A little Vinnie story

[Pedro G]

Originally posted by CLWarunki:
I'm sure the click was somehow slipped a touch on playback in the program they were using... it happens... I doubt that Vinnie would play THAT MUCH behind a beat, if so then why not just take the click down 2bpm or something and lock in?

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">That could be the case, but I doubt it, because this session was in the late 80's or early 90's, so hard disc recording wasn't very popular in big productions back then.... but who knows.

[cjbdrm]

I think what he was saying is that Vinnie played the backbeat slightly 'behind' the beat deliberately, a musical decision determined by the mood or feel of the song(This works really well for medium slow R&B tunes and most ballads, for instance).

I'm guessing this was unlikely software related because this was the 90's and DAWs were probably NOT as prevalent(if that's what you're referring to)...but I know what you're saying. Latency can create problems in the studio for the inexperienced engineer/producer.

[Vdrummer]

Changing the tempo is not the same as changing the feel.

[ntbCreative]

I saw a Harvey mason clinic a while ago and he said something along the same lines but he had to play to his own recorded click and also sync to video as well as audio..........thats nuts. He domonstrated it and was pulling back every 8 bars ... after a while he was almost behind an 8th note!!! and played so consitant!!!

[Pedro G]

A friend of mine told me this story a few years ago, about a session that Vinnie did for Gloria Trevi, an (untalented, mediocre, crazy, arrogant [img]graemlins/shhh.gif[/img] ) successful singer from Mexico in the 90's.

My friend was assisting the producer, and he told me how nice Vinnie was, and how he did all the tracks of the CD in one afternoon. He sight read everything and did 90% in one take, etc. etc.
He even played in some trash cans and things that found in the studio to create a different effect in the intro of one of the songs.

I guess all of this is common in a Vinnie session, but what impressed me was that after Vinnie left, and they were re-checking the tracks, they heard some weird things in some songs, so they isolated the drum tracks with the click, and they could hear how Vinnie was playing behind the beat, so there were some kind of flaming between the drums and the click.
But then they realize that all the strokes were at the exact same distance of the click, with an incredible, almost machine like consistency, so when they took out the click, all they could hear was the deepest fattest grooves that money can buy, even in those ( horrible [img]graemlins/shhh.gif[/img] ) not so great songs.

This show us once again that he's not only a master of technique, subdivisions, polyrhythms, phrasing, etc.etc. he is a master of TIME.

Every time that someone ask me to play behind the beat, this story is in the back of my head.

[img]cool.gif[/img]

[cjbdrm]

Great story.

[CLWarunki]

I'm sure the click was somehow slipped a touch on playback in the program they were using... it happens... I doubt that Vinnie would play THAT MUCH behind a beat, if so then why not just take the click down 2bpm or something and lock in?

[Suspiria]

I'll buy this story. I mean I doubt he was spot on with every hit of the snare, but playing consistently behind the click is something I could see him doing.

[Dazzler]

Nice story! I don't mean to piss on your bonfire, but isn't this a pretty standard thing to do if you want to give the rhythm a more laid back feel? Dennis talks about it on one of his videos, how a producer didn't like where his snare was being placed and his responce was that he "was just trying to give a comfortable vibe for the track".

It is something that all good players will have the ability to do, whether it's to play the snare right on the money or to move it slightly forward or on the back of the quarter note, depending on the feel they are trying to create.

[wohcnil]

ah... vinnie!!!

i saw a video of Karizma live in germany where he was playing "i'm tweaked" with the displaced loop. yes, there is a loop track (some snare sound effect that goes something like "clack") going on that goes exacly together with the displaced snare drum back beat. how did i noe this? cause Vinnie missed a whole phrase of displacements and the just hit a straight backbeat on 2 and 4 through it. and u can clearly hear the loop track displacing against the straight drum groove, after the end of 8 bars, BAM, the loop track dissappeared back into the fat back beat of vinnie's.

did he do this on purpose?? i will never noe.. but it was some crazy ass time keeping right there.. he is a monster...

if anyone recalls his MD2000 video interview, he did mention about .."the loop goes with the drums...." i never really figured out wat loop he was talking about until i saw the "live in germany" video. i always thought that the snare effect in MD2000 video was TRIGGERED.. he humbles us all.


[img]graemlins/beer.gif[/img] [img]graemlins/thumbs_up.gif[/img]

<font color="#a62a2a" size="1">[ February 26, 2005 11:14 AM: Message edited by: wohcnil ]</font>