The stereo version of Apache

[RayL]

Having been asked to record Apache from scratch recently (for a friend who wanted to play the lead and bass parts), I listened to the Shadows original with 'a fresh pair of ears'.

The 'original' that I used was from 'The Shadows The Collection', a 3-CD box set issued by EMI in 1996. This has Tony and Cliff panned hard left, Jet's bass fairly indistinct, but seemingly also left, Bruce panned hard right and only Hank in the middle. I didn't have the mono single version to hand.

Am I correct that this stereo version was made at the same time as the mono version, but in a separate control room using split feeds?

Also, the conventional wisdom is that Cliff plays the chinese drum at the beginning and at the end, but is that he, or is it Tony, playing four to the bar during the 'staccato' section from 1' 30"?

[JimN]

Malcolm Addey's recollection of practice in this period (recordings being made to a maximum of two tracks) is that the studio would be set up for stereo, but that another engineer would be taking each microphone's output to a separate mixer for the mono mix. This latter was descriptively called "delta mono". Whether it was in another control room, Malcolm didn't say.

This continued until 4-track was installed (my best estimate of that is part way through 1963, since George Martin was clearly using its facilities by the time he came to record The Beatles' I Want To Hold Your Hand, which is the first of their singles with a really satisfactory stereo mix).

Thereafter, a variety of techniques were used for tracking and over-dubbing / bouncing, with the mono mix being produced from the same master tape as any stereo versions and in much the same way.

As a matter of interest, the EMI Hayes archive card for the Mustang EP reveals that it was recorded only in stereo and that Norrie Paramor gave instructions for the mono version to be created by combining the left and right channels of the recording.

[Uncle Fiesta]

I Want To Hold Your Hand and its B-side This Boy, were the first time the Beatles used 4-track, and were both recorded on October 17th 1963. (My ninth birthday!)

[RayL]

Thanks, Jim

Has anyone ever dived into the Abbey Road Chest Of Assorted Percussion and photographed the fabled chinese drum? Most drummers in bands simply use the floor tom-tom (it sounds as if Brian Bennett does in the 1989 re-recording), but that particular chinese drum has a sound that is quite difficult to replicate.

[dave robinson]

Thanks, Jim

Has anyone ever dived into the Abbey Road Chest Of Assorted Percussion and photographed the fabled chinese drum? Most drummers in bands simply use the floor tom-tom (it sounds as if Brian Bennett does in the 1989 re-recording), but that particular chinese drum has a sound that is quite difficult to replicate.

The key for getting that same sound is in the pitch and ambience. I managed a very close copy of it using my Roland V Drums and heavily editing one of the toms. I have struggled to get any similarity using a real tom, though a tuned bass drum can get close, but you wouldn’t want it tuned that way for normal use.

[dave robinson]

I would add that the pitch of the drum intro is THE sound that identifies Apache as soon as it begins, whether or not it was intentional or by accident we may never know, but it turned heads at that time.

[drakula63]

...and of course you need Cliff Richard to play it. Ironic, is it not, that probably the most famous drum intro (well one of them anyway) of them all was not even played by an actual drummer. Think about that for a moment or two folks...

[nivramarvin]

In the standard MIDI table there is a "Tako Drum" on the D5 key. Sounds more like the original to me than the usual floor tom.

[Hank2k]

the drum is apparently a "tam tam" found under the stairs in Abbey Roads prop area