SECRETS OF THE MASTERS
the two that created a bigger and wider
effect than if one player had doubled his
own part. The lead guitar solo sounded
amazing, with an ambient mic’ing technique
that made the sound pop out from the rest
of the mix. The lead guitar licks that accent
certain parts throughout the song shared
the single track with the solo part, but with
a much more dry and cutting sound. Again
with most songs I’ve come across, there is a
pleasant surprise hidden in the multi-tracks
that goes somewhat unnoticed on the album
mix. The guitar part in the verse of “I’m
Eighteen” is two acoustic guitars, one being
fed through a rotating Leslie cabinet, which
gives it a completely unique sound—half
acoustic, half electric. The acoustic guitars
were panned hard left and hard right, which
created a lush landscape for the simple
arpeggiated pattern. This is definitely one
of those parts I wish was turned up louder in
the final mix.
The bass in this song (as well as many other
Bob Ezrin arrangements) is used almost as a
counter melody instead of a simple root to
the guitar tracks. It is so effective in creating movement, much like in an orchestra or
piano part. The actual sound is pretty clean
and dry, which initially led me to believe the
bass was plugged into a DI, but in certain
sections of the song you can hear slight leakage, so it was most likely a good-sounding,
well-recorded amp. The lack of leakage in
certain parts of the song indicates that some
of the bass was overdubbed, while other
parts (like the outro and ending accents)
were played live off the floor.
Alice’s vocal in this song is one single voice
throughout the entire track: no doubles, no
harmonies, etc. The vocal was tracked dry
(unlike some other Cooper songs that we’ve
used in Jammit that have been printed with
reverb and/or delay), but had some reverb
added in the mix to create a little more
size and depth. Another thing I love about
recordings from this era is the simplicity and
raw emotion the shines through each and
every line of lyrics, unlike some of the over-produced vocals of today. While listening to
the vocal track on its own, I heard and felt
To see/hear how you can play along to “I’m Eighteen” (with tab) and other songs from the original multi-track masters, check out: jammit.com
every little squeak, snarl and crack that came
out of Alice’s convincing performance.
With the exception of a harmonica overdub
in the intro, doubling the lead guitar, and
a single chord of an organ on the very last
hit of the song, the production value in this
song is really the arrangement and melody,
more so than the actual recording. It
becomes quickly obvious that the most time
spent on “I’m Eighteen” was the crafting of
the song and getting great (but not necessarily perfect) live performances. The sonic
significance of the recording doesn’t seem
to have nearly as much of an impact when
all the pieces work together cohesively and
you’ve got great musicians playing a great
song. Everything from the main opening
riff to the simple yet effective verse guitar
part has made this song a personal favorite
from Alice Cooper’s vast and impressive
catalogue—and one that still holds up as if it
were 1971 all over again.
PREMIER GUITAR MARCH 2010 87
Chris Baseford is a Canadian-born recording engineer/
mixer/producer who has
worked with some of the
top names in the rock music
world. Having spent many
years mixing on large format
analog consoles, Chris has made the transition
to mixing “in-the-box” and continues to push the
boundaries of what is possible in the all-digital
domain of music production.
