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https://youtu.be/IjKkm2TdVuI

Cheers
Spike

Fascinated at how that was done. The Shads Guitar Tango was recorded with hard left/right stereo image, allowing the rhythm section to be isolated from one side to create a backing track. But the brass section is on the same side as the lead guitar, and yet is present in this recording. Any thoughts?

"Thoughts", Ian - no, I dont do "Thoughts". lol

Hi Spike and Gary
THE Classic Guitar Tango.
Ive always enjoyed this Shads tune, even the reworked version with the fancy Intro but to me the original is still the best.
And this is as close to the original as I think anyone will ever get. Superb.
And it was good to watch Gary's fingering too - a nice tutorial.
Thanks for posting.
Ian

Hi everyone,

Many thanks for your kind comments, they are much appreciated.

Ian, in answer to your query:

The rhythm track was extracted from the undubbed version and the strings/horns extracted from the A’s & B’s and The Early Years CD releases using Riffstation and Spectralayers Pro. However, the A’s & B’s and The Early Years CD tracks run slightly quicker than the undubbed version on CD. Hank is at normal orchestral tuning on undubbed but around 12-15 cents sharp on the other CD’s so I guess that the undubbed version is correct and the others must have got sped up slightly in transcription somewhere along the line. That is why I used undubbed for the rhythm but then had to re-tune the horns/strings with Melodyne back to correct pitch. The other interesting thing is that the horns are slightly out of tune with the strings!

For those who might have an interest in how we recorded it:

I used the original vinyl release as the reference for Hank’s guitar tone, this having the sparkling guitar sound and huge reverb that is the hallmark of that recording. In comparison I find the guitar sound of the later CD mixes lack that sense of excitement.

For a guitar we tried five different acoustic instruments (full recordings with four of them) before settling on the lovely Alhambra 7 PA, kindly provided by Concept Music here in Perth for the purpose.

We experimented extensively with microphone type and placement, finally settling on an AKG C 414 EB and Shure SM57 and placed and mixed them to get the desired sound, rather than relying on any conventional equalisation.

Getting a reverb sound similar to the original was a bit of a challenge. I tried various impulse models with Altiverb, with different pre-delays, time constants, damping and EQ in an attempt to get closer to the somewhat “metallic” sound on the original.

The guitar sound on the vinyl release is a bit more compressed than on the CD versions, most likely due to extra compression/limiting applied at the master cutting stage. I tried to reproduce this with two stages of compression (with different time constants), one before the reverb and then another one after to emulate the cutting process.

Finally, we settled on a stereo mix as on the A’s and B’s CD, but with less extreme left-right separation.

It is of course still not exactly the same as the original, but hopefully we have managed to capture a little of the excitement of that wonderful recording.

All of this was made a lot easier by Gary’s superb playing and technique and, to my mind, is complemented perfectly by Spiro’s imaginative video.

Regards,

Paul.

What a lot of hard work, Paul. I congratulate you all on the outcome. You've done more than capture a little of the original, you've virtually replicated it.

Bravo boys!!! Your version is not only superb, but it has the "magic" of the original Shadows recording !!! You are the best !!!

Hard tension strings I guess and right hand rest stroke picking technique similar in parts to gypsy jazz picking. Can't see what pick Gary is using but presumably a heavy gauge.

Very interesting to read the process behind the backing track and recording.

Thanks everyone for your kind reactions and to Paul for explaining our recording procedure.

Roger: I'm sure Gary used a heavy pick. I think it was a Jim Dunlop X-H

Spike

Thanks Spike. Does Gary use the same pick didn't gypsy jazz rhythm?

The closeness of the sound to the original is stunning!

So much effort has been made over the years to replicate the sounds of our favourite tunes that we forgot about this favourite tune. This is the closest replication of a Shadows record that has ever been made. It can't get any closer. Not a Meazzi or Vox in sight.

How I wish you guys were based in Britain.

Guys, congratulations. It's stunning.

J