 5 more layers of distortion (hi, Nolly!) are just a fucking joke.
Great inside info. I remember many years ago watching a special on music from my era and all the other record labels were going crazy trying to figure out how mo town made that distinctive sound that was key to their success.
@Reid James which songs? I'm genuinely curious I haven't looked much into the history of the wall of sound
The vocalists are out of this world, hats off to everyone here damn.
Yes I was just thinking my god, those vocals. So well done.
fr incredible
Great job.... found good people!!
IMHO they over sang it. Too much pitch variation.
@@josephbania4564yeah they had some flare that screamed 2020’s to me and was the real thing that made it sound inaccurate. Just my thoughts, worthless.
The Funk Brothers might be the most underrated group of musicians of all time.
We're they chosen to play on number one hits yep! So how were they underrated tell one of the band members they were underrated im sure they would feel insulted I think some times we used that word in the wrong context
These "most underrated" comments are getting old.
Or overrated.
not might be,...they are the KINGS of pop/rand b
I met all the funk brothers 2006 and we were talking for hours sittin in a hotel Lobby in Germany. It will never get. Great guys!
I'd love to see Reverb recreate Phil Spector's Wall of Sound.
Would love to see that! 12 channels into three-track. And all the players at once.
Definitely!!!! just keep any firearms under lock and key!!!
YES, PLEASE!!
Yes PLEASE
Darlene Love used to perform the Phil Spector classic "Christmas (Baby, Please Come Home)" every year on the David Letterman Show and over the years Paul Schaeffer tried to get as close to the original Phil Spector arrangement as possible. There are several versions available on RUclips. I think my favorite is from 2013: ruclips.net/video/XH1h_A0vJD8/видео.html One thing I like even more than the original is the ending of the song (the original recording just faded out) Just LOOK at all them musicians! And try to imagine them all in one recording studio...
As an engineer, I recorded hundreds of sessions for Motown with Hal Davis, Mark Gordon, and Barry Gordy from 1975 to about 1985. Temptations, Supremes, Smokey Robison, Thelma Houston. Your very close with your comparison! Very dead rooms, very deadened drums, very little compression. Good job!
That's awesome - thanks for sharing!
Hi! WOuld love to chat and learn more about your experiences as I am working on a project on the sound of those times
I love how everyone is just vibing on their instruments without overdoing it
Professionalism
I'm most impressed with how the drums came out. They're pretty much perfect.
They were a little too crisp, and the reverb wasn't accurate, but I still love the sound they got here.
That distorted ‘My Girl ‘ snare is so distinctive. Really makes the period sound.
They never mentioned compression but I always wondered about that on Motown... @Reverb, was there no compression on any of the 3 drum mics? Where's all the distortion coming from on them? the tape?
memespace yep, I think that was a really distinctive part of the sound too. The drums weren’t as in your face with their sounds, you couldn’t hear ever hi hat and ride hit. If you could hear the verb on the drums, like the intro to Ain’t no Mountain it was all because of the composition and everything else being out of the way.
@@inthefade I think he was laying it in too thick with the ghost notes. Original drummers just whacked it straight on on the two...
God damn. Hats off to EVERYONE. The presenters, the researchers, the engineers, and of course, those impossibly on-point session players. Incredible effort.
Yes, yes, and yes! Wow, all consummate professionals!
That's why I keep coming back to this video.
"Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for God will not hold him guiltless that takes His name in vain." See Exodus Chapter 20 and Verse 7 in the Bible. God is not damned. He is your Creator and God.
Please don't blaspheme the Lord's name in vain.....
The two guys clicking fingers right through the whole song is the most important part of making this remake believable.
14:17 That over-peak tape distortion is part of the Motown sound. Drums and vocals were particularly prone to peak out on those records, and it sounded so hot! It added a live quality to the recordings instead of the sterility of staying within protocol.
Bass and guitars were always clear & pure, though. Total opposite of rock & roll.
What a great observation makes so much sense. The 70s classic rock drumsounds of John bonham, Ian Paice, Roger Taylor, Appice Bros, etc etc was huge, big kits, huge bass drums, toms, snares and cymbals hit very hard with advanced mic setups, but very rarely going into distortion. Versus the Motown technique which is the complete opposite ie a small kit, baffled & taped up played relatively softly with limited mics used but hitting the tape machine hard into distortion. But the sound was huge, sounded so good on these recordings. So much talent all round. All produced from a small house/building in Detroit incredible!
