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. 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…
“Dream Warriors” by Dokken
By Frank Gryner
From the album, Back for the Attack (1987 Elektra)
Produced by: Neil Kernon
Engineered [Assistant]: Andy Udoff
Recorded at: Rumbo Recorders (Canoga Park, CA)
Available in the JAMMIT “ 80’s Rock Vol. 2” application
Daryl Dragon (the Captain of Captain and
Tennille) boasted that his 10,000 square foot
Rumbo Recorders recording studios nestled in
the asphyxiating San Fernando Valley provided
a low pressure and creative environment for his
clients. Today the building is the kind of multi-purpose hall that gets rented out for wedding receptions and bar mitzvahs, but in early
1987 that environment of supposed creative
tranquility is where the metal band Dokken
dug in to commit “Dream Warriors” to tape.
A particularly heightened animosity between
singer Don Dokken and guitarist George Lynch
is well-documented during this period of the
band’s history, leading fans to speculate if such
fervor perhaps fueled the strident tones and
fiery performances that would characterize the
band’s sound. It should be noted that “Dream
Warriors” was recorded for the Nightmare
on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors soundtrack.
It was touched up and remixed months later
when the band returned to the studio to
record Back for the Attack, which is the band’s
most successful record to date.
“Dream Warriors.” Penned by Lynch and bassist
Jeff Pilson, this song is quintessential Dokken
but with the romantic-but-still-tough lyrics directed toward a scissor-fingered villain instead of a
Sunset Stripper. What better place to wallow in
the self-pity of those “lonely nights” and one’s
thermal propensity to “feel the fire” than in a
slasher flick soundtrack? This song might not be
remembered for being a masterpiece of lyrical
poetry, but the recording is a well-preserved
time capsule of Lynch’s monster tone in 1987.
lot of cases finding the corresponding track
sheets can be a victory in itself. So with all mislabeling aside, let’s spool-up the 2" machine
and hear what went down on Saticoy Street.
A Nightmare on Saticoy Street?
Let’s travel back in time 23 years by way of two
Ampex 456 multi-track reels of analog tape. The
place: Rumbo Recorders in Canoga Park, CA.
The producer: Neil Kernon, who is most famous
for producing Hall and Oats’ big albums. With
Mike Clink wrestling Appetite for Destruction
into fruition down the hall, Kernon kept
Dokken’s volatile ingredients as separated as
the 36 analog tracks that were used to capture
Andy Udoff must have had his hands full.
Credited as assistant engineer on two high-
profile records being recorded simultaneously
under the same roof may account for some of
the errors in the documentation for this song.
Assuming he was responsible for labeling
these things (as assistants typically were), the
track sheets and the tape boxes were errone-
ously dated January of ’ 86 when it should
have been for the following year. Apparently,
sleep deprivation can cause an over-worked
engineer to consistently misspell “warriors,”
as well. It’s not unusual to have discrepancies
in documentation with older tapes, and in a
Exhuming the Boom
The unprocessed drums sound remarkably
good. Not only did Mick Brown deliver a solid
performance, but the separation and fidelity far
exceeded that of previous Dokken albums. Like
many other rock bands back then, Dokken was
on the cusp of a technology and sonic growth
that saw significant improvement throughout
the ’80s. This was most obvious in the drum
sounds of the time. I found kick and snare
room samples on the master tape to supplement the live drum performance. At that time,
engineers commonly printed a pre-trigger by
flipping the tape around to play backwards
which allowed them to bounce the particular
drum track to an available track through a
delay unit. When the tape was played forward,
that track would be gated and appropriately
delayed in time to trigger the sample loaded
in an AMS DMX 15-80 unit. This would have
been a significant step up from having to get
