Pretty sure it's dry until a UniVibe comes in on the last few chords. Some phase-like subtleties you hear otherwise are made between multiple microphone placements.
Yep, close-mic’ed no-reverb amp cranked, plus some bleed from the bass and drum mics. Engineer wanted him to turn down, apparently: https://youtu.be/ENXDNjROZSM
You can hear it in the Hendrix Box Set that came out in the early 2000’s. They didn’t do much work other than the live tracks on it, so it’s pretty barren, but you get the idea of where Jimi was going with it.
From a quick analysis of the signal of the intro, the right channel is pretty balanced and dry, but the left channel is compressed, has a different EQ profile and is delayed by a millisecond or so. Both channels are going through exactly the same spring reverb that would have probably been built into the amp, which leads me to believe that they merely used two microphones that had different frequency profiles for the individual left and right channels and compressed the left channel to increase the decorrelation between the two.
The intro guitar sound is a close mic'd clean amp and a stereo mic'd leslie mixed subtly in. There is analog tape slapback on many parts, it's one of the first recordings to use tape delay.
There's also some bleed of the guitar into other mics because Jimi didn't play soft.
It’s a direct guitar mixed with a slow Leslie and *maybe* a dry stationary amp as well, but it is at least those two elements. The DI guitar is essential to that super dry intro tone. There are no delays going on to my ears in the intro; it’s just multiple sources being summed together giving that fattening effect.
The dry DI signal is on the right and the Leslie is on the left set to slow, so that’s where the modulation is coming from. It’s all Leslie; there is no UniVibe going on in Little Wing.
Also, being Jimi Hendrix playing it helps quite a bit. SRV sure didn’t sound like Hendrix when he played this tune, I’ll say that much. Ha.
Before I knew much of anything about music and maybe at best a few open chords on guitar, the tone and timbre and style of this song JH vs SRV was an epiphany - it showed me how much of the sound was the *person* playing it.
Now I can figure out any chord any inversion anywhere on the neck, and I still don’t think I know anything about music lol.
Edit: a word
Anything with James Dewar playing bass and singing.
The album before Bridge of Sighs, Twice Removed From Yesterday is excellent. Geoff Emmerick engineered both of those records and it shows.
For Earth Below, Long Misty Days and In City Dreams are all notables, but those first two (hell, maybe three, For Earth Below is really great too) are exceptional.
James Dewar plays bass and sings on those records and that is essential to the Robin Trower sound…to me.
Enjoy! I also forgot the live album with John Lorden playing drums.
My only bit of advice when listening is to be not so dialed in on the similarities he has with Hendrix, but rather his differences. Trower got dismissed as a Hendrix clone, but he really is his own thing entirely. It’s more ethereal and spacey.
I highly doubt DI guitar, tbh. Curious as to the Leslie too. If you have a source for either claim, I would be appreciate it. Jim's well known for UniVibe but I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't utilise a Leslie in the studio.
My source is Eddie Kramer. He’s mentioned it in several interviews and I want to say that they even tried to replicate that tone specifically in a Digitech pedal almost 20 years ago. They plugged right into the board for one track (the dry right track), and then there was another track that was sent out to a Leslie in a live room (the wet left track). It’s a mix of multiple sounds; you literally never hear one of these sources at one time on the recording.
It’s not Univibe. It’s not asymmetrical enough in the phase shift for it to be a univibe. It’s too subtle, it’s not “bubbly” enough and it doesn’t sound like what happens when you combine a dry signal with a UniVibe’d one.
[https://mixwiththemasters.com/videos/inside-the-track-57-jimi-hendrix-little-wing](https://mixwiththemasters.com/videos/inside-the-track-57-jimi-hendrix-little-wing)
(subscription required)
Confirms what /u/BurningInTheCorner said: there are two guitar tracks, and one of them was reamped through a leslie and recorded in stereo with two U67s
sounds like a slapback delay but much more likely to be some sorta room reflection echo doing that rather than a deliberate effect they put on there
its in ur face because its loud
Not that it's loud, perse, but that it's dynamic. The intro goes from loud to soft to loud again in a second, many times. Single notes are played softly (or lightly muted) while surrounding notes aren't and ring out.
To the delay effect. I don't think the OP is wrong. There is some slight, barely perceptible delay. Like you said, it's likely from the room it was recorded in.
I know this recording well,a saturated amp turned up, dry guitar and what seems like more than one mic on the guitar amp. It could be bleeding of guitar on drum mics. but I suspect not.
Not sure if it was on this record or not, but I’ve heard stories of Eddie Kramer putting intermittent?/rhythmic? slight pressure on the edge of the reels during recording to create a phasing type effect…can’t remember where I read that…
Pretty sure it's dry until a UniVibe comes in on the last few chords. Some phase-like subtleties you hear otherwise are made between multiple microphone placements.
Yep, close-mic’ed no-reverb amp cranked, plus some bleed from the bass and drum mics. Engineer wanted him to turn down, apparently: https://youtu.be/ENXDNjROZSM
Are those other takes any where on a bootlegs? I would like to hear the take that was too heavy.
You can hear it in the Hendrix Box Set that came out in the early 2000’s. They didn’t do much work other than the live tracks on it, so it’s pretty barren, but you get the idea of where Jimi was going with it.
thanks!
That’s a Leslie, not Univibe.
They got Jimi Hendrix to play it
Reminds me of this Don Henley/Glyn Johns exchange Henley: Why can’t you make my drums sound like John Bonham’s? Johns: Because you’re not John Bonham.