@@moosic2i All those in-house ensembles back then were brilliant including The Wrecking Crew and The Swampers. But there was definitely something unique and magical about The Funk Bros and Motown.
THIS IS THE CONTENT WE WANT REVERB!
I'm a 70 year old guy who always wondered how Motown got their unique sound. Thanks for this fascinating video...
Minalover100 I’m 21 and Motown also always amazes me. Their sound is timeless.
@@akaye643 Yes, they were amazing. But seeing them "live" during the 1960's was worth more than gold, IMHO
Do you know the great documentary "Standing in the shadows of Motown"? If not, please check it out. You'll really like it, mate! :)
@@Schmidthorst69 No, I haven't but thanks for the info...
@@Minalover100 ruclips.net/video/--1Rbo3EWhM/видео.html
Also worthy of mention are the brilliant arrangements. The way instruments drop in and out, the peculiar way the strings play unexpected and unorthodox notes, the synchronized runs with piano, bass and percussion, the key modulations and the way the song moves from one section to another. So much going on.
The thing is, arrangement gives you much more of the overall sound than mixing does. If your song is just one guitar, bass, drums and vocals, and it's a generic verse-chorus type of thing, you aren't gonna make it sound any interesting no matter how hard you try, because there's not much going on in music. You won't believe amounts of “hidden” synth parts in, say, Def Leppard officially released music. If you take these out of the mix, Def Leppard sounds like your sloppy local hard rock band, which it would remain forever if they didn't have money for promotion and producers who made these arrangements for them.
Yes, arrangement of Ain’t no mountain was spot on. But my girl wasn’t as good. IMO.
Exactly
Totally agree. I'd like to know who did all the arrangements? Because they're brilliant.
Really glad i stumbled on this. That Motown sound is so special. Thank you
U r special
Thank u
It's the Detroit sound. Soul with a latin rhythm. See fortune records for the predecessor. The radio doesn't play those other songs. Barry and Smokey know.
This is the best episode y'all ever uploaded.
Word! And here's to hoping that we can add a 'yet' to that. Reverb is doing such good work for the musicians' community, I can't wait to see what other great stuff they've got cooking right now.
BY FAR
By far
Writing a new tune that sticks for 50 years would be a cool trick too.
it's been done, we just have to wait to get it to stick, then revice it. many of those. could give you a top10 forevermore songs from the 1990s and 2000s. It's there, just fake musicstations doing they thing. Pushing crack when we only crave weed.
Meet you back here on August 22, 2040 on the 50th anniversary of the release of “Ice Ice Baby” to discuss why people are still singing it.
@@mtweaver1978 True, it is a good tune. Good beat, it will stand the test of time, and I do not like much of that rapstuff. But there are a few of those raptunes that will last forever, the tupac, that I got five on it song, and some of the bone thugs n harmony stuff.
Oh they will stick, but unfortunately for the wrong reasons :/
The only modern song that got close to that motown sound for me is Jazzanova's I can see. I would have believed it if you'd told me it had been recorded in the 60s.
Regardless of how close you got or didn't get to recreating the original sound, this was a super fun video to watch, and I don't mind telling you it moved me to tears in a few places. What a magical time it was, and this white, suburban teenage kid was as profoundly moved by Motown, and really, all the music of that era, as anyone could possibly be. It resonates through my soul to this day. This music is timeless, regardless of who is playing it.
I'm primarily a metal musician, and I don't have a lot of access to vintage gear (working with digital production), but I think Motown soul is the greatest and most glorious genre of pop music that ever was and as a challenge one day I'm going to try to make a Motown-sounding song using these insights. Thank you, Reverb!
"Ain't No Mountain High Enough" was nailed.
All session players were amazing and the singers were out of this world, jaws dropped!!
agreed, terrific female singer!
@Ray Adams Marvin and Tammy definitely had some other audible and inaudible tension going on when they recorded which translated very well. Man I can't get over the brass section in this video, it was just so spot on! Let me listen to it again brb
Oh I'm wowing the vocalists here,this is how to sing.
