Original multitrack recordings: Stevie Wonder's Superstition (and others)
Jose de las Heras
ago, and manypeople I know were also ignorant and very interested once I
told them... so I thought I'd share this.
Apparently the original multitrack recordings for a few songs are available
on teh net.
The first one I listened to was Stevie Wonder's Superstition. 16-tracks, in
wav format. Amazing song, really interesting to hear all the parts (8 tracks
of clavichord alone!)... and soloing Stevie's vocals sends a chill down my
spine every time. The man is good!
There's a couple of Queen ones too, 16-24 tracks, usually converted to mp3,
but still...
Marvin Gaye...
And then I came across a whole load of multitrack files that appear to have
been ripped from videogames (Rock band and Guitar Hero)... not the original
tracks, but the original recorded performances. Many have pretty good track
separation (several for drums, one for bass, several guitar, several
vocals...), sometimes a single track may contain say rhythm guitar and some
backing vocals, or drums and vocals... but most are decent, and I find it
really interesting to listen to basslines, or guitar parts, that way.
One thing I'm noticing is the bass sound often is not a bass sound I'd call
"pretty"... but in the mix it fits brilliantly. I had that notion already,
but to actually be able to listen to what works in a given song, is pretty
cool, and hopefully I can use that knowledge in my own playing/recording.
The whole of the Blood Sugar Sex Magik is available too, with good track
separation. Great tool to pick Flea's basslines if something wasn't clear
from the full recording. Heh, there's also "Can't stop", including a few bum
bass notes here and there... :-)
If you want to get some of these, I found a few useful places:
that is a threat on the Guitars101 forum with a few links (Stevie Wonder,
Queen, and others)
also check this thread (in French, but easily decypherable even if you don't
speak
French) here for a few more links:
http://www.slappyto.net/Forum/Topic.aspx?id=16515&start=90
You get the whole of Blood Sugar Sex Magik, by the Chili Peppers, for
instance.
Within the link above you find also this:
http://multitracks.uuuq.com
password ets1
There's a lot of stuff in there, but a lot is just 5.1 mixes, which may be
nice to listen to, but not very useful (with a couple of exce[tions) if you
want to isolate instruments. However, before you download you get to click
and see what format the multitrack is in. The ones that say "Video game rip"
are usually decent. Some suffer from saturation/distortion, usually on the
vocal lines... but even then they usually have an ok drum and bass tracks.
But from all of them, the Stevie Wonder one for me is amazing... The Queen
ones are really interesting too.
Anyway, have fun :-)
Jose
--
www.mcnach.com
Richt Hoat Chillies: http://www.myspace.com/rhcpscot - Bass: OLP MM2
Conscious Route: http://www.myspace.com/consciousroute - Bass: Ibanez SR400
www.myspace.com/purplenoise68
-
Current favourite guitar: Fender 'Sambora' Stratocaster
Current favourite bass: OLP MM2 (Stingray)