DSotM drum machine?

[Botley]

Just wondering... but did the VCS3 have a built-in drum programme feature? In the Pompeii studio footage you can hear the beat from On The Run being tampered with as Roger is playing around with the VCS3 effects. Is he also twiddling with another machine entirely? Is someone up in the control booth doing it? Was it overdubbed later?

Is this the same drum machine used to make the loop under the Roto-tom solo at the beginning of Time? How about the "thumpa thumpa thumpity thumpa" click track you can hear Gilmour playing over in the Brain Damage outtake?

[Shane G.]

The VCS3, to my knowledge, doesen't have a built-in drum programmer. I have read (in the PF Encyclopedia) that the hi-hat sound that came from the synth, but I think they somehow fed that sound into the synth and fed it into the sequencer.

As for that 'tick-tock' sound in the beginning of Time, that is a bass. But there is also what sounds like a heart-beat under there, and that was done with Nick's bass drum. How they got it to sound so mechanical... I don't know.

Is there a click track under Brain Damage (in Pompeii)? When I made my copy of Pompeii, I accidentally copied the sound from the left channel only. Is this click track on the right channel?

[Botley]

Originally posted by Shane G.
The VCS3, to my knowledge, doesen't have a built-in drum programmer. I have read (in the PF Encyclopedia) that the hi-hat sound that came from the synth, but I think they somehow fed that sound into the synth and fed it into the sequencer.

So it's not a drum machine per se, but you can get drum-like sounds out of it and play them like a drum loop?

As for that 'tick-tock' sound in the beginning of Time, that is a bass. But there is also what sounds like a heart-beat under there, and that was done with Nick's bass drum. How they got it to sound so mechanical... I don't know.

You mean it was originally a bass guitar and bass drum take that was then played as a tape loop? In that case, I imagine they played it very slow and then sped the tape up to tempo. That's a very cool effect. I would never have guessed that was how it was done.

Is there a click track under Brain Damage (in Pompeii)? When I made my copy of Pompeii, I accidentally copied the sound from the left channel only. Is this click track on the right channel?

No, I think it's on both channels. It's not all throughout the track, it's more like a count-in before the track begins. Happens right after Dave asks of Roger "Could you just turn it down a bit? I didn't really make a specific mistake, it's just my guitar's too loud."

[Shane G.]

Originally posted by Botley
So it's not a drum machine per se, but you can get drum-like sounds out of it and play them like a drum loop?

I think that the hi-hat sound came from Nick's drumset, and then they miked it and somehow fed it into the VCS3's sequencer.

You mean it was originally a bass guitar and bass drum take that was then played as a tape loop? In that case, I imagine they played it very slow and then sped the tape up to tempo. That's a very cool effect. I would never have guessed that was how it was done.

The bass drum can be heard if you listen closely... it sounds just like the heartbeat in Speak To Me.
The bass guitar is going 'tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock'... this is very audible right after the clocks end. The heartbeat bass drum is also best heard here.
I don't think that they were the same recording. If you mute the strings of the bass and hit them with a pick, near the bridge, you should get that sound. I think the bass drum is was slowed down to get that very bassy, heartbeat effect.

No, I think it's on both channels. It's not all throughout the track, it's more like a count-in before the track begins. Happens right after Dave asks of Roger "Could you just turn it down a bit? I didn't really make a specific mistake, it's just my guitar's too loud."

Ah! I know what you're talking about now.
Don't quote me on this, but I think that's Dave tapping a string (with a pick) on his guitar, maybe in impatience. Notice that it stops right as the tape starts rolling, and Dave gets ready to play his solo breaks. That's what it sounds like to me, anyway.

[Botley]

Originally posted by Shane G.
I think that the hi-hat sound came from Nick's drumset, and then they miked it and somehow fed it into the VCS3's sequencer.

I don't think it's in the sequencer, that's too advanced for 1972 technology. They just made a tape loop of Nick's playing and fed it through one of the VCS3's effects boxes.

The bass drum can be heard if you listen closely... it sounds just like the heartbeat in Speak To Me. The bass guitar is going 'tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock'... this is very audible right after the clocks end. The heartbeat bass drum is also best heard here. I don't think that they were the same recording. If you mute the strings of the bass and hit them with a pick, near the bridge, you should get that sound. I think the bass drum is was slowed down to get that very bassy, heartbeat effect.

Ah! Now I see how it was done. []

First off, I think they got Roger to play that nifty bass guitar riff while listening to one of the "antique clocks" ticking in his headphones. That way, it would stay exactly on the beat. Then they took the most accurate quarter-measure (one "tick-tock") of his playing and made a loop out of it.

Then they got Nick to play the heartbeat at double-speed while listening to Roger's loop in his headphones. Then they took the most accurate bar of THAT, slowed it down to regular speed, and made another loop (4 times as long as Roger's loop, remember). These were combined to make the Time loop, but kept separately so they could put the heartbeat on its own on Speak to Me, On the Run and Eclipse. [/]

Don't quote me on this, but I think that's Dave tapping a string (with a pick) on his guitar, maybe in impatience. Notice that it stops right as the tape starts rolling, and Dave gets ready to play his solo breaks. That's what it sounds like to me, anyway.

I guess so.

[fixxlevy]

I'm sure that it's the studio click track, that they decided to leave.

Cheers,

Mark

[Botley]

Forgive me, but I believe you are wrong.

First of all, they are working with an electronic instrument that is, by definition, in perfect time. Why would they need a studio-generated click track when they already have the unshakably steady beat coming from the VCS3?

Second of all, I'm fairly sure that Abbey Road studios don't use such frenetic click tracks, and if they do, the Floyd certainly wouldn't use the default "out-of-the-box" click track without treatment. Look what they'd already acheived as far as rhythm tracks go by that point.

I might be wrong but I'm fairly certain I'm not.

[Shane G.]

First, places like Abbey Road didn't use click tracks in 1972. No-one used click tracks in 1972. To keep time, studios used the old stand-by, metronomes. And human judgement, i.e. conductors.

I remember Rolling Stones drummer Charlie Watts saying that clicks track actually held back the emotion in music, because certain parts need to be sped up a small bit (or maybe slowed down a bit, too) to get the right sound and emotion. But the click track has made everything too mechanical, in my eyes.

Anyway, I'm gonna stop babbling and say that the sound in the beginning of the Pompeii 'Brain Damage' is definately not a click track, or a mentronome.
Anyone with a guitar, a distorter, reverb, and an amp can get that sound. Set it all up, turn up the amp very loud, and get a pick. Then, take the pick and tap a string (the low E would work best), near the bridge. There you go! Play a little beat, and you've got that sound.

Whoa... that sounded harsh. Sorry. But try the above; it should work.

[Botley]

Sadly, I have none of those things, me being a destitute student who happens to be a compulsive CD-buyer and who can barely afford a crap acoustic guitar.

[Radiochair]

Originally posted by Botley
me being a destitute student who happens to be a compulsive CD-buyer

I know the feeling.

[Botley]

i see you're also a stanley kubrick fan...

[Radiochair]

Very much so, yes. Genius.

[Botley]

I got suckered into buying that Kubrick DVD box set... before they remastered all the video and audio! I took it home, watched it all the way through, more than a little disappointed with the video quality. WEEKS LATER, I see the remastered version with Eyes Wide Shut (which I still haven't seen ) in stores. I went to return it and they wouldn't accept it because I'd opened all the DVDs already. I can't get anyone on eBay to buy it for more than $20... I'm at my wits' end.

[Wing'd Icarus]

there's always time to riot.

[thorin13]

sucks for you.