Seriously, great voice.
SING being the operative word!
That bit of distortion totally sells it as the real deal.
WOW....You don’t hear vocals like this everyday.....
Yes and no stinking autotune to ruin it! Unlike everything else you hear today where everybody wants to sound like robots for some reason.
The Motown sound was such a historic studio. The music that was created will be immortalized forever. Great tunes with great musicians!
Doesn't matter when, where or how "Ain't no mountain high enough" it always gives me goosebumps.
Look at the session musicians. They can't help but smile.
I think it is totally priceless. I am a session keyboardist and I do the same.
It's just because they ENJOY what they' re doing.
A dream gig for sure, must admit I am envious!
Looks like I'm selling my amp and and buying some sponges
LOL!
#spongelyf
And a $400 DI box
@@micro2cool ya feel
Shh don't tell
This brought tears to my eyes. I grew up with Motown in Detroit, and you captured the feeling and did it justice. Thank you!
When I first started working in small studios back in 79 I was taught how to record and mix from a gentleman that used these same techniques and equipment. It worked for him so he stuck with them. After several years of it being dated and not cool I suddenly get called for gigs. It appease the same techniques work for me as well. God bless the people that helped feed so many of our families
Anyone else get a tingly feeling during “Ain’t no mountain high enough”? Like my whole spine went all tingly and I felt it radiating to all my limbs, then a huge emotional moment came over me. So much awe. Man, that sound was solid!
Neil, listen to the instrumental... Pure heaven.
That's called ASMR, my dude.
Absolutely agree
It hit me, too
you could tell how every musician in the room was in perfect unity with it. they all knew that what they were making sounded amazing.
Glad to see younger musicians taking such an active interest in learning how great records were made in the past. Keep hope alive!!
Amen, brother!
Amen Brother is the name of the track, Drum and Bass music sampled the drum break from.
Absolutely
Don’t act surprised, my dude
I wanna be a singer and bring back the sound of soul and Motown, music is trash nowadays
"James, you gotta get youself a 'lectric bass." And history would forever change. Am I right?
For the drums, basically a jazz kit tuned like a jazz kit and straight grooves played on it.
I am a life-long Motown nut. When I was a kid in the sixties, I got a transistor radio for my birthday to listen to the Motown sound. I joined the Radio Shack battery club to keep the tunes coming. I now play bass and practice those tunes. This video gave me chills! Thank you.
I actually cried a little bit watching this. You can feel the love and musicianship in every step of the process. Well done, guys, you are the best music channel I've ever seen and I've seen A LOT.
Me TOO!
Biofá por aqui!!
@@victorkaoru298 como não!!! ✌️✌️✌️
Wow so did I! Chills then tears!
Someone needs prozac.
This was excellent! This would be an awesome series but I can't imagine the work that went into making this.
It's not work when it's that much fun. Thanks for watching!
and money
@@Reverb The looks of concentration on all the musicians said it all. Wow that looks so fun indeed!!! You'll never forget that.
@@Reverb I caught this vid 11 hours after upload, and there were already 293 happy, heartfelt comments. I read all of them and clicked "thumbs up" again and again. It's hard to find enough superlatives.
@@Reverb In that case, I formally request a video similar to this on Abbey Road Studios during the Beatles' tenure.
21:10 Goose bumps@“Ain’t no mountain high enough". E P I C
Absolutely a very good recreation of that "Motown Sound". As a live sound engineer I appreciate the details shared in the studio mix process. I'd love to hear that sound recreated live! Good Job folks.
Motown is just great
YOG
Don't know exactly why, but I got emotional when all pieces glued together. Maybe music is the only thing helping me keep sanity it this distopic world. Terrific video, guys. Thank you for that.
I know the feeling brother. I'm re-experiencing music, songs I've always known but feel so much deeper today.
I think you were feeling what the band was feeling. I felt it too.
It got me too dude. the chorus was almost identical! And you can really tell everyone was having fun playing this one.
Music: healing medicine for the soul
That big boomin' Motown sound just grabs me every time!
