The sound engineers at OEM Inc. have spent thousands of hours with the original masters of the most
famous songs ever recorded. They use them to create products like Jammit, an iPhone app that allows you
to play along with those original tracks (with tab) and isolate certain instruments. There are many, many
things to learn from those original tracks. Through a partnership with Gearhead Communications, OEM Inc.
engineers are sharing their discoveries exclusively with Premier Guitar readers in what we like to call…
“Walk” by Pantera
By Chris Baseford
From the album “Vulgar Display of Power” (1992 ATCO)
Produced, Engineered and Mixed by: Terry Date and Vinnie Paul
Recorded at Pantego Sound (Pantego, TX)
Pantera had been refining their heavy metal
chops since the early ’80s and although the success of “Cowboys From Hell” put them on the
map, it was their next album, ’ 92’s Vulgar Display
of Power, that established them as the band that
would conquer the world of hard-hitting, powerful rock music. Even as grunge was putting an
end to anything even closely related to “metal,”
the signature song from Pantera’s second major
release (and sixth studio album), “Walk,” could
knock the teeth out of anyone who dared to
listen to it loud enough. It was this song that first
introduced me, and probably a lot of other people, to Pantera’s unique brand of heavy metal.
The first time I heard the song, the plodding
rhythm and menacing vocals grabbed my attention while the overall sonic quality of the song
grabbed me by the neck and smashed me into a
wall of sound. The guitar was the most defined,
razor sharp (without being harsh) thing I’d ever
heard, and the production sounded so simple
yet so full and huge. Since then, I’ve always wondered what the secret ingredient was to pulling
off such a powerful sound. After deciding to
include Pantera in our initial release of Jammit
apps, I was excited to find out.
First Steps
Upon receiving the 2" 24-track tapes, the first
thing I noticed was the title, “The Walk.” As the
tape was being transferred to digital audio, I
was crossing my fingers that this was the song
I knew simply as “Walk,” and not an un-used
version or demo. It didn’t take long for me to
recognize that familiar intro riff and 12/8 time
signature, and once the first line of lyrics came
out of the speakers, I knew this was the master
take that was used on the record. The one thing
I didn’t expect was that there was also a slave
tape. Having heard the song hundreds of times,
I didn’t anticipate that the song would have
more than 24 tracks. I began soloing some of
the tracks from the slave and quickly realized
that it was mostly experimental stuff that didn’t
get used in the mix. There were a few alternate
background vocal parts, loops made from guitar
recordings that ran throughout the song, an
alternate bass sound, etc. I have a strong feeling
that at some point the band or producer Terry
Date questioned the simplicity of the song and
tried to incorporate some flashier production. In
the end, however, almost every track that was
used in the final mix lived on the master tape.
I began to set up the mix by going through each
track one by one, taking note of the instrumentation. The tracks that ended up in the final mix
included the following: kick, snare, hi-hat, toms
left, toms right, overhead left, overhead right,
bass direct, bass amp, two rhythm guitar tracks,
two guitar tracks that had various accent guitar
parts, a guitar solo track that was a comp of several other guitar solo takes, two lead vocal tracks,
a low octave vocal track, and six additional tracks
of the famous “re… spect… walk” barks.
Getcha’ Gear
I immediately jumped on the guitars. I wanted
to hear what mix trickery would be needed
to get the sound that Dimebag is so closely
associated with. My initial observation, slightly
anti-climatic yet exciting nonetheless, was that
the sound you hear on the record is the sound
coming from Dimebag’s fingers playing his Bill
Lawrence (pickups)-equipped Dean From Hell
guitar plugged into a solid-state Randall amplifier. Other than some hi EQ boost and a slight
dip in the mids, the sound on tape is the sound
you hear on the record—no trickery needed.
What struck me the most about the guitar tracks
was how locked his parts were. Through the
entire song the rhythm sound was a lead and
double and they were about as tight as I’ve ever
heard on any recording. There were only certain
sections where you could actually tell there were
two guitars playing. Amazing!
The other observation worth noting is Dimebag’s
judicious use of a noise gate. Between every
rhythmic stop and pause there was absolutely
no amp hiss, hum or fret noise. This method of
trimming the noise leftover when resting on a
note created a cool effect that helped maintain
the tightness of the guitar tracks.
Flying Solo
As I made my way to the guitar solo, I started
to feel a similarity between Pantera and Van
Halen. I know it sounds crazy because the music
is so different, but there are definite similarities
between Dimebag’s approach to this song and
Eddie’s approach to the first Van Halen album—
consider the minimal use of guitar overdubs and
