Recreating The Huge Drums of Interpol's "Obstacle 1" | What's That Sound? EP46

[@peterkatis4193]

Hey! Peter Katis, here. That was interesting to watch. I’m embarrassed to say I can’t remember the specific mics used on the session. I should try to dig up the old track sheets but that recording was made in the Fall of 2001. Wish me luck. What I can tell you is that all the drums were tracked using an Neotek IIIc console into a Studer A-80 2” 24 track tape machine. Then all tracks were stem mixed off of tape and through the console into a Digi-001. 🥵 And I have to say that the Valley People Dyna-mite compressor was a very good guess. But not correct! It was an Alesis Micro-Limiter as parallel compression. Cheap little compressor but it really gave the kick some boom and the snare some crack. And most of the reverb on the album is Alesis Micro-verb. A lot of low budget stuff but it definitely has a sound. Good job, guys. :)

[@loiclambert5230]

It's so cool that you always bring your experience on your recordings ! Many thanks Mr. Katis !

[@joshkorody7376]

@peterkatis4193 do you remember what you used on the vocals? Specifically the mild distortion/clipping, its just perfect.

[@halpearson4226]

@@joshkorody7376 I recall reading an interview with Peter where he said that the vocal chain was U47 >> V76 >> Sta-Level [edit - Peter answered below and my memory must be from a different record! Thanks, Peter]

[@peterkatis4193]

Hi, guys. To answer your vocal question, it was a pretty unusual vocal chain. Paul Banks, Interpol’s singer, was new to the studio experience and really hated the way his voice sounded in his headphones. He was used to singing through a guitar amp with distortion and reverb during their practice sessions. And remember this was pre-Pro Tools (for me at least) so any manipulation had to be done with hardware. So his vocal chain was a handheld Sennheiser 421 into an old Ampex AM10 solid state preamp into a silver face 1176 with all the buttons in. The distortion is coming from driving the input of that old preamp. It does that really well. Yah, it’s immediately apparent to most people how incredibly distorted some of those vocals are. I didn’t get a U47 or a StaLevel until years later… :)

[@peterkatis4193]

Woops. I meant to say it’s NOT immediately apparent to most people how distorted those vocals are. 😵

[@robbrown4621]

I saw Interpol when they first got started in NYC. They played a club we all loved called Luna Lounge. The place only held around 150 people and that was packed... I also saw The Strokes play there twice! That was such a great time to be in NYC. Other great bands from that time were Stellastar, Longwave, and The National...

[@gothcowboy1110]

MY FAVOURITE ALBUM! What a treat! Please do Damaged Goods by Gang of Four.

[@crismidi5891]

Amazing taste

[@gothcowboy1110]

@@crismidi5891 Likewise Mr Greep.

[@Darota529]

Yes, great taste ya got there!

[@FursAndMasksMusic]

Obsofuckinglutly

[@Guitarwoerke]

Wasn’t expecting this in my feed, I feel like Sam Fogarino is massively underrated. One of my favourite drummers 🔥

[@russ_sibbison]

Couldn't agree more

[@blindbarista]

Yes, great era for indie rock! Any chance we'll ever get the drum sound of Matt Tong rom Bloc Party's debut - Silent Alarm? "Like Eating Glass", "Helicopter", etc would be amazing to see.

[@halovair]

That would be so tight. Tong's drum are top knotch.

[@Harp_and_Guitar_Moving_Forward]

The song is in the skate video Yeah Right, very nostalgic, used to watch with my friends on vhs. Back when life had promise!

[@LoneJabroni]

Y'all nailed it! That drum part is so underrated too

[@TristanYeah]

Race for the Prize by The Flaming Lips would be a banger to do next

[@imcharming4808]

Was not expecting this!

[@poetryofbeing]

Yeah, this analysis went deeper than i thought it would. Bravo.

[@hansmaul9888]

Finally someone breaks this down, have been wondering for a while. Thanks

[@jdoppler]

Nice, thanks!. Next one: Pure Morning by Placebo. It'd be a great one!

[@jgnayshe6165]

This is so awesome! I’d love to see you guys do something super super modern like Turnstile - BLACKOUT.

[@demonicsweaters]

This is a fantastic drum sound. Honestly it sounds better than the original, but still has the exact right character. Tons of great info and ideas in here. Thank you!

[@robbrown4621]

I knew Sam when he was in a band called The Ton Ups. Before Interpol. Really good band.

[@adampavelec857]

Kinda’ surprised you didn’t talk more about tuning and muffling. As always, great video! Keep ’em coming!

[@Darota529]

Great vid, kinda wish they'd at least thrown in Sam's hi-hat variation from verse 2 tho ;)

[@joermnyc]

How about the song “Squalor Victoria” by The National… or really any track off their album Boxer (“Mistaken for Strangers” is another great one.) I know they did about half the album at home, so the drums may have been recorded in a basement for natural reverb.

[@briangarcia8384]

This song actually reminds me of marquee moon by television.

[@shuno_music]

It’s definitely cool seeing these classic sounds from rock music. But what about doing something that is more about trying to get the sound of drums that were probably not recorded as a live kit, or maybe were extremely processed. [How far can you take a real kit?] Something like “For Lovers, Not Fighters (Vinyl Edit)” or “We Have The Energy” by Evil Nine or “Amped” by FreQ Nasty or “Lofi Groovy Mix” by All India Radio. Especially with the sounds of the Big Beat genre coming back with the Y2K trend. Some other great tracks within this vein are Velvet Pants - Propellerheads Forest On The Sun - Thrupence Ladies and Gentlemen - Layo & Bushwacka! Reeperbahn - Digitalism Charlie can’t dance - Deadmau5

[@papaglenford]

Interpol's drummer is a killer - and they grew on me until they became my favourite modern band. still are. they are totally creative people

[@johncollins5552]

Sounds great, I thought the high hats were 16ths on much of this song?

[@GearStuffandThings]

Interpol is the business

[@giulienk]

What about the drums from Sepultura’s Chaos A.D. ? Specifically Refuse/Resist

[@c03x157]

Excelente

[@ZeBubba]

Awesome tune. Could this have a mono overhead and panned spot mics for cymbals?

[@theartofcarny]

Bloodbuzz, Ohio by the National has a great drum tone! Would love to see your guys’ take on that.

[@aminkhariman8188]

Mantap teruks!

[@hermandhlen7718]

Hi. I just discovered your channel, it's really good. One track that has followed me since the late 70's is City Boy "summer in the schoolyard" It would be interresting if you could analyse the drum track of that particular song. Thanks. Best regards from Norway.

[@wartimemodels]

Awesome

[@BigBong-h8o]

Nice❤

[@juansebastianpiedra77]

Do bloc party silent alarm!!

[@joshpawley5757]

the night they drove old dixie down please

[@SamCharlesworth]

can you do Paper Bag by fiona Apple!

[@alexvassily6106]

Please do Leyendecker by battles🥺🥺🥺🙏🙏🙏

[@maxmeeder1542]

Gotta do a video on Knocked Loose - Suffocate

[@RunOfTheHind]

...everybody look what's going down.

[@rareform6747]

Bet she's a Tiger ?

[@pclairoot]

Nope. They recorded cymbals separaely...

[@paulyjones3966]

There's nothing huge about this sound...

[@McDoinky]

Jessica plays it better than Sam😅

[@TheMusicalElitist]

There's an interview Sam did on a podcast where he breaks this all down and he confirms it's essentially just compressed heavily. Thus, makes this whole video pointless.

[@manuellujan5625]

It was just achieved in a different manner. I really enjoyed watching and listening how they achieved it differently and listening to each microphone.