I like how all the mics are thousands of dollars and then you got the $60 sm57 on the snare and it still holds its own against the rest.
a lot of them seem to have a high price due to age
@@DanielBoa7 Yes, they weren't that price then. You could buy a house for that price in the 60's.
TheTrebulator Even adjusted for inflation Neumann’s, Telefunken, an EMT plate, tape machines were still expensive and more money than what any garage musician at the time could or would’ve spent on the average.
They just happen to be still making them and they made millions of them, so they will not be jacked up in price but money aside they are valuable tools and the right mic for certain things. The human voice, the piano and horns are more nuanced and condenser and ribbon mics were and still hard to make properly.
low tech best tech...
They are so good! WOW! This style needs to come back even if just for a while, pure talent!
You made me cry! I was born in Detroit in 1948, and I grew up with MOTOWN! The home for soul in Detroit at the the time was WCHB! This tribute is so beautiful! I can hear Smokey and I can hear Marvin, the J-5, with Michael (he was so young!) and Stevie... I would listen to WKNR for rock, Beatles, Stones etc, and WCHB for Motown! One of the reasons I became a musician, singer songwriter and mix engineer was due to those wonderful songs created at Hitsville and Mr. Gordy. I recently got the Universal Audio Hitsville collection, and I love them. Again thank you....
wow, its so close the original
Someone take this setup, make a brand spanking original album with it 😄
Have you ever heard of Mayer Hawthorne? He's been basically doing that.. his music is a nod to that era and he pays mind to the recording techniques used to attempt a similar recreation of the sound. When I first heard songs off the album (that I'll link) I thought it was some old stuff that somehow slipped under my radar for a minute :) Peace! ruclips.net/video/7eDo3LZsr1k/видео.html
@@BIG_PASTA While JD MacPherson doesn't sound quite like this, he really gets some of that old timey sound quality. I'd recommend him too. I'll check out Mayer Hawthorne. Thanks for the recommendation!
...also: try listening to the Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio. Sure, it's not Motown (and so far, strictly instrumental) but I think it shares a lot of that vibe ... and adds a little funk here and there.
...and how could I forget 'The True Loves'!? - they're kinda like the big band version of Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio. Definitely worth giving a shot, too!
@@kicksnarehats11 Hey!! Thanks for the suggestion! I've been digging Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio for a few months and was looking for something similar =)))
This is honestly the best thing I've ever seen. Please continue this series - what a privilege to watch such a talented bunch of musicians so faithfully recreate and capture the magic of such an iconic musical era!
This would be such a cool series of these amazing musicians/engineers recreating iconic studio sounds.
@@kaydenbush Absolutely would - I'd tune in, non-stop!
@@kaydenbush agreed but not being an audio engineer there might be genres i would pass on :-)
Totally agree. Like the Andertons sounds like guitar feature but for audio heads. This is fabulous
I've been listening to those songs since I was a very small child. That's probably about as close as anybody could get to duplicating it.
It really sounds amazing.
Analog lives and breathes, and just fiils the whole room and the inside of your head.
this is wayyyyyyyyyyyyy underrated, it makes me kinda sad. what an effort, amazing job!
When you take the tour of Hitsville in Detroit they show you the attic space where they had a reverb chamber. When you snap your fingers or clap your hands in the reverb chamber ala “Baby Love” or “ My Girl” you realized how much it played a role in the sound.
would love to see that building some day
MrJoeydrms I just did that in Feb! So iconic
I grew up in Detroit (born in 1960) and then later I toured the Hitsville studio (I think) in 1990 or 91. It wasn't a museum in the sense that it is today (lucky me). Michael Jackson's glove was on a mannequin hand on a table out in the open. Anyway, I got a tour and the guide boosted me up into the attic where the reverb was. The walls, floor, and ceiling of the attic were covered in sheet metal--actual "plate" reverb. There would have been a speaker and a microphone up there in that attic. The sound would come out of the speaker, bounce around off all the sheet metal, then go into the microphone and back down to the tape machine in the control room. It was primitive by today's standards but that's how they go the sound we grew up on and still love.
Universal Audio needs to model that chamber, next!
I was there in the middle of September, and you are 100% right. Such a great experience. I recommend anyone who is a fan of any variation of music to visit.
