The opening production treatment of Dion's "The Wanderer"

[rasputin1963]

I heard this record again tonight online, and I marveled with what an incredible sound the engineers created for it, most noticeably in the opening few seconds of the record.

 

It sounds beautifully compressed, with some slapback, but what also sounds like envelope gating. Did they have gating in 1961, to produce that stark, rhythmic sound? How'd they do it, I wonder?

 

I'm also impressed, frankly with how tightly all the members of the group are playing... Now that is some tight playing!

 

Your thoughts, observations?

 

[video=youtube;KdbQ5vxuw7g]

[nat whilk II]

I was a late-60s, early 70s kid, so The Wanderer was before my time and sounded to my young ears like so much other out-of-date, bobby-soxer boring material.

 

It took me till I got about 45 or so to be able to shake that stereotyped impression and realize what a powerful, really erotic song Dion covered in that single and how spot on his delivery was.

 

I read somewhere some middle-aged lady saying something like "The Wanderer was the song that made me want to tear off my shirt when I was 13. Not that I had anything to show at that age, but..."

 

nat whilk ii

[Lee Knight]

Drum kit to the left... and either bleed or a small chamber on that drum kit off to the right. The natural delay does a nice splat spread from left to right. rat-ta-TAT!

 

Piano and guitar both have tight tape slap, making it appear they're also spilling over into that drum ambience but I don't think they are.

 

The bass seems to be being picked up with a lot of bleed that's making it sort of swell on the beat as he pumps the 1/4 notes with a little air between the notes. The room is woom-woom-wooming. Nice player that I'm sure was unappreciated.

 

And everybody's playing with a killer groove.

 

That's what I hear. No gating. Just a tight ambience.

[blue2blue]

I listened to the version for the Runaround Sue album as well as the version from the Wanderers soundtrack. Neither have anywhere as much overall reverb or compression as that version in the vid above. Also the horn arrangement is a whole different, much more restrained chart -- and backed down in the mix, as well -- in those two versions. (And the Wanderers' version has the stereo field reversed for some reason.) But they were all stereo versions and have that slapback on the snare. But I think that's what it probably is, slapback echo, possibly into a chamber or fed into a speaker in a room with fairly hard reflections.