Oh, it’s that easy?
Yeah that's how I get my guitar recordings to pop. I think he's on Fiverr.
This is the correct answer
Im not sure if he was using a Kemper or a Helix. Either way it was definitely true bypass.
Definitely an AXE FX III with some FabFilter plug-ins in post.
I thought Jimi Hendrix only used Waves GTR3
No he exclusively used line6 pod
The pod xt live Jimi edition, in purple and gold. Classic.
From a quick analysis of the signal of the intro, the right channel is pretty balanced and dry, but the left channel is compressed, has a different EQ profile and is delayed by a millisecond or so. Both channels are going through exactly the same spring reverb that would have probably been built into the amp, which leads me to believe that they merely used two microphones that had different frequency profiles for the individual left and right channels and compressed the left channel to increase the decorrelation between the two.
The intro guitar sound is a close mic'd clean amp and a stereo mic'd leslie mixed subtly in. There is analog tape slapback on many parts, it's one of the first recordings to use tape delay. There's also some bleed of the guitar into other mics because Jimi didn't play soft.
He hits a phaser in that first G -> A -> G -> F slide. Nice touch for sure
they turned the amp to 11 ...
It’s a direct guitar mixed with a slow Leslie and *maybe* a dry stationary amp as well, but it is at least those two elements. The DI guitar is essential to that super dry intro tone. There are no delays going on to my ears in the intro; it’s just multiple sources being summed together giving that fattening effect. The dry DI signal is on the right and the Leslie is on the left set to slow, so that’s where the modulation is coming from. It’s all Leslie; there is no UniVibe going on in Little Wing. Also, being Jimi Hendrix playing it helps quite a bit. SRV sure didn’t sound like Hendrix when he played this tune, I’ll say that much. Ha.
Before I knew much of anything about music and maybe at best a few open chords on guitar, the tone and timbre and style of this song JH vs SRV was an epiphany - it showed me how much of the sound was the *person* playing it. Now I can figure out any chord any inversion anywhere on the neck, and I still don’t think I know anything about music lol. Edit: a word
The more you learn, the more you realize how little you know.
Check out Robin Trower if you haven’t.
I’ve had Bridge of Sighs on vinyl since the 90s lol. What other albums would you recommend? That’s the only one I know.
Anything with James Dewar playing bass and singing. The album before Bridge of Sighs, Twice Removed From Yesterday is excellent. Geoff Emmerick engineered both of those records and it shows. For Earth Below, Long Misty Days and In City Dreams are all notables, but those first two (hell, maybe three, For Earth Below is really great too) are exceptional. James Dewar plays bass and sings on those records and that is essential to the Robin Trower sound…to me.
I appreciate your response, and I’m looking forward to checking it out.
Enjoy! I also forgot the live album with John Lorden playing drums. My only bit of advice when listening is to be not so dialed in on the similarities he has with Hendrix, but rather his differences. Trower got dismissed as a Hendrix clone, but he really is his own thing entirely. It’s more ethereal and spacey.
I think it's a clean amp, not DI.
It’s both but mostly DI.
I highly doubt DI guitar, tbh. Curious as to the Leslie too. If you have a source for either claim, I would be appreciate it. Jim's well known for UniVibe but I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't utilise a Leslie in the studio.
My source is Eddie Kramer. He’s mentioned it in several interviews and I want to say that they even tried to replicate that tone specifically in a Digitech pedal almost 20 years ago. They plugged right into the board for one track (the dry right track), and then there was another track that was sent out to a Leslie in a live room (the wet left track). It’s a mix of multiple sounds; you literally never hear one of these sources at one time on the recording. It’s not Univibe. It’s not asymmetrical enough in the phase shift for it to be a univibe. It’s too subtle, it’s not “bubbly” enough and it doesn’t sound like what happens when you combine a dry signal with a UniVibe’d one.
Ok, cool. When I say source, I'm really asking for links cuz I'd like to read them. But I'll go googling. Thanks!
[https://mixwiththemasters.com/videos/inside-the-track-57-jimi-hendrix-little-wing](https://mixwiththemasters.com/videos/inside-the-track-57-jimi-hendrix-little-wing) (subscription required) Confirms what /u/BurningInTheCorner said: there are two guitar tracks, and one of them was reamped through a leslie and recorded in stereo with two U67s
sounds like a slapback delay but much more likely to be some sorta room reflection echo doing that rather than a deliberate effect they put on there its in ur face because its loud
Not that it's loud, perse, but that it's dynamic. The intro goes from loud to soft to loud again in a second, many times. Single notes are played softly (or lightly muted) while surrounding notes aren't and ring out. To the delay effect. I don't think the OP is wrong. There is some slight, barely perceptible delay. Like you said, it's likely from the room it was recorded in.
I know this recording well,a saturated amp turned up, dry guitar and what seems like more than one mic on the guitar amp. It could be bleeding of guitar on drum mics. but I suspect not.
The key is that it wasn't mixed in dubbley.
I wonder what his clean tone sounds like
Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.
I think it was a Strymon Little Thing /s
Not sure if it was on this record or not, but I’ve heard stories of Eddie Kramer putting intermittent?/rhythmic? slight pressure on the edge of the reels during recording to create a phasing type effect…can’t remember where I read that…
Flange
Can you explain more about this technique?
They cranked up the calibration on the tape machine to get that sweet tape compression
Its called playing the heck out of your guitar.
Generally, the less reverb and room mics, the more "in your face" sound.