The Motown Sound was pure magic. One of the ingredients is REAL MUSICIANSHIP, No Pro-Tools, No Pitch correct, everything was organic and real.
but then the us used 8 tracks from the end of the 50"s the beatles made sgt peppers when they got 4 tracks
@@minstrelofMir Yes, of course, however, it had a different vibe and feel. I'm from Detroit, 50 year old musician who loves that sound.
@@edwindantes539 They were fake, they overdubbed vocals, also the tape saturation made the voices sound warmer. REAL MUSICIANSHIP doesn't need machines.
@@sinane.y All of the top albums, no matter how fake/overdubbed/saturated required real musicianship. Studio recording allows you to do things you just can't do live though. Some music is just better heard recorded than live, and I'm perfectly ok with that.
@@thenewmedic and Pro Tools means there is no real musicianship? lol
The string section sounds both vibrant and silky, again absolute bomb studio performances. - wow!
Thank you for this. I'm a bassist and of course, James Jamerson is my favorite. Bob Babbitt was also great. But anyway, I can listen to Motown music all day non-stop. So this is much appreciated.
Intro 0:00
Opening 0:45
The Studio 2:18
Drums and Percussion 5:13
Piano & Keyboards 7:51
Bass Guitar 9:12
Electric Guitar 10:07
Strings, Horns & Overdubs 11:00
Vocals 12:35
Mixing 15:00
My Girl 18:00
Ain't No Mountain High Enough 21:05
That was mighty! No guitar amps.........no bass amp. Who would have guessed
Terry O'Malley it’s correct in some of these instances, but not always true. It is well known that Jamerson had a B15 in many sessions. Sessions like “ain’t no mountain high”, though, were done DI’d. Cool little tidbit.
"But...but...muh toob amp!" I cried out. Then again, if I gotta do all this and spend that kind of money to sound like that, well, I'll keep muh toob amp. lol
As a recording and mix engineer, this was incredible to watch. I've been to Hitsville USA and this sits right up there with that experience. Thanks for the effort, time and people that made this possible!
I loved every minute of this. Superb performances at the end. Thank you.
How to recreate Motown strings
1) Get 16 string players
2) 14 strings play the melody in unision
3) 2 strings play octave lower in unison
Outstanding sound and truly herculean effort to pull it off.
When I was a kid we would drive by the studio sometimes. I always looked to see if anyone recognizable was out front.
Ever since this video got released it has become one of my favourite vids on youtube in general.
Such an awesome idea, and an amazing execution! Love it.
It’s like they took make the Motown sound and made it truly Hifi, truly and utterly impressed
I think the recreation sounds more "Hifi" for various reasons: 1) vinyl as a final medium adds another element to the sound which is missing here, 2) the original record was released as a mono record, not stereo, 3) this is not a fully analog recording and processing chain. Some of the processing (eg reverbation, eqing) was done in the digital realm with some of the analog fluctuations, noise and quirks missing. The guys over at Daptone Records do actually have a fully analog recording and mixing chain!!
@@dissdad8744 it's mainly the HF rolloff what is not there
This should be a 2 hour documentary!!
These vocalist were all incredible. big respect
Great job, damn near perfect. I feel so lucky I had all this coming up through my youth, it helped me so much, I cannot thank these guys enough for all their music.
I think more important than how accurate you got is the ethic you've shown. When I saw "standing in the shadow of motown" 13 years ago, it changed the way I thought about how songs were recorded. I started to realize that it's the feel that's important, not how perfect a tone was or how antiseptically clean a take was. Modern recording can be so focused on achieving (and often mechanizing or simulating) perfection that it misses what made songs great: Raw Talent and Humanity. When I limit myself, I find I play better and more seriously, I find the songs sound better too.
Evan J yes! Auto tune has no energy.
Humanity is the word! Every instrument and player on those old recordings are so together it's practically a faithful community communicating and expressing the greatest feelings of humanity ever experienced.
Well said buddy! 🙏
Picking up on what you said about tone and feel. Joe Meek's studio just had 2 bog standard shop bought 2 track tape recorders his reverb was his bathroom and he sold bucketloads of records but he was an audio and electronic genius. It's not what you've got but how you use it.
