ON TRACK
RICH TOZZOLI
Three Days Later with Jim Weider
Every guitar player would love to get a hot
band into a studio and record a live record.
But to actually do so takes an incredible
investment in time, effort, organization and,
of course, money. That said, legendary Tele
player Jim Weider did just that with his latest
release, Pulse. Recently, I caught up with him
to ask about how the whole thing went down.
“We did the record over the course of three
days at Allaire Studios in Shokan, N. Y.”,
Weider said.“ It was myself, along with Mitch
Stein on guitar, Rodney Holmes on drums
and Steve Lucas on 6-string bass. Engineer
John Holbrook [Natalie Merchant, B.B. King,
Brian Setzer] was invaluable on this project,
and really made us all comfortable.”
As for the studio, Weider added, “Allaire is
an amazing studio, but we had to get towed
up to the top of the mountain the first night
of the session because it was in the middle of
a blizzard. We were one of the last sessions
there before the placed closed for good.”
Weider, aside from being a touring solo artist, took over for Robbie Robertson in The
Band in 1985, and still plays the occasional
show with them. A native of Woodstock, N. Y.,
Weider has also recorded and performed
with the likes of Los Lobos, Taj Mahal, Hot
Tuna, Keith Richards and Mavis Staples.
On the approach he used on his latest
release, Weider said he was trying to capture
the spirit of a well-rehearsed band playing
together live, all in the same room.
“We’d been hitting most of these tunes
together on the road, so they were really
ready to go when we got in the studio,” he
said. “We were all in the same room, and
John Holbrook had worked ahead of time
with Rodney Holmes to get the drum sounds
and baffle them off. I had a 4x12 Marshall
with my signature Fargen JW- 40 head, and I
just put my pedals on the floor [King of Tone,
Analogman, wah pedal, T-Rex replica delay],
as did Mitch [Stein]. Our amps and speaker
cabs were in different rooms. It was just us
38 PREMIER GUITAR DECEMBER 2009
in there with our instruments and the drums.
We recorded with cans [headphones], which
I usually don’t like, but we had a good sound
and I was really comfortable because we had
been playing so much together.”
Weider continued, “Everything was live, leads
and all. We just cut a few passes of each,
and said, ‘ok, that track feels good.’ Actually,
we took only around three passes of each
song before moving on, so we didn’t burn
out the feel. On some songs we did use a
click to play to so it was in time—but Rodney
[Holmes] is such a monster that he plays
relaxed even when using one. I actually didn’t
listen to it, I just felt the groove. The reason
we did it that way was that if a solo or a section was better on one take, need be, we
could slide it in.”
Jim Weider
Weider, who played mostly his ’ 52 Fender
Tele and a Gibson Sonoma acoustic, noted
that there are a few overdubbed guitars on
the record, but that everything else is live.
“I just wanted the record to have a real
natural feel, and really show what the band
sounds like live,” he said. “It was great
because there is no better way to get that
feel and not belabor over the overdubs.”
Engineer John Holbrook recorded direct
into Pro Tools through a Neve console. For
Weider’s classic tone he used a Royer 121
and a Shure SM- 57 on the Marshall, as well as
on Stein’s setup. The bass had a combination
DI and a mic’d up cabinet for extra punch.
Holbrook, who also did Weider’s last studio
record at Clubhouse Studios in Rhinebeck,
N. Y., mixed Pulse at his well-appointed home
studio. Consisting primarily of a Pro Tools HD
system with Lynx Aurora converters, it also
features an SPL MixDream 2384, which is a
16x2 analog summing mixer with 16 balanced
inserts. This let Holbrook mix Weider’s project as a hybrid, combining the digital aspects
of Pro Tools with the analog punch of all his
outboard gear.
“I loved recording like this. It really is an
amazing way to work,” Weider said. “The last
step was mastering it at Airshow Mastering
in Boulder, Colo., with Dave Glasser. Overall,
this is the record I’ve always wanted to do;
get into a great studio with a great band,
great engineer and just do it live. It was a
great experience to go into the studio in the
middle of a blizzard and come out three days
later with record.”
For more information on Weider and his
music, visit jimweider.com and i Tunes.
Rich Tozzoli
Rich is a producer, engineer and mixer who has worked
with artists ranging from Al DiMeola to David Bowie . A
life-long guitarist, he’s also the auther of Pro Tools Surround
Sound Mixing and composes for such networks as Discovery
Channel, Nickelodeon and National Geographic.
www.premierguitar.com