Very impressed at the effort behind this. What I found odd over decades of recording and playing are the intangibles such as "how much have these musicians struggled in life" contributes to the vibe. I know this sounds dumb but I find it to be true. It comes out in their art.
Absolute fact.
Talk about the duality of love and hate. The seething racism and violence that pushed humanity's struggles to the forefront of the civil rights movement were tempered by the love and camaraderie of these great and gifted human beings whom, for just a little over a decade, created a sound that transcended race, time, and hate. My Puerto Rican ass would have had a sad upbringing in The Bronx were it not for the beauty and love that is... MOTOWN.💘🇵🇷🇺🇸🗽🦂😎
that's the biggest load of untrue wannabe-deepness one can come up with. For the love of god stop gloryfying pain. Everybody has had pain in their lives.. it's not about how bad you had it, it's about how deep you can feel it. If you can tap into emotions while performing - that's enough. It doesn't matter wether you lost your child or you lost a bet. Children prove this... they can throw a TANTRUM over NOTHING and you will BELIEVE their pain is real, because to them - it is. So please, please, pretty, pretty please stop writing such absurd nonsensical unwise BS. You have no clue, literally none. One can go through the biggest pain in the world.. if you're numb, if you can't tap into it AND if you can't sing there will be no soul in there. But somebody who is in touch with his emotions AND can sing has poked his little toe there WILL be soul in that.
It pains me deeply to read such uninformed insanity and it pains me even deeper to see that ~250 people that don't know better liked that bull. And I DO tap into emotions.. so best believe this comment is DRIPPING in soul. If I was able to sing, I'd record a hit for you over this. Unfortunately I can't.
@@akagerhard So don't you prove the point by stating that emotion gives music soul? That is what he is saying, in case you’re being compelled to bring things up that have nothing to do here
In 1995, I watched a multi-part PBS documentary on the history of American popular music. One of the shows was dedicated to Motown. What stuck with me most was that when The Supremes toured through Georgia, they had to eat on paper plates, in the alley behind the restaurant. They were not allowed inside due to segregation.
In the early to mid 1990s, I preferred punk and independent label music over soul. However, the disparate approaches were not lost on me. The people who made punk didn't suffer as much discrimination, but they very often chose to make sociopolitical commentary an integral part of the music. Many of the creators and fans of Motown music faced intense discrimination during the 1960s, yet the lyrics deliberately avoided strident social commentary and remained positive and uplifting, by design.
So nicely done! WOW! That Motown sound is so iconic and the music so inspirational and soulful. LOVE IT - and you guys nailed it down perfectly. Thanks for sharing!
OMG, I'll never get tired of seeing amazing musicians grooving to amazing songs. Marvelous recreation, amazing voices. Shivers !!!
22:10, I got chills... that’s the vibe baby. Band got in it deep.
Great to see and hear the old Motown vibe being appreciated and replicated. Kudos to all involved. How about the 'wall of sound' replica next? (wigs and guns optional).
The wig and the murderous insanity are crucial elements.
What an amazing recreation of those sounds. You guys knocked it out of the park! I thoroughly enjoyed watching this
I was raised on Motown and this was so faithful to the originals. Outstanding, and fascinating. Loved it.
Man, this is freakin' gold! The vocals and the drums especially sound like a million. Does the saturation/distortion primarily come from the tape? The strings and the horns also sound great. And the bass!
For someone who has grown up in the digital domain, doing everything in the box, but loving the sound of the old 60's records, this is just great insight! Please continue this series!
Yes, good ol' tape saturation!
Check out anything from Daptone Records/Studio if you like this sort of stuff...
Greetings from the Historic United Sound Systems Recording Studios here in Detroit, where Berry (Tamla Records) recorded their music before Motown was Motown! Most of the orchestral and string work was done at United due to the size of our A-Room.
There is SO much gold in this for the home recording artist.
What an amazing video! Thanks for going into every detail and showing all the equipment and history!
It’d be great to see how Quincy Jones recorded Off the Wall and other late 70’s early 80’s albums
Great job on this one! Makes me want to buy lots of expensive mics I can’t afford!
That would be awesome!
I don’t think there’s anything i wouldn’t give to see that
I've had those master tapes from Aint No Mountain High Enough for years and I've listened to them to death. You guys got so insanely close to the Motown sound I'm actually shocked. Amazing job to everyone involved!
I stumbled across this video, I thought your recreations were amazing as close as you can get to the original. The musicianship was top notch, those singers and band need to do a motown tour.
The vocalists are absolutely phenomenal performers, the best I have heard in decades. I am moved to tears.
One of the best RUclips videos I've ever seen.
That sound is alive and deep. Way nicer than the sterile, over-processed isolation that’s become normal.
I hate how modern records sound. Every instrument is so isolated and distinct but the mixing makes the record as a whole sound muddy somehow. I'm not an audio engineer or a musician so I don't know if I'm explaining it in a way that makes sense. Listening to modern production feels like having white noise blasted into my face at 120 decibels. Everything is just TOO LOUD.
@@BiggieTrismegistus Search for loudness war. There are a lot of articles/videos about this phenomenon in music.
@@overbeb Thanks for the tip. Things make so much more sense now.
Yeah, modern records are technically far superior but the Motown sound had a 'magic' to it
Biggie Trismegistus yeah we call it the Loudness War. It’s destroyed all music. Everything sounds artificial regardless of instrumentation.
EXCELLENT content! Such good information and at the same time so much fun! Thank you all for creating this
OMG YOU TOTALLY NAILED IT!!! I can't believe just how good everyone's performances were; literally breathtaking talent all round. Production wise also you hit it out the park; so much professional know how and rare recording equipment just gave this that 100% authentic sound! WELL DONE ALL OF YOU!!!
The rendition of "Aint No Mountain High Enough" is just about perfect. Bravos all around.
Bob Olhsson, one of the original engineers is still alive and well in Nashville. I strongly urge everyone to get in touch with him. He's amazing.
This is killer. So glad they took the effort to make this possible. No productions sound like this nowadays.
That was an excellent performance! Amazing job to all the participants!
"at the end of the day there will never be another sound like Motown"... accurate!
They forgot the most important ingredient : genius composers.
I kinda disagree. There have been quite a few songs written in the Motown style, and I'm curious what they'd sound with the Motown treatment.
Freedom by Wham, Church of the Poison Mind by Culture Club, A Town Called Malice by the Jam, Lust for Life by Iggy Pop.
@@sieteocho any new ones?
Correct, Frank Wilson springs to mind, check out his single "Do I Love You"..
As Stephen Stills says, "...at the end of the day it's all about the song and the story within." Wish we had more of that these days.
Holland Dozier Holland
Love seeing the joy on the string players' faces as they record those lines!
The magic of truth and music still works - The songs made me cry and smile once I began to hear the synergy between the players
This is the most detailed historical insight into the technicalities of the legendary Motown music ever!
Such great dedication from the people involved in this!
I remember hearing years ago that part of the "secret" of the Motown sound was to sound good out of the 3 inch speakers on AM radios in vehicles.
I got tears watching this! Such great playing.
This is amazing. I can't image the effort it must have taken to gather so much talent and specific gear.
Congrats!
Answer? One word: Jamerson
I share his birthday.
best bassist ever hands down
He IS the Motown sound!
I know right? THE Coolest Bass player of all time that had his own technique way of playing. I love that scene in the movie, STANDING IN THE SHADOW OF MOTOWN where Jamerson's Son recalled his Father his the only person he knew who played Bass the way he did. Everyone else played "normal" 😁😁
@@altheagray103 how did he make all that music with one finger?
Freakin chills on that intro of ain’t no mountain high enough. An incredible recreation. I love it!
Absolutely fantastic job. Love this.
You guys are insane!! That is a hell of a job!! Well done and thank you for sharing this unbelievable recreation ^^
Thanks for doing this, it answered a lot of questions I've had about this era of recording.
Thank you for doing this. As a musician playing cover tunes for the past 58+ years, I always strived to reproduce these songs. I see why that was so difficult.
I teared up like a child watching this and the passion you show for these magical times.
This was so amazing. I'm an older millennial but my mom *loved* Motown, so I grew up listening to a lot of this stuff and it's always stuck with me. I'm always so blown away by the fact that Hitsville, USA was just a regular house on a residential block. I really need to make a pilgrimage